The breakthrough of Lorencia Beria: the USSR could fly into space 10 years earlier

On Cosmonautics Day, annually celebrated on April 12, as usual, many are mentioned with a kind word - the forerunner, the first space flight theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and the “founding fathers” of the Soviet space industry - Sergey Korolev, Mstislav Keldysh, Mikhail Tikhonravov. Of course, the pioneers who have glorified the USSR for the whole world with their desperate breakthrough beyond gravity - Yuri Gagarin, Alexei Leonov, German Titov, the first woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, will not be forgotten. They also remember the martyrs who laid their lives on the altar of the dream of mankind about distant stars - Vladislav Volkov, George Dobrovolsky, Victor Patsaev, Vladimir Komarov ... Only one name, almost certainly, will not be named - Lavrentiya Beria. But without the titanic, hard labor of this man, it is quite possible that no Soviet cosmonautics would have existed at all. Why? Now we will tell you.





First of all, many readers, of those to whom the "perestroika" propaganda firmly planted the image of Beria - "the blood executioner and tyrant" in their heads, will be surprised and even outraged: "And the head of the NKVD to fly into space ?!" The trouble is that the efforts of bourgeois painters and “historians” from the liberal camp, who at one time used up tons of paper in order to reduce the whole life path of Lavrenty Pavlovich to the “basements of the Lubyanka” and do not abandon their efforts today, alas, do not disappeared in vain. The truth, however, lies precisely in the fact that the leadership of “punitive organs” was not in the main episode in the life of Beria and in his service to our Motherland. He received the Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor in 1943, of course, not for the fight against the "enemies of the people" and not even for quite real achievements in curbing the activities of both German spy-sabotage agents and traitors recruited in many of our enemies. The highest state award was awarded to his work as an organizer of the defense industry, speaking in modern terms - a crisis manager, who had no equal even in the most powerful Stalinist team.

At the same time, you need to know that this section of work (while maintaining the post of People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs!) Was assigned to Beria before the start of World War II - in March 1941, when he was appointed to the post of deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. His supervision included ministries of non-ferrous metallurgy, oil, coal, and forestry — in short, all the most important branches of the “defense industry” and the national economy in general. Beria has been a member of the State Defense Committee since its inception. His activities and “career” in this body, on which, in fact, lay the entire responsibility for the leadership of a belligerent country, are impressive. One gets the feeling that, little by little, Lavrenty Pavlovich had to harness himself to all, without exception, the most important tasks that other GKO members were unable to carry out. Judge for yourself - in February 1942, he was entrusted with the organization of the production of combat aircraft and, in general, full control of all decisions of T-bills in the field of the Air Force - up to the formation of their units and sending them to the front. And also - the organization of the production of engines for the military equipment, mortars and other weapons. Nice to-do list ?! Another would have been enough with his head ...

But in the spring of that year it became clear that the “old Bolshevik” Molotov could not cope completely with the normal organization of work entrusted to his care of the tank industry. Beria becomes the curator of tank building - in addition to everything else. And it all starts to work out! At the end of the same 1942, Lavrenty Pavlovich became a member of the GKO Operational Bureau and the People's Commissariats of Railways and the coal industry "hanged" him! At the same time - we remind! - there is a war, Germans reconnaissance groups climb and climb into the country and, by the way, our “allies”, agents of the SD and Abwehr recruited and thrown into our rear from hundreds of prisoners of war who have broken down in the camps, attempts of sabotage at the most important military and industrial facilities follow one after another and even the killing of Stalin himself. All this is the headache of the NKVD, that is, again, Beria! We add to this the organization of the partisan movement, reconnaissance and sabotage in the rear and on the communications of the rapidly advancing enemy, the fight against desertion and sabotage ... Feasible for one person, be he even three-core and seven spans in the forehead? It is incomprehensible to the mind how Beria coped with all this, how he did not break and did not move his mind from excessive loads and sleepless nights, constant stress, which lasted for years ...

But he did not break! In May 1944, Beria became the head of the Operations Bureau, receiving the status of Deputy Chairman of the GKO. Now on it are already ALL People's Commissariats of the military industry and related industries. In essence, the national economy of the Soviet Union in full. And something else ... Here we’ll talk about this “something” in more detail.

The space launch of the Soviet Union dates back to the creation in 1945 of a “office” headed by Lavrenty Beria with a name that says little to uninitiated people: the Special Committee under the USSR State Defense Committee. Subsequently, she underwent two renames, becoming the Special Committee first under the Council of People's Commissars, and then under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Let us make a reservation right away - despite this very “with” and, seemingly, subordination to the Soviet government, an extremely narrow circle of people had an idea about the true activities of the Special Committee. It is not surprising - after all, there the issues were solved not just the scientific and technological development of the country, primarily in the military sphere, but a battle was fought for its survival. It was no coincidence that the Ad Hoc Committee was created exactly two weeks after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - both Stalin and Beria understood perfectly well: having won the war against Nazi Germany, the USSR enters into a new race, a loss in which would mean its destruction.

The nuclear program, which, from the very first days, was supervised, again, by Lavrenty Pavlovich, is a topic for a separate thorough discussion. We are now more interested in the work of the Second Directorate of the Special Committee - the very one where the best specialists of the country in the field of rocket science were concentrated. Yes, we were not talking about space flights at that time — let’s say, the USSR faced completely different life problems, which were mentioned above. However, the fact remains that it was the R-7 ballistic missile created by the efforts of the Second Directorate’s specialists in 1957 that launched the first artificial satellite in the history of mankind. She was also capable of delivering a “gift” to Washington or New York just as easily, from which the United States had no protection. Yes, and brought to the stars of Yuri Gagarin "East", belonged to the "family" of the same R-7. There is a story that, supposedly, Stalin was laid on the table back in 1946 with a memorandum by Mikhail Tikhonravov, which substantiated the possibility of creating a rocket capable of "throwing" a crew of two people up to 100 kilometers high, and even with equipment. Khrunichev, the then Minister of Aviation Industry, carried out an examination of the project and came to the conclusion that it was fully implemented in two years. However, Stalin did not support the initiative ...

