The one who aspired to Mars. Oleg Baklanov was at the center of the events of the twentieth century

Weekly magazine “Arguments and Facts” No. 31. Without a flag and anthem, but with medals and Tchaikovsky 04/08/2021

He passed away on July 28 – the whole year was not enough for his 90th birthday. But he has already managed so much.

Writer, journalist, laureate of the USSR State Prize Vladimir Gubarev:

Do you know what the difference is between a minister and a manager? Time has shown that it is huge, since one makes decisions and then executes them, and the second only talks about what decisions should be made. By the way, he says a lot of words, but no deeds…

“This is our trouble”

Oleg Dmitrievich Baklanov by the will of fate became the minister of our space industry after the legendary S. A. Afanasyeva who was able to defend the interests of rocket technology and cosmonautics at all levels of government and did not allow the industry to turn into a farce. With the appointment of Baklanov, the party bosses expected to have an “obedient minister”, but they were mistaken-Baklanov not only continued the work of his predecessor, but also significantly expanded the scope of work. To the powerful missile systems standing on the defense of the country, space giants have been added – «Energy» « Buran »,« Zenith », new orbital stations, including« Mir ». We are still proud of these achievements.

All the main designers have unimportant characters. They can quarrel, and sometimes they will not give hands to each other, and they can quarrel to their heart’s content. In general, they are different people, but they also have something in common: they are outstanding and strive to serve the Motherland in full force. The Minister of the Rocket and Space Department must always find a common language with the chief designers of all ranks. Here you have to be kind, and decisive, and tough, and sometimes even cruel, but always fair. However, the main thing is to be respected, that is, a real professional.

O. D. Baklanov was just such a minister, and then the secretary of the Central Committee of the party, who oversaw the defense department. At that time, I was the editor of “Pravda” for science, and therefore I was in contact with him often. I remember a meeting on the eve of the launch of the “Blizzard”.

& ndash; Why is it needed? After all, we don’t have the scientific equipment to “fill” it.

“This is our trouble, things are not very good with the device structure, but the situation is not hopeless,” Baklanov replied. – In the coming years, we will fix it… Then we will use & laquo; Buran» in full.

& ndash; And what projects?

– There are many of them. From applied research on the Earth to flights to the Moon and even to Mars. The system “Energy” –«Buran & raquo; allows you to solve almost any problems in near and far space.

“I have the impression that we put the cart before the horse.

& ndash; A carriage, dear, a chic carriage, on which even to Mars it is not a shame to ride! But seriously: & laquo; Energy & raquo; and & laquo; Buran & raquo; required the creation of thousands of the latest technologies, and they guarantee the rapid development of the entire industry and science. We just need to use this achievement wisely & hellip;

Unfortunately, Baklanov’s hopes failed to materialize. One of the “Blizzards” intended for testing was sold to a collector in Austria, another went to auction in a private museum, the third turned into a restaurant in an amusement park. And some time (mockery of the creators!) it even served as a public toilet.

Creating a different reality

After his release from prison (he ended up there as a member of the State Emergency Committee) Oleg Baklanov assessed what is happening as follows: “If it were not for the collapse of the USSR, which we tried to prevent, then, I am convinced, we would have already visited Mars. A unique rocket “Energy” could send a person there and bring him back. That’s what we were aiming for! And there were such studies, andthe technique allowed. With this rocket, in general, we created a different dimension: one block with a mass of 105 tons! Can you imagine the Mir-2 system assembled from such modules?! This is a whole space city, and a launch complex. We planned to upgrade this rocket so that it could put 200 tons into orbit. But after our arrest, came to powerYeltsin with a gang of his Neanderthals, who began to destroy and smash everything. Immediately, like a jackal on a dead man, he ran to Russia Soros and he began to buy up the developments laid down in the “Energy” system for pennies, “Buran” Today, Russia is lagging behind the leading foreign countries by about two decades in the development of rocket and space technology and space exploration. If the funding of the Russian cosmonautics remains the same, we will finally lose experienced personnel, and in the future our cosmonautics will have to be revived from scratch.

