Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

In October 1946, the best German engineers who worked for the Soviet missile program were ordered on the trains and sent to the various locations in the USSR to assist in the organization of missile production and design. By the beginning of the 1947, Soviets completed the transfer of all works on rocket technology from Germany into secret locations in the USSR. In the fall of 1947, Soviet-German team launched eleven A-4 rockets near the village of Kapustin Yar in the steppes north of the Caspian Sea.

Helmut Gröttrup and other Germans from NII-88 were settled in mansions and vacation houses just outside Moscow along the Yaroslavskaya Railroad, near stations of Bolshevo, Valentinovka and Pushkino. Their workplace would be NII-88 campus near the station of Podlipki on the same railroad.

According to Irmgarg Gröttrup the average housing allocation for the German specialists was one room to a family of three, two rooms to a family of four. University graduates were allowed an additional room. Gröttrups were provided with a six-room villa with a large hall and two anterooms, the former home of a minister. To complete the picture, by November 1946 the authorities shipped Gröttrup's car from Germany and complemented it with a Russian chauffeur, whom Mrs. Gröttrup was giving little rest while exploring Moscow. (64)

Specialists who worked for OKB-456 in Khimki on the northwestern edge of Moscow also lived around Podlipki, and would ride buses to work, until specially built cottages had not been completed near the bureau. The German team from NII-885, which was located at Shosse Enthusiastov was housed in sanatoria in Monino, some 45 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

Operation Osoaviakhim -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...

Operation Osoaviakhim was a Soviet operation which took place on 22 October 1946, with NKVD and Soviet army units recruiting more than 2,000 military-related technical specialists from the Soviet occupation zone of post-World-War-II Germany for employment in the Soviet Union.[1] Much related equipment was moved too, the aim being to virtually transplant research and production centres, such as the relocated V-2 rocket centre at Mittelwerk Nordhausen, from Germany to the Soviet Union, and collect as much materiel as possible from test centres such as the Luftwaffe's central military aviation test centre at Erprobungstelle Rechlin, taken by the Red Army on 2 May 1945. The codename "Osoaviakhim" was the acronym of a Soviet paramilitary organisation, later renamed DOSAAF.

The operation was commanded by NKVD deputy Colonel General Serov, outside the control of the local Soviet Military Administration (which in a few cases, such as Carl Zeiss AG, tried to prevent the removal of specialists and equipment of vital economic significance for the occupation zone,[2] unsuccessfully, as it turned out, with reportedly only 582 of 10,000 machines left in place at Zeiss[3]). Planned some time in advance to take place after the zone's elections on 20 October, to avoid damaging the Socialist Unity Party's chances (which in any event lost the election), the operation took 92 trains to transport the specialists and their families (perhaps 10,000-15,000 people in all[4]) along with their furniture and belongings.[5] Whilst those removed were offered generous contracts (the specialists were told that they would be paid on the same terms as equivalent Soviet workers, which in post-war Germany was seen as a gain[2]), there was little doubt that failing to sign them was not a realistic option.

The major reason for the operation was the Soviet fear of being condemned for noncompliance with Allied Control Council agreements on the liquidation of German military installations.[citation needed] New agreements were expected on four-power inspections of remaining German war potential, which the Soviets supported, being concerned about developments in the western zones.[6] The operation has parallels with Allied operations such as Operation Overcast, Operation Paperclip, and Operation Alsos, in which the Allies brought military specialists, notably Wernher von Braun, from Germany (primarily to the United States).

Operation Osoaviakhim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lffeg...

Operation "Osoaviakhim" http://www.russianspaceweb.com/a4_tea...

"The Soviet plan to deport thousands of German specialists into the USSR received code name Osoaviakhim, after formally volunteer Soviet organization which in 1930s united many enthusiasts of aviation, rocketry and related disciplines. Some two weeks prior to the operation, Serov received a list of people targeted for deportation. It included 2,200 specialists in the fields of aviation, nuclear technology, rocketry, electronics, radar technology and chemistry. They would be assigned to various industrial enterprises of the USSR."

"Counting family members, the total number of people assigned for deportation would reach 6,000 - 7,000 people."

Maybe Putin's father or grandfather was involved in this, me thinks!

As the war in Europe drew to a close, the U.S. launched Operation Paperclip, which brought more than 1,600 German scientists and technicians to America, including Wernher von Braun and his team. Similarly, Operation Osoaviakhim, the Soviet parallel to Operation Paperclip, forcibly relocated several thousand scientists from the occupied Germany to Russia.

The U.S. and the USSR began utilizing German scientists’ experience, V-2 examples or parts, and designs. This gave rise to the first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7, created by the engineer Sergei Korolev and his group. Improving upon the V-2’s range and the weight of payload capable of being carried, it successfully launched on August 21, 1957. The United States’ first ICBM was put up two years later.

https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article...