Russian counter-projects of the 90s

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The first counter-project originated in the Defense Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which was led by Oleg Baklanov and in the General Staff, where Marshal Mikhail Moiseev was its adherent. Since 1987, the Defense Department of the Central Committee began explicitly and implicitly funding what would later be called the "new Russian ideology." From here comes Alexander Prokhanov with his newspaper Den, and later - Tomorrow.

They also supported the Experimental Creative Center, created by the distinctive, original, albeit very controversial philosopher, political scientist and director Sergei Kurginyan with his fanatical searches and analytical developments of technotronic, modernist communism. It was in those years that for the first time Eurasianism was given the opportunity to come out of the underground. It was then that high-ranking patrons help the philosopher and publicist Alexander Dugin in his popularizing activities, and he again introduces the wealth of world geopolitical thought into cultural circulation, returns the ideas of Russian Eurasianism to the Motherland.

Finally, through the Committee on Foreign Economic Relations, which closely interacts with the State Security Committee, assistance is provided to the developments of perhaps the most outstanding philosopher-practitioner of our time, who may even claim to be an epithet of genius - Sergei Chernyshev and his then co-author, Alexander Krivorotov. It was then that their fateful work "After Communism" was published, where, perhaps, for the first time, a historical breakthrough was made in the theoretical understanding of the possibility of transforming Soviet society, its way out of the impasse was outlined.

In 1987, the heads of the KGB and the General Staff agreed that a center for breakthrough and alternative technologies would be created in the bowels of the latter. And to implement and implement them was conceived on the basis of enterprises serving the army. The initiators of the project sought to tie the entire military-industrial complex with the bonds of breakthrough technologies. For the sake of this cause, patriotic people from the KGB and the GRU have forgotten the historical enmity.

General Sham testifies

The main enthusiasts of the case were two people: the now deceased assistant to Marshal Moiseyev, Colonel Mikhail Bazhanov, and Major General of State Security Nikolai Sham, then deputy head of the 6th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, economic counterintelligence.

Let's turn on our tape recorder, play through the recording of the conversation with our like-minded person and close friend …

Nikolai Alekseevich, legends still talk about your management. Was it scientific and technical intelligence? Have you mined the secrets of Western technology?

- Not at all! We worked in the counterintelligence system, in which the Second Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR operated. But it included the 10th department, which dealt with the economy of the native country, and the 9th, which monitored the processes in academic science. And on the basis of these departments, first the "P" department was formed, and then, in 1985, the 6th department of the state security committee. It took up the full range of economic counterintelligence. And there are many aspects in its activities. We looked for enemy agents inside the country, were engaged in the protection of state secrets, and worked to prevent emergencies. Of course, they collected scientific and technical information that could be useful for the domestic economy. We also identified negative processes in the military-industrial complex, discovered factors that undermined the country's defense capability and security. For example, in the rocket and space industry.

That is, you had to catch pests and saboteurs by the hand, speaking in the language of the thirties?

- You shouldn't be ironic. There were enough such cases in the history of our space industry in late Soviet times. People have committed deliberate crimes for a variety of reasons. For example, at the famous Chelomey company, at NPO Mashinostroyenia, counterintelligence grabbed the hand of engineer Anisin, who installed plugs in the fourth stage of the D-19 complex just on the eve of its state tests. The rocket was supposed to explode at the test site. It turned out that the pest acted this way out of his personal political convictions, hating the USSR.

In another case, we discovered damage to cable lines in submarine ballistic missiles at the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant. It turned out that these were occupied by a person who had previously been removed from his post as head of the assembly shop, and he decided to discredit his successor in this way.

And there was also a case during the execution of the Buran-Energiya program, when one scientist from NPO Automatics, deciding to take the place of his superiors, deliberately introduced distortions into the programs for the on-board computers of the spacecraft.

So we had enough work. I remember that in 1988 we decided to investigate how the military-industrial complex of the USSR depends on imported equipment. But as a result, they discovered that in the country in warehouses and in boxes there is still equipment that has not been installed at factories for almost 50 billion dollars! Today this is hard to believe.

How did the KGB come across unusual inventions and technologies?

- It was necessary to collect information of a scientific and technical nature, which could benefit the economy and defense of the country. That is why, for example, the monitoring of academic institutions was carried out. But in the early 1980s, the first sprouts of innovative business appeared in the USSR - engineering centers and scientific and technical creative youth clubs.

Then the inertia of the bureaucratic economy became clear to almost everyone. Line ministries (in fact, state corporations) rejected innovations, rejected inventors. The situation was not much better in official science, where the mainstream schools did not want to notice talented researchers. These people rushed to those very amateur centers and clubs, falling into our field of vision.

Somewhere in 1984, when I was still working in the "P" department, we saw that there are technologies in our country that have no analogues anywhere in the world, and which promise real economic breakthroughs for the USSR. For example, that year I met Georgy Kolomeitsev, who developed a unique agricultural technology.

