The Rise of the Third Reich

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 take 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 one 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 and picked up her son, nodded at Hessman, and then got into the front car with Vasily Huang.

Natalie had always been close to Hersmann, and she would often visit Hersmann in Berlin when she was working at the Soviet Foreign Trade Company. If Hersman goes to Riga, they will meet for a meal or something. Chloe knew all about this kind of relationship, and she didn't mind because she knew Hessman was a very decent man and loved her very much. Being with Natalie is just a matter of work.

Hersman and Natalie got into the compartment of the second Mercedes-Benz together, while his adjutant, Captain Paulus, got into the third car carrying two large boxes of luggage.

"Ludwig," Natalie didn't whisper anything to Herschmann in the car, but talked about the car, "What do you think of this car?"

"It's as good as the ones produced in Germany." Hessman replied with a smile.

He knew that this Mercedes-Benz 6 was assembled in Petrograd. It was assembled from complete components. The technical term in later generations was called CKD. This was a form of Germany exporting technology to the Soviet Union. Whether it was an airplane or an airplane, it was all from CKD. initially, and then gradually transferred component production to the Soviet Union.

Historically, the Soviet automobile industry received technology transfer from the United States. Ford was the first to set up factories in the Soviet Union.

In this time and space, Mercedes-Benz replaced Ford and jointly opened large automobile assembly plants in Petrograd and Moscow with the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the Soviet Union. Not only does it produce the Mercedes-Benz 6 sedan, but it also produces two trucks, which can be regarded as stealing Ford's business!

"But currently we can only assemble cars and aircraft with German parts, and the progress of localization is slower than expected..."

Natalie and Hersman got down to business. Soviet-German cooperation has 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 Chemicals, Siemens, FK-BF, BMW and M.A.N, etc., almost all benefited from cooperation with the Soviet Union ——This is actually the case in history!

For example, the famous Krupp Company provided a large amount of machinery, equipment and technology to the Soviet Union, helping them build artillery shell factories in Tula, Leningrad and Schlussel with an annual output of 300,000 rounds of artillery shells.

Junkers, FK-BF Joint Company and BMW jointly participated in the Soviet-German cooperation project code-named "R Plan" and exported aircraft assembly technology and production lines to the Soviet Union. Through CKD, it helped the Soviet Union produce at least three "most advanced" military aircraft. A large number of military and civilian aircraft were also exported to the Soviet Union through barter trade.

BASF and Bayer Chemical exported poison gas plants and refineries to the Soviet Union. Siemens has built many oil and coal-fired power plants - the Soviet Union's coal output has been stagnant, but there is always a lot of oil, so many heavy oil power plants have been built. Therefore, the Soviet industry has a great impact on the Baku and Grozny oil fields. Very dependent.

However, when it comes to the transfer of key technologies, the progress is not as fast as expected.

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