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Rockets and People
higher specific thrust than in engines using chemical propellant. In literature
searches at the NII-1 library, I found secret Leningrad Gas-Dynamic Laboratory
reports from which it followed that as early as 1929,V. P. Glushko had invented
electric rocket engines. My passion for electric rocket engines ended there at that
time. But since Glushko was involved with this, I was convinced that he couldn’t
be a dilettante in electrical engineering. It was yet another argument in his favor.
Two officers entered my office. I immediately recognized the colonel—it was
Valentin Petrovich Glushko. The other officer, a lieutenant colonel, introduced
himself simply as List. Both wore high quality uniform jackets, well-pressed
trousers rather than tunics, jodhpurs, and boots. Glushko smiled slightly and said,
“Well, it seems you and I have already met.” Evidently he remembered our meeting
in Khimki. Nikolay Pilyugin dropped in and I introduced him as the institute’s
chief engineer. I proposed that we all sit down and drink some tea or “something
a bit stronger.” But Glushko, without sitting down, apologized and said that he
needed emergency automobile assistance.“We were driving from Nordhausen and
our car was pulling badly and smoking severely. We were suffocating from the
smoke inside.They say that you have some good repair specialists.”
Nikolay Pilyugin went up to the window and announced,“Yes, it’s still smoking.
Did you turn the motor off?”
Suddenly in a calm, quiet voice List began to speak. He removed his service cap,
revealing a shock of completely gray hair,and sank demonstratively into the armchair.
“Don’t worry.The brake pads of the handbrake are burning out.We drove from
Nordhausen with the handbrake engaged.”
Pilyugin and I were flabbergasted.
“Why didn’t you release it?”
“You see,Valentin Petrovich stipulated that if he was at the wheel, I was not to
dare suggest anything to him.”
Later we found out that before his arrest in 1938, Grigoriy Nikolayevich List
had been the deputy chief designer at the I.V. Stalin Automobile Factory (ZIS). 4
In terms of outward appearance, his manner of speaking and holding himself, List
was a typical old generation intellectual. Nevertheless, he understood automobiles
in all their subtleties and drove them beautifully. He drove the car from Berlin to
Nordhausen. But in Nordhausen, Glushko demanded that the wheel be turned
over to him.And this was the result.
Pilyugin and I didn’t know whether to laugh out loud or to sympathize. But
there was not a trace of indignation or surprise on Glushko’s face. He too sank
calmly into his armchair, pulled out a pristine handkerchief, and wiped off his forehead.
I called our repairs department, and after explaining the situation, requested
that they quickly replace the Olympia’s handbrake.And that was our first meeting
with Glushko at the Institute RABE in Germany.
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4. ZIS—Zavod imeni Stalina.