By treating plant seeds with electromagnetic waves, he achieved an increase in yield by 20-30 percent without any genetic engineering, reducing the cost of fertilizers dozens of times and completely eliminating the use of pesticides. We were then struck by the pictures of the experimental field: wheat ears with heavy grains and a powerful root system, which took moisture from the depths of the soil, grew on the cracked ground. And the use of his technology in animal husbandry or in the sugar industry in general opened up tremendous prospects: Kolomeytsev was able to stop the processes of spoilage and decay.

There were enough such inventions, and all of them did not find support in ministerial offices. By that time, Mikhail Gorbachev was at the helm of the country, and a feverish search for recipes for an economic breakthrough began. It quickly became clear that the ossified system could not provide it. And then we with like-minded people decided to gradually introduce extraordinary technologies into our economy.

We found support in the General Staff, which was then headed by Marshal Moiseev, and the late Mikhail Bazhanov, a very energetic man, a true patriot, worked as his assistant. In 1987, with the help of his chief, it was possible to create a special laboratory at the General Staff, designed as a numbered military unit. It was located on Frunzenskaya Street, and Bazhanov became its head. Why was this secret laboratory created under the military department? Yes, because unusual inventions and technologies had a pronounced dual purpose, and could not only increase the competitiveness of our country, but also become the basis of new types of weapons.

Already that year, it was found and tested, if my memory serves me, about two hundred revolutionary technologies. What we saw was dizzy. It was then that I personally realized that we are capable of outstripping the whole world. For example, engineer Alexander Deev cleaned entire reservoirs in an unusual way: he scooped up a glass of water from them, put it on a laboratory table - and acted on it with his generator. And we saw how at first the water becomes clear in a glass - and then in a pond far from it, from which this glass was scooped up. How he managed to do this - no one could explain. But it worked, and I witnessed it myself!

Then we found Alexander Pleshkov, the author of unique medical developments, who could treat serious diseases and even cancer. And there was one more technology, which I will omit details about even now. In one of the tests, by turning on a small device, it was possible to stop a tank battalion at a decent distance. Directional impact changed the structure of the fuel so that the engines of the cars stalled …

Turn off the recording. Yes, the General Staff project was not advertised. Laboratories of an unusual "military unit" were deployed in the secret quarters of the GRU. One of them, on Frunzenskaya, was repeatedly visited by Sergei Kugushev. There were also several appearances on the Old Arbat. It was then that we saw that our country, if desired, is capable of breaking through into a completely new world.

But why did the General Staff's attempt fail? Let's give the floor to General Sham:

“But that first attempt was unsuccessful. The leadership of the General Staff began to give direct instructions to their departments - to organize an examination of this or that technology. In those days, the military could involve any scientific institute in this work. However, we immediately encountered opposition from the apparatus of both the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense. Many began to be irritated by the activities of the Bazhanov laboratory. And then we were skillfully "set up".

When the chief of the General Staff went on an overseas business trip, Bazhanov was unexpectedly summoned by the Minister of Defense, Marshal Dmitry Yazov. What are you doing there, they say? Well, report back! Bazhanov spent two hours talking to the minister about the work of his unit. When, for example, he demonstrated to the minister Kolomeytsev's technology, which allows getting fantastic harvests, Yazov just got furious and said: the army should be engaged in direct business, and not some kind of… it’s with corn. Bazhanov was expelled from the Armed Forces at 24 hours …

Bazhanov tried to defend the business he had begun. They say they are not alive with corn alone. Like, we have a project "Black Hand" of the Chelomey Design Bureau. A twenty-ton ship with maneuverable engines is launched into orbit. It carries ballistic missiles, and in which case it can inflict an irresistible blow on the United States. After all, it is simply impossible to intercept a rocket that is diving vertically from space. All future American Star Wars anti-ballistic defenses were designed to protect against missiles flying on a gentle trajectory from Russian territory. And here we immediately give the Americans a nice checkmate in the arms race, forcing them to admit defeat.

But Marshal Yazov did not want to hear anything.

It's a pity. The attempt was beautiful. For thirteen years - until now - the country could make a completely unimaginable leap forward.

Secret mission "ANTa"

Then the patriots at the top made a second attempt. In 1988, the USSR was already in a fever from explosions and disasters, a war was going on in Karabakh, the first actions of national separatists spilled into the streets, and the old economy was openly falling apart.

It is in these conditions that General Sham throws himself into a risky venture:

- In 1988, when the cooperative movement developed in full force in the country, the Sixth Directorate of the KGB of the USSR closely followed it. And one of my friends said that there is, they say, a promising cooperative "ANT" headed by Volodya Ryashentsev, a former sergeant from the 9th KGB department, guarding the party-Soviet elite, - says Nikolai Alekseevich. - I was told that Ryashentsev had interesting views, and I agreed to meet with him. After a long conversation at the Moskva hotel, I suggested to him: "Volodya, why don't you create a separate area that will deal exclusively with new technologies?"

