Struggle in Soviet Russia

The site selection of the first rocket engineering construction base was finally determined after careful research by the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the guidance opinions issued by the People’s Committee of National Defense.

Kapustin Yar is not only on the edge of the desert, but off the beaten track. At the same time, there are roads and railways. It is far away from the alliance’s several industrial bases east of the Ural Mountains, such as Kazan and Kubyshev. It’s not far away and can get support from industry.

In the past two months, twelve ministries and commissions including the Industry Committee, the National Defense Industry Committee, and the Ministry of Transport and Construction have jointly led the provision of various resources and equipment. The construction of the first experimental area of ​​Kapustin Yar, Korolev District, has been completed.

The main facilities, including the launch site headquarters, fuel depot, and assembly plant, have all been completed. Two rockets with hydrogen, oxygen and kerosene as propellants have also completed the first phase of the design with the efforts of many experts. Parts production tasks were sent to 16 factories in Kazan, Saratov and other places.

The size of the Soviet Union is undoubtedly super huge. When the entire alliance decides to concentrate the nation's power to do something, its efficiency and ability are extremely amazing, and it is impossible to describe it as unimaginable.

For today's Victor, intelligence work is of course the top priority. After all, this is his own job, and his performance is related to the stability of his position and the promotion of his position.

In addition to intelligence work, the two areas that he pays most attention to are the research and development of nuclear weapons and the research and development of rocket technology. How well these two tasks are done is not only related to performance, but even to merit.

Nowadays, no matter whether it is nuclear weapons or rocket missile technology, the physical objects have not been produced, so they are not convincing, and it is difficult for people to feel their importance, but it is foreseeable that once they are finally developed Coming out will definitely shake the world.

Nuclear technology and rocket technology are two technologies that are called "strategic" by the world. It can be said responsibly that there is nothing on this planet that can provide more guarantee for national security than these two technologies. NS.

Therefore, Victor needs to ensure his own presence in the research and development of two technologies, which are all capital and very important political capital.

In order to ensure the absolute safety of Kapustin Yar, the border guards have set up three checkpoints on the road leading to the area, with the farthest one on the border of 15 kilometers from the area. Since then, checkpoints have been set every five kilometers until the final border guard station.

In areas other than the highway line, two-meter-high barbed wire isolation belts were set up. Every fifty meters of the isolation belts, there was originally a warning sign. On the warning signs with a yellow background and a red pattern, there are minefields and intrusions. Warning that the victim will be shot.

When Victor's convoy passed through three checkpoints and finally entered the Korolev district, it was already dusk, and there were still many people waiting for him in the parking lot of the launch site headquarters dedicated to parking vehicles. .

Among the people waiting for his arrival, there are border guards in military uniforms, security personnel in the uniforms of the People’s Committee of National Security, and scientific researchers in plain clothes. In the entire Korolev district, only these three types of people are allowed to enter. As for the related family members, they are all arranged in the town and cannot enter the test site area.

The entire Korolev district is built at the junction of the jungle and the semi-desert wasteland. Today, it still looks like a super large construction site. A large number of factories are under urgent construction. These factories are mainly used to produce high-precision parts. For example, a gyroscope, such as a time control mechanism dedicated to rockets.

In more distant places, in the northeast of the woodland periphery, there are several large fuel depots under construction, which are dedicated to storage of liquid hydrogen, oxygen and high-purity kerosene.

Accompanied by Viktor’s inspection of the test site were Grushko and Korolev. They are now the technical leaders of the entire Kapustin Yar region, while the administrative director is concurrently assumed by Berwusin. The person in charge is Major Engel Smetov from the People's Committee of National Security.

Major Smetov, the former head of the Kazakhstan Internal Intelligence Directorate of the NKVD, was transferred to the NKVD with the intelligence agency. Two months ago, after the location of Kapustin Yar was determined , He was transferred here to take on the responsibility of the safety officer of the entire test site.

Accompanied by Grushko and Korolev, Victor visited the construction of the gyroscope production plant, the high-purity kerosene storage warehouse, the liquid hydrogen production center and other buildings under construction, and went to see the two being assembled. Experimental missile.

