April 22, 1942 today marks the 72nd anniversary of the birth of the famous Marxist, proletarian revolutionary, statesman, theoretician, thinker, great leader of the Soviet people, Comrade Lenin. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

As in previous years, the Party and the government of the Soviet Union would hold various mournings and memorials for their late great leaders, and the working people of all walks of life in the Soviet Union would present the latest and most successful fruits of their labor to the late great leaders on this day.

What is different this year is that the commemoration of Comrade Lenin's birthday is not only unprecedented in scale, but also has a bit more gunpowder.

First of all, the Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union gave Comrade Lenin a laurel crown that he did not have in the past - the great forerunner of the world revolution.

Anyone who knows the political life of the USSR knows that this is not a casual honorific name!

The world revolution means that the proletariat of the whole world will unite to overthrow the bourgeoisie by violence and establish a proletarian government all over the world!

The Soviet Union has been immersed in building socialism in one country and a world revolution for more than a decade...... That's what the Trotskyites talk about all day long - at least in the Soviet Union, there is very little talk of world revolution in official Soviet public opinion.

But this time, on the occasion of Lenin's birthday, the words "world revolution" appeared in the Soviet press and magazines almost overnight.

Moreover, this year, 1942, is the final year of the Third Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union. Unlike the previous two five-year plans, which focused on basic and heavy industry, the third five-year plan focused on the defense and military industry, which was designed to prepare for the future world revolution.

According to the plan, the Soviet Union in the five years from 1938 to 1942 will vigorously develop the three major industries of aviation, shipbuilding and machinery.

Among them, the aviation industry mainly served the Red Air Force, and built a large-scale aviation industry base along the Volga River and in the Ural Mountains, and in 1938 the total production of aircraft doubled compared with 1937, reaching 7,500 aircraft, ranking first in the world. By the time the world war broke out in 1939, the Soviet Union's aircraft production was as high as 10,000 aircraft, and since then it has steadily increased year by year, always ranking first or second in the world. Moreover, great progress has been made in technology, and a series of fighters and bombers with the world's advanced level, such as the MiG-3, La***E8, MiG-5, Yak-7 and Il-2, have been manufactured, thus greatly enhancing the strength of the Red Air Force.

The focus of the machine building industry was on the mechanized units of the Soviet Red Army. In the Third Five-Year Plan, the Soviet machinery industry not only came up with such high-performance tank vehicles as the BT-7, T-34 tanks, KV-1, and KV-2, but also built a large-scale tank production base, so that the Soviet Union's tank production far exceeded the total of European countries under the leadership of Germany, and was comparable to the tank production of the United States, which was fully prepared for war.

The shipbuilding industry, which has always been the industrial shortcoming of the Soviet Union, has also made remarkable achievements in the Third Five-Year Plan. And on this special day of April 22, 1942, the Soviet shipbuilding industry came up with the most important result that they had worked hard for many years - the battleship of the Soviet Union!

Next to the pier of the Baltic Shipyard in the city of Leningrad, named after Lenin, a steel monster with a total length of 269.4 meters, a maximum width of 38.9 meters, a draft of 10.4 meters at full load, and three triple 406mm caliber guns is showing its mighty body to the leaders of the Soviet party and state who came to visit it -- it is the Soviet battleship, with a standard displacement of 59,150 tons and a full load displacement of 65,150 tons, claiming to be the second most powerful battleship in the world!

"Comrade General Secretary, according to your instructions, the comrades of the 1st Central Special Hull Design Bureau and the 4th Design Bureau of the Baltic Works, as well as the Ordzhonikidze Baltic Shipyard, after four years of hard work, finally completed the design and construction of the battleship USS USSR in one year."

On the bow deck of the battleship USS Soviet, Kuznetsov, People's Commissar and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Navy of the Soviet Union, said to Stalin in a proud tone: "Our battleship USS Sovietus is currently the second largest battleship in the world in terms of displacement, second only to the 80,000-ton battleship of the Japanese, and the first battleship in Europe, and even the German Hindenburg class cannot be compared with ours." ”

What cannot be compared is only tonnage, and the protection capability of the Soviet class is not as good as the Hindenburg class. The thickness of the main armor belt on the side of the two is about the same, and the thickness of the deck armor Hindenburg class is not as good as that of the Soviet class, but the quality of German armor steel is much better than that of the Soviet Union, and the Hindenburg class also has more dome armor protection system, and the underwater protection is also better than that of the Soviet Union.

As for the firepower of the main guns, the Soviet-class is stronger, because the main guns of the Soviet-class and the Hindenburg-class are exactly the same, both of which are 52 times the caliber of the 406mm SKC/34 guns that are less powerful - these cannons were exported by Germany to the Soviet Union when relations between the Soviet Union and Germany were good (Germany has to pay the price for taking so many Soviet resources, and the Soviet Union, which could not be built, is now the price of Germany). The USSR had 9 406mm cannons, 1 more than the Hindenburg class, and the firepower was certainly more powerful. However, the Soviet-class did not have a fire control radar, and the optical sight was not as good as the German one. If you really want to fight on the battlefield, I am afraid that you will not be able to take advantage of the Hindenburg class.

