How did I get into the nomenclature? practices
On the wave of your memory. At the institute, much attention was paid to the acquisition of practical skills by future engineers. Every summer they were given a month and a half. The first practice, after the first course - geodetic. The Institute has its own geodetic base on the banks of the Oredezh River, not far from Luga.
Geodetic practice
Our faculty got into the second stream in the month of August. From the river there was a steep slope, then a highway, and behind it in a pine forest, one-story barracks for students, teachers' houses, a canteen and other outbuildings. Behind the base stretched a huge raised swamp, cut with drainage trenches. The mounds of soil from the trenches are overgrown with pines and birches, and thickets of blueberries. Who knew that it works like a laxative.
We were divided into teams of 10 people. The leader of our group was Igor Skirta. He graduated from the Riga Architectural College before the army, so we did not experience any special difficulties when working with devices. Three girls from our brigade were put by the leader to do calculations of some tables. He was writing a dissertation on the perception of symbols on maps. I was assigned to put the results of our work on the tablet. We, as it were, completed a map of a forest area in a river bend. Routine: you take measurements, then calculations, then you put it on the tablet.
I remember the work of the scientific student team of senior students. They tested a domestic laser theodolite. Before they arrived, it had rained for two days. Oredezh overflowed and flooded the floodplain. They decided to measure the distance between the banks at the widest point. Two sailed away in a boat to the other side with a corner reflector. It was a marvelous quiet evening, but in the walkie-talkies - a continuous crackle of interference. Then the student at the theodolite yells over the water: "Kolya - put it to the left, the bush is in the way." From the other side, about 800 meters away, Kolya is probably yelling: "Now." The sound above the water is amazing.
On the geobase
Geological and architectural practice
After the second year, we had geological and architectural practice.
On the first one, we were in Pavlovsk, where a local stream cut through the slope, studied the sedimentary layers left by the glacier, and calculated the thickness of the peat in the neighboring swamp. The characteristics of soil samples taken from different layers were determined.
In architectural practice, in addition to excursions to the architectural monuments of Leningrad, we were taken to the Yubileiny stadium under construction, where at that time a cable-stayed roof structure was being installed. We visited the building of the institute "Stalproekt", in my opinion. In the building, the main monolithic reinforced concrete spiral staircase (with a march width of about two meters) had only two points of support - at the base and on the top floor. You walk, and it springs slightly under you.
In the third year, it was necessary to work for one month at a construction site as a worker. Construction teams were formed at the institute to work at the BAM. I was assigned to an international detachment. But a few days before I was sent to a construction site near Vyborg, I and two other guys were asked to give way to students from Cuba. Therefore, I did my practice at home in Velikiye Luki.
A classmate of his father was the head of the Construction Department, which was building an alkaline battery plant on the outskirts of the city. At first I worked as a helper - he supplied mortar and bricks to masons. After training and instruction, he performed the duties of a slinger. And a week later they entrusted laying the masonry. First, the internal walls and partitions were laid on the block of warehouses, and then the wall between the two workshops of the main building. They did not trust to lay corners, but I mastered the intermediate laying along the cord well.
By the way, later it was very useful to me. For a month with a little earned almost 150 rubles. When, after practice, they arrived at the classes, the head of the groups was called to the dean's office and said that 4 would go to the collective farm, and one to the bakery on Frunzenskaya. Our group got to the bakery. They worked in three shifts. 8:00 to 16:00 - first shift; from 16:00 to 24:00 - the second and from 24:00 to 8:00 - the third. The hardest part, of course, was at night.
The main contingent is women over 40 years old. All cottages. For lunch, they chopped a whole bowl of salad made from tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and greens, abundantly poured with sunflower oil. Hot bread from the oven. Hot tea with Nevsky - sweet loaf. The plate was a piece of waxed paper.
I worked next to the line that produced these loaves. They were sprinkled with peanuts before the oven. The woman did it by hand, from a large pot (in canteens they cook soup in such). She said: “What are you looking at - eat, just don’t take it out.” Since then, I don’t eat peanuts - I ate heartily. For a month I spent 15 rubles on the subway and feeding on weekends.
The most difficult job is when the loaves do not fall out of the molds. You stand at the exit from the oven and pick out the loaves with a metal spatula. The heat from the oven, the heat from the loaves. And the process is continuous. You can't stop.
Fees. The shovel is our everything
Military fees
All males from the third year on Fridays were engaged in the military department. We were trained as officers of the railway troops. In addition to drill training and study weapons (AK-47, PM and RPK), studied the restoration of railway tracks and bridges, the organization of traffic on the restored structures. And, of course, the installation of barriers during the retreat. Methods of mining and destruction of railway structures. WMD protection was also included in the course.
After the 4th year, there were monthly fees and in the fifth year - the state exam. Usually, the training camp took place in Peterhof, on the basis of the railroad battalion stationed there at that time. But Peter's closeness led to AWOLs and other breaches of discipline. Therefore, it was decided to hold training camps on the basis of the same battalion at the Voronezhskaya station near the city of Shostka in Ukraine.
Took almost two days. We loaded 100 people into one reserved seat car, so some had to sleep on the third shelves. We were transferring to another train in Bakhmach, and there were civilians in the car intended for us. At three in the morning we arrived at the station. They came to the territory of the battalion. Immediately changed into uniform (during the war - tunic and riding breeches). Since everyone was given out according to the list, I didn’t get boots of size 41, I had to wear size 42. I didn’t rub calluses, but on the drill I had to watch so that they didn’t fly off my foot.
Fees. Stop - who's coming!
