Operation Paperclip has recently been making its rounds in various circles,
for one bad faith reason or another. Paperclip was the American program that took in German
scientists and engineers to work towards the American atomic program and later on
the space race against the Soviet Union. However, what is rarely discussed, is that the Russians had
their own version of Operation Paperclip, a secret protocol like employed thousands,
if not tens of thousands of Germans in a similar vein, all in an effort to take the technological
lead against their new rival. This, is Operation Osoaviakhim. (A-So-vi-ah-him)
This video was done in collaboration was Project MAD, a collaboration of over 20 youtube history
channels that have come together to each tackle a piece of the cold war. Click the link
in the description below to catch all the other wonderful folks that are a part of this effort.
The Soviet acquisition of German scientists started back in 1942, with specialized Gosfond
units, a so called trophy brigade. They were designated towards acquisition all sorts of
personal and material from Soviet Occupied territory and bring it back east to aid
the war effort. Books and other literature were one of the main pieces brought back,
especially those or the authors themselves which covered engineering or scientific fields.
The Soviets would create more specialized units via the Ministry of internal affairs
specifically for German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, and scientific personnel
in mid to late 1944. Even more specialized teams would be created the following year,
and while they focused on the above, the objective was to move as much
general scientific material back to the Soviet Union as possible while the war still waged.
Overseeing this team, would be Colonel General Avram Pavlovich Zavenyagin, one of the Soviets
leading nuclear engineers at the time, and a close friend of Stalin's. A team of 40 would be sent in
the day after that Berlin fell to the Soviets on May the 3rd, aiming to gleam what information and
personal they could from three main scientific targets. Those being the University of Berlin,
Berlin Institute of Technology, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics,
the latter of which had largely moved to Hechingen in '43, and the only thing that was left from the
institute was the low-temperature physics section, and sections of exponential uranium research.
A team of German scientists which included Nuclear Theorist Manfred von Ardenne, Experimental
Physicist Gustav Ludwig Hertz, Physical Chemist, Peter Adolf Thiessen and more, had signed a pact
with one another in the advent of Soviet contact. Whomever was contacted first would speak for the
group as a whole, signaling that they would be willing to work with the Soviets in exchange
for their institutions not being plundered, and judicial immunity from any past crimes committed.
Ardenne would be the first approached of the lot on May 10th of 1945, by Colonel General Makhnjov.
Over the next week, talks and terms would be discussed between the two,
and on May 19th, Ardenne would officially sign on to work for the Soviets.
He, along with his staff and family, would be transferred to the newly built
Institute of Physics and Technology in Sukhemi, acting as the head of research.
While he was originally instructed to work towards nuclear weapon development,
he managed to over-see development of isotope enrichment research instead, and the rest of the
original members of the pact would soon follow, arriving at Sukhemi by the end of the year.
Back in Germany, the original Soviet plans of re-establishing research in Germany was quickly
falling flat. Not only was there a major concern that hundreds of possibly not so loyal Soviets
would be moved close to Western lines, Soviet authorities were concerned that they would be
accused by the west of noncompliance with Allied Control Council. And agreements in
regards to the liquidation of German equipment, which could lead to demands for inspections.
In response, the Soviets would issue decree No. 874-366ss, I know, how creative, which ordered the
Ministry of Aviation Industry, to deport 1,400 German engineers and workers into the USSR, they
would issue another decree in August, calling for the removal of German equipment back to Russia,
with the plan to start the deportation after the October elections within the occupied zones.
The Soviet plan to deport these thousands of German specialists
received the code name Osoaviakhim. Named after the Society for the Assistance of Defense,
Aircraft and Chemical Construction that was created in 1927, or the modern DOSAAF.
The head of Soviet secret police in Germany Ivan Serov would personally lead the operation,
being given logistical support by Major General A. M. Sidnev, who oversaw the recreation of trains,
cars, rations, and guards for these individuals. Serov would receive the
list of people targeted for deportation two weeks prior to the start of the operation. All total,
2,200 were to be deported to the USSR from five main specializations, that are broken down here.
Including families, roughly 6,000 would be sent east. Wives or non marriage partners were
allowed to stay in Germany if they so wished, or they could join their spouses in going east.
In the early hours of October 22, 1946, 2,500 police accompanied by soldiers, were
dispatched to the homes of German specialists and ordered them to prepare for the trip to the USSR.
Soldiers would then start loading furniture and other household items on tracks and transport them
to the assigned rail stations. A group of these German specialists, headed by Helmut Gr ttrup,
would be the starting team of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building within
Moscow, he and his team would work on improvements to the V-2 rocket system,
as well as research on ballistics, antiaircraft missiles, and more powerful rocket engines.
However, the process and transport had not been terribly smooth. For several months,
the legal status of the German specialists remained uncertain,
as Soviet authorities were still figuring out how to treat them. They had no passports or any other
official documents and they were not be able to send letters home for a number of months, and the
working conditions made the situation much worse. Grottrup's group would be made to work out of
an abandoned artillery factor that was in severe dis-repair. They lacked proper storage facilities,
so hardware that had come from Germany had been unloaded on the snow-covered ground along the
rail lines, and said material quickly became scrap metal. The designers lacked tools, materials and
even tables to work on. Numerous documents and blueprints from Germany were lost in transit or
were grabbed by other ministries. They would stage a strike, along with fellow Russians in April of
47 due to the poor conditions, and while it would be settled peacefully, little would get changed.
Beginning in the mid-1948, the group of German scientists were no longer actively
involved in the development of next generation rockets.
They were still receiving assignments but were no longer privy to the big picture.
Part of the reason was due to the general paranoia installed throughout the USSR of foreigners,
as well as increased anti-Western views as the cold war brewed. Stalin himself never
planned to have Germans appointed to the top of the research and development departments,
with their being constant debates as to what role they were to play in future developments. The lack
of moral within the German detachments, along with the anti-western sentiments, would result in a
final consensus that they were to leave the Soviet Union. By the end of 1950, most of the Germans
were sent back to Germany, with Grottrup and his group finally leaving at the tail end of 1953.
Ending what would be the direct involvement of officials within the Soviet tech sectors.