Of the two experimental missiles that are being assembled, one uses German-related technology. In the past two months, the Berlin intelligence agency has successively obtained some data. Because the Germans have achieved first-mover advantages in rocket research and development projects using liquid hydrogen and oxygen as propellants, and the completion of their experiments is very high, therefore, based on the German research, the Soviet expert group adopted self-developed engines The construction of the first rocket, the completion speed is relatively fast.

According to Korolev, the rocket, which uses liquid hydrogen and oxygen as propellants, is expected to undergo a formal launch test in two months.

The other rocket uses high-purity kerosene as the propellant. In this regard, it was completely independently developed and designed by the Soviet expert group. Therefore, the degree of completion of the experiment was not very high. The first launch test was carried out. Time may be pushed to the middle of the year. Specifically, it will take six to seven months.

According to Grushko, he hopes to temporarily devote his main research and development energy to the technology adopted by the Germans, because in that case, the expert group can produce a sufficiently eye-catching one in the shortest possible time. The results come.

Korolev insisted that the self-developed technology with high-purity kerosene as propellant is the right direction they should choose, not only because of the cost of rockets that use kerosene as propellant compared to liquid hydrogen and oxygen. It is lower because kerosene is more stable during the reaction.

Because of the differences in opinions between the two, two camps appeared in the entire expert group, one supporting Grushko and the other supporting Korolev.

Despite the large scale of the current expert group, in the real research and development process, the lack of manpower is still obvious. Therefore, they are destined to not have so much energy and pay attention to research in two directions at the same time.

On this issue, Victor’s position has always been wise. Before, he even had a word in advance, that is, he needs the expert team to come up with a convincing result in the shortest possible time.

Therefore, no matter which plan is more reasonable and cheaper, he will support which one can produce results in the shortest time.

In order to suppress the thorny Korolev, Victor, who rushed over this time, not only held a nearly one-hour talk with the entire expert group, but also talked with Korolev for most of the night. Unify the opinions of the expert group.

In fact, Viktor also knew that Korolev’s option was the most appropriate, but as he said before, this is not just a research, nor is it just a military technology, it is also a political issue. .

Although the current war situation has greatly improved, on the whole, the entire alliance is still quite scarce in terms of resources. Whether it is the research and development of nuclear weapons or the research and development of rocket technology, it needs to squeeze a lot of precious resources.

As a supporter of these two research and development projects, especially as the main promoter of rocket technology research and development, Victor is under a lot of pressure. If he cannot produce convincing results in the shortest possible time and cannot let many members of the People’s Committee of National Defense actually see the prospects for the development of this technology, it is hard to say that the Ministry of National Defense will not. Change position and cancel support for this project.

More importantly, the actual person in charge of the rocket technology research and development project is Comrade Malinkov, who is in charge of the aviation industry, but this comrade of the People’s Committee who focuses on the production of fighter jets does not actually support the development of this project.

In the words of Comrade Malinkov, the cost of manufacturing a rocket is not lower than the cost of manufacturing an aircraft, not to mention whether the research and development can be successful, even if it is successful, a rocket that can only be used once, Could it be more valuable than a fighter jet?

Imagine that even the person in charge of the project who is nominally leading the project has an unsupportive attitude towards the project. How much pressure will Victor have on him?

Of course, it must be admitted that Victor is indeed selfish when it comes to choosing which research direction to focus on. His political process is actually a process in which he seeks personal merit.

But from another perspective, Comrade Korolev insists on his position, and it is not selfishly mixed in. His stubbornness is not only based on a scientific standpoint, but also on consideration of personal interests. For a scientist, the final results obtained by using other people's technology and proving one's own technology are completely different in nature.

In the end, when he could not persuade Korolev, Viktor had to use his administrative power. Before leaving Kapustin Yar, he convened all the members of the expert group and organized a second talk.

At this conference, he clearly expressed his support for Grushko and warned Korolev in public that he should obey the opinions of the organization or return to his original position. The two will be chosen. one.