Chapter 322
After all, the technical difficulties raised in the early stages of the design of the Palace of the Soviets were more than ten years ago. The problems raised at that time, such as the cranes, elevators, special lightweight steel materials, anti-rust paint specifically for statues, etc. used to build the project, were all relatively difficult problems to solve for the Soviet Union at the time.
Of course, these are secondary. Among all the difficult problems, the first one is the problem of the construction site. The site of the Palace of Soviets is too close to the Moscow River. The geological conditions there are not suitable for building too tall buildings. In order to ensure the safety of the building, screw cast-in-place piles must be driven into the ground.
Yuri consulted some engineers and got the advice that in order to ensure the solidity of the building, 140 screw cast-in-place piles were needed. The specifications of these screw cast-in-place piles were 1.3 meters in diameter and no less than 40 meters in depth.
Not to mention anything else, the amount of concrete consumed by these bored piles alone is a headache-inducing number. If the above-ground building parts are added, the consumption will drive people crazy.
The most important thing is that to drill a 40-meter injection hole, you need to use corresponding drilling equipment, which must also be specially made and needs to be specially developed and produced.
At present, the production of lightweight steel and steel frames is no longer a problem for the Soviet Union, but the production of special cranes and elevators also requires great efforts in research and development and production.
When the project was originally designed, the planned plan would eventually require an investment of 4 billion rubles, which in 1932 was equivalent to a quarter of the total fiscal revenue of the Soviet Union. Today, 4 billion rubles is not enough.
But then again, how much money and resources will be needed, and how much burden such an investment will bring to the Soviet finances, these are not things Yuri needs to consider. He is only responsible for supervising the construction of the project. If the corresponding resources are not supplied, Comrade Stalin will only retreat. As for who will take the blame, Yuri doesn't care, just don't let him take it.
In order to convince Comrade Stalin that he was really considering building this project, Yuri also discussed in detail the construction of special cranes and elevators.
He suggested that the three heavy machinery manufacturing plants of Drogobych, Strela and Novokramadsk be responsible for the research and development and production of special cranes. These are currently the three largest and most technologically advanced heavy lifting equipment manufacturers in the Soviet Union.
As for the production and design of elevators, it is recommended that Sherbinka Elevator Manufacturing Plant and Karazarov Mechanical Plant be responsible for research and development and production.
The five factories involved were all large-scale machinery manufacturing plants in the Soviet Union. In other words, they were state-owned enterprises with central government departments, and it was their responsibility and obligation to undertake such design and manufacturing tasks.
As for the construction of the Lenin statue, Yuri believes that it is obvious that the corresponding design work can be carried out. The Central Design Institute can take the lead in this work and use the post-assembly method to complete the construction of the entire statue.
According to Yuri's suggestion, the construction of the Palace of Soviets was divided up, and the hard-core engineering problems were taken out of the scope of the Executive Bureau's work and handed over to others. The only work the Executive Bureau really needed to do was to build the building itself.
As for whether those special lifting equipment and dozens of special elevators can be produced in the end and how long it will take, Yuri really has no intention and ability to care. It is not that he is irresponsible and blames others, but he has no choice. Comrade Stalin's style of doing things is to focus on results rather than processes. When working under him, he must see good results in everything, especially those things that he is extremely concerned about, like now.
However, a huge project like the construction of the Palace of Soviets is not as simple as developing land or building roads and railways. For that kind of work, there will be no major problems as long as the manpower, equipment and materials are in place. If there is a problem, it is nothing more than extending the construction period, failing to meet the quality standards, etc. For such a problem, Yuri believes that he must take the blame.
But the construction of the Palace of Soviets was not like this, because its construction was too difficult, and many of the problems were technical. For example, if the project started but there was no available lifting equipment, and the project was completed but there was no available elevator, would he be responsible for these? That would be obviously unfair. Therefore, Yuri's scapegoating was just to concretize the corresponding responsibilities, which is understandable.
Coming out of Stalin's office, Yuri let out a long sigh. To be honest, working under Comrade Stalin always gives people a lot of pressure. It gives people the feeling that his eyes are always staring at you. As long as you do something that makes him unhappy, he will make you suffer. The most important thing is that you often only have one chance to make him unhappy. After that time, it will be very difficult to satisfy him.
