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Factory No. 22
lem on a historical scale. In the aircraft industry’s upper echelons of power, managerial
staffs were rearranged. All aircraft factories were subordinated to
Ordzhonikidze. He started off by convincing first Voroshilov and then Stalin to
release Baranov from the Red Army Air Force command and make him head of
the First Main Directorate of the All-Russian Council of the National Economy
(VSNKh), which managed the aircraft industry, and at the same time appoint him
First Deputy People’s Commissar for Heavy Industry. Baranov’s deputy, Alksnis,
took his place as head of the Air Force in 1931.
The strengthening of the upper management structures did not eliminate the
main problem: the rate of development in the aircraft industry was being held up
by an acute shortage of personnel.There were not enough workers, skilled workers,
designers, and engineers. An unusual situation developed at our factory:
construction workers built new, turnkey shops earmarked for the production of
TB-3s, but there was no one to work in them.The personnel department hired
dozens of new workers everyday.These were primarily young people who had fled
the hard life of the villages and had absolutely no clue what factory work or work
discipline was, much less aviation technology.Two-month courses were set up to
provide them with accelerated training.After this they were distributed among the
job openings.The low skill level of the new workers caused a sharp reduction in
quality and a drop in productivity, directly threatening a breakdown in the
projected rates of TB-3 series production.
Having received a green, poorly trained bunch of workers, the shop chiefs
demanded skilled workers, production engineers, designers, technicians, and engineers.
It was not possible to train such leaders over the course of two or three
months right in the shops.The personnel training problem needed to be solved at
heretofore unprecedented rates. Baranov promised to assist Gorbunov in every way
possible with the placement of specialists who were graduates of the Air Force
Academy, the new aviation institute, and technical institutes. But this took time and
more time! Having become head of the factory, Gorbunov turned to the Party and
Komsomol committees, demanding that all means at their disposal be used to help
educate the young workers. He also demanded that they set up their own system
for training managerial personnel.
That same August 1931, the new secretary of the factory Komsomol committee,
Petya Petukhov, approached me. He was a man who was quick to start up unexpected
initiatives and ardent about the reorganization of personnel. Behind his
back they called him Petushok. 21 Petushok was overflowing with new ideas. His
predecessor, the intelligent and serene Sasha Vasilyev, was promoted to the post of
secretary of the Frunze district committee of the Komsomol; he was destined for
the Moscow committee.Vasilyev frequently came to the factory and did not always
support Petushok’s intrepid actions.
21. Russian word for young rooster.
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