We passed the shooting test at the shooting range of the regiment of internal troops guarding the Shostka chemical plant. From the machine gun I shot perfectly well, but from the PM - I only shot off the ear of the target - out of three shots, two into the milk. The shooting range was in a lowland, and behind it was a pine forest, where the natives went for mushrooms and berries. So that a stray bullet would not shoot someone, they set up a cordon.
The next day, guys from the construction department fired, and our platoon was put in a cordon. Two people on the roads leading into the forest. With machine guns, however, without ammunition. For 6 hours I was lucky enough to wrap one motorcyclist. Seeing a man with a machine gun, he, before reaching me, turned around and rushed off in the other direction.
But the guys who were standing on the other side told the following history. After spending two hours at the crossroads, from the heat they went into the shade of the bushes, took off their tunics and boots, it was pretty hot. An hour later, they hear a motorcycle approaching - the husband is driving, the wife is in the stroller. Seryozha Kondratenko comes out in riding breeches, without a tunic and barefoot, and with a machine gun.
The motorcycle stalls, the wife dives with a squeak to the bottom of the cradle. Seryozha explains that there is shooting going on, and it is impossible to go. The husband nods his head but can't get his foot on the kickstarter. Somehow they helped turn the bike around. It turned out that there was an announcement that some criminals had escaped from the zone.
Fees. morning divorce
According to the explosive case, they actually interrupted an I-beam, 60 cm high, a piece of rail and a wooden pole with TNT. To do this, pits 1,5 m deep were dug in the ravine and structures lined with TNT were placed in them, fuse cords were brought up. Logs were placed on top and sprinkled with earth. In addition, they prepared an 8-kg land mine with an electric detonator, burying it at 2 m. They set fire to the cords and ran back about 100 meters, probably. The charges exploded, and the logs that covered the pits flew up to 2 m. The explosion of a landmine raised several cubic meters of earth above the trees, the pit turned out to be decent.
They made a forced march for 15 km with full equipment (automatic and pouch for 3 magazines, gas mask, sapper shovel, rolling and a flask of water). It was easy to walk through the copses, but in the heat in an open field - after 5 km everyone was wet, like chickens. The flasks emptied quickly. After 8 km, a halt - they brought water in a can, I felt better. But many stuffed calluses.
We learned to walk in azimuth along a closed route with marking at control points. They learned how to mine and clear railway tracks, for this they put anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, of course, training ones, on the access roads of the plant, with elements of non-recovery. Our platoon before the turn, and the construction platoon behind the turn. Then they changed places and cleared mines. Smoke bombs were inserted into anti-personnel mines. When triggered, a column of red smoke rose.
Well, infantry tactics. On the offensive and in defense with digging trenches. We were lucky, our platoon was on duty, and the guys from the construction department were digging trenches. The guys who served urgently, in tactical classes, gave blank cartridges to those who did not serve. It was interesting for us to shoot, but then we had to clean the machine gun. In addition, we assembled the bridge span from prefabricated parts using a crane and pneumatic tools.
I remember in the outfit the duty in the park. The wind picked up and it began to rain. My partner and I climbed into the truck crane, and although we were in overcoats, we froze like tsutsiki. Usually the officers checked the outfits, but no one showed up that night, although we took turns watching.
Then our commanders decided to arrange a swimming test for us. Finally, instead of underpants and undershirts, they gave out shorts with T-shirts. True, the shorts were 52–54 sizes, and we were taken to take the test to the city beach. Of course, we made a splash with the local ladies in our oversized panties. When passing the test, the main thing was not to lose panties.
On the way back we got caught in a downpour. It's good that our old-timers decided to grab raincoats. Got off with wet sleeves. But the guys from the construction department got wet through.
The guys from the Faculty of Civil Engineering were the first to leave, and we agreed with the officers and sent Valera Romanov with them, his grandmother lived at the transfer station, and since it was two days to go, he promised to bring a bucket of boiled potatoes. In addition to a loaf of bread and a large can of stew with a bag of sugar for two people, which we were given dry rations. But they still came to St. Petersburg hungry as hell.
Construction of VZSCHA
Construction practice
After that, they had to work for another month in practice as an understudy for a construction foreman.
I again got a job at SU, where I had an internship a year ago. They built a block of warehouses for storing vegetables next to the railway. The lower tier of monolithic structures was located below the tracks, under the embankment, and the upper tier, of prefabricated structures, was located above the tracks. I found the process of arranging the lower tier of retaining walls and half-columns with glasses for the columns of the upper tier.
To sketch the formwork scheme, one day I climbed the embankment, and it seemed to me that the walls were not parallel. The master asked, and he says: “This cannot be. The breakdown was done by a surveyor from the trust. I suggested checking, because if there is a discrepancy, the second floor floor beam will fall between the columns. They set up a theodolite and took measurements.
The deviation amounted to several degrees from 90, that is, several beams would not have obtained the normative support on the columns, and the latter would have failed between them. It is good that the lower semi-columns had a margin in size, but the glasses had to be crushed so that the columns stood up according to the project. The head of the department announced gratitude that the surveyor from the trust received - I don’t know.
And further. For the device of the glass in the semi-columns of the first tier, formwork was first made from boards. When it was dismantled after the strength of the concrete, it all went to waste. Making a new one took a lot of time. He proposed to make a shape of a glass welded from steel foliage. So that during concreting the steel does not sag, they put spacers, and so that it does not stick to concrete, they smeared it with diesel fuel. When gaining strength after a couple of days, the spacers were knocked out, and the glass was taken out. And used on the next semi-column. The foreman of the site probably received the award for the rationalization proposal.
Fifth year - state exams and a diploma. But that will be the next episode.
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