30 years ago, on December 20, 1984, one of the most famous USSR defense ministers, Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov, passed away. The name of Dmitry Ustinov is directly related to the implementation of the atomic project, the rearmament of the army with nuclear missiles, the creation of a reliable air defense shield for the country, the deployment and operation of the ocean-going nuclear fleet.
Dmitry Fedorovich was born on October 30, 1908 in Samara into a large working class family. Father - Fyodor Sysoevich, considered hard work the most valuable quality in people, which he taught his children to. Dmitry's mother, Efrosinia Martynovna, raised her four sons in the same spirit. Dmitry began to work from an early age. The life of the pre-revolutionary worker was not easy. At the age of 11, after graduating from the parish school in June 1919, Dmitry began to work and at the same time attended evening courses. The elder brothers Peter, Nikolay, Ivan traveled the path typical for the workers of that time. Ivan died during the Civil War, Peter rose to the rank of brigade commander of the 25th Infantry Division (Chapaevskaya). Nikolay left for Samarkand. The whole family moved there, headed by a sick father. Dmitry began service as a volunteer in the ChON (special purpose unit), then served in the 12th Turkestan Rifle Regiment. The situation in Turkestan (Central Asia) was difficult, there were battles with the Basmachs (the predecessors of the current jihadists).
His father died in 1922, and his mother died in 1925. Dmitry had to study and earn his living at the same time. In 1923, the demobilized Red Army soldier Dmitry moved from Samarkand to Makaryev. He began working at the Balakhna pulp and paper mill and at the same time studying at the Makaryevskaya vocational school. Then he left for Ivanovo-Voznesensk, where he worked at the Ivanovo-Voznesensk textile factory. In 1929 he entered the mechanical faculty of the Polytechnic Institute. After some organizational events, a group of students, including Dmitry Ustinov, was transferred to the Moscow Higher Technical School. Bauman. There Dmitry met many of his future associates in strengthening the country's military-technical might - V. A. Malyshev, B. L. Vannikov, P. N. Goremykin, A. N. Tupolev, B. S. Stechkin and others. In Moscow Dmitry did not stay long. In 1932 he was first transferred to the Mechanical Engineering Institute, and then to the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. There Dmitry received basic knowledge of the structure of the Soviet Armed Forces, the system of their material, technical and personnel support.
In 1934 he began work at the Leningrad Artillery Scientific Research Marine Institute as a design engineer. The rapid industrialization of the USSR opened the way for people with excellent technical education to take leadership positions. During this period, Dmitry Fedorovich received the necessary lessons in organization, efficiency, and a systematic approach from Academician A. N. Krylov. At the same time, Ustinov mastered the principle of combining fundamental scientific research, experimental design work and production, which led to the timely updating of technological processes, technologies and equipment.
In 1937 Dmitry Fedorovich was transferred to the design bureau of the Bolshevik plant (formerly the Obukhov plant). In 1938 he became the head of the company. Dmitry Ustinov worked hard, 12-14 hours a day, practically did not rest. I slept for only 4-6 hours, sometimes I went to bed at 3 am, and at 6 am I was already working. And he worked tirelessly all day, setting an example to those around him. He will keep this habit all his life. Dmitry was noted as a talented production organizer, quickly delved into all matters, participated in the design of new models of naval weapons, participated in tests. Already in 1939, the plant was awarded the Order of Lenin, 116 of its employees were awarded state awards. Dmitry Ustinov received his first Order of Lenin. In total, during his life filled with labor, Ustinov became a knight of eleven Orders of Lenin (there were only two such people).
On June 9, 1941, Ustinov, at the age of 33, became the head of the USSR People's Commissariat for Armaments. It was the most responsible defense industry, which supplied its products not only to the active army, but also to the tank, aviation and shipbuilding industries. The basis of the products of the People's Commissariat of Armaments was made up of artillery systems. Stalin personally supervised the activities of the People's Commissariat and attached great importance to the "God of War" - artillery.
