It is Kokang and Changchun

　The same applies to conventional rail. State-owned and private mining, metallurgical, and oil and gas companies are all raking in the cash. Oil and gas companies, with their pipelines, may be less willing to invest, but mining and metallurgical companies are definitely willing. How else can mining and metallurgical companies transport their finished goods without rail?

　If all else fails, we can always borrow money from banks, even from foreign banks, or even the World Bank. Once the economy develops, the cost of repaying the railway loan will be nothing.”

　In fact, this is nothing new. Why China's railways have achieved leapfrog development and where the funds come from are exactly the financing methods that Aurora mentioned.

　Aurora simply digested and absorbed the experience of Chinese comrades in infrastructure construction and brought it back to the Soviet Union for use.

　As industry insiders, the comrades of the Railway Bureau immediately recognized that the idea of ​​Aurora was copied from China.

　Despite this, the Railway Bureau still wanted to take control of the entire railway system, from financing to construction to operation. Their objections only showed that the Russians were as stubborn as ever in economics. They only knew how to get things done with money, not with borrowing.

　A railway bureau official objected: "You may not know this Chinese method, but China's high-speed rail debt is an astronomical figure - as high as 5 trillion yuan.

　The central government has such strict control over real estate, but why is it so open to loans for high-speed rail and railway construction?

　Seeing this, Aurora knew she had to start using her rhetoric: "Railway, or infrastructure, and real estate are two completely different industries... Railway construction can't rely solely on the power of a single department or the central government. This is also a manifestation of the socialization of production in the transportation industry..."

　Aurora had anticipated this, but luckily she had made preparations in advance and gave a lot of reasons, saying that the national conditions of the two countries were different, and that the debts of the transportation industry and the real estate industry were two different things and could not be compared.

　Anyway, I first tried to reason with them, and then appealed to their emotions. Aurora finally said, "...and I can also help you lobby for support from the central and local governments, as well as member states.

　Think about it, how many times in history can we find a country's top leader personally involved in the construction work for a certain department and lobbying everywhere?

　Not only will this make other departments envious and jealous, but it will also boost your popularity. In the eyes of local authorities and the public, it will also demonstrate that the country attaches great importance to this area. Political trends are also a magnet for money, which will inevitably attract everyone to rush in. At this point, are you still worried about not having the money to freely display your talents?

　In the end, most of the opponents in the Railway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport were persuaded by Aurora and began to carry out preliminary preparations in accordance with Aurora's Soviet version of the "Railway Leapfrog Development" plan.

　Chapter 337 Why do Russians like prefabricated panels so much?

　The housing issue is also a key concern of Aurora in the field of people's livelihood.

　When it comes to Soviet housing, many people's impression is of prefabricated buildings that were planned and built by the state and distributed free of charge. This is very attractive to young people in many countries today where housing prices are high.

　However, what many people have not noticed is that the housing shortage in the Soviet Union actually lasted almost throughout its history; this problem began in the 1920s and was basically resolved after the 1970s.

　However, this mainly solves the rigid housing demand, and the level of this rigid housing demand is really not satisfactory.

　Each apartment in the Khrushchev Building is only 20 to 40 square meters in size. Such apartments are not designed for one person, but for a family.

　This size of interior space would be the size of a bachelor apartment today. China's current per capita living space exceeds the largest apartment in the Khrushchev Building (40.08 square meters).

　As the standard residential building with the lowest construction cost in modern architectural history, even though the Soviet Union mobilized the entire country and spent more than 20 years to basically solve the problem of tight housing demand.

　So, considering that the current housing demand is much higher than in the past, it is not feasible to build Khrushchev-style buildings again, even if they are distributed for free.

　Many times, free cannot be a "shield". If free things are simply unable to meet the people's contemporary needs, people would rather spend more money than take free things.

　For example, if the government now says you don't need to buy mobile phones anymore and they'll all be given away free, and then you see all the phones are from ten years ago, even if they were all flagship phones at the time, would you buy them? Consumers will simply feel the government is deceiving them.

　The same applies to housing.

