Chen Geng Cultivates Aerospace Talents in Harbin Military Industry

Original Title: Chen Geng Cultivates Aerospace Talents in Kazakhstan Military Industry

In June 1952, in order to develop modern military technology and cultivate modern military engineering and technical personnel, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to transfer Chen Geng, the acting commander of the Volunteer Army, from the Korean battlefield to prepare for the establishment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Military Engineering Academy.

On September 1, with the approval of the Central Military Commission, the Preparatory Committee of the Military Engineering Academy was formed in No. 59 Gongjian Hutong, Di'anmen, Beijing, and Chen Geng was appointed as the director. On April 25, 1953, the college's infrastructure construction broke ground, and Chen Geng shoveled the first shovel of soil.

On September 1, marked by the opening ceremony of the first phase of the cadets, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Military Engineering Academy opened as scheduled in Harbin, and Chen Geng was appointed as the dean and political commissar.

Under the leadership of Chen Geng, the construction of the Military Engineering Academy began to take shape in 1955. At the end of 1957, the first period of students completed the graduation defense (individual majors are graduation examinations), and the teaching work of the college completed a cycle. So far, the college has been basically completed. When Qian Xuesen visited the college on January 23, 1959, he said: "Under the current conditions of our country, it is also a miracle in the world to set up such a complete and comprehensive military technical college in such a short time."

From September 1, 1953 to June 1, 1966, the college enrolled 18233 students in 13 sessions, trained more than 10,000 graduates, and developed many major scientific and technological achievements of advanced level at home and abroad, and many scientific and technological achievements filled the gap in national defense high technology.

Shortly after the founding of New China, our leaders began to consider developing their own missile technology. In 1954, Chen Geng accompanied a military delegation led by Peng Dehuai to the Soviet Union to visit the atomic bomb actual combat military exercise. He was deeply touched. After returning to China, he considered starting to train atomic bomb and missile talents. Qian Xuesen once recalled: "When I returned to China to engage in missiles, the first person to tell me about this was General Chen Geng."

In early November 1955, under the advocacy of Chen Geng, three instructors of Kazakhstan Military Industry, Ren Xinmin, Zhou Manshu, and Jin Jiajun, wrote a letter to the Ministry of National Defense, proposing the development of my country's rockets. Inspired and cooperated by Chen Geng, the Missile Research Institute was established in 1956. Since then, Chen Geng has been very concerned about this work. He also personally transferred a group of experts and professors from the Kazakh military industry to support and organized the first batch of China's missile development. Backbone force.

With the approval of the Central Military Commission of the Kazakhstan Military and Air Force Engineering Department to establish my country's missile specialty, the Kazakhstan Military and Air Force established the Missile Atomic Department under the Air Force Engineering Department in 1958, and formally established the Missile Engineering Department in February 1959 (changed to the Rocket Engineering Department after 1961). This is my country's first missile engineering department, which consists of five specialties: projectile engine, automatic control, radio remote telemetry, flight mechanics and shooting principles, and special weapons. Qian Xuesen, then president of the Missile Research Institute, once again came to Kazakhstan Military Industry to exchange views with the leaders of the Institute on the issue of cooperation with the Fifth Academy after the establishment of the Missile Engineering Department. Chen Geng also sent people to rush to build a warehouse for storing my country's earliest teaching missile 1059 (my country's first ballistic missile imported from the former Soviet Union), ensuring the smooth development of the education and teaching work of the Missile Engineering Department.

Chen Geng pointed out: "In today's atomic and rocket era, we can and must actively use various scientific and technological achievements to vigorously cultivate high-quality scientific and technological talents to accelerate the modernization of our army." According to the military Commission's development policy focusing on missiles and the reality of the school, Chen Geng believes that only one comprehensive technical college in the whole army can not meet the needs. From the second half of 1960, the sub-construction work was carried out in an all-round way. In August 1961, the college successively established the Department of Atomic Engineering and the Department of Electronic Engineering. Many of the professional subjects in both departments are cutting-edge majors in the 1960 s. At that time, nuclear weapons were only a decade old, and China did not have an atomic bomb, but the Kazakh military industry had already set up nuclear explosion, nuclear power and other Junior College.

In order to overcome the relatively weak teaching staff, Chen Geng asked Premier Zhou Enlai for approval to transfer a group of scientific and technological personnel from graduate students majoring in missiles and atomic bombs and graduates from local key universities in the Soviet Union to teach and research.

In order to solve the problem of teaching materials, Chen Geng once instructed the General Office of the Ministry of National Defense to let the military attache of embassies abroad collect relevant foreign materials and send them directly to the college. The professors translated them and compiled the contents into the teaching materials. "Nuclear Physics" written by Wang Xiaoxian, a military teacher in Kazakhstan, and "Killing and Destruction Factors of Nuclear Weapons" written by Lu Yi have become the reference books that must be read in China's early nuclear weapons tests. Zhang Ruoqi's "Lecture Notes on Implosion Mechanics" and Ouyang Changyu's "Outline of Atomic Nuclear Reactor Theory" have become the first batch of professional teaching materials for China's atomic major.
 

The cutting-edge departments and majors of missiles, atoms, and electronics created under the initiative of Chen Geng have trained a large number of professionals urgently needed for the development of national defense science and technology, and prepared a talent pool for the start of my country's "two bombs and one satellite" cause.

Jia Xiaoming
Source: People's Political Consultative Conference