Based on this story (it is not known whether it actually happened), some accuse the Leader of having “delayed the beginning of the USSR's space era”! Excuse me, what about the fact that a year earlier the United States Chief of Staff Committee approved new directives that explicitly set the Soviet Union as the target for military aggression? That in the same year the Pentagon compiled a list of 20 Soviet cities that two hundred atomic bombs should have fallen on, and the usual ones - without counting ?! Joseph Vissarionovich needed to prepare the country for a new war at a "fire" pace, which would inevitably become much worse than the previous one - or take measures to prevent it. Was he up to space at that moment? The creation of first Soviet nuclear and then thermonuclear weapons, and subsequently ballistic missiles as their delivery vehicles, prevented the destruction of human civilization and gave our Motherland decades of a peaceful and quiet life. But we still flew into space ...

I foresee that some, having seen in the text a mention of the special scientific institutions of a closed type supervised by Lavrenty Beria, have already taken in a little more air in order to indignantly cry out: “Shara-a-a-ash!” Yes, there were "sharashki". However, this is another example of “black” anti-Beria myths, the disclosure of which is worth paying more attention to. First of all, the first "closed" or "special" design bureaus were created in 1929-1930 - that is, when Beria was not standing next to the NKVD, as they say. But it was precisely Lavrenty Pavlovich who in 1939 laid the foundation for the process of mass transfer of scientists who were imprisoned from sawmill and other “construction projects of the national economy” to use “for their intended purpose” —that is, for research and testing. He solved this question directly with Stalin and managed to achieve his goal. There is no doubt - under considerable personal responsibility.

Delusional allegations that the leadership of the USSR “specially planted the best scientists in order to subsequently exploit their creative work for free” - this, excuse me, is material for a psychiatrist. Stalin scribbled denunciations, according to which most of the future members of the "sharashka" were on the bunk? Or Beria ?! Today, the names of the authors of libel are known for certain, thanks to which the same Sergey Korolev, his colleagues, colleagues in science, was arrested. And so it was everywhere. Alas, it must be admitted that the tribe of the "Soviet intelligentsia" fought for a "place in the sun" often by the most unseemly, dirty and mean methods. It was considered completely normal to “sit down” an objectionable boss or colleague. A better way to do this than the “signal” to the “organs” did not exist in principle. That "creative person" and made ... denunciations. With a high degree of reliability - all the same, it’s not the janitors who wrote, but people with higher education, scientific degrees!

No less absurd is Beria’s accusation that he persuaded Stalin to "hang on to all scientists for 10, 15, or even 20 years, so that they would work for free for life for free." Anyone who continues to do this today does not have the slightest idea about the then realities of the USSR - neither in the legal sphere, nor in the sphere of remuneration, or even in the field of purely everyday, everyday moments. First of all, what was Lavrenty Pavlovich supposed to do? To declare all scientists “innocent” - without new courts, without additional investigation, without review of cases? In the Soviet Union, this was not done. Among other things, can you imagine what kind of “public resonance” would be caused by this feint, speaking in modern categories? Only Khrushchev was engaged in such idiocy, which ultimately completely undermined people's faith in the Soviet state. Under Stalin, it was impossible to think of anything like that. So what was Beria to do - to launch a rehabilitation mechanism, during which scientists would again be dragged through interrogations and courts to create the weapons and equipment for the future war? So why, in that case, even fence the garden ?! Instead of all this, the People's Commissar received from Stalin the right to prematurely release worthy employees and reduce his prison terms based on work results. Subsequently, this right was applied, practically, to all the participants of “sharashka”, who proved their worth and benefit.

Now for the "work for free." There is plenty of evidence of “suffering” scientists that their living conditions were incomparably better than life “behind the fence” - in the hungry and cold war and post-war years. Ordinary employees of the "open" institutes and design bureaus fried chicken (which some in the "sharashka" disdained - a historical fact!) They ate what was given to by no means luxurious rations on cards. They lived in "sharashka" in four-bed rooms of a hotel type - without bunks and a bucket. Lattices on the windows? Do you really think that, given what was developed in these same design bureaus and research institutes, they would not have existed under a different, “free” status of employees ?! Yeah, well ... Look, the Americans, apparently, didn’t have it - so almost all of their developments on the same nuclear project “suddenly” appeared on the table at the same Beria.

Immediately after the Khrushchev coup and the assassination of Lavrenty Beria, the Special Committee was disbanded, all its employees, achievements and resources were transferred to the USSR Ministry of Medium Engineering. According to many historians, this is exactly what delayed our space launch, which, otherwise, could have taken place ten years earlier. However, the potential, laid down by the most powerful managerial genius of Lavrenty Pavlovich, turned out to be so powerful that it was enough to lay the foundations of the Soviet rocket and space industry and to successfully develop it. He was not happy about the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, he did not see the USSR pilot-cosmonauts on their flights ... And, nevertheless, on Cosmonautics Day the name of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria, the creator of the most powerful stage of the scientific and technological progress of our Motherland, its victorious jerk into space must be mentioned necessarily - with respect and gratitude.