　Throughout the Russian Federation era, tens of thousands of Khrushchev buildings were demolished and renovated for various reasons. If the new Soviet Union were to bring back Khrushchev buildings, wouldn't that be a joke? People would then quip that the new Soviet Union is even worse than the Russian Federation in this regard.

　If one chooses today's mainstream cast-in-place reinforced concrete residential buildings, and if the state is solely responsible for their construction, then many Soviet people may not be able to get a new house even after waiting in line from the time they graduate from university until they retire.

　Let’s not talk about anything else, just talk about the time cost of construction; the construction period of a cast-in-place reinforced concrete residential building is at least a year, while a Khrushchev building usually only takes a few weeks.

　Even though the Soviet Union worked so hard to build Khrushchev buildings, it still took more than 20 years to basically solve the problem of rigid housing shortage; if it had been replaced by cast-in-place reinforced concrete residential buildings, solving the housing contradiction would have really become a century-long project.

　Therefore, if we want to meet the housing needs of contemporary residents, it will take most of our lives if the state alone takes care of it.

　Although liberalizing the market can greatly stimulate residential construction productivity, the lessons learned from China's current real estate situation are already profound enough.

　In order to prevent the situation in China from happening again, the new Soviet Union/Soviet Union has strict control in this regard. Not only is land finance strictly prohibited, but housing is only commercialized and marketized to a limited extent, and extremely strict purchase restrictions are implemented to crack down on speculators.

　In addition, the new Soviet Union divided housing into unified resettlement housing, urban and rural self-built housing, urban rigid housing and urban improvement housing based on the nature of housing construction and use.

　The new Soviet Union stipulated that resettlement housing, as compensation for the demolition of old houses, would be built by the government and distributed free of charge to the displaced households.

　Self-built houses in urban and rural areas must be reported in advance before construction or renovation. The local government housing and construction bureau will be responsible for feasibility and safety assessment. If it fails, construction will not be allowed.

　Urban rigid housing was designed and built by the government or real estate developers and sold at a price not exceeding 130% of the total construction cost per square meter (including the inflation rate). For example, if the total cost of a house was 2000 Soviet rubles per square meter, the selling price should not exceed 2600 Soviet rubles.

　Urban improvement housing is designed and constructed independently by real estate developers after they have applied for and passed the review in advance, in accordance with relevant national standards and laws, and the prices are set by the developers themselves based on market prices and total construction costs.

　In order to further suppress the housing prices in the market-oriented part, the new Soviet Union also issued regulations: from October 2023, rigid housing residential projects that are declared must be designed and constructed around prefabricated panel materials. Unless the project site is adjacent to or located in an earthquake zone, it will not be approved in principle.

　In addition to this regulation, there are also a series of supporting laws and regulations, such as releasing a standard earthquake zone map, marking which cities are within or on the verge of an earthquake zone, formulating quality standards for prefabricated materials, area standards for different types of housing, etc.

　For example, resettlement housing is actually an improved version of the Brezhnev building, with improvements mainly made in prefabricated panel technology, splicing technology, and building aesthetics, making the appearance more modern and more soundproof and heat-insulated.

　The apartment types have inherited the residential area of ​​the original Brezhnev Building intact, and are divided into several types ranging from 50 square meters to 90 square meters.

　In addition to the requirement that self-built houses in urban and rural areas must meet safety standards, there are no regulations on the building structure type and unit area.

　For rigid housing, to control costs while ensuring quality, the standard Putin buildings were used—the same type built for local residents during the Mariupol reconstruction project. These buildings use prefabricated panels for vertical walls between floors, and cast-in-place concrete slabs for the intervening floors.

　The range of area of ​​different types of apartments is larger than that of the Brezhnev Building, ranging from 60 square meters to 100 square meters.

　In accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party, the Soviet Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau is planning to develop better quality prefabricated panels to replace Putin Buildings in non-seismic areas in the near future, maintaining comfort while further reducing construction costs.

　For improved housing, aside from traditional safety standards, there are no specific requirements for the building structure type. Whatever is safest and most comfortable will be chosen. However, the use of prefabricated panels is encouraged, with preferential policies available for this use. The unit size requirement is a minimum of 75 square meters, with no upper limit.

　Aurora believes that without land finance + large-scale use of prefabricated materials, and various supporting preventive policies and regulations formulated based on the lessons of China's real estate, housing prices in the Soviet Union would not be that high.

　In any case, we will never see the kind of exorbitant housing prices in China where "I want tens of millions of houses, but one house costs millions", which discourages young people from buying and makes them give up.

　The former Soviet Union's development in the housing sector is a significant chapter in the history of world architecture and people's livelihoods. It is also a glorious fact that the former Soviet Union was the most capable cultural exporter to European and American capitalist countries in the field of people's livelihoods.

　Prefabricated residential buildings were a hallmark of the former Soviet Union's construction industry. As the heirs of this legacy, the new Soviet Union naturally sought to carry it forward! It's our duty to recreate the glory of our forefathers!

　Aurora not only pays attention to the Soviet housing issues at a macro level, but also often devotes herself to the development of Soviet prefabricated panel manufacturing and splicing technology. She is determined to make prefabricated houses break away from traditional stereotypes.

　At the same time, Changchun was playing a game called "Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic" at the computer desk in his room.

　I saw her right hand controlling the mouse, clicking with her green jade fingers.

　Next, plans for prefabricated residential buildings appear on the land where the mouse clicks.

　Various types of trucks from the nearby construction office headed to the corresponding building materials factories and warehouses, ready to transport various types of building materials to the construction site where the residential building was planned.

　Kong Siyu, who had been watching from the side for a while, asked, "Changchun, you've been playing this show for two months, right? There are brick residential buildings in it, why haven't I seen you build one?"

　"First of all, it's cheaper," Changchun answered without hesitation. "It shows that the average construction cost of brick houses is much higher than prefabricated houses. Also, saving labor hours is a big advantage."

　Changchun said, pressing the spacebar to pause the flow of time in the game, then opened the people's livelihood area - large residential building interface, clicked to select the brick residential building that can accommodate 146 people, and then randomly found a place to place it.

　After placement, Changchun clicks on the land where the building plan is placed, and an interface pops up on the right side of the game screen, which displays the construction progress of the building and various construction details.

　Changchun pointed at the interface and said, "Look, this brick residential building can accommodate 146 people. Remember the number of working days required to complete it."

　After Kong Siyu took note, Changchun repeated the previous operation and opened the construction interface of the prefabricated residential building plan. He pointed and said, "This is the number of working days required to complete this prefabricated residential building that can accommodate 179 people. Comrade, you should understand, right?"

　"Oh, I understand. It seems that this setting is the same as reality. Prefabricated houses save labor hours." After an intuitive comparison, Kong Siyu found that the labor hours of prefabricated houses were much less than those of brick houses.

　"That's right, this is just a game. In reality, the difference in working hours between the two is even more exaggerated." Changchun opened the "Economy and Trade" interface in the left-hand column, entered it, and then clicked "Current Global Market Price" to enter the corresponding interface.

　"Look, these are the prices of the main materials for the two buildings just now. The price of each ton of prefabricated panels is only four-fifths of the price of each ton of bricks. Do you understand now, comrade?" Changchun used a guiding method to intuitively explain why he only built prefabricated houses.

　Kong Siyu combined his own understanding and asked, "But, in my impression, the quality of prefabricated buildings is not very good, and they are not comfortable to live in."

　"Prefabricated buildings are not limited to the Khrushchev Building." Changchun clarified for himself and the prefabricated buildings: "The prefabricated building I just showed had 'housing quality 91%' written on it, which is obviously the Brezhnev Building.

　That 464-type five-story prefabricated building with the words 'housing quality 68%' written on it is the Khrushchev building. To be more precise, it is a model of the Khrushchev building.

　Changchun then explained prefabricated residential buildings, “Although prefabrication has some of the problems that Siyu mentioned just now, we must look forward, as things are constantly moving, changing, and developing.

　As long as we are willing to study prefabricated panel technology and climb this technology tree, we will definitely be able to develop prefabricated panel houses that are of high quality, high durability, and comfortable like other structural residential buildings.

　Prefabricated residential buildings played a significant role in ensuring the Soviet people could live and work in peace and contentment. Even the Khrushchev-style buildings, whose quality and comfort were later criticized, still played an indispensable role during that special historical period.

　Furthermore, prefabricated residential buildings are a great innovation of the Soviet working people, significantly reducing construction costs and the workload of construction workers. They represent an outstanding architectural technology and culture born under socialism, and therefore must be vigorously promoted!

　Changchun became more and more excited as she spoke, as if she was not in her own room at that moment, but on the podium of the National People's Congress or the Supreme Soviet, introducing the advanced features of prefabricated houses to the deputies to the National People's Congress or the Supreme Soviet.

　Ah, if she were waving a model of a prefabricated residential building, it might have felt more like déjà vu. (Laughs)

　Changchun's enthusiastic expression and excited eyes made people feel that she was about to shout "ypa!" (Ura) in the next second.

　Suddenly, Changchun remembered something, his brows furrowed, and his expression turned to one of condemnation, "When I mentioned the comparison between brick houses and prefabricated houses, I wanted to complain about the recent major update to the scientific research system.

　The research system is a lot more complex, which is good. But the problem is that prefabricated buildings aren't part of the starting tech. You know, the game originally started in 1960, so why aren't prefabricated buildings part of the starting tech? Why? I don't understand."

　Changchun snorted, and continued to complain, "Luckily, this is before the most recent major update, so there's a university to climb the tech tree. Otherwise, if you start with nothing, you'll have to wait until you build a university before you can start research, which would take at least several years in the game."

　"This might be the Slovak Genshin Impact (the nickname of the game)." Kong Siyu looked at Changchun's cute angry look and couldn't help but laugh and complained.

　Kong Siyu raised another question: "Since you are so optimistic about prefabricated panels, why is China abandoning prefabricated residential buildings? Look at the new residential communities built in the past decade or so, and few of them are prefabricated buildings."

　"Prefabricated residential buildings haven't disappeared; they've simply become a supporting role." Changchun pointed out the flaw in Kong Siyu's question and explained, "The geological environments of China and the Soviet Union are different and cannot be compared.

　No matter how advanced the prefabricated building technology is, we have to admit that its upper limit of quality cannot compare with reinforced concrete buildings, especially in terms of earthquake resistance.

　Chugoku

　It is a country prone to earthquakes, with earthquake belts running through the northwest, southwest, north China, Fujian, Taiwan, the Liaodong Peninsula, and the area near Changbai Mountain.

　Most of the Soviet Union's territory is located deep in the Eurasian plate. Except for earthquakes in the Far East along the Pacific Ocean and the South Caucasus region, other places have not experienced a major earthquake for hundreds of years.

　So this is an important reason why prefabricated residential buildings will lose their leading role in China."

　Before Kong Siyu could say anything, Changchun added, "Even so, this is no reason for real estate developers to completely abandon prefabricated panels. Partition walls and the like can be replaced with prefabricated panels. They're not load-bearing structures, so what's there to worry about?"

　Therefore, even in China, the policy of prefabricated houses and prefabricated non-load-bearing parts in other structural buildings should be vigorously promoted in areas without earthquake zones.

　China's housing prices are already high, and with no immediate way to escape the toxic burden of land finance, this method is the only way to reduce construction costs. Furthermore, the labor intensity of Chinese construction workers is already high, and the promotion of prefabricated housing can significantly reduce their burden. Why not?

　Communists disdain to conceal their views and intentions. As a Communist, I also disdain to conceal my preference for prefabricated buildings. I am announcing today that I like prefabricated residential buildings!

　Changchun's smug and self-satisfied look made Kong Siyu sweat and complain inwardly: "Oh my god... this, this, this... is this the prayer scene of the Prefabricated Board Cult? Slip away..."

　"Hey? Siyu, where are you going? I haven't finished yet."

　"I...I'm going downstairs to buy a bottle of Coke!"

　Kong Siyu found an excuse to slip out of Changchun's room and went to Anshan, Fushun and Taiyuan to briefly explain Changchun's views.

　She thought she would get some different opinions, but the three sisters highly agreed with Changchun's views and had no objections.

　Kong Siyu held her forehead helplessly and sighed to herself, "Damn, do the Russians really like prefabricated panels that much? Or is it... just the preference of these four sisters...?"

　Chapter 338: I Won’t Return Until Light Industry Prospers

　In the long-term development plan formulated by the Soviet Union, infrastructure and housing issues are just the tip of the iceberg. There are also projects such as agriculture, light industry, high-tech industries, and shipbuilding.

　As the old saying goes, you have to eat one bite at a time. It is impossible to complete so many things in one five-year plan. They must be implemented in a distributed manner.

　Since wars broke out between Ukraine and the Soviet Union in the past two years, causing certain damage to the country, the Soviet Union decided that the 13th Five-Year Plan would focus mainly on people's livelihood.

　Postwar reconstruction and restoration became the testing ground for the housing reforms mentioned in the previous chapter. Homes that had become dangerous due to war damage were demolished, and later-model Brezhnev buildings were erected in their place.

　In addition, vigorously developing light industry is also a key plan of the 13th Five-Year Plan. Light industry is the industry most closely related to people's livelihood. Without light industry, where would people's food, clothing and other necessities come from?

　Although the word "light industry" has the word "light" in its name, in fact, the technical content of many light industrial products is not "light" at all. For example, the ball tip of a ballpoint pen. This technology has long been monopolized by Switzerland and Japan. China only broke through its core technology in recent years.

　As mentioned before, if one wants to achieve significant progress in a short period of time, foreign aid is essential. Therefore, the Soviet Union approached China, hoping to gain some support in light industry.

　The Soviet Union hoped that China would provide comprehensive assistance to the Soviet Union in the field of light industry, similar to the level of Project 156. In exchange, the Soviet Union would continue to vigorously promote the CR929 wide-body passenger aircraft project that it had previously cooperated with China.

　CR929是中俄两国于2016年6月，在航空工业领域展开的重大战略性合作项目。CR929是设计航程为12000公里，280座级的宽体客机。

　After the project began, Russia's insistence on R&D leadership led to some conflicts with China, which prevented the project from going smoothly. Later, the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Russian Civil War essentially halted the project on the Russian side.

　So much so that rumors are circulating online that Russia intends to unilaterally withdraw from the CR929 project. (PS: In reality, Russia officially announced its withdrawal from the CR929 project in August 2023.)

　In this dimension, Aurora and Zyuganov's persistence resisted this withdrawal trend; therefore, the Soviet Union can use it as one of the bargaining chips in exchange for comprehensive assistance to light industry today.

　During the conversation, the Soviet representative also made a special explanation to the Chinese side: the Soviet side will never force the leadership of research and development in the future. On the contrary, the Soviet side also intends to provide core technologies in cooperative projects and guarantee training and mastery. The provision of core technologies and teaching do not require additional funding from China.

　Second, when the Soviet light industry develops in the future, for the purpose of mutual benefit and gratitude, the Soviet Union will leave a certain market share for China in the Soviet light industrial products market.

　Just when the Chinese thought they had reached the end of the matter, the Soviets offered an extra surprise: they would loan China an An-225 transport aircraft for one year for free research. The Soviets' only requirement was that the aircraft remain intact, or they would pay compensation based on the damage.

　(PS: Regarding the An-225 girl, initially, no more than a platoon of Russian high-ranking officials knew about her existence, but now it has spread from the earliest

　The initial secrecy was downgraded to the point where it was no longer a secret, but the Soviet Union still did not publicize it.)

　Speaking of the An-225, the Chinese representative suddenly recalled something strange about the aircraft. During the Russo-Ukrainian war last year, the aircraft was severely damaged by bombing and initially assessed to be almost beyond repair.

　When China later sought to purchase the wreckage of the An-225, Russia claimed the plane was missing, a claim that was indeed true. However, a few months later, Russia publicly announced that the plane had been found and repaired.

　This series of information raises many doubts, but it is certain that the An-225 has some hidden secrets. Based on the existing information and similar precedents, it is possible that it is a secret similar to that of the Kancolle.