However, the power of the Soviet class is really more powerful than that of the Hindenburg class, and the power system of the Hindenburg class is the same as that of the Bismarck class, which is 12 boilers and 3 steam turbines. The Soviet-class had 16 boilers and 4 steam turbines, which were also imported from Germany, and the brand and model were the same as those used by the Bismarck. As a result, the output horsepower is one-third greater than that of the Bismarck class, exceeding 200,000 horses. However, due to the hull line, the maximum speed of the Soviet class can only reach 28.5 knots, which is not much faster than the Hindenburg class.

But in any case, it is a huge step forward that a battleship built on its own as the first rank of the USSR (with the help of Germany and Italy in the process of construction) can reach such a level.

Stalin, who was wearing a crisp green uniform and looked radiant, nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, it is a great achievement to build the Soviet Union one year earlier than the original plan (it is also part of the plan to start construction in 38 according to the original plan, and the battleship that started construction in 38 according to the original plan was not completed until 43 years). However, this was not enough, and the Soviet shipbuilders should continue to work hard to complete the construction of another 3 Soviet-class and 2 Kronstadt-class battlecruisers as soon as possible. As long as there were 4 Soviet-class battleships and 2 Kronstadt-class battlecruisers, the Soviet state had nothing to fear, both at sea and on land. ”

Soviet-class battleships and Kronstadt-class battlecruisers were the most important projects of the Soviet shipbuilding industry in the Third Five-Year Plan. The No. 1 ship of the Kronstadt-class battlecruisers was also built at the Ordzhonikidze Baltic shipyard in Leningrad. The large battlecruiser with a standard displacement of 32,700 tons and a full load displacement of 40,835 tons used the same power system as the Soviet-class, so it could reach a maximum speed of 32-34 knots.

The layout of the main gun system is the same as that of the German Barbarossa class, with three twin 380mm turrets, and the six 380mm/52 caliber SKC/34 guns used are also imported from Germany, which is the same as the main gun of the Bismarck class.

"Report to the General Secretary Comrade that the Soviet-class ship No. 2 is now being outfitted at the 190 plant (A. Marty shipyard) and will be completed next month. The battlecruiser Kronstadt was outfitted at Plant 189 (Ordzhonikidze Baltic Shipyard). ”

Kuznetsov raised an arm and pointed to another pier about 3,000 meters away, only to see a large, largely completed battleship hovering there, as if a giant beast was waiting to strike.

"And what about the other 2 ships of the Soviet-class and Kronstadt-class battle cruisers?"

"They were all built at Plant 402 (Northern Shipyard) in Molotovsk," Kuznetsov said, "because Plant 402 was new, it was inexperienced, the progress of the work was slow, and it could not be completed until early 1943." ”

Because right-bank Ukraine once belonged to Poland, the Soviet Union did not have three shipbuilding centers in this time and space, and there was one less Nikolaev shipbuilding center, but the construction of the Northern Shipyard was advanced. At the end of the Second Five-Year Plan, the construction of Plant 402 was completed, so the construction of 2 Soviet-class and 1 Kronstadt-class was started in Molotovsk (Severodvinsk).

However, the construction of these 3 large surface ships by the Northern 402 Plant was beneficial to the Soviet Red Navy. Because now the Mediterranean Sea is completely controlled by the European Community Navy, once the war starts, the Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet Union will not be able to leave the Black Sea at all, and it will not even count as a fleet. On the contrary, the Soviet Northern Fleet had a lot to offer, capable of attacking the North Atlantic and engaging the German navy.

According to the "Thunderstorm Plan" drawn up by the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR and the General Staff of the Red Army, before the Soviet Red Army launches an offensive, the main ships of the Baltic Fleet will go to Molotovsk in batches to join the Northern Fleet.

After the outbreak of war, they would wait for an opportunity to attack from Molotovsk, and join the British and American navies in a confrontation with the Combined European Fleet to seize sea power in the North Atlantic.

However, when he thought of the current strength of the combined European fleet led by Germany, Stalin couldn't help frowning a little. He was not too worried about things on land, the Red Army had strong armored forces and air force, and it was very certain that if Germany attacked the British mainland, if not Berlin, at least it would be able to inflict heavy damage on the German army and recover the Baltic region, western Ukraine and Poland.

And the sea was the most certain, and the combined naval strength of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union could completely overwhelm Germany, Italy, and France, but now ...... The sea, however, became the most uncertain place, which was the main reason why Comrade Stalin chose to celebrate Lenin's birthday and visit the shipyard in Leningrad. (To be continued.) )