Chapter 119 Deepening Cooperation
At a newly opened civil aviation airport on the banks of the Moscow River, the wind was blowing strongly and the weather was colder. There are about 10 Fokker F5s and Junkers J.23s placed on the tarmac of the airport, including passenger aircraft and transport aircraft.
The planes belonged to either the Soviet Civil Aviation Administration or Lufthansa, the airline formed through the merger of Milch's Lloyds Airways and Junckers' subsidiary Junkers Airways. With the support of the government and the military, the airline has expanded rapidly. Even during the years when the mark was rapidly depreciating, it spared no effort to expand its fleet. It now has more than 180 aircraft of various types, and its routes are all over Europe. .
This time the Hersmann family arrived in Moscow on a Lufthansa flight. At the exit of a special passage of the newly completed and very impressive airport terminal, Hersmann was seen wearing a green woolen coat and a small Round hat, tall and plump Natalie Leshinskaya.
"Natalie, are you here to greet us at the airport?" Hersman said, taking a few steps forward. "I heard that you were transferred back to your country. Are you now working in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs?"
Natalie Lesinskaya was originally Mrs. Kollontai's assistant and was stationed in Riga, the capital of the Baltic Republic. The Soviet Union established a large foreign trade company there. In addition to cooperating with the Economic Promotion Company controlled by Hersman, it also did business with British and American trading companies. However, its main business is to export oil, timber and grain to Germany, which is used to pay for the machines, equipment, parts and technical drawings exported by Germany to the Soviet Union, as well as the repatriation of profits from Soviet-German cooperative enterprises.
According to the earlier agreement reached between Hessmann and the Soviet Union, trade and cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany would not produce cash payments between countries as much as possible, and all settlements would be based on the principle of barter - and for German private enterprises , their sales revenue and profits in the Soviet Union will become receivables to the Economic Promotion Corporation, and after the Economic Promotion Corporation sells the raw materials taken back from the Soviet Union, it can get cash.
In order to smoothly sell the raw materials (mainly oil) obtained from the Soviet Union, the Economic Promotion Corporation has also cooperated with German chemical giants BASF and Bayer Chemical in the past few years to open several large-scale refineries in Germany that specialize in refining Baku crude oil. , thousands of gas stations are also planned across Germany and the Baltics.
Because the economic strength of the Soviet Union increased rapidly after the implementation of the New Economic Policy, especially the significant increase in grain, timber and oil production, and strong external payment capabilities, the scale of Soviet-German cooperation rapidly expanded.
This is of course also because there are not many countries willing to do business with the Soviet Union, mainly Germany and the United States. The United Kingdom, France and other countries imposed certain trade sanctions on the Soviet Union because of debt and investment disputes with the Soviet Union (the Soviet Union's nationalization policy caused heavy losses to Britain and France).
Perhaps because of her success in foreign trade activities, Natalie Lesinskaya was transferred back to the Soviet Union at the end of 1923, and I heard she was promoted.
However, Natalie Lesinskaya still looked a little sad today, maybe because she was sad for Lenin. When she saw Hersman, she managed to squeeze out a smile: "No, I still work at the Foreign Trade Company. Now he is the deputy general manager responsible for the automotive and aircraft business.”
"Natalie, it's so nice to see you." Chloe pulled little Rudolph over, hugged Natalie, and then introduced her three-year-old son to Natalie, "This is Hessmann’s son Rudolf and I... are pestering me all day long, so I have no choice but to bring him with me to the Soviet Union.”
"It's so cute," Natalie touched the little guy's face - he looked like Chloe, very beautiful, and looked at Natalie shyly - and then said with some emotion, "I want to, too. I wanted to have a child, but I never had the chance.”
No chance? This woman doesn't look like she can't get married. Hessman glanced at Natalie and found that she was also looking at him. Their eyes met for a moment, and then they looked away.
"How is Lenin?" Hessmann asked calmly.
Natalie looked around and found no civil aviation staff.