What is certain at present is that on the issue of restarting the construction project of the Palace of Soviets, Comrade Stalin should have only had an intention, a very strong intention, and he should not have consulted the members of the Presidium. Yuri felt that he should be the first person to make his attitude clear, and he didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.
Regardless of the final opinion of the Presidium, Yuri felt that he should add the construction of the Palace of Soviets to the work plan for next year. At least, this can reflect his firm support for Comrade Stalin's position. Well, no matter how the work is done and how well it is done, at least the attitude should be shown. Attitude is very important. It belongs to ideological content and is the first key item.
Yuri didn't go back to rest at noon, and didn't even have time to eat lunch. He was busy writing the construction plan of the Palace of Soviets and stuffing it into the work points for next year. Then, he spent an afternoon meeting with a group of experts from the Kuibyshev School of Architecture and the Soviet Academy of Architecture, asking them to summarize a report on the relevant issues of the construction of the Palace of Soviets. He required that the report must be detailed, sorting out the technical requirements and possible problems in the entire project construction process, and giving reasonable suggestions to overcome these problems.
Technical work should always be handed over to the corresponding technical personnel. Yuri could come up with some specious statements to evade Comrade Stalin, but he also knew in his heart how capable he was. A building over 400 meters high cannot be built by administrative orders and revolutionary enthusiasm. It requires not only a large amount of building materials and resources, but also solid technical support.
Yuri's idea was that once the construction project of the Palace of Soviets was finalized, he would immediately select experts from relevant fields to form an engineering construction expert team to be responsible for the specific work.
It must be admitted that in today's Soviet Union, Comrade Stalin's authority is unmatched, and no one can disobey his will. The discussion of the Palace of Soviets as a key national project in 1945 was smoothly passed in the discussion of the Presidium of the Central Committee and the People's Committee. According to the spirit of the document issued by the People's Committee, in the new year, all departments and bureaus of the People's Committee will allocate resources with this work as the core.
With the arrival of the Russian New Year, various relevant ministries and bureaus held meetings one after another and set up a dispatching committee headed by Comrade Zhdanov, which was responsible for organizing the dispatch of various resources. At the same time, the Construction and Building Materials Committee gathered a large number of construction engineers across the Soviet Union to form a team responsible for technical work. The Planning and Budget Committee began to formulate a corresponding funding plan, and the work entered the implementation stage in an orderly manner.
Under the Soviet Union's planned economic system, as long as the country intended to do something, it could always achieve its goal in the shortest time and most efficiently. Although this system might cause a lot of waste and many mistakes, its efficiency was something that no country under any other system could achieve.
According to the decision made by the Presidium of the Central Committee, the construction of the Palace of Soviets will officially start in April. In other words, considering that the first phase of the project mainly involves the construction of the foundation, the "Department of Construction, Road Construction, Public Works and Manufacturing" under the People's Committee is under the greatest pressure, because they must manufacture and develop practical drilling equipment in less than four months.
During this period, Yuri could not help but feel nervous despite his busy schedule. He was really afraid that Comrade Stalin would get excited and come up with some more "brilliant" ideas. The old man could pass down orders by just a snap of his forehead, but the people who were doing the work below would really be living a life worse than death.
Fortunately, however, Comrade Stalin seemed to have forgotten about him temporarily and did not put forward any unrealistic demands. His attention was now turned to the intellectual circles, or to be more precise, to the cultural and philosophical circles.
With the end of the war, the creative climax of the Soviet literary and artistic circles seemed to have arrived. In a series of publications, some novels and poems praising the Patriotic War appeared one after another. This atmosphere was originally very good, but, how should I put it, intellectuals always have some ideas that are difficult for ordinary people to understand. According to normal thinking, since it is to praise heroes, it should reflect the glorious side of heroes, but some people don’t want to, and they have to describe it from the side, or even from the opposite side, just like a novel that reflects the sacrifices made by heroes for victory, but they have to write an article like Lust, Caution. Discussing a philosophical issue, they have to talk about the excellent philosophical tradition of the Germanic nation.
These people not only annoyed Comrade Stalin, but also almost drove Zhdanov, who was in charge of ideological work, crazy. As a result, a movement to criticize the liberal tendencies in the field of culture and art swept across the country.
