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Rockets and People<br />
All of this new equipment added so many failures that the airfield was covered<br />
with dozens of aircraft that had not passed the acceptance process. I was promoted<br />
<strong>to</strong> the position of radio engineer and was responsible for installing, tuning, and<br />
releasing radio equipment.<br />
in january and february of 1934, the Seventeenth Bolshevik Party Congress<br />
<strong>to</strong>ok place. It was declared the “Congress of Vic<strong>to</strong>rs.” According <strong>to</strong> all indica<strong>to</strong>rs,<br />
the Second Five-Year Plan had been fulfilled ahead of schedule. Stalin’s policy for<br />
converting the nation from a backward agrarian country in<strong>to</strong> a mighty industrial<br />
power received the Congress’ unanimous support. Mitkevich was a congressional<br />
delegate from the Moscow municipal organization. She reported the results of the<br />
Congress and her impressions at a Party meeting.<br />
I was in disfavor and did not attend the Party meetings. But soon at the airfield,<br />
while Mitkevich was making her routine rounds, having assembled the foremen<br />
and team leaders, she reamed us out about the delays in releasing the airplanes.<br />
Citing the congressional resolutions, she demanded the most heroic efforts from<br />
all of us <strong>to</strong> clear the flight field.After Mitkevich’s general talk, she pulled me aside<br />
and asked why I had not appealed the Party committee’s decision <strong>to</strong> reprimand<br />
me. She explained, “The thing is that the purging commission will not take the<br />
risk of removing such a recent and severe pronouncement.They would be more<br />
likely <strong>to</strong> simply expel you from the Party.”<br />
Now I had something new <strong>to</strong> worry about. Having studied the procedure for<br />
appealing the decisions of a primary organization, I proceeded step by step. First<br />
was the district troika for the review of personnel matters. 39 Its decision was<br />
approved by the district committee office located in the famous building on<br />
Zubovskiy Boulevard. This proved <strong>to</strong> be insufficient, and I appeared before the<br />
greater Moscow troika on Old Square.To the three old Bolsheviks, I appeared <strong>to</strong><br />
be an inexperienced baby. Having moralized, they magnanimously replaced the<br />
line “severe reprimand with a warning and notation . . .” with simply “severe reprimand.”<br />
After familiarizing itself with all the pro<strong>to</strong>cols and hearing my confession<br />
and the lauda<strong>to</strong>ry testimonials of the non-Party foremen, the purging commission<br />
finally cleared me, rescinding the Party’s punishment.<br />
Now, whenever I wasn’t working, I was busy with the problem of inventing a<br />
simple and reliable electric bomb release. It is difficult <strong>to</strong> explain how the light<br />
bulb comes on in an inven<strong>to</strong>r’s head. First and foremost, he must desire at all costs<br />
<strong>to</strong> think up something that does not yet exist or replace an existing thing with<br />
something much better.The second condition is competence. He must have an<br />
absolute understanding of the end product and knowledge of the subject of his<br />
invention. I would call the third condition the erudition that saves the inven<strong>to</strong>r<br />
from inventing the “perpetual motion machine.”All the while, the inven<strong>to</strong>r needs<br />
92<br />
39. Here, troika denotes a committee of three.