Dmitry Fedorovich made a great contribution to the overall victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany. They had to work even more intensively than in the pre-war period. Sometimes they worked for 2-3 days in a row. The boundaries between day and night were blurred. In the first months of the war, a huge amount of work had to be done to evacuate millions of people, hundreds of enterprises and tens of thousands of pieces of equipment. In these difficult days, the People's Commissar Ustinov often visited the factories and assisted in the deployment of factories in new places. So, on June 29, the evacuation of the largest enterprise in the industry "Arsenal" began. In August, literally in front of the Germans, the last train was sent. Production started on the third day! The People's Commissariat was also evacuated to Perm. The operational group led by Ustinov remained in Moscow, the other was sent to Kuibyshev, where the Soviet government was evacuated. At the same time, it was necessary to increase and organize the production of weapons. Every day, Stalin was personally reported on the activities of the People's Commissariat of Armaments.
The work was arranged in such a way that in December 1941 the decline in production was suspended, and from the beginning of 1942 a general increase in the production of weapons was already outlined. Nobody expected this in the West. The restructuring of the national economy on a war footing in the Soviet Union was completed in the shortest possible time. The plan by the end of 1942 was not only fulfilled, but also overfulfilled. And this is the great merit of the People's Commissar himself, designer, organizer and caring boss. Dmitry Fedorovich knew every shop manager at all enterprises, designers and the best workers, knew perfectly well the production of the entire product range and problem areas in each shop.
When, by the beginning of December 1941, it was decided to create strategic reserves to strengthen the active army, Ustinov accurately determined the amount of weapons and equipment for hundreds of rifle, artillery, anti-aircraft and tank formations of the RGK. To arm the units of the strategic reserve in a short time, they organized the production and supply of weapons from the factory, which were scattered throughout the Union. In 1942 Ustinov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
It was a well-deserved reward. Ustinov was one of the "Soviet titans" who forged the victory of the USSR. As the head of the Main Artillery Directorate, Nikolai Yakovlev, noted, recalling those who ensured the victory over Germany: “For some reason I remember the young People's Commissar of Armaments Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov: Agile, with a keen gaze of intelligent eyes, a recalcitrant shock of golden hair. I don't know when he slept, but the impression was that he was always on his feet. He was distinguished by constant cheerfulness, the greatest benevolence to people: he was a supporter of quick and bold decisions, he thoroughly understood the most complex technical problems. And, moreover, he did not lose his human qualities for a minute. I remember that when we literally ran out of strength at long and frequent meetings, Dmitry Fedorovich's bright smile and an appropriate joke relieved tension, poured new strength into the people around him. It seemed that he could handle absolutely everything!"
Thanks to Ustinov and other workers, Soviet industry surpassed German in terms of volume and quality of products. The correspondence duel between the German imperial minister A. Speer and DF Ustinov ended in favor of the Stalinist "iron people's commissar". So, on average, per year, the enterprises of the People's Commissariat of Armament provided the Red Army with one and a half times more guns and 5 times more mortars than the industry of the German Empire and the countries occupied by it.
After the war, Dmitry Fedorovich retained his post, he only changed its name in 1946 - the people's commissariat was transformed into a ministry. Ustinov became the Minister of Armament of the USSR and held this post until 1953. During this period, Dmitry Ustinov played an important role in the development of the missile project, thanks to which Russia is still a great power, which other powers have to reckon with. Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed that the West is ready to use the most destructive weapons against the enemy - atomic bombs, and only the possession of advanced weapons will allow the USSR to remain secure. Ustinov, coordinating the work of research institutes, design bureaus, industrial enterprises for the needs of the country's defense, played an extremely important role in the creation of a fundamentally new type of strategic weapons - ballistic missiles. The People's Commissariat of Armaments was not directly related to rocketry, but already in 1945 Dmitry Ustinov gave a correct forecast for the development of military equipment and weapons. Largely thanks to his persistence, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of May 13, 1946 was issued, which provided for the establishment of the rocket industry, a rocket range and specialized rocket units. It is not for nothing that Dmitry Ustinov was the deputy chairman of the state commission on October 18, 1948, at the first launch of the A-4 ballistic missile from the Kapustin Yar test site.
In 1953 Ustinov became the Minister of Defense Industry of the USSR, the old department was enlarged. During this period, being an ardent admirer of the development of advanced types of weapons, Ustinov played an important role in strengthening the nuclear missile potential of the Soviet Union. Supporting Khrushchev and moving up the administrative ladder - having received the post of chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, and deputy (since 1963 - first deputy) chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Dmitry Ustinov pushed through the interests of the military-industrial complex and the nuclear missile industry. In 1957, Ustinov became the head of the acceptance of the first nuclear submarine. Dmitry Ustinov played an outstanding role in the creation and deployment of the ocean-going nuclear fleet. Ustinov became the "godfather" of many nuclear-powered ships, including the Project 941 Akula heavy missile submarine cruisers. Ustinov also played an important role in the development of the electronic industry necessary for the development of the defense complex, primarily missile weapons. On his initiative, Zelenograd was founded, focused on the development of electronics and microelectronics.
