For many of us, a whole decade of life fell on the nineties of the twentieth century. The twentieth century, an extraordinary century. The more interesting it is for the historian, the more sad it is for the contemporary. The past century has given Russia many great and tragic moments, the last of which was the "dashing nineties" - an insane chain of events during the collapse of the superpower after the shameful 1991 year for Russia. A huge giant, spread across 12 time zones, collapsed and crumbled under the irrepressible onslaught of the free market, overnight millions of our fellow citizens became foreigners, the fire of the Chechen war broke out, and Central Asia plunged into a new Middle Ages. The knock of miners' helmets on the Moscow pavement and the MMM financial scam - that's all we came to as a result of fierce reforms initiated by a handful of short-sighted politicians and economists under the strict guidance of specialists from the Harvard Institute for International Development.
Now, remembering that time, many ask the question - was it really all hopelessly lost? Ten years of emptiness. Stagnation in all branches of industry, the degeneration of the Soviet scientific school, whose achievements, until recently, shone from space orbits to the cold depths of the oceans. Together with Nikolaev's stocks, dreams of an ocean-going fleet disappeared, industrial chains collapsed and the military-industrial complex ceased to function.
Fortunately, the reality was much less pessimistic. The huge backlog left after the Soviet Union made it possible to overcome the terrible period and, despite the colossal losses, allowed modern Russia to remain one of the most influential countries in the world. Today I would like to tell you about how, despite all the hysterical cries of “We've lost everything!”, People continued to work at their enterprises, creating amazing pieces of equipment. First of all, military equipment. The military-industrial complex is an alloy of knowledge-intensive industries, an engine of progress and an indicator of the state's development level.
The fleet is gaining strength. By inertia
Perhaps it will be a revelation for many, but the infamous Kursk submarine was one of the most modern submarines in the world. The nuclear submarine missile carrier K-141 "Kursk" (project code 949A) was laid down on March 22, 1992. Two years later, on May 16, 1994, the boat was launched and on December 30 of the same year was accepted into the Northern Fleet. 150-meter hulk with a displacement of 24 thousand tons. Two nuclear reactors, 24 supersonic cruise missiles, 130 crew. The rover could cut the ocean waters at a speed of 32 knots (60 km / h) and go to a depth of 600 meters. Hmm … it seems that not all the engineers and workers of the "Northern Machine-Building Enterprise" drank themselves or turned into "businessmen" with large checkered bags filled with Turkish consumer goods.
K-141 Kursk was not the only nuclear submarine built at that difficult time. Together with it, the same type K-150 Tomsk was built on the stocks of "Sevmash": laying - August 1991, launching - July 1996. On March 17, 1997, the K-150 became part of the 1st flotilla of submarines of the Northern Fleet … In 1998, the newest nuclear-powered submarine sailed to the Far East under the ice of the Arctic Ocean. Currently part of the Pacific Fleet.
In addition to the "killers of aircraft carriers" of project 949A in the country devastated by reforms, by inertia, multipurpose nuclear "Shchuks" of project 971 were built:
K-419 "Kuzbass". Bookmark 1991Launching: 1992 Adopted to the fleet in 1992.
K-295 "Samara". Bookmark 1993 Launching 1994 Admission to the fleet in 1995.
K-157 "Vepr". Bookmark in 1990. Launching in 1994. Adopted to the fleet in 1995.
The K-335 "Gepard", laid down in 1991, could no longer be completed within the normal time frame - its construction dragged on for many years (it was accepted into the Northern Fleet in 2001). The same fate awaited the boat K-152 "Nerpa" - its construction was carried out for a long 12 years. When one gets acquainted with the facts, one can clearly see how the industrial impulse left by the disappeared USSR gradually faded away. The construction lines for ships became longer and longer, in the second half of the 90s only one new boat was laid - the strategic missile carrier K-535 "Yuri Dolgoruky" (project code 955 "Borey").
Complex and expensive surface ships were a luxury item even for the Soviet Union. The construction of a large surface fleet was clearly beyond the power of the newly formed country, nevertheless, here it was possible to achieve certain successes: in 1998, the heavy nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great joined the Northern Fleet - the last of the four Orlans, the largest and most powerful of the non-aeronautical ships in the world. The construction of the nuclear cruiser was carried out with significant interruptions for more than 10 years, but the efforts were not in vain - 26 thousand tons of sparkling metal are now plowing the oceans, demonstrating the St. Andrew's flag to the entire planet.
