In
school I had a friend Volodya Kalenov. After the eighth grade, I
entered the technical school for further education, and Volodya
continued to study at school. But the friendship remained. After
school, he went to work at the Institute of Earth Physics, which is on
the Big Georgian in Moscow. And in the summer he went on an expedition
of this Institute to Garm, in the Tajik USSR. And now I'm on vacation.
And he promises to put me on an expedition. There were vacancies in the
Far East, there to apply some information to maps, and in the Baltic
States, in Liepaja, in the laboratory of marine gravimetry, you can say
a radio installer, but officially a laboratory assistant. The
laboratory was located in the basement of a two-storey residential
building, still German-built (after the war, those houses were built by
German prisoners of war) near the metro station Polezhayevskaya. It was
a pretty neighborhood.
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The work was to
assemble printed circuit boards, soldering chips 155 series. From these
boards, a system for collecting and processing information from
gravimeters and accelerometers was assembled. The work is not
difficult, especially familiar, not for nothing I studied radio
engineering.
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The first days
of June 1973. The expedition begins to move to Liepaja. The first left
Volodya Ovchinnikov with the driver on the car GAZ-66. The expedition
had two cars - GAZ 66 and GAZ 69. On Gas 66 sent sleeping bags,
equipment, instruments, tools, bowls of the expedition participants.
Some of the staff then left by train. And I got a share on the
nuclear-powered GAZ-69 to go from Moscow to Liepaja. In the car the day
before loaded devices, equipment, the main supply of alcohol - a flask
of 25 liters. We left Moscow early this morning. From that trip I
remember the rather deserted Minsk highway. We got to Smorgony tonight.
Here the driver lived relatives. The next day we reached Liepaja via
Vilnus, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Palanga. This was my first visit to the
Baltic States. It was different here.
Liepaja welcomed us with great weather. After unloading the car,
placing the rooms and dinner with a drink, they moved along the street
to greet the Baltic Sea. Some comrades were able to carry out this
procedure on scrubs, crawling to the first wave.
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The head of the
detachment fell ill in Moscow, so there was almost no load for the
first month. Several times a production meeting was held, after which
the people moved towards the magnificent Liepaja beach.
And in fact, the working process took place in the society of excellent
Latvian beer Senchu alus. The bottle cost 33 cents. After drinking 3
bottles, they went to exchange empty bottles for another bottle of
beer. And at the end of the sunbathing, 12 kopecks came back.
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For the first
month we lived in the rooms of an old house in the center of Liepaja,
which before the war belonged to a baroness who lived in the same
house, in the same room. The expedition rented several rooms from the
residents. The largest room was a laboratory.
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Sometimes they
went to the Liepaja fish processing plant to taste its products. And
the products were wonderful. Cod hot smoked, fresh, fish, herring spicy
Ambassador Baltic, and many other diverse products. And at that time,
the fish processing plant was protected very strictly. The fight
against theft was fierce. And on the territory of the Liepaja fish
factory there was a lighthouse. And the base of the lighthouse was very
well suited for the placement of geophysical equipment. And under the
guise of equipment delivery, before loading into the machine GAZ 66 a
lot of all the equipment that was in the laboratory in abundance, such
as power supplies, frequency meters, plume oscilloscopes, members of
the expedition went to the fish factory for tasting. On the territory
of the fish factory, you could eat anything, and take out - no-no. Our
driver once caught on the removal of herring, which he hid behind the
felt coatings of the car GAZ-66. The noise was long.
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| Let's walk
through the fish factory. First thing in the hot-smoking shop. It had
long tunnel furnaces, in which on one side rolled carts with hooked
fish (cod) and on the other side of the side (and furnaces were 15
meters long), rolling carts with finished smoked fish. The most
appetizing fish were removed from the hooks. Then to the shop where the
herring of the spicy ambassador was prepared. There were barrels
without lids in a row. You wrap your shirt sleeve, you stick your hand
deep into the barrel, and you grope for the fattest herring. Thus,
packed with products, the expeditionary people pulled up to the
lighthouse, where in his room on the installed equipment was quietly
tasting. The herring was amazing. I haven't eaten anything like that
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Around Liepaja
in the forests, on the banks of the rivers there were recreation
centers of various enterprises. And a Finnish bath.
Such visits took place as follows. In the morning, on Friday, the head
held a meeting. each employee was given a task that to buy in the
nearest grocery store - to whom beer, to whom vodka, to whom meat for
kebabs, for some reason I remembered that fried chickens. After lunch,
everyone was back in the lab. All supplies and all staff were loaded
into two cars, and the expedition went to the recreation center in the
Finnish bath.
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The Finnish
bath is located on a high steep bank of the river. From the exit from
the bath began a steep wooden, lined with linoleum descent into the
river.
First the steam room, then you jump out of the steam room and jump
down. And this descent has already been watered. And you fly into the
river. Wonderful. Then we roast meat, beer, vodka. But you have to be
safe. It seems to the Town Hall, someone's child from all scale went
shoulder in the cheek. The man emerged from the water, and then a mass
of 50 kg flew into his cheek. Be careful on the water.
Late in the evening, rested, tired, we return to the base. |
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An interesting
event was a trip to Klaipeda, to the market. Klaipeda is a seaport. And
of course, in 1973 there was an assortment not comparable to Moscow.
People bought amber there. A rather large fist of good large amber cost
10 rubles there. And already at work people from this amber made
various jewelry. There was any tool in the lab.
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That year, work
began sometime in August. When the head of the expedition came from
Moscow after an illness. And the weather began to deteriorate, it
became colder, rainier. Just for work. We had to finish the measuring
complex and test it at sea. On the ship.
In Liepaja at that time was located naval base of the USSR Navy. And at
the base was a detachment of ships of the hydrographic service. In his
crew were the ships GS-275, Lag and the like.
The complex is finished. Checked on the ground. It works.
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One day, all
the equipment was transported to the HS-275 ship. The next day,
everything was checked, and an exit to the sea was scheduled.
My responsibility in that exit was to map the ship's route. It was
necessary to read the readings of the indicators of the Laurent
navigation system (three dials), and interpolating the readings to
apply the location of the ship every minute. And at the same time,
information from gravimeters, accelerometers was applied to the tape.
And then in the winter in the Moscow laboratory conducted cameral
processing of this information. |
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And the ship is
rocking, a little stormy. I'm holding on. I'm going to take the deck
off the cabin, get some fresh air. It took a long time. But the
accompanying phenomena of seasickness finally made themselves felt. And
after the end of the phenomenon became very good, and could continue to
work. It was my first time out at sea.
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The first of
September was approaching. I have already moved on to the fourth year
of the technical school, and I should return to Moscow, continue my
studies. Our boss Stanislav Semenovich Kutkin asked to stay. I had to
build another piece. Well, I'm just happy to stay. I called home, said
I was late. Classes in the technical school still did not give anything
- in lessons on radar stations, the teacher Belov only did what he
dictated to us a text from the description of the radar station. So I
didn't lose anything. I had a great time in ancient Liepaja until
September 20.
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