Chapter 352
"Oh?" Yuri raised his hand to look at his watch and frowned, "Is it important? If it's not important, then you can..."
"Very important, yes, Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich, this matter is very important," Academician Ioffe nodded seriously without waiting for him to finish his words. People engaged in academic and scientific research are generally like this, without any sense of propriety, let alone political acumen, and do not know what taboos are.
"Well then," the old man said that the matter was very important, and Yuri couldn't just leave him alone, so he could only patiently say, "Academician Yofei, go ahead. We have about five minutes, so please keep your words short."
"I want to report some urgent issues in Arzamas," said Academician Ioffe, who obviously had no intention of going up the stairs. He stood at the bottom of the stairs and said, "I think the NKVD's distrust of researchers, especially those with political problems, is restricting the progress of our entire project. I think this situation must be changed."
Arzamas is a confidential administrative region that the Soviet Union began to build last year. The correct name of Arzamas should be "Arzamas-16", which is actually not the name of a city, but the code name of a project. As for the content of this project, it is an engineering project to build the first reactor in Soviet history.
Corresponding to Arzamas is the "Dolezhali Institute of Power Technology", which is equipped with more than a dozen experts and scholars in related fields and led by Academician Dolezhali to promote the construction of the reactor.
Although Yuri was not responsible for the technical work in the nuclear weapons development project, he was aware of some less important problems in the entire project, such as Dolezali's personal problems.
In his previous life, Yuri didn't know much about the Soviet Union, and knew even less about the figures in the Soviet scientific community. However, he still knew this Dolezali because this guy was so famous.
Dolezhari's full name is Nikolai Antonovich Dolezhari. He was not engaged in nuclear engineering, but in power technology. Therefore, the laboratory he led in the Soviet Academy of Sciences was also specialized in power research. In other words, nuclear reactors were his second research direction.
However, it was in this industry that he achieved amazing results. It was under his leadership that the Soviet Union built its first nuclear reactor, its first nuclear power plant, and designed its first nuclear submarine, the Type 627 nuclear submarine.
Most importantly, it was this person who proposed a design that was different from that of the American nuclear reactor: placing the uranium rods vertically instead of horizontally like the Americans. This seemingly minor change greatly enhanced the operating . In later generations, nuclear reactors around the world were all built according to Dolezali's design.
Such a great man is now in a lot of trouble, mainly because he has always kept in touch with many of his foreign colleagues and they often exchange letters with each other. The worst thing is that this guy recently wrote a letter to a good friend in the UK, revealing some of his ideas on the construction of nuclear reactors.
Perhaps in Dolezali's view, this was just a normal academic discussion, but in the eyes of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, which was responsible for checking the letter, this was a leak of state secrets. Therefore, he got into trouble because of this letter.
Recently, the NKVD has not stopped investigating Dolezhali. Although they have not arrested him directly, they have talked to him every day and asked him to explain the so-called problems. As a result, the progress of the Arzamas-16 project has almost completely come to a standstill.
Of course, the issues discussed by Academician Ioffe are not limited to Dolezali. After all, in the entire nuclear weapons development project, there are many scientific researchers involved in the research who have sentences on their hands. They are only temporarily released to participate in the project because of their talents. As for what will happen after the project is successful, no statement has been given yet.
The worst part is that there is a rumor circulating that the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs has drawn up a list, and if this project fails or is not completed on schedule, those on the list will be held accountable and will be shot as saboteurs.
All these factors have largely dampened the enthusiasm of the project researchers. They have concerns in their hearts and of course cannot devote themselves to the research work wholeheartedly, which has also greatly delayed the progress of the project.
After patiently listening to Academician Ioffe finish his words, Yuri frowned and said, "Academician Ioffe, I must admit that the problems you mentioned are very serious and urgent, but the problem is that you should understand that I am not the project leader. For problems like this, you should report them to Comrade Beria or Comrade Molotov."
