2024-01-22 20:15:23
The Soviet Union might share the recipe for quickly building car factories with the West. Gratitude for hard work might be different…
An interesting exhibit is on display at the GAZ History Museum in Nizhny Novgorod. And this is not a car, as many will now think, but… the Komsomol card of Viktor Petrovich Sorokin. A Komsomol ticket, only from a photo card measuring 3×2.5 cm, a gray-haired man, tormented by life, with bags under his eyes, with deep folds of wrinkles, looks at us.
The Komsomol card was awarded to Comrade Sorokin in 1978, many years following his final rehabilitation. And he was 70. I don’t know what thoughts were spinning in his head at that moment. Gratitude for justice done? Pride in Lenin’s Komsomol? Apathy? Meanwhile, everything began with inspiration, encouragement, as in the famous recitative of Vladimir Mayakovsky:
But a whisper
louder than hunger –
he covers
drops
decline:
“In four
of the year
Here
will
garden city!
Hard physical work with an extremely unsettled life – for example, a bathhouse did not appear at the construction site for two years.
Mayakovsky composed “Khrenov’s story” regarding Kuznetskstroy, but exactly the same thing can be attributed to the Gorky Automobile Plant – they are the same age as the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant. And here, and there, and at dozens of other construction sites of the first five-year plans – the unbridled enthusiasm of Komsomol members, everyday disorder, arrogant American “experts” and yesterday’s peasants who even had to be taught to brush their teeth. For example, a whole dynasty of Rozhenkovs came to GAZ. “There were regarding 70 of them,” recalled Boris Vladimirovich Grekov, deputy of the passenger car testing department. — Large working family. Carpenters, joiners. They were apparently dispossessed, and they all moved to GAZ in a crowd.” If in 1930, according to payrolls, there were 16 thousand workers at the Automobile Plant construction site, then in 1930 there were already 40 thousand.
On May 31, 1929, in Dearborn, a contract was signed between the USSR and Ford Motor Company for the construction of an automobile plant in Nizhny Novgorod with a capacity of 100,000 cars/year for $150 million and the purchase of finished cars and spare parts for $30 million over 9 years. In the photo, from left to right: Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR Valery Ivanovich Mezhlauk, Henry Ford and the head of the intermediary company Amtorg Saul Gershkovich Bron.
Sorokin is rather an atypical person: from the city, educated, ideological. At first he built a plant, and following serving in the army he returned and mastered working on a complex Swiss universal boring machine from SIP (Société Genevoise d’Instruments de Physique). Drummer!
The project of the Automobile Plant and Social City was developed by the Cleveland company Austin Company, a pioneer in the use of standard reinforced concrete structures. In the USSR, the company will earn $1,550,000, which will save it during the years of depression. Later, the company will build the buildings of an aircraft factory where the Boeing 747 airliner will be produced. Along with Albert Kahn and Wilbert Austin, it is appropriate to mention the chief architect of Gosproektstroy Anatoly Stepanovich Fisenko, who led the projects of all major construction projects of the first five-year plans on the Soviet side.
According to the tradition that is gradually beginning to take shape, I address the reader… no, not to one book (although there will be a book), but to the entire Central Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, which accumulates countless materials on the topic of GAZ.
Tablets with views of the future plant in Nizhny were drawn by famous constructivist artists Georgy and Vladimir Stenberg, who performed under the brand 2‑Stenberg-2, like circus acrobats. It is interesting that their father, a Swede, came to Russia in 1896 to design the Nizhny Novgorod art and industrial exhibition.
Among them are Sorokin’s memories of his drumming. I liked this piece (especially following today’s stories with Covid-19 vaccinations):
“We lived then in different places, most in Kanavin, in all sorts of private apartments. For example, Seryozhka Vlasov and I found ourselves a cell there. As soon as we go to bed, our feet hit the wall. You can’t even stretch out. And then, every day I travel here by train.
Georgy and Vladimir Stenberg with a tablet showing the Socialist City. The customer (middle) is clearly satisfied. The Stenberg brothers at that moment were the main designers of Red Square in Moscow. Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg will become the main artist of Moscow.
The train doesn’t always run smoothly. Earlier, half an hour later – depending on whether the branch is free of trains. And such things happened as we once did with Vlasov. We run out onto the hillocks in Kanavin and see our train from there – bye bye, only the tail showed around the bend.