Khrushchev, who himself was an active supporter of the development of the rocket sphere, supported Ustinov. True, the process of strengthening the nuclear missile potential of the USSR took place at the expense of conventional weapons, during the Khrushchev reign many non-nuclear-missile projects suffered great damage, the conventional armed forces were sharply reduced with the disposal of a huge amount of modern weapons. The Soviet fleet suffered serious damage during this period. It must be said that Ustinov shared the opinion, popular at that time among the top Soviet leadership, about the moral obsolescence of large surface ships.
After the removal from power of Nikita Khrushchev, Ustinov, although he left his post in the Council of Ministers, retained his influence in the military industry. I must say that Ustinov, who initially supported Khrushchev, in particular, during the speech of the so-called. The anti-party group eventually became an active participant in the anti-Khrushchev conspiracy. Since 1976, Ustinov headed the USSR Ministry of Defense and became a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. Ustinov headed the Ministry of Defense until his death on December 20, 1984. He died in the line of duty.
Having tremendous influence in the military-industrial complex, Ustinov, although he eliminated a number of obvious imbalances in the development of the Soviet military machine, was unable to change the general trend. As a result, the interests of the military-industrial complex most often stood above the interests of the Armed Forces; the defense order was formed based on the interests of industry. Among the most famous examples of such a bias: the adoption into service in the 1960s-1970s of three tanks similar in combat capabilities, but seriously differing in design (T-64, T-72, T-80); the diversity of the Navy's missile systems with a tendency to build new ships for each new complex, instead of modernizing the previous ones. In addition, Ustinov was one of the main opponents of the construction of classical aircraft carriers, which led to the emergence of heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers.
Having become the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Ustinov radically changed the military doctrine. Before him, the armed forces of the USSR were preparing for a non-nuclear conflict of high intensity in Europe and the Far East, where powerful armored forces were to play the main role. Dmitry Fedorovich made the main emphasis on a sharp build-up and modernization of the operational-tactical nuclear potential of Soviet troops in the European direction. The medium-range missile system RSD-10 "Pioneer" (SS-20) and the operational-tactical complexes OTR-22 and OTR-23 "Oka" were to pave the way for the tank armada of the USSR in Europe.
Many contemporaries noted the ability of Marshal of the Soviet Union Ustinov to choose the best and most efficient projects from the available projects. So, a whole layer of the life of the great statesman was associated with the organization of the air defense of the USSR. Back in 1948, Joseph Stalin set the task of organizing a reliable defense of Moscow. In 1950, the Third Main Directorate of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (TSU) was created. In the shortest possible time - in four and a half years, they created an air defense system in Moscow, where the S-25 systems were on duty. For its time, it was a technical masterpiece - the first multi-channel anti-aircraft missile system. With the support of Ustinov, the S-125 short-range anti-aircraft missile system was adopted in 1961. Ustinov was also an active supporter of the adoption of the S-200 long-range anti-aircraft missile system. Under his control, the S-300 air defense systems were created. Perfectly knowing all the previous complexes, Dmitry Fedorovich delved into the smallest details and made the most stringent requirements for the new anti-aircraft missile system.
It must be said that, in fact, under the leadership of Ustinov, who became the only domestic leader of this rank, who held key posts in the defense complex of the USSR under Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko, an effective defense system of the country was created that it still allowed Russia-USSR is safe. Under the leadership of Ustinov, almost all types of main weapons were developed and put into production, which are now in service with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. These are T-72 and T-80 tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters, Tu-160 strategic bomber, S-300 air defense missile systems and many other types of weapons and equipment that have still been in combat. efficiency and forcing the surrounding world to restrain its aggression towards the Russian civilization. These types of weapons and their modifications will protect Russia for a long time to come. And this is the merit of the "Stalinist People's Commissar" Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov. Thanks to such human titans, the Soviet Union was a superpower that kept the peace on the entire planet.
