[Russian Youth Pravda August 1 Article] Title: How did the Soviet Union establish military bases abroad?

1 August is the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the Overseas Facilities Construction Administration, one of the most mysterious departments of the Soviet Ministry of Defence. With the declassification of historical materials, the veil of overseas military bases is being unveiled layer by layer. People want to know the truth more. Marina Chubujingna, director of the Department of Facilities Construction Planning and Coordination of the Ministry of National Defense, has made an in-depth study on the construction history of China's overseas military bases. Let's follow her story and understand what happened.

Fight for the third world

1 August 9661,the Overseas Facilities Construction Administration came into being. At the height of the Cold War, a special task of SAFE was to fight for the so-called third world. For a big country like the Soviet Union, the number of allies and their geographical location are extremely important. Therefore, foreign military technical assistance is directly led by the Soviet Central Committee. The construction of foreign military facilities was handed over to the newly established safe.

At that time, there were two main ways for SAFE to cooperate with foreign countries: technical assistance and general contracting. In the first case, our design and survey institute is responsible for drawing up the design and financial budget of the proposed facility. Everything should be negotiated with the employer, but at the same time, we should protect our own ideas and finally sell the design to each other. The next construction work was completed by Qin Shimingyue 2 mobile customers themselves. But our engineers must be present to supervise the project. The facilities used are often Soviet building materials, from nails and cement to complex equipment, which are shipped from the Soviet Union. If it is the general contractor, the Soviet side will be responsible from beginning to end. Some facilities, such as the Vietnamese naval base in Jin Lan Peninsula and the famous Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, were built by SAFE in the form of general contracting.

Safe's work scale and cross-regional scope are very extensive: more than 65,438+0,000 facilities have been established in 50 countries around the world, and their achievements can be seen from Southeast Asia to the Pacific coast of South America. In Europe, there were many facilities in the Warsaw Pact countries at that time. Safe has also established military communication system, powerful headquarters bunker, air defense command post and other facilities for them. Take the western hemisphere as an example. Soviet experts built the most facilities in Cuba, including a large number of underground bunkers. Experts even joked that the underground of Cuba Liberty Island has been hollowed out.

Control strategic locations

The location of the facilities is sometimes determined by the wishes of the partners and sometimes by the Soviet government. Such as Cam Ranh Bay military base. When our ships entered the world ocean, the demand for bases became obvious, so we chose Jin Lan Peninsula. Cam Ranh Bay is very popular in many ways. Americans used to have an air base here. Of course, after the Americans withdrew, the Vietnamese took everything except the landing runway. But the quality of the runway is very good, Princess Dawn, which has a great influence on the decision-making of Soviet leaders. Cam Ranh Bay has a superior geographical position, which is conducive to controlling strategic locations.

Say Somalia again. Our combat sub-fleet is on a mission in the Indian Ocean. We have reached an agreement with Somali officials to build a berth in the port of Berbera, where Soviet ships can carry out maintenance and replenish water and food. In addition to the dock, a comprehensive coastal security system was built at that time, including the airport and barracks.

Now people are talking about Libya, where the Soviet Union once built repair shops, warehouses and barracks. The biggest facility is the airport in downtown Juvra. The airport built in the Sahara desert is rare in the world. The airport runway is 4.5 kilometers long and 60 meters wide, and there is a taxiway with the same length and 40 meters wide next to it.

Some people complain that our military assistance to third world countries is losing money. Actually, it's not. Some of our partners pay in hard currency, such as Iraq, Libya and other countries. Many of them also offset their loans with their traditional export products, such as bananas. However, some countries simply have no ability to pay, so we have to cancel their debts. Even so, we should know that our military bases in strategic places in the world are actually obtained at very cheap prices.

The biggest difference between the Soviet Union and the United States in competing to build overseas facilities lies in organizational work. In the United States, if an accessory is broken, the factory will deliver it to your door within a week as long as you order one through the computer. But if this kind of thing happens on our side, we have to apply for approval at different levels. Sometimes, we have to wait a few months to produce parts, and then we can go offline in the factory.

It can be said that our competition with the United States is entirely supported by the superb construction quality of experts. Many times, these experts who work abroad can't wait for the package at home, and they will solve the problem themselves. For example, three broken machines are used to assemble two working machines.

Experts assigned to work abroad are one in a million, and their professional level and ideological and moral quality are impeccable. We should select outstanding experts from all over the country, have a stable personality and do not drink alcohol. Many people are willing to work abroad, mostly to earn money, but their wages are not much higher than those at home, and some of them are foreign exchange. When some people were short of manpower, this happened during the construction of such a large project as Cam Ranh Bay Base. At that time, the leaders of SAFE even sent veterans of the infrastructure engineering brigade to Vietnam.

1992 03 15, safe was dissolved. Talking about safety now always reminds people of the legendary Daxizhou. Although the existence of Daxizhou has been debated by scholars, the existence of safe is indisputable.