Yet, with Sergo he didn’t. He was never even tempted. From the first time they met he knew exactly how valuable this thing, that called itself a man, was. Imagine having a conversation with this human calculator, this idiot-savant of logic, feeding into it all the pertinent information needed, and absolutely counting on it to give you the most logical and unemotional solution to any problem. Give him the facts and the most logical solution would come out devoid of any politics or emotion. Yet he was able to factor in human feelings, such as jealousy and fear, into his calculations. In essence he was much more valuable than what we now know as a computer.
Sergo was such a fiasco as a functioning human being that he posed no apparent threat. He was the closest thing there was to a living, breathing, calculating-machine that ever existed. The only thing that touched his soul was flight. The only thing he dreamed about or spent idle moments thinking about, were birds and planes; that, and puzzles.
He loved solving puzzles whether just in his mind, or ones that involved any kind of logical system. He tended to reduce all problems he was given to solve into abstract terms and then worked them out in his mind, like someone playing chess. If this piece does that, then this piece can counter here; action and reaction… if we did that, they do this. Yet he was able to build into his solutions the human factor. There was just enough humanity built into him to factor in the emotions that a machine could never emulate.
This made him invaluable. That meant he will not meet the same fate that befell so many others. That meant that Sergo will probably die peacefully, in his own bed.
Georgy received the usual memo passed through the slot, and ran to do the bidding of his unseen master.
He marveled that this fellow Sergo had the ability to place the exact right person in the exact right job. He had heard that he didn’t know people’s names but just looked at the tests he had designed and each of the fifty-thousand workers was, to him, just a number, just another cog to be placed into the machine of the expanded Soviet aerospace effort. Sergo just looked at the test results and then categorized each ‘rehabilitated’ worker and put them in those file drawers of his, according to some system he kept in his head.
They had tried to get him some kind of assistance to help him with his job or just something to ease his burdens, as well as to spy on him. He wouldn’t hear of it. They even tried getting him one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen to be his assistant and when he rejected her, they got him a young man who liked other men, but that didn’t work either. He was simply immune to the security organ’s sexual ploys.
Since late 1943, Sergo’s operation has been right behind the German, U.S. and British research and development efforts in six main areas: jet engines, rockets, heavy bombers, radar, munitions guidance systems and high-octane fuel. He saw early the need for each of these particular elements. He let the other nations spend the time and money to do the research and testing, then used their data and waited for the triumphs. Beria’s remarkable spy-network brought him the information that he needed, which made matters easier in stealing and improving upon the ideas of others at a prodigious rate. Then, he set his minions on their paths.
Along the way he had to find people to delve into metallurgy, organic chemistry, physics, and so forth to help close the deficiencies in Soviet technology. He personally knew nothing about any of these scientific disciplines, but his tests had identified hundreds of prodigies in each of these disciplines and dozens more with potential. When he needed an organic chemist to work on cracking oil and producing high octane gas, he pulled his files and found the right one for the job. He was even allowing some the foremost minds miraculously still alive after the purges, to teach promising prisoners.
Sergo started parallel programs to the German, British and American efforts. Beria’s intelligence machine fed Sergo’s operation new data and documents, all of which was used to its fullest advantage. Great strides had been made in the development of what were essentially copies of the German, British and even American jet engines. Georgy had heard that Beria had a spy, William Mutterperl, who was on the design team of the Yankees jet fighter.[37] As a consequence of these efforts in replicating and improving the work of their former allies and enemies the Soviet war machine was now only three to four months behind in these critical areas.
In a few areas, they were ahead, but only because of Sergo’s emphasis and insistence. The ground-to-air missile system was such an example. The Germans started to develop, even produce, the Wasserfal ground-to-air missile in 1943 when Hitler stopped their research and production to concentrate on the V-2. Sergo saw the promise that Albert Speer saw in the Wasserfal and continued unabated, with its development.
Georgy was responsible for seeing that his unseen master’s wishes came to fruition and he was extremely good at it. Right now high-octane aviation gas was being produced to keep the VVS fighters competitive with NATO’s aircraft. During the first month of the war they had to use hoarded stocks of Lend-Lease fuel but now, their own production had reached acceptable and sustainable levels. It is interesting to note that Russians had been leaders in organic chemistry since the 1890’s, when Vladimir Shukhov first “cracked” oil.[38]
A former student of Shukhov had defected to the U.S. in 1930, but the secrets he took with him came from the U.S.S.R. The defector named Vladimir Ipatieff was given credit for finding an economical way to create high-octane gas in 1930, for the capitalist war-mongers, and yet, he was educated in the Soviet Union, and much of his research remained behind when he defected. That research was put to good use, and little Anna Mezhlumova reproduced his process. Now, high-octane aviation gas was being stockpiled, for future use.
Another example would be when the MiG Design Bureau became aware of the German Focke-Wulf Ta-183 project in 1944, and emulating the parallel research process that Sergo had pioneered for copying and improving others’ designs, they began work on what would eventually become the MiG-15. This ground-breaking jet fighter could be operational as soon as May, 1947. It was a frightening prospect for any future U.S. bombing attempts.
The jet engine that would be paired with MiG-15 was, itself, a product of this parallel research process, along with the Wasserfal missile, and its guidance system. These were incredible feats of intellectual theft, but all is fair in love and war, and this was clearly not love.
Sergo had tried to convince Stalin that the B-29 program should be emulated, as well, but he remained unconvinced. The resources were not there for all of these projects, and defensive weapons systems took precedence over offensive systems, such as the atomic bomb and the B-29. For now, Stalin’s emphasis was on keeping what he had gained, and using the resources of Western Europe to rebuild the Motherland. Time and time again, it was the Motherland, and its long-suffering people, who paid for the actions of the West. This time, things would be different.
Georgy was a vital part of this undertaking. Georgy was something of a prodigy, in his own right. He was a fixer, a facilitator, and could scrounge for anything. He also had an uncanny ability to strong-arm anyone to get the job done, and, more importantly, to get the job done right.
Beria produced the secrets. Sergo produced the vision, ideas, qualified people and the process. Georgy produced results. Together, they made a very strange, but highly-effective, cabal; a cabal that Josef Stalin seemed to be comfortable with… at least, for the moment.
37
John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, Yale University Press (1999), pg. 259, 347, 449. ISBN 0-300-07771-8.
38
The Shukhov cracking process is a thermal cracking process invented by Vladimir Shukhov and Sergei Gavrilov. Shukhov designed and built the first thermal cracking techniques important to the petrochemical industry. His patent (Shukhov cracking process — patent of Russian empire No. 12926 from November 27, 1891) on cracking was used to invalidate Standard Oil’s patents (Burton process – Patent of USA No. 1,049,667 on January 7, 1913) on oil refineries.