In May 1945, Nazi Germany was defeated. But after it there was a huge scientific and technical potential that interested the victorious powers, primarily the USSR and the USA. On October 22, 1946, an operation began on the mass export of German scientists, engineers and workers to the Soviet Union.
Deportation order
Back in February 1945, a meeting of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill took place in Crimea, at which, on the eve of the end of the war, the following decision was made: “To withdraw or destroy all German military equipment, to liquidate or take control of all German industry that could be used for military production.
By a decree of the Council of Ministers of April 17, 1946, the Soviet-German aviation design bureau was ordered to deliver more than a thousand German aviation specialists to specially trained enterprises located in the region of Moscow, Leningrad, Kuibyshev, Kazan, Kiev, Kharkov and other cities.
The total number of specialists and workers deported from Germany was about 2,200. Among them were engineers in the field of rocket and nuclear technology, electronics, optics, radio engineering, chemistry. Since, together with the Germans, their families were also taken out, the total number of the deportees should have been 6-7 thousand people.
Meanwhile, in 1946, the USSR, France, Great Britain and the United States signed a document on mutual control over scientific research in Germany, according to which all military research organizations were ordered to dissolve, and military installations - to be destroyed or removed. Applied research work in some areas was also banned, in particular with regard to rocket and pulsating engines and gas turbines. That is why it was decided to carry out secret work not in Germany, divided into occupation zones, but in the Russian outback.
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Covert operation
The management of the operation was entrusted to the deputy of Beria I. A. Serov. He instructed the leaders of organizations in Germany to prepare lists of the most useful specialists for the USSR, first of all, designers and scientists. Some of them were in prisoner of war camps. They were taken to the USSR forcibly, without informing about it in advance, so that they would not try to escape. The action was attended by 2,500 employees of the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces, as well as soldiers who were loading property.
In the early morning of October 22, army trucks drove up to the houses where the Germans were supposed to be deported. Counterintelligence officers read out the deportation order, then people were given a short time to get ready, and they got on the train - special-purpose trains were already waiting at the stations.
In addition to people from Germany, prototypes of aircraft and engines, equipment of former German aviation design bureaus were also delivered. The dismantling of these enterprises and the removal of equipment lasted until February 1947.
Living in a foreign land
A special directive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was issued regarding the Germans who arrived. They continued to be considered subjects of Germany, living in the USSR, having a residence permit marked "until further notice." At the same time, they were not allowed to leave the territory of the settlements where their enterprises were located. Special commandant's offices were organized to control the regime.
Some specialists found themselves practically in "resort" conditions. So, the Abkhazian sanatoriums "Sinop" and "Agudzera" were given at the disposal of German physicists. The first was called "object" A ", the second -" object "D". Outstanding scientists worked at these facilities: Nikolaus Riehl, who later received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor; Max Volmer, who built the first heavy water production plant in the USSR, and later headed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR; Peter Thiessen, who was previously Hitler's scientific adviser; Max Steinbeck, who designed a centrifuge for separating uranium.
What did the Germans do in Soviet enterprises? For example, OKB-1 built a front-line bomber "150" with a conventional swept wing. OKB-2 was preparing for tests of the experimental missile aircraft "Siebel-346". OKB-3 was engaged in the creation of an automatic control system for cruise missiles "1BH".
Only in 1950 were some of the Germans allowed to return back to Germany. There is no exact data on how many German specialists eventually left for their homeland, and how many remained in the USSR.