On February 1, 1930, a car assembly plant was launched on the territory of the Gudok Oktyabrya plant in Kanavino. This plant is shown in the 1982 Hollywood film “Coming Out Of The Ice” regarding the American Victor Herman, who came with his family to build the Soviet dream, ended up in the Gulag and returned to the States only in 1976. In 1978, Mr. Herman filed a $10 million lawsuit once morest Ford Motor Company for abandoning him in the USSR.
What to do here? After all, we have already passed a resolution in the brigade so that there are no delays, and we will exclude any delays. And, most importantly, Vlasov and I ourselves proposed this resolution. And suddenly we’re late – it’s a shame, because it mightn’t get any worse. And so let’s run from Kanavin to the Automobile Plant.
Second of May 1930. Laying the first stone in the foundation of the first stage of the Automobile Plant.
And here it will be regarding six kilometers, and Vlasov was completely ill. Just the day before we were given injections for typhus. His whole body ached, it felt like he was filled with lead, his head didn’t feel right… Vlasov felt bad, and it was very difficult for him to run. We ran to the Engine of the Revolution plant, and he said to me:
– Victor, I can’t run anymore.
He can’t run… Well, what can you do here? I feel sorry for leaving him too, and time is running out, we’ll be late, of course. I tried to drag him, to encourage him, and finally I told him:
– Okay, go quietly, and I’ll run.
And he took the direction straight. I look back a mile away and see; and he, Seryozhka, runs following me. He falls, but he runs…
So he and I ran to the factory. And they even arrived on time.”
The impulse of such participants in the construction of the Automobile Plant as Sorokin and Vlasov, to some extent, compensated for the damage from the blatant mismanagement that reigned at the construction site. The plant was built by two organizations, Avtostroy and Metallostroy. There was an open squabble between them. The American specialists hired for construction found themselves caught between two fires – their orders were ignored by both of these organizations! It turned out that the company “Austin Co.” does not have sufficient experience to carry out projects of this scale. Thanks to the magazine “Behind the Wheel,” which was published weekly in those years and opened a construction diary on its pages, today we have access to details.
The gravel used for construction was of extremely low quality, containing up to 75% silt and other impurities.
“Behind the Wheel”, No. 16 1930. At the front of automobile construction. Report twenty-seven:
“Mr. Bryant notes that “the Russians do not know how to accurately appear at meetings.” Engineer Appleton writes that “the trestle on the Oka River side has settled 8 inches, so that it cannot be used at full load. The overpass will have to be removed, although it is 1/3 complete. Money is wasted here.”
Mr. Meiter notes that “Metallostroy puts a lot of spokes in the wheels and wastes public money. Gravel is pure dirt. There is a large loss of workers in construction due to poor nutrition (roach without bread) and low prices.”
“Behind the Wheel”, No. 19‑20 1930. At the front of automobile construction. Twenty-ninth summary:
“With regard to the labor force, it should be noted the deadly turnover (500 workers arrive per decade, and 400 leave) and very low qualifications. Against this background, the greedy mood of the workers grew and labor discipline fell. Shock training and socialist competition developed very slowly.”
“The reasons for labor turnover… lie in unsatisfactory living conditions: poor food supply, lack of a bathhouse, laundry, medical care, a very poor supply of manufactured goods, extreme formalism in the registration of incoming workers, etc.”
“Behind the Wheel”, No. 21 1930 At the front of automobile construction. Report thirty:
“The construction of the automobile plant in Nizhny Novgorod is so unfavorable that taking exceptional and urgent measures is absolutely necessary.” “Engineers from the American consulting firm Austin Co.” They are outraged by the mismanagement and negligence in the acceptance of building materials, which are scattered throughout the entire construction area. […] bricks, arriving by 100–200 wagons a day, are thrown downhill from platforms; as a result 50 percent. battle.”
On the American side, disagreements (including regarding the cost of the contract) were resolved by the new manager of Austin Co. George Bryant, who replaced the ailing Wilbert Austin. The delivery of the project was delayed by three months. “Exceptional and urgent” measures were taken: in the fall of 1930, by order of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, Metallostroy was subordinated to Avtostroy. Moreover, nine Soviet construction managers in Nizhny Novgorod were put on trial “for deliberately failing to implement 42 recommendations transmitted by Austin specialists,” as Richard Cartwright Austin writes in the book “Building Utopia,” luxuriously published by Quartz in 2017. It seemed that following this things would move forward. But the joy was short-lived, and already in early spring, at the suggestion of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the construction site was once more reassigned to construction and installation trust No. 13 “Metallostroy”.
