The military fame of Ivan Baryshpolts became a prologue to his activities, about which very little is known even today
Desecration of the memory of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria doomed many associates of the legendary People's Commissar to oblivion. However, popular rumor has surprisingly preserved some of the names. One of the concrete roads near Moscow is still called Baryshpolka - in honor of the first commander of the anti-missile defense forces of the Moscow Air Defense District.
One of the most secret generals of the Soviet army after the war, curator from the Third Main Directorate of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the construction and commissioning of facilities and weapons of the world's first Unified system of missile systems of aerospace (air and anti-missile) defense of Moscow, Guards Lieutenant General of Artillery Ivan Baryshpolets was born on June 22, 1916 in the village of Pechenegi, Kharkov region, in the family of a blacksmith.
In the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Baryshpolets participated from the very first hours as the commander of an anti-aircraft battery. In heavy battles near Moscow, in the fall and winter of 1941, he began to use entrusted artillery to fire not only at aircraft, but also at enemy tanks, for which he became famous throughout the Western Front. But the military glory, which would have been more than enough for any other participant in the Great Patriotic War, became only a prologue to the activity that inscribed the name of Baryshpoltsa in the history of the country.
Immediately after the war and until the last days of his life, he carried out a very serious state task - on behalf of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, he personally supervised the creation and commissioning of facilities, weapons and troops of the unified defense system of Moscow against air and missile-space attacks.
First, under his direct supervision, carried out from the Third Main Directorate of the USSR Council of Ministers, the first part of the Soviet Aerospace Defense was created, namely, the Moscow air defense system (C-25 "Berkut"). Its main developers were the first chief and chief designer of the special design bureau SB-1 (KB-1), Doctor of Technical Sciences Pavel Kuksenko and his former student Sergo Beria (chief designer of the S-25 system).
Then, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated August 17, 1956, work began on the creation of a second, more complex stage of the project, namely, the Moscow missile defense system (A-35), the main developer of which was the general designer of NIIRP Grigory Kisunko, who before that, being, like Alexander Raspletin, one of the heads of the SB-1 (KB-1) departments, together with him he also actively participated in the creation of the S-25, and then the S-75.
Ivan Baryshpolets, appointed by the same decree of the USSR Council of Ministers as the curator of this project, successfully coped with the implementation of this, as it turned out, the main task of his whole life. In a position officially called at first the head of the anti-missile defense (and in fact, being the first commander of the missile defense), for 20 years he directly managed all the processes of organizing the training of officers in universities and academies of the country's Air Defense Forces, as well as the combat training and operational use of the one formed in our country missile defense connections.
The years of the Great Patriotic War and intense post-war service in the strictest secrecy with the highest responsibility for the fulfillment of the tasks of state importance were not easy. At 60, Baryshpolets was still full of strength and was eager to fight in order to make full use of the accumulated rich experience in organizing the joint use of missile defense and air defense forces, but, unfortunately, did not have time. He died suddenly of a heart attack on December 10, 1976.
Everyone who happened to serve under the command of Ivan Efimovich Baryshpolts is sure that it would be expedient to organize events timed to coincide with the centenary of his birth. This is also necessary because the experience of building facilities, creating air defense and missile defense systems in Moscow, organizing their joint use within the EU aerospace defense is acquiring special relevance today. Let's hope that the experience of General Baryshpolts will be in demand and will help us in developing a rational organization of strategic actions to ensure Russia's military security in the aerospace sphere.
Most of those who, together with Ivan Efimovich, worked on the creation of a rocket "umbrella" over the USSR are no longer alive, and today the preservation of their memory, the multiplication of their successes entirely depend only on us, primarily on those who are now working on the development of the system IN TO. Baryshpolets, the designers and the military who worked with him were indeed the first and, unfortunately, their fates often developed like those of intelligence officers: to serve the Motherland, not sparing their lives, and at the same time, even after death, unknown to posterity is good, if for a while, but for someone and forever.
Among effective managers in the military field, there are plenty of well-feeling gentlemen who, without hesitation, "reform" everything that was built by previous generations of developers, military personnel and organizers of the missile shield. Therefore, today the main goal is not only to return the memory of the unreasonably forgotten ancestors and founders of the country's aerospace defense system, but also to study their most valuable experience, to use it as much as possible to improve the modern military security system in the aerospace sphere and joint strategic actions against any enemy.
