Аннотация: Unlucky designer, darling of fate Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov ("patron"). Secrets of the scientific business in the USSR. A biographical sketch.
Unlucky designer, darling of fate Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov ("patron"). Secrets of the scientific business in the USSR. A biographical sketch.
For those readers who are interested in the fate and work of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, Viktor Bolkhovitinov "comes" from nowhere and "disappears" into nowhere.
We can see a three conventional "intersection points" of the destinies of Korolev and Bolkhovitinov.
Firstly, many well-known employees of Sergei Korolev, people who have achieved success and fame, began their careers with a job under lidership of Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov. "... In [Bolkhovitinov's] collective were gathered people who, having gone through the school of the "patron" - as we called him, themselves became the creators of technology that found worldwide recognition. (...) The production of talent is not as honorable as the production of aircraft or missiles. But the historical significance of this products ["goods"] deserves great gratitude from descendants. " (Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 1). [in Russian "patron" ("патрон") also means "cartridge"]
Secondly, in the first half of the 40s of the 20th century, Bolkhovitinov's employees "picked up the baton" of Korolev and Glushko (these two were arrested) and built a model of a rocket plane. This model was not particularly successful, but it took off, it passed the initial phase of flight tests.
Thirdly, Viktor Bolkhovitinov, after the appearance of information about the works of Werhner von Braun, in the final years and months of the war, was among those influential persons who oversaw missile issues, who sent representatives of Soviet scientific circles to Germany for research of a rocket achievements.
From 1944-1945, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was returning to the stage; and he began to implement a space project; and Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov gradually left the historical stage on which major designers of the latest technology were operating.
What is interesting about Viktor Bolkhovitinov?
Bolkhovitinov, at first glance, is an example of an unsuccessful figure.
"The name of Professor Bolkhovitinov is little known to the general public. In the history of our aviation, he did not enjoy the fame of world famous general designers, and he is almost never remembered in the history of cosmonautics. After two setbacks: after the death of Sigizmund Levanevsky on the N-209 plane [a type Bolkhovitinov DB-A (no. N-209, a Dalniy Bombardirovshik, i.e. Long-range Bomber) ], and later after the death of Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi on the BI-1 rocket plane [the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 was a Soviet short-range rocket powered interceptor], he [Bolkhovitinov] was sometimes called a loser in eminent aviation circles.
Indeed, Bolkhovitinov's team did not create a single aircraft that was put into service. " These are the words of Boris Evseevich Chertok (Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 1). [unofficial translation]
Where did he come from, Viktor Bolkhovitinov? What was he doing before starting the path of a designer?
We know that he studied at the Air Force Academy [Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy] until 1926 (in 1926 he was about 27 years old).
Perhaps the key to the fate of Viktor Bolkhovitinov can be found in the words of Boris Chertok: "The doctrine of building and using the Air Force was formed at that time by competent and thinking military intellectuals who had the power and the right to make decisions. These were primarily Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Petr Baranov, Jan Alksnis and the elite of the teachers of the Air Force Academy. " [unofficial translation]
Who are they - anonymous members of the "elite of the teachers of the Air Force Academy"?
In any case, this elite was close to influential people and had access to them.
It is known that Bolkhovitinov and Pyshnov (a teacher at the academy) were married to sisters. ("Pyshnov and Bolkhovitinov were married to sisters" - Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 2.).
In terms of the level and number of titles, ranks and awards, Bolkhovitinov and Pyshnov have much in common.
In late 1933 - early 1934, KB-22, or KB of Bolkhovitinov, was created.
Thus, none of Bolkhovitinov's planes was put into service.
Moreover, Bolkhovitinov received a kind of all-Union fame: the pilot Levanevsky, who flew on the N-209 aircraft created by Bolkhovitinov, disappeared in the Arctic, over the Arctic Ocean, in 1937. "According to the memoirs of Baidukov and Vodopyanov, Stalin was very fond of Levanevsky, despite the fact that his relatives lived in Poland, and his brother was a Polish military pilot." (Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 2.).
It would seem - a finish?
But here we are reading the book by Yaroslav Golovanov "Korolev: facts and myths", and we meet the phrase: "Bolkhovitinov was riding by a yacht on Sunday along the Klyazminskoye reservoir ...". [unofficial translation]
People had varying degrees of well-being in the pre-war years [before the war of 1941-1945]. Mikhail Bulgakov was looking forward to his new apartment. Someone had a dacha, someone drove a private car, some played tennis [the lawn tennis]. But the mention of sailing on a yacht (the own yacht? or almost own yacht? - if this yacht belonged to the Bolkhovitinov Design Bureau or was under patronage of Bolkhovitinov or his Design Bureau?; in any case, Bolkhovitinov "was riding", not somebody "was riding with him", "was riding (of) him") for the pre-war years, it seems to me exclusive.
