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Rockets and People
weaponry. Sokolov was instructed to head a State Commission to inspect Peenemünde.
In Peenemünde, he was not only the representative of the Army
Command, but also the plenipotentiary of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party. He did not wait for instructions from the government, but
seized the initiative and enacted his own decisions.Thus, in the very first months
after the collapse of Nazi Germany, small unguided rocket projectiles, which were
then called RS’s, led to active work on the creation of large guided missiles—
long-range ballistic missiles. Upon returning from Germany, Sokolov took a
management position as chief of rocket armaments in the Main Artillery Directorate
of the Ministry of Defense. Later at NII-4, his activity was of decisive
importance in the organization of the command measurement complex. After
the catastrophe of 24 October 1960, in which the Commander-in-Chief of the
Strategic Rocket Forces was killed (Chief Artillery Marshal Mitrofan Ivanovich
Nedelin), Sokolov was appointed chairman of the State Commission for flightdesign
tests for the first Yangel rocket: the R-16. Sokolov rehabilitated Yangel and
his rocket.This was of decisive importance for the fate of Yangel himself as well
as his design bureau.
Another figure whose work between 1945 and 1946 had a lasting impact on
our cosmonautics was General Lev Mikhaylovich Gaydukov. Gaydukov was a
member of the military council of the Guards Mortar Units; in other words, he
was a military commissar—a representative of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party. Having become familiar with the “partisan” organization and
the Institute RABE that Isayev and myself had founded in July 1945 in the village
of Bleicherode, he understood that rapid governmental support was needed for this
initiative from the very top. During August and September 1945, Gaydukov was
gearing up for frenetic activity by using his personal connections with Central
Committee members and two Deputy Chairmen of the Council of Ministers,
Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malyshev and Nikolay Aleksandrovich Voznesenskiy.
Bypassing the all-powerful Lavrentiy Beriya, he was received by Stalin. Gaydukov
reported on the work being conducted in Germany to restore German rocket
technology and asked Stalin to allow the temporary posting to Germany of known
specialists in rocket technology, the former zeki who worked in the so-called
Kazanskaya sharaga. 5 Gaydukov’s list included Korolev, Glushko, Sevruk, and
another twenty former “enemies of the people.” After returning to Germany,
Gaydukov headed the Institute Nordhausen, which pursued several different projects.
Korolev was appointed Chief Engineer.
If it had not been for General Gaydukov’s exceptional energy and bold decisionmaking,
it is possible that many names—including Korolev, Glushko, Pilyugin,
Mishin, Chertok, and Voskresenskiy—would not be listed today among the
pioneers of Russian cosmonautics.
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5. Zek (prisoner) and Sharaga (prison work camp) were slang terms commonly used during the Soviet era.