Dear Comrade! Unfortunately, I cannot give you an article for the next section of Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn devoted to aviation and the aircraft industry. Please allow me to confine myself, this time, to a short letter and, above all, to the expression of very great pleasure in the fact that Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn has decided in such good time to take up this question.
General political agitation about the air fleet is, undoubtedly, necessary. Without such agitation, that is, without attracting the attention of the broad masses of the people to this cause, we can, in general, achieve nothing substantial. But the problems of aviation are problems of industry, organisation, training, planning and the proper execution of plans. We have, fortunately, already left behind us the period in which all problems were solved through agitation and improvisation. The working masses are ready, as before’to submit to the greatest sacrifices if a great task is set before them. But the masses have become more mature, and demand not only that great tasks be set before them but also that proper methods of undertaking the fulfilment of these tasks be worked out. Real interest in the cause of aviation can be aroused, and this interest developed, deepened and made long-term, only by directing it into the channels of proper organisation’ well-thought-out and systematic execution of these plans.
Aviation is a complex matter, which demands also that the aircraft industry be organised in a serious way, with a proper network of auxiliary institutions all over the country, and with an influx of heroic youth into the schools of aviation and intense work by designers and inventors. All the elements in this great cause must achieve the necessary co-operation, ensuring dynamic equilibrium and, therefore, development as well. In other words, into this cause as into any other great and serious cause, must at once be introduced the factors of foresight and co-ordination, that is, of practical planning.
This is why it is so important that general agitation in the country – and this agitation is assuming a thoroughly encouraging character – be supplemented by a seriously thought-out treatment of problems of aviation from the industrial and organisational standpoints. The leading role in this field could rightly belong to Ekononicheskaya Zhizn. In this I see the significance of the more important place which you are going to allot in your paper to problems of aviation and of the aircraft industry.
Last updated on: 30.12.2006