In addition to the powerful cruiser, it was possible to complete the construction of a large anti-submarine ship "Admiral Chabanenko" (bookmark - 1990, entry into service - 1999) and two Project 956 destroyers - "Important" and "Thoughtful". Unfortunately, immediately after the signing of the acceptance certificate, the flag of the Russian Navy was lowered on the destroyers and both ships joined the military fleet of the People's Republic of China.
A truly significant event for our sailors was the development of the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral Kuznetsov" - the ship was built in the last years of the existence of the USSR and its approbation fell on the "dashing nineties". Obviously, not everyone in the leadership of the Navy dreamed of how to quickly hand over the ships to China for metal. Among the admirals were real OFFICERS and PATRIOTS - in the most difficult years for the country, the fleet received 26 Su-33 carrier-based fighters and painstaking work began on mastering the new ship, testing its systems and practicing tactics for using the aircraft carrier group. Especially memorable was the "Mediterranean Raid" - a long-distance cruise of the Northern Fleet's warships (December 1995 - March 1996), during which an exchange of visits with American sailors took place, and the carrier-based aircraft of both countries carried out major joint maneuvers.
Despite all efforts to save the ships, our fleet suffered heavy losses: we did not wait for the Ulyanovsk nuclear aircraft carrier and a series of large anti-submarine ships of project 1155.1. Many submarines under construction were destroyed, a significant part of the ships lost their combat capability and were sold abroad - by the beginning of the new century, the Navy did not receive even half of what was planned in the 80s. But you must admit that Russian shipbuilders were by no means sitting idle …
Only numbers and facts
It is no coincidence that I paid a lot of attention to describing the problems and achievements of the Russian Navy. The Navy is the most complex and expensive branch of the Armed Forces, and according to its condition, it is possible to draw a logical conclusion about the condition of the entire military-industrial complex.
There were certain successes in other industries: they did not sit idle in Nizhny Tagil - in the 90s, the ground forces received 120 modern T-90 tanks and several hundred units of combat tracked for various purposes. Few, very few - in developed countries the bill went to many hundreds of cars, but still better than nothing at all. Russian tank builders were able to preserve the technology, mastered mass production in the fierce conditions of the free market, and even managed to go global, becoming one of the leading exporters of armored vehicles.
New weapons systems were actively developed: the Buk M1-2 and Pantsir-C1 anti-aircraft missile systems (first demonstrated at the MAKS-1995 International Aviation and Space Salon), numerous modifications of the S-300 systems appeared, and new models of small arms were created: pistols GSh-18, machine guns AN-94 "Abakan".
Aviation did not lag behind: in 1997, the Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter made its first flight - a worthy successor to the Black Shark traditions; in the early 90s, the "commercial" Su-30 project appeared - the Sukhoi fighters began to advance quickly on the world market.
A number of "non-production" steps were taken towards strengthening the Russian Air Force: for example, at the very end of the 90s, an agreement was signed with Ukraine on the transfer of 9 Tu-160 and three Tu-95 supersonic strategic missile carriers in exchange for paying off debts for gas. The White Swans happily escaped imminent destruction and are now part of Russia's nuclear triad.
The first space power did not have any moral right to stupidly curtail its space program - the Mir orbital station functioned, domestic launch vehicles regularly put “commercial load” into orbit - in the era of the rapid development of telecommunications, there was no end to potential foreign customers. In the ground-based design bureaus, the design of the new Angara launch vehicle and the Liana electronic reconnaissance system was carried out.
Scientific research did not stand aside - in 1996, the automatic station "Mars-96" went to Mars, unfortunately, the mission failed from the very beginning - the station fell in the Pacific Ocean. Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov in 1994-1995 set a record for a man in space, having spent 438 days on board the orbital station.
Considering the above facts, all the talk about the "20-year backwardness" of Russia is at least incorrect - in the "reformed" country, work was still carried out in all fields of science and technology. Well, the ballet, of course, hasn't gone anywhere. A strong Soviet backlog helped our Fatherland to overcome the most difficult times with dignity.
