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45 Years Ago the Television Came to the Upper Don

On October, 31, 1967, in Kalininsky Village, a rally was held on commissioning of a television repeater providing a stable reception of the television broadcasts by the residents of the Upper Don.

In the 1960-s, the residents of the Upper Don region appealed to Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov as a deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet to help in organizing a television reception in the villages of the Upper Don. Mikhail Alexandrovich readily responded to the request of his countrymen and promised the television broadcasting to be organized for the 50^th anniversary of the Soviet Power. He proposed to the regional authorities: ”We shall ask for the money from the government, but we’ll build it by ourselves”. (P.Mayatsky. Bells of Memory. Together with Sholokhov for Thirty Years. Memoirs. – Ltd.”Rostizdat”, Rostov-on-Don.2003.p.23).

In the autumn of 1966, a construction of the television tower began on the mountain site above Kalininsky Village. Simultaneously, a two-storey “technical” building and a 16-apartment house for the personnel were being built alongside with the technical acquipment installation carried out.

The construction work of the complex was participated by 13 building companies, industrial enterprises from 10 cities. The construction process was joined by specialists from Czhechoslovakia and Hungary, as well as by local Party organizations. The residents of the nearby villages also helped, in particular, senior schoolchildren unloaded bricks, cleaned the construction site of the debris, and so on.

Some construction works were carried out ahead of the schedule, but yet, there were some difficulties. M.A. Sholokhov had to appeal to the authorities of the Donetsk Cable Plant about the prompt delivery of the cable: “Dear comrades! The installation of the television mast of Vyoshenskaya for the Don workers for the 50^th anniversary of the Great October depends on your prompt delivery of the cable to the trust of “Yuzhstalkonstruktsiya” according to order number 811302. Please, find it possible to make a delivery of this cable in the first decade of July. Please, let me know about the solution of the problem. Sincerely yours. Sholokhov. June, 20, 1967.

P.I. Mayatsky, who at that time was the First Secretary of the CPSU District Committee in Vyoshenskaya, writes in his memoirs: ”When the construction of the television repeater near Kalininsky Village began, M.A. Sholokhov was always interested in how the things were going at the construction site. The construction was planned to be completed by the 50^th anniversary of the Soviet power. But during the construction we had serious problems. The Nikolayev Shipyard essentially stopped supplying us with all-metal sections for the television tower. The construction was threatened to delay for other two or three years. It meant, that by the 50^th anniversary of the Great October the construction of the television repeater would not be completed, and the people of the Upper Don villages would   not get an opportunity to watch TV broadcasts from Moscow on that great day. Hearing about it M.A. Sholokhov invited me and said: ”Go, Petro, to Nikolayev and speak on my behalf with the workers. They may agree to work overtime. I think the Nikolayev workers would comply with our Cossack men and women”.

Two days later I was in Nikolayev, had a talk with the Party authorities in the Plant CPSU Committee, and with the foundry workers. I should say, the people treated our request with understanding and agreed for a 3 hour’s work overtime to complete our order. Then the sections delivery became regular according to the schedule and the building process regained its usual steady beat”.

The equipment for the television tower was delivered from Czhechoslovakia.

The construction was completed on time, and on October, 31, 1967, at the foot of the television tower there was held a rally on commissioning of the television repeater. The First Secretary of the Vyoshensky District Communist Party Committee P.I. Mayatsky said in his speech: “…Our Don workers have had a lot of bright days during their half-a-century history. Now, again, we are witnessing a new miracle created by the genius of an emancipated human thought, which was implemented by the tireless work of the ordinary Soviet people. Perhaps, some five – ten years ago none of our Cossack old-timers could even dream, that here ,in this place, near the Cossack village of Kalininsky, which is known for the readers of “The Quiet Don” as Tatarsky Village, within such a short time, there would be erected a powerful television repeater…”

As the writer promised, in 1967, our countrymen watched  the TV broadcasting from the Kremlin “The Grand Meeting and Concert Dedicated to the 50^th Anniversary of the Soviet Power”.

Nataliya Blagodarova