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Rockets and People
I met with Pilyugin and Voskresenskiy. Neither objected to joining me in
Germany, but Bolkhovitinov would not let them go for the time being.
Pilyugin grumbled,“Why are we rummaging in packages and papers and racking
our brains over what’s what? We need to be there, on site, to understand it.”
I spent one night at home in Sokolniki on Korolenko Street. I saw our newborn
child, my second son, for the first time—he was only two months old. Katya had
cares that I had already managed to forget: firewood, kerosene, redeeming ration
cards and new quota books. 2 Bathing the baby was quite an event.You had to heat
the water in the kitchen on a kerosene stove and haul it to the tub in the other room.
But the mood of my resilient wife and all Muscovites was joyful.Victory! Now
everything would be different.
On 14 June, I was joined on the flight to Berlin by NII-1 chief engineer N.V.
Volkov and G. N.Abramovich, Bolkhovitinov’s deputy who was a professor at the
Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) and already a well-known scientist in the fields
of gas dynamics, thermal processes, and air-breathing jet engines. 3 But as
Abramovich explained to me, his interests in Berlin would be broader.“I need to
take a look at how their scientists are working in general.”
Back in Berlin, I was once again involved with packing up and shipping cargo
to Moscow. By 28 June I had “polished off” all the Adlershof “leftovers”. I spent
two entire days loading the Douglas with cases filled with measuring equipment.
At that time, I still did not know that this shipment was being sent to an institute
to which I would not return. Nevertheless, ten years later I was pleased to learn
that Rauschenbach’s group, which worked at NII-1 with M.V. Keldysh, had put
this rich arsenal of measuring technology to good use.
While I was involved with loading and shipping and acting as tour guide for the
higher-ups who had flown in, Abramovich caused quite a stir in Berlin. Having
landed in Germany with the rank of an engineer colonel, he had managed, with the
assistance of his aviation connections, to secure his own personal vehicle with a military
administration license plate. It was a light gray Mercedes in excellent condition.
The Mercedes came with a German driver, whom everyone called Alfred.As a
soldier Alfred had made it as far as Smolensk before being demobilized due to
illness. Before serving in the army, he had been a circus performer—his part was
to ride a motorcycle around a vertical wall. He drove the Mercedes magnificently.
After much wrangling,Abramovich managed to obtain a document certifying that
citizen Alfred Hessler was serving as a driver in the Soviet Military Administration
(SVA). 4 The now-official driver wore his old circus costume—leather jacket,
2. Quota books were used for non-food consumables such as kerosene and firewood.
3. MAI—Moskovskiy Aviatsionnyy Institut.
4. The provincial Soviet military organizations in occupied Germany were known as Sovetskaya Voyennaya
Administratsiya (SVA) or Soviet Military Administration. SVA organs reported to the top-level Soviet governing
authority in postwar Germany, the Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya Germanii (SVAG), the Soviet Military
Administration in Germany.
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