Yanks for
Stalin
Interview Transcript
Abel
Aganbegyan (cont)
Q.
So it was back then that our gigantism began?
A.
Yes. But in this instance we followed Western examples and
tried to predict tendencies.
Q.
Do you know the history of Gorky's plane, with its radio station
and library?
A.
Yes. In many ways, this helped us in other respects, as
well. We have planes such as the Maria, which can carry
240 tons. Not even the Maria, but the Ruslan, which has
no equal on earth in terms of cargo capacity.
Q.
Did industrialization help us win the war?
A.
Without a doubt. I don't think anyone can argue that point,
because thanks to industrialization we were able to created a
modern defense industry. And we were able, beginning in
1943, to produce more weapons than all of Europe produced for
Hitler. We made more tanks, more weapons and more airplanes,
thanks to our prewar efforts. I know this to be true, because
I lived in Novosibirsk for 25 years. The factory there,
which before the war was intended to be a combined production
plant, was converted to an airplane factory during the war, and
turned out a third of all fighter planes made in the Soviet Union
in wartime. There is not another plant in the world that
ever came close to such production volume figures, and thanks
to these fighters we eventually won air superiority.
Q.
How many planes? 5,000?
A.
No, it was much more than that. I don't remember, but a
huge number, a huge quantity of fighter planes
Q.
And there was Gorkovskiy, and Stalingradskiy--
A.
Of course. And what about the famous tank-building plant,
Uralsk? Iliomsk?
Q.
So you think that without industrialization--
A.
Without industrialization there would not have been Spets-steel,
armor, tanks, mechanization. Where would it have come from?
Nothing was imported, there wasn't a single foreign part.
No one helped us. We developed our own airplanes, built
them from scratch. There was no cooperation from the West,
everything was made here, from the radar equipment to the chassis.
And in order to build a chassis, many other sub-industries are
necessary. In each modern product there is the contribution
of thousands of industries. Direct or indirect. Just
look at the automobile. At least two thousand different
industries participate in the creation of one automobile, and
the automobile is the simplest of machines, from a technical point
of view. It is not an airplane, or a missile.
Q.
Do you think that perhaps we did not need to rush industrialization?
To destroy so many in the name of industrialization?
A.
Maybe it was unnecessary to destroy so many, maybe it could have
been accomplished in a more efficient manner. I don't deny
that possibility. I am only saying that without industrialization,
there would be no defense industry. That does not mean that
industrialization had to be carried out using such barbaric methods.
Concentration camps are not essential to industrialization.
Q.
Would we have won the war without industrialization?
A.
Without industrialization we could not have won victory in the
war. But industrialization could have been conducted in
a more civilized fashion.
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