Premier Zhou inspects the console of Zhongnanhai Telecommunications Bureau
Zhao Qihui
At the beginning of the founding of New China, in order to meet the political, military, and diplomatic needs, it was necessary to open an international communication portal. Therefore, the radio telephony service with the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, and Democratic Germany and other Eastern European socialist countries was quickly opened. However, it is difficult for radio communications to meet the need for confidentiality, and it is easy to cause loss of confidentiality.
Temporary line solves urgent needs
In January 1950, Premier Zhou Enlai led a Chinese government delegation to Moscow to hold talks with the Soviet side. During this period, Wang Min, the vice minister of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the director of the General Administration of Telecommunications of the Military Commission, suddenly received a telegram from Moscow. Premier Zhou had to talk directly to Lu Dingyi and Li Kenong in Beijing to discuss important matters.
At that time, the state of communication in Beijing was that telecommunications lines had been destroyed and had not been fully restored. Local calls can barely be made, and domestic long-distance calls are difficult to connect, let alone international long-distance calls. Even if a long-distance call is reluctantly connected, once it is transferred to the urban area, the quality is not guaranteed. Both parties need to yell during the call. You must not let Premier Zhou yell in Moscow. This is not only a loss of international image, it cannot be done. To security. How to do?
In order to complete the task assigned by the Prime Minister, Wang Ye discussed with business technicians to determine a method: Select a long-distance line for rectification in the South Factory of Beijing, and connect the phone to the border through the North China Military Region and the Shenyang line. The long-distance call is directly connected to the room next to the machine room from the carrier as a temporary telephone room, and the city telephone system is completely skipped. A temporary, secure international long-distance line was opened.
Lu Dingyi and Li Kenong came to the South Bureau, and in that temporary telephone booth, they talked to Premier Zhou who was far away in Moscow. Afterwards, the leaders reported that the voice quality was good. This call is the first direct call between Beijing and Moscow through a wired line, but the line is a temporary special line connected after all and cannot be used for a long time. The rapid establishment of a direct telephone line from Beijing to Moscow has become a top priority.
Determined to build Beijing-Moscow Miles
On February 14, 1950, the Chinese and Soviet governments signed the "Sino-Soviet Friendship Alliance Mutual Assistance Treaty." At the same time, under the auspices of Premier Zhou, the follow-up Chinese post and telecommunications delegation signed the "Telegraph and Telephone Contact Agreement" with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the Soviet Union and decided to build a direct telecommunication line between Beijing and Moscow to meet the needs of exchanges between the two countries.
This international telephone line across Asia and Europe, with a total length of more than 12,000 kilometers, was the longest landline telecommunication line in the world at that time. All of them were overhead lines. The total length of China was 2,478 kilometers. Jinzhou, Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin, Qiqihar, Hailar, went to the border town of Manzhouli, and then crossed the border with the Soviet Union ’s Far East communication line.
According to the construction requirements, this pair of lines will be opened with two pairs of three-carrier copper wires. The so-called three-way carrier is the use of carrier technology to open three additional telephones on a common line. One pair of lines can simultaneously transmit four calls, and two pairs of lines can simultaneously meet the call of eight phones. The Beijing Long-distance Telecommunications Bureau is responsible for the installation and testing of the carrier from Beijing to Shenyang and the opening of the whole line. The line is constructed by several engineering teams organized by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The construction officially started in May 1950, and it was required to open the whole line within the year, and the arduous task can be imagined.
"It is difficult to start a business with many battles." The most difficult task of the whole line is the Northeast section. The domestic over 2,400 kilometers of lines have 1,900 kilometers in the Northeast. The old available poles were mostly destroyed by the fire during the liberation war or bandits. Stolen, so most need to be rebuilt. To this end, the Northeast General Administration of Posts and Telecommunications listed this as the overriding central work of the year. A total of 9 construction teams were formed, each with 30 to 50 people. The workers are proud to participate in international line projects.
Difficult for half a year
Qiqihar to Manzhouli line, the original pole line remains few, all need to re-pole pole line. The construction team worked from Zhalantun, Yakeshi, and Hailar respectively, crossing the Greater Xing'an Mountains and the Hulunbuir Prairie. The terrain of the construction site is complex, uninhabited, and the climate is fickle, with wild animals infested. Workers live in tents or yurts, and drinking water is transported long distances. At noon, the temperature reached above 40 degrees Celsius, and at night it dropped below 10 degrees Celsius. Workers have to go back and forth to the construction site one or twenty miles every morning and night, and work for twelve to three hours every day plus walking time, but no one is crying out.
In November after the winter, several construction teams rushed to repair the line from Harbin to Qiqihar, passing through the Saltu flood damage area. Where water accumulates all year round, workers must work in the waist-deep water. At that time, there was no protective equipment for working in the water, and it was time to freeze and snow. The workers scrambled to get into the water, and they couldn't stand the cold. They came up to dry their bodies, put on cotton trousers, drank a few drinks, roasted the fire, and went to work.
At that time, there were no current construction machinery, and all had to be done by humans. When constructing the sections from Changchun to Shuangcheng and Changchun to Tieling, the temperature dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius in December when water dripped into the ice in the northeast. A worker can only use a T-shaped pickaxe to plan a pole pit on a three-foot frozen ground a day. Often it was a hard pick, and only a large piece of frozen ground was cut, but the tiger's mouth was cracked. If you don't wear gloves when setting up a wire, your hand will be stuck to the skin as soon as you touch the wire. In this way, the workers continued to work, and finally completed the new pole road project of nearly 400 kilometers of frozen land on schedule.
Poor natural conditions and poor construction equipment are not the main difficulties. Compared with this, technical difficulties are more difficult problems that plague construction. After repeated design and practice, experts and technicians have overcome a lot of technical problems such as long-distance crosstalk, line measurement, and sag setting, and ensured the construction progress as scheduled. The postal and telecommunications, forestry, and railway departments in the Northeast also provided full cooperation in the supply and transportation of copper wires and wooden poles for the completion of this international line as scheduled.
December 12, 1950 was a memorable day. China's first wired international telephone line, the Beijing-Moscow circuit, was officially opened, becoming the longest cable carrier circuit in Eurasia at that time. After the line was connected to the Soviet Far East Line, it was immediately clear. For this purpose, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications awarded the "Restoration of Construction in 1950" to all employees participating in the construction of international telecommunication lines.
This international telephone line undertook the important task of China's foreign relations. It reached all socialist countries in Eastern Europe through the Soviet Union. This international telephone line played an important role in the war against the United States and aid Korea. Premier Zhou pointed out at a meeting: The completion of the international telecommunication line between China and the Soviet Union is an important achievement since the founding of New China.