- Yes, even tomorrow! - he answered, and soon he organized the 12th department in his "ANT", asking me for people. This was what was needed.

The idea was this: to gather under the banner of "ANT" all the inventors who are rejected by systems science and stagnant production and whom we have already identified with the help of Bazhanov's general staff structure. And the first person I "married" Ryashentseva was Mikhail Rudenko, a talented chemist who developed an amazing technology for the production of magnetic tape for audio, video systems and computers. We introduced this technology then - and the country immediately overtook TDK, BASF and other foreign "sharks" by an order of magnitude.

In laboratory conditions, everything worked out. Through the then head of the Military-Industrial Commission of the USSR Council of Ministers, Yuri Maslyukov, they managed to get a whole plant for the experiment. However, the equipment at that enterprise turned out to be so worn out that the film came out, although comparable in quality to Western samples, but not better than them. Then we decided to organize our super-production on a new, cooperative basis.

In addition to Rudenko, I also brought in Rostislav Pushkin, the inventor of an unusual engine, the fuel in the cylinders of which he invented to burn in a plasma formation. This promised to make his motor the most economical and powerful in the world.

The third genius that we introduced then to ANT was Alexander Khatybov, a mathematician from God. In fact, he created his own mathematics, from which all experts were confused and panic. However, we treated him with great attention. Without going into details, Khatybov's method allows solving complex mathematical problems ten times faster. For example, the famous "traveling salesman problem".

What is it?

- Classical problem in terms of difficulty. Imagine that you are a sales agent and you have to visit dozens of cities that are scattered around the map here and there. How to find the best route to visit each one, spending the minimum time on it? The more destinations there are, the more challenging the task. Khatybov snapped these tasks like seeds. We tested the performance of his system with the help of academic scientists, inviting Khatybov to solve the problems already solved at the institutes, naturally, not to mention to him that they had already been solved. The results exceeded all expectations: an innovative scientist coped with them in a matter of minutes, while traditional mathematicians took days, if not months. That is, a single Soviet mathematician could revolutionize the use of computers.

Through the KGB, they managed to knock out an apartment for Khatybov and get him a job at one of the institutes of the Academy of Sciences, which was then working on the most difficult task - the detection of carriers of nuclear weapons using space reconnaissance vehicles. But there they did not want to notice him, they did not give any work, and therefore Khatybov not only agreed to go to ANT, but also brought several familiar inventors with him.

Our idea to turn "ANT" into a center for the development of breakthrough technologies was supported in the sixth sector of the USSR Council of Ministers. It was created in 1988 at one of the government departments. The main task of the sixth sector was the examination of large state projects: is it worth it or not to implement it? At that time, the 6th sector was headed by General Alexander Sterligov, and it was with him that we discussed the idea of turning ANT into an exemplary cooperative, which is not engaged in primitive "buy and sell" and does not ruin production, but serves the development of the country. We decided to take a risk, because the Soviet economy, under the influence of indefatigable "reformers", was falling apart before our eyes.

The sixth sector of the Council of Ministers took over and prepared a government decree, according to which the state-cooperative concern "ANT" was created, and with it - a board of trustees, which included representatives from the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology, the Prosecutor's Office, the Customs Committee, the KGB of the USSR and State Committee for Economic Relations. I was on this council too. The rights of "ANT" were given the broadest - the unlicensed export of everything that brings foreign exchange income and the import of goods into the country, the sale of which in those years brought huge profits - computers and perfumes. The money that was raised from these super-profitable operations had to be invested in the development of breakthrough technologies, which had no analogue in the world.

But everything was ruined by the adventurism of the former sergeant Ryashentsev. Past the board of trustees, he arranged a deal with the sale of ten T-72 tanks from Nizhny Tagil abroad. All this ended with a devastating article in the organ of the orthodox communists - "Soviet Russia" in February 1990. Nobody knew anything about the plans of "ANT" - a universal howl arose. The communist newspapers yelled at the impudent cooperators, the democratic ones saw in this the insidious intrigues of the communist special services, "privatizing" the country. Gorbachev washed his hands. Then a grandiose investigation began on all seventy branches of "ANT", Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov shed tears. The heads of numerous chiefs rolled down the carpet.

And "ANT" died. It was not just a cooperative that perished, but the first attempt to create a venture enterprise that could help the economy of the USSR … Let's add General Sham on our behalf. There is every reason to believe that "ANT" was destroyed with the help of a deliberate provocation of Western intelligence services, which blindly "threw" it through the leader of the RSFSR Communist Party, Polozkov. The West struck at the most important link. For him, the main thing was to ruin the possibility of a new breakthrough by the Russians in technology. He saw that the most breakthrough technologies were collected in one structure, all that remained was to crush it …

Fragment of Maxim Kalashnikov's book "The Third Project"