Today, the entire Soviet nuclear weapons research and development project has been named: "Project кь-11". The nominal person in charge of the entire project is Comrade Molotov, but the person in charge of the actual work is Comrade Beria. Therefore, Academician Ioffe can report problems to either of these two people, but it is inappropriate to report these problems to Yuri.
"I have written letters," Academician Ioffe said with a bitter expression, "both Comrade Vyacheslav Mikhailovich and Comrade Lavrentiy Pavlovich, I have written letters to both. I have reflected these problems truthfully and put forward some opinions and suggestions, but... but half a month has passed and I have not received any response."
Yuri's frown became more obvious. He even suspected that this old man was here to embarrass him. Just as he said, he had reported these situations to Molotov and Beria before, but neither of them paid attention to him. But he turned around and came to him. What was this? Was he a hidden big boss with a higher status than these two people?
The answer is obviously no. After all, old man Ioffe just wanted to report this problem to Comrade Stalin through himself, but he did not think about whether he would bring unnecessary criticism to himself if he really bypassed Molotov and Beria and took the initiative to report these problems to Comrade Stalin.
Yuri wanted to directly reject Academician Ioffe's request, but when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he swallowed them back. For some reason, he felt that he should be more tactful.
"So, Academician Ioffe," Yuri asked knowingly after a pause, "what do you want me to do?"
"It is like this, Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich," Academician Ioffe licked his lips and said with a tangled expression, "My idea is... at the appropriate time, you can report this situation to Comrade Stalin."
"Okay, I'll consider it," Yuri nodded and agreed readily.
The initiative in this matter lies with him. Just as Academician Ioffe himself said, he can choose to report this issue to Stalin at the appropriate time. Then, when is the appropriate time is entirely up to him.
"Thank you, thank you, Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich," Academician Ioffe said happily, apparently not knowing that Yuri was dealing with him. "You are an open-minded and compassionate person, as has been proven by the events in Western Ukraine. We know that you have done enough, but this time..."
The so-called Western Ukraine incident was that Yuri had previously provided an opportunity for geologists who went to work in Western Ukraine to reunite with their families. Obviously, that incident still had a certain influence.
"Okay, Academician Ioffe, I just did what I should do," Yuri said after reading Academician Ioffe's words. He looked at his watch and said, "Now..."
"Ah, I'm sorry to take up your time," Academician Ioffe said hastily, understanding what he meant. "I wish you all the best, Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich."
After saying goodbye to Academician Ioffe, Yuri turned around and walked up the front steps and went straight to Comrade Stalin's office on the second floor, thinking about the request made by Academician Ioffe in his mind.
It is a recognized reality that in today's Soviet Union, or to be more precise, throughout the Stalin era, the Soviet Union attached great importance to science. However, due to tremendous political pressure and the influence of ideological censorship, scholars and experts in the scientific community did not have a good life. It is no exaggeration to say that they lived in fear.
Who is Academician Ioffe? He is not only the president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, but also the "Father of Physics" of the Soviet Union. However, even so, his right to speak is not very high, and he is subject to many restrictions in all aspects.
If we talk about the scientists who had the most comfortable life in the Soviet Union these days, if we don't mention the scum like Lysenko, the first one to come out is Kapitsa. This old guy is not only very good at scientific research, but also very good at dealing with Comrade Stalin and even the entire Soviet power core. Therefore, not only was he not harmed in the purge, but the laboratory he controlled also received a huge amount of government funding.
No matter how future generations evaluate Kapitsa, one thing that must be acknowledged is that he has a very high reputation in the Soviet scientific community. He not only promoted the development of physics in the Soviet Union, but also protected many people, such as Landau, Fock, Ivanenko, and so on.
Yuri really didn't want to get involved in the many troubles in the academic and literary circles, but if there was really an opportunity, he would still be willing to give Comrade Stalin some suggestions on the issue of improving scientific workers.