Bitter words…

Here is a fragment of another of our conversations.

“I will support your project, but it is not necessary to advertise it. In “Energy” against the participation of a journalist in a space flight, ” Baklanov told me. It was about the flight into space of a Soviet journalist in defiance of a Japanese project .In 1989, a commercial agreement was signed in Moscow for an eight-day space flight of a Japanese journalist. The most ambitious commercial deal in Japanese television cost TBS $ 37 million. As a result, a Japanese reporter flew into space Toyohiro Akiyama, director of the TBS bureau in Washington.

& ndash; Why? The prestige of cosmonautics is falling, children no longer dream of becoming cosmonauts, and therefore, in my opinion, the project “Space” for children, which we have come up with, will contribute to the popularization of science in general, and cosmonautics in particular.

“I understand this perfectly well, but they want to make money on the flight of a journalist on “Energy”. We are talking about $ 20 million, which is good money for the company… If I support you openly, then they will misunderstand me.

“It seems to me that our cosmonautics has turned off the right path, such commerce will not lead to good,” I complained.

& ndash; I have to agree. It’s good that there is still a military space. There is still order there. Well, we will still fight for the project “Space” for children.

I didn’t have to, because soon the August putsch of 1991 happened, and Baklanov became one of its main participants.

«Satan is keeping us …«!

Despite the importance of the space projects supervised by O. D. Baklanov, the protection of the country was still in the first place.

The situation in the world was alarming. The Americans were building up their nuclear power. We managed to maintain parity.

& ndash; Exclusively thanks to the 36th rocket, & ndash; Baklanov once admitted. & ndash; We call her «Voivode», and the Americans – «Satan». Its uniqueness is that it has 40 false targets and 10 combat blocks. That is, in the case of the launch of the “Voivode”, the enemy will see 50 missile blocks threatening him, buthe will not know which of them are distracting and which are combat-ready. It will be more difficult for him to fully localize the Voivode. This rocket is excessive in its power. It has a mortar launch: 200 tons are thrown out of the mine in one second and go into the sky. Depending on the specific goal, 12–30 minutes of flight to the United States.

& laquo;Satan» was created in Dnepropetrovsk on the famous & laquo; Yuzhmash » in the Design Bureau«Yuzhnoye & raquo;. The chief designer of “Satan” was With Tanislav Ivanovich Us. I was in Dnepropetrovsk, met with Us.

“Baklanov is well aware of our problems, he often comes to us,” Us said in one of the conversations. ” He understands that only our car is able to stop the Americans if they decide to rein us in. He boldly took responsibility for himself, sometimes made risky decisions. We let them into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. As usual, two cars No. 10 and No. 11 were prepared for launch. The second one was allowed earlier. And the highway passed just over the capital of Indonesia. And it had to happen that the third stage exploded right above her. And the explosion was sopowerful that “blinded” the tracking systems of American ships. The second rocket, No. 10, was on alert, and the chairman of the state commission, and it was Baklanov, asked me: “What are we going to do?”I answer that the cause of the explosion is unknown, and therefore the second rocket must be launched. The launch took place. And it was the most beautiful launch! And we still haven’t figured out what happened to car No. 11. After this incident, there was not a single emergency start. But if O. D. Baklanov had not taken responsibility, the working out of “Satan” could have been delayed for a long time.

Now there are new missile complexes in service in Russia, and we should remember that the foundations of their creation go back to those times when O. D. Baklanov was also responsible for the defense of the country.

*  *  *

I specifically did not say anything about the State Emergency Committee, where one of the main figures was Baklanov. The fact is that yesterday’s villains often become heroes, and the current rulers of thoughts quickly disappear from our memory. Sometimes they come back, but this rarely happens.

History is unpredictable, so let’s trust it. It seems to me that the name of Oleg Dmitrievich Baklanov will remain with descendants for a long time, because he was at the center of the events of the past century, the very ones that largely determined both the present day and the future, even very far away.

Источник aif.ru

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *