when garnet was finally admitted to the inner sanctum of the governmental offices and , by way of an interpreter , permitted to outline the details of the ambitious construction project he had in mind , it took zhulinsky only a matter of a couple of minutes to decide that it would be necessary for garnet to recount his plans to the head of the department , viktor yershov , state committee chairman for ukraine , and only an additional ten minutes before garnet found himself in the lavishly decorated quarters of that influential individual .