Monday, 14 August

Fine

At 10.00 a.m. I went with Shaozhou and Jibang for a visit to a factory. The factory was also the biggest in the Russian imperial period and was well known for making artillery. After the revolution, apart from making ammunitions, it also manufactured machines for production, therefore it was one of the biggest basic industry factories. It had 32,000 workers. The factory played a big part in the defence of Leningrad. The enemy was only four and a half kilometres away from the factory and the factory was bombarded every day, but they did not stop production for even half a day. The majority of the important machines were relocated to the Urals, and many workers also moved there too, but the factory was still in operation, making artillery shells, land mines, and repairing tanks. Of more than 5,000 workers, more than a thousand have been killed. Many in particular died of starvation. Defence of the factory was also undertaken by the workers themselves. The Head of the factory received us first in his office and after explaining everything he took us around the whole factory. He was originally the general chief engineer, and the medium-sized (40 tons) tank was also designed by him. He was promoted to be the Head earlier last year. He was quite clever and straightforward. He told us that no other Ambassador from other countries have been permitted to look around the factory, so apart from the American President of Chamber of Commerce, Johnson, I was the only one. Attaché Hu recorded our conversation in great detail.

At 4.00 we took the train to leave Leningrad. To conclude this trip we have learned a lot. The Soviet receptions and the arrangements of the visits were all quite good.