Soviet Union 1991

Although Lukyanov made a harsh statement, it is not an easy task to overthrow the person who occupies the highest position of power, unless they launch a coup again.

Then the problem comes. The current commander-in-chief of the Army is Marshal Akhromeyev, who supports Yanaev's reforms. When Valennikov left office, he did not even have the commander-in-chief of a military group, and was directly expelled from the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff. Defense Minister Yazov is also Yanaev's confidant. They control the Dzerzhinsky Division, which is also the most powerful trump card in the hands of the general secretary. As long as these people are there, a coup is almost impossible.

Pavlov expected that the conservatives would not take action directly, and at most they would make some small moves behind the scenes to make Yanaev feel restricted for a long time. They would only launch a desperate counterattack when they were really forced to a point where there was no way out.

They had no courage. No matter how serious Lukyanov said verbally, in fact, no one was not afraid of the shadow that enveloped the entire Kremlin. If the general secretary was likened to the red sun, then behind him was a shadow that followed him everywhere, closely monitoring the uneasy undercurrents in Moscow's political arena.

Pavlov breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the two sides did not reach the point of death, everything could still be saved. And Yanaev also came back from Ukraine, and it was basically impossible for Lukyanov to play tricks behind the scenes.

Everything returned to calm, but the seemingly calm Moscow political situation was already undercurrents, although a huge wave of political struggles might break out.

But Yanaev seemed to be completely blind to this wave, and did not even care about the crowds who were watching covetously. As always, he summoned Pavlov to the Kremlin to discuss affairs. Yanaev, who originally did not care much about domestic events, has gradually become concerned about domestic affairs recently. Most of the matters of concern were concentrated in the Far East, which seemed to be the focus of Yanayev's work.

"Comrade Pavlov, please sit down."

Yanayev smiled and asked him to sit down. The Prime Minister sitting opposite him carefully observed the reaction of the General Secretary and sat down slowly.

He handed a document to Pavlov with a pleasant face, then turned around and opened the drawer to find a stack of data from the cabinet and placed it on the coffee table in front of the Prime Minister.

"What is this?"

Pavlov picked up the text curiously, and saw that it recorded almost all the launch bases of spacecraft in the Soviet Union.

The main space launch bases in the Soviet Union are the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Kapustin Yar Missile Base, the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, and the Dombarovsky Air Force Base. The latter three are all located in the Russian Federation, and only the Baikonur Cosmodrome is located in the Kazakh Autonomous Region. He didn't quite understand why the General Secretary suddenly took this out, but Pavlov could feel that things were definitely not simple.

Yanaev sat down and slowly presented his plan.

"I am preparing a new plan, which may build a new space launch site in the Russian Federation. When the plan is revised and confirmed by experts, it will be implemented after it is approved by the State Planning Commission."

"New space launch center?"

Pavlov felt very strange. He looked at the report and said slowly, "But didn't General Secretary Yanaev say that no large-scale, exaggerated space launch plans are allowed during your term? And we already have Baiko-Nur and Plesetsk space centers. There is no need to waste people's money and carry out large-scale expansion."

There was an internal voice of the Soviet Space Agency before that proposed to resume the N1 rocket launch project and use this exaggerated project to show the superiority of the socialist system. As a result, General Secretary Yanaev scolded them.

"No, my principles have not changed. A new space launch center is not a face-saving project in the eyes of some people. It has more practical political and economic interests."

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia relies on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to launch spacecraft. The Russian government pays Kazakhstan an annual rent of 115 million US dollars. Russia believed that Kazakhstan would be influenced by the West sooner or later and would turn to the West in an all-round way. If this happens, at least half of Russia's satellites and spacecraft and other spacecraft cannot be launched.

Nearly half of the space launches cannot be used, which is undoubtedly unacceptable to Yanayev. The Baikonur Cosmodrome undertook the important task of launching Soviet space probes and aircraft.

The Plesetsk Cosmodrome is similar to the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA. This is the Soviet Union's polar orbit launch site and the main intercontinental ballistic missile test site. Built in 1957, the Plesetsk base is mainly used to launch large-angle reconnaissance, electronic intelligence, missile early warning, communications, meteorology and radar calibration satellites, and is an important area for space intelligence detection. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Plesetsk will be rebuilt to become a first-class launch site equipped with modern aerospace aircraft, locomotive equipment, radio technology equipment, lighting equipment, and meteorological equipment. It can take off and land Il-76 and Tu-154 heavy transport aircraft with a maximum landing weight of 220 tons, and can launch all types of launch vehicles. Then, it will replace Baikonur and become Russia's most important comprehensive space launch site to ensure national defense, national economy, scientific research and commercial launch missions. But Yanayev does not want to see this situation.

The Kapustin Yar missile launch site mainly conducts a large number of medium-range and short-range missile launch missions. Kapustin Yar was also the headquarters of the first R-1 and R-2 tactical missile units from 1950 to 1953, and later became the base for 12 R-14 tactical missile launchers.

The Dombarovsky missile base launch site is mainly used to launch "Dnepr" rockets and "Satan" intercontinental missiles that are feared by the West. Mainly responsible for the Soviet Union's tactical nuclear bomb strike mission.

The only one in Russia that can compare with Baiko-Nur is the Plesetsk launch site, but the troublesome thing is that even this only comparable launch site has some test sites located in Kazakhstan. If Kazakhstan wakes up one day and has become a foreign country, even Plesetsk will lose part of it.

Yanayev has every reason to prepare for a rainy day.

After carefully reading four reports on the space launch center, Pavlov still didn't quite understand why the general secretary suddenly considered changing the launch site. But he noticed the small details in the data. The launch site in Kazakhstan was responsible for the vast majority of spacecraft launch missions in the Russian Federation. Thinking of the recent actions against the Ukrainian industrial base, Pavlov suddenly realized something. He took Holding that document, he said to the General Secretary, "So where will this new space launch center be built?"

Yanayev said, "The Soviet General Staff selected the Svobodny intercontinental ballistic missile launch site in the Amur region in the Far East. The 27th Strategic Rocket Division has been stationed here for decades. After the construction is completed, the Vostochny Port Aerospace The center will accept most of Russia's launch missions from its homeland and reduce its reliance on Kazakhstan's Baikonur Space Center for launches. It will then share half of the launch missions of the Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture's space launch center, mainly for national economy, scientific research and research. Commercial launch detection and other missions.”

Pavlov asked in shock, "When did it happen? Why didn't I know anything about it?"

As the prime minister of a country, he should be informed about such a major project. But Yanayev did not mention any information to him. This bombshell surprised him even more than Lukyanov's threat yesterday.

Yanayev looked at him with a strange expression and explained, "Just before, because this mission was carried out secretly, no one except the General Staff and the Space Agency knew about it."

In fact, Yanayev has already made up his mind. The space agency and the Civil Aviation Administration are just trying to make Yanayev's plan look more feasible.

The information in the file bag was scattered everywhere, and Pavlov understood what Yanayev wanted to do.

With the last words of the General Secretary, the Prime Minister's expression twitched slightly, and his eyes were extremely surprised.

"The fourth space launch center in the Russian state will be located in the Far East."

:Visit website