"Most of the time he is comatose, and the doctor said he doesn't have much time left," she said. "Life has reached its last moments, so I invited an old friend like you here to see if I can see him for the last time when he wakes up." ”
"That's right..." Hessman thought: his status in the hearts of Soviet and Russian leaders is not low, which will be very beneficial to future cooperation between the two parties.
Natalie added: "This time we will arrange for you to stay at the National Hotel, which has just been renovated and is very beautiful."
It was decorated for the funeral of Comrade Lenin... It was expected that many foreign friends and leaders of fraternal parties would come to the Soviet Union. So a good impression must be left on them - Moscow must appear to be thriving in every aspect.
Outside the airport terminal, three black Mercedes-Benz 6 cars were parked on the roadside. The driver, wearing a black uniform, stood beside the car. When he saw Natalie approaching, he immediately opened the door.
"Get in the car." Natalie smiled and said to Chloe, "You don't mind riding in the same car with Comrade Vasily Huang?"
"Of course, of course I don't mind." Chloe smiled, picked up her son, nodded at Hessmann, and then got into the front car with Vasily Huang.
Natalie and Hersman have always been close. When she worked at the Soviet Foreign Trade Company, she would often visit Hersman in Berlin. If Hersman went to Riga, they would also meet and have a meal. Chloe knew all about this kind of relationship, and she didn't mind it, because she knew Hersman was a very decent man and loved her very much. Dating with Natalie was just a work need.
Hersman and Natalie got into the second Mercedes-Benz together, and his adjutant Captain Paulus got into the third car with two large boxes of luggage.
"Ludwig," Natalie didn't whisper anything to Hersman in the car, but talked about cars, "What do you think of this car?"
"It's as good as those made in Germany." Hersman replied with a smile.
He knew that this Mercedes-Benz 6 was assembled in Petrograd, and it was a complete knockdown assembly. The professional term in later generations was called CKD - this was a form of technology export from Germany to the Soviet Union. Whether it was an airplane or an airplane, it started with CKD, and then the production of parts would be gradually transferred to the Soviet Union.
Historically, the Soviet Union's automobile industry received technology transfer from the United States, and Ford was the first to set up a factory in the Soviet Union.
In this time and space, Mercedes-Benz replaced Ford and jointly established large automobile assembly plants in Petrograd and Moscow with the Soviet People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry. Not only does it produce Mercedes-Benz 6 sedans, but it also produces two trucks, which can be regarded as stealing Ford's business!
"But at present, we can only assemble cars and aircraft with German parts, and the progress of localization is slower than expected..."
Natalie and Hersman talked about business. Soviet-German cooperation has always been the only reliable driving force for the German economy when Germany faced an economic crisis in the past few years.
Companies that can maintain growth during hyperinflation, such as Krupp, Mercedes-Benz, Rheinmetall, Junkers, BASF, Bayer Chemical, Siemens, FK-BF, BMW and M.A.N, etc., almost all benefited from cooperation with the Soviet Union - in fact, this is also the case in history!
For example, the famous Krupp company provided a large number of machinery and technology to the Soviet Union, helping them build Tula, Leningrad and Schlussel artillery factories with an annual output of 300,000 artillery shells.
Junkers, FK-BF and BMW jointly participated in the Soviet-German cooperation project code-named "R Plan", exporting aircraft assembly technology and production lines to the Soviet Union. Through the CKD method, they helped the Soviet Union produce at least three "most advanced" military aircraft. They also exported a large number of military and civilian aircraft to the Soviet Union through barter trade.
BASF and Bayer Chemical exported poison gas factories and refineries to the Soviet Union. Siemens built a number of oil and coal-fired power plants-the Soviet Union's coal production has not increased, but there has always been a lot of oil, so many heavy oil power plants have been built. Therefore, the Soviet industry is very dependent on the Baku and Grozny oil fields.
However, when it comes to the transfer of key technologies, the progress is not as fast as expected.
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