It was led by Mikhail Mikhailovich Tsarevsky, yesterday’s Red commander, security officer, Stalin’s front-line comrade. In an interview with Washington correspondent for The Sunday Star, Millie Bennett, in August 1931, Tsarevsky said: “The bureaucracy is still with us. But we are fighting it. […] Our work is now 60% complete. We have to meet the deadline!”
Mikhail Mikhailovich Tsarevsky (03/19/1898 – 07/29/1963).
Tsarevsky proved himself to be a genius of construction. His track record will include, in addition to the Gorky Automobile Plant, the Balakhninsky Paper Mill, the Nizhne-Tagil Metallurgical Plant, the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, the Severonikel plant in Monchegorsk and the Mayak plant in Chelyabinsk-40, and other large industrial facilities.
The first NAZ-AA truck rolled off the assembly line of the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant on January 29, 1932. It differed from the Ford Model AA in having a cab and on-board platform of its own design. The first Nizhny Novgorod truck was supposed to receive such a cab for the GAZ-82, but due to a delay in the delivery of stamping equipment from the Berlin AMBI-Budd plant, production of metal cabs began only in November 1933.
At the same time, on the territory of the Gudok Oktyabrya plant in Kanavino, they mastered the assembly of Fords from imported parts – here, however, Amtorg managed to fail, sending some of the parts for the 1929 models, which is why the conveyor stopped in April 1930. However, there were also successes. The production of onboard platforms for trucks has been established at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. What today is called localization and even import substitution, in 1930 was called “work to free our auto industry from foreign dependence.” Bodywork, tires, seat cushions and backrests, driver’s tools, spark plugs, varnishes and paints, bolts and rivets, grease, spare wheel holder, ventilation belt, side and rear windows – mastered. This resulted in savings of 200 gold rubles ($100) per car. The development of headlights and lanterns, batteries and carburetors, and Triplex windshields was approaching. The Berlin AMBI-Budd plant delayed the delivery of stamps for the manufacture of cabins to the car plant under construction – so they independently designed a simplified wooden cabin!
The first GAZ-A passenger phaetons were assembled in December 1932.
Construction of the first stage of the Automobile Plant was completed on November 1, 1931. Foreign experts were perplexed: nowhere in the world have such large facilities been built in 18 months. On December 20, 1931, the bureau of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “On the name of the plant.” He was given the name of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov. On January 1, 1932, the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant named following. V. M. Molotov entered service.
Viktor Petrovich Sorokin at the anniversary, 100,000th GAZ – the GAZ-A phaeton, made in the De Luxe configuration.
And what regarding our hero Sorokin? In 1933, he was mobilized for the construction of the second stage of GAZ – the construction of a wheel shop. At the same time, he had enough persistence to produce a plan on his Swiss machine during the second shift. In 1934, Sorokin was awarded the Order of Lenin – one of the first Komsomol members in the USSR. He led the factory Komsomol committee of the plant and the Komsomol district committee. In the spring of 1935, Sorokin brought the 100,000th GAZ to Moscow as a gift to Sergo Ordzhonikidze. The People’s Commissar of Heavy Industry clearly sympathized with the 23-year-old boy and called him a “shaggy Komsomol member.” In April 1936, Sorokin represented the GAZ youth at the 10th Komsomol Congress. There he was elected a member of Tsekamol – the Komsomol Central Committee, and then a member of the bureau of the Komsomol Central Committee, head of the working youth department. And on December 5, 1938, Sorokin was arrested in the case of Komsomol leader A.V. Kosarev, whom Leon Trotsky in his book “Stalin” called “a morally corrupt subject who abused his high position for personal gain.” Trotsky argued that Kosarev’s entire apparatus was a match for the leader: the “golden youth” of the Soviet Thermidor. You can’t say the same regarding Sorokin, if you judge him by his deeds.
Serial products of the Gorky Automobile Plant are sent to customers.
Sorokin was sentenced to 8 years of forced labor. The term was reduced to 6 years. He was released in September 1945, rehabilitated on November 6, 1954, and in March 1956 he returned to GAZ, where he worked until his retirement. Fate.
Denis Orlov, automotive historian
photo: GAZ History Museum, “Behind the Wheel” archive, Thehenryford.org
What else to read:
Woe from Wit: What was the main problem of German cars during the war
Genius, anti-Semite and friend of the USSR: who Henry Ford really was
A high-flying bird: how the “Seagull” GAZ-13 became a legend of the Soviet automobile industry