But let's move on from the yacht to other topics.
"Until now I cannot understand the logic of the NKVD. Almost the entire core of the Tupolev team, which provided the triumphant flights of Chkalov and Gromov to the United States, was repressed. And from our team, from the team of Bolkhovitinov, despite the obvious death of the N-209, authorities did not touch anyone. " [unofficial translation] (Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 2)
Can't such a person be called a darling of fate?
"Two young engineers worked in his [Bolkhovitinov's] design bureau: Alexander Bereznyak and Alexey Isaev. Bereznyak came up with the idea to create a rocket plane. He shared this idea with Isaev, and together, without saying anything to anyone, they began to design an unprecedented machine ...
This work fascinated them terribly, they could not reflect of anything else, and, in the end, one evening they went to Bolkhovitinov's house and told him everything. Bolkhovitinov looked at their calculations, leafed through the sketches and said thoughtfully:
- All this can work out as a result of you efforts ...
So their amateur performance was legalized by the chief, but the aircraft was not included in any plans of the design bureau." [unofficial translation] (Yaroslav Golovanov. Korolev: facts and myths.). "
In the Soviet elite, Viktor Bolkhovitinov is beginning to be perceived as a specialist in rocketry. Perhaps, they expect for a breakthrough from him, they are waiting from him for a leap forward ...
"The Bolkhovitinov group began to receive blocks of V-2 missiles from the Debice artillery range (Poland), where German missile positions were once located. From them training firing was conducted. At the points where the missiles were dropped, Soviet troops found their debris. It was they who became the subject of research by Soviet specialists." [unofficial translation] (A. Romanov. Korolev).
"A.M. Isaev, then I, N.A. Pilyugin, V.P. Mishin and several other specialists were allowed to inspect the secret German weapons.
Entering the hall, I immediately saw a dirty-black funnel from which the lower part of Isaev's body protruded. He climbed headlong through the nozzle into the combustion chamber and examined the details with a flashlight. An upset Bolkhovitinov was sitting next to him.
I asked:
- What is it, Viktor Fedorovich?
- This is device, mechanism, that cannot be! - the answer was.
LRE of such size in those days, we simply did not imagine." [unofficial translation] (Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 1).
Cautious and smart person, Bolkhovitinov is able to assess his own abilities and his level. His career is made. He is already a general.
"In 1945, the work by E. Sänger and I. Bredt was translated, and in 1946 under the heading "Review of captured equipment" (edited by Major General of the Aviation Engineering Service V.F. Bolkhovitinov) was published in large circulation by the Military Publishing House of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR." [unofficial translation] (Boris Chertok. Rockets and people. Book 1.).
Since 1949, Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov is a professor at the Zhukovsky Academy [Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy].
In the books I read, I found no mentions of the activities of V.F. Bolkhovitinov after 1949 as a designer.
I can only assume that the sailing sport (on the Klyazminskoye reservoir) continued to be the point of interest of V.F. Bolkhovitinov.
He was born in 1899, died in 1970.
Scientific research, design of new technology, pilot production - this is a huge, almost uncontrolled (difficult to control) flow of public money.
An indirect mention of such "scientific" money, we find in the statement of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev in the name of I.T. Kleymenov, filed in 1934.
"Korolyov was angry, because there was no "good role of the masses", but there was a bunch of inept lazy people, annoyed that secrecy interferes with doing" left "affairs and stealing ...
On January 17, 1934, Korolev presented Kleimenov with a document about the unsatisfactory work of the institute's workshops.
"The work plan for January is not being implemented," it said. - ...
There is no simple procedure for passing one or another order for work, distributing them to workplaces, systematically monitoring their implementation ...
The wages of a worker are uneven and often insufficient, and sometimes excessively high ... " [unofficial translation] (Yaroslav Golovanov. Korolev: facts and myths.).
March 19, 1934 Sergei Korolev was relieved of his post as deputy head of the RNII, transferred to engineering and design work as a senior engineer of the eighth sector of cruise missiles, headed by E.S.Schetinkov.
September 11, 2021 00:16
Translation from Russian into English: September 11, 2021 08:15.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Неудачливый конструктор, баловень судьбы Виктор Федорович Болховитинов ("патрон"). Тайны научного бизнеса в СССР. Биографический очерк".