95 years ago, on January 23, 1927, an act of “merger of two or more economic entities” took place in Moscow, as a result of which a new economic unit appeared.
This term, referring to the processes of consolidation of business and capital, now has an ominous character — following the «merger », as a rule, begins «optimization », which does not end well. “Effective managers”, engaged in the fascinating business of cutting costs and firing qualified employees, sooner or later achieve their goal, “optimizing” the company to bankruptcy.
Let’s repeat it now. Then, in the young Soviet state, such mergers were carried out with a clear understanding of why and who needed it. Suffice it to say that on that January day, the main initiator of the merger was People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, «first Red Officer» Kliment Voroshilov. The result of his initiative was the unification of two major public organizations. The affairs of the first were supervised by the People’s Commissar himself, and this organization was called the OSO, that is, the Society for the Promotion of the Defense of the USSR. The second one was once created under the patronage of Mikhail Frunze, and it was called Aviachem, because the friends of aviation, chemical defense and chemical industry were in this organization. After the merger of these largest entities, a completely gigantic monster turned out, called the Osoaviakhim Society for the Promotion of Defense and Aviation Chemical Construction of the USSR.
Now the abbreviation is hanging out somewhere on the periphery of consciousness and memory. Most often, Osoaviakhim is associated with the appearance of a parachute tower in every Soviet park, and with loud slogans of a bygone era — «Youth, on the plane!» and « Our response to Chamberlain». In a word, something passing through the frivolous category of military sports games like “Lightning”.
In general, this corresponds to the historical truth. With the only amendment, the structure was more than serious and prepared its wards not for a war game, but for a real war. What Frunze said back in 1925: “We need to firmly introduce into the consciousness of the entire population of our Union the idea that modern wars are being waged not by one army, but by the whole country as a whole, that the war will require the exertion of all people’s forces and means, that the war will be a deadly, life-and-death war, and that therefore comprehensive thorough preparation is needed for it even in peacetime.”
The aspiration is commendable, but where can I get the funds to fulfill these grandiose plans? Even then it was clear that the future war would be a war of engines. Let’s say that with engines, that is, with tanks, airplanes, cars, tractors and other machines, the problem was solved in full accordance with the slogan of the first five-year plan: “Expanding the import of cars to get rid of the import of cars.” By the end of the first five-year plan, if the goal was not fully achieved, then the finish, in general, was clearly read – back in 1931, the cost of machine-technical imports was approximately 3,154 million rubles. And by 1934 it had decreased to 569 million rubles.
But by themselves, these “motors” are just iron. To revive it, we need people who know how to manage with “motors”. And this means that driving schools are needed, flying clubs are needed, shooting ranges are needed, shooting ranges are needed, in the end, the notorious parachute towers are needed… Where to get all this stuff if the budget is almost entirely subordinated to the tasks of industrialization?
The scheme was thought out witty. To begin with, it was announced that all these wisdoms would have to be taught on the job. Roughly speaking, at five in the morning you are in the aero club, studying theory until six, before seven, a parachute jump at seven, to the machine at eight, or wherever else you work there. And after the end of the working day, self-preparation. Yes, and do not forget to regularly pay membership fees, which will go to the treasury of Osoaviakhim and will go to the salary of instructors and the purchase of rifles-parachutes-cartridges-uniforms …
Someone will surely call the scheme, though witty, but predatory. They say, not only that they loaded the youth above the ears, they also make them pay money.
In fact, everything looked more or less fair. Thus, the first chairman of the Central Council of Osoaviakhim was none other than Alexey Rykov. The Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR, in fact, the head of state, he took on a new social burden. By the way, also on the job. And he paid dues on an equal basis with everyone.
And most importantly, Osoaviakhim has become an incredibly effective social elevator. In fact, for not very large contributions, a young man could master a new promising profession or skill without leaving the main production. Because Osoaviakhim is not only skydiving and shooting to get the Voroshilov Shooter badge. This is piloting aircraft and aircraft technology. This is topography and communication. These are works in the field of chemistry, biology, the study of the upper atmosphere and rocket science.
Yes, the later famous Jet Propulsion Research Group, GIRD, where he began his rocket career Sergey Korolev, was established in 1931 under the Central Council of Osoaviakhim. At the same Central Council, a Stratospheric Committee was created, where, among other things, they dealt with the problems of habitable hermetic gondolas of stratostats. It was this groundwork that later became the main one for the development of the descent vehicle of the first Vostok spacecraft.
In short, Osoaviakhim was a huge, complex, branched structure. It strangely combined scientific and inventive circles and societies, where a promising young man was noticed and began to be promoted, and purely military-applied disciplines. By 1941, about 80% of the personnel of the Red Army ground forces and almost 100% of the aviation personnel had passed through the Osoaviakhim schools.
And in terms of preparing the population for a big and terrible war, Osoaviakhim did not fail. British observers who were in Moscow in the summer and autumn of 1941 noted how competently and disciplined ordinary citizens who were called up to help the air defense forces behave almost like real fighters. In London, as observers noted, this is notthere was — during the Nazi bombing there was panic and horror, at least at first.
Of course, there was no such thing in London. Because there was no “monster” Osoaviakhim that managed to create 4 million (!) circles of air defense, through which 33 million Soviet citizens passed. In total, 98 million people were trained in Osoaviakhim organizations during the war years.