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Rockets and People
a certain period of time, Malenkov formally directed rocket affairs, but of the six
signers, the actual organizer of the Soviet rocket industry was Ustinov. Ustinov
and Ryabikov were among the main authors of the historic Council of Ministers
resolution No. 1017-419ss, dated 13 May 1946 and signed by Stalin under the
stamp Top Secret (Special File).
This decree laid the foundation for the creation of the country’s entire rocket
industry infrastructure, from the very top state agencies to the scientific research,
design, and production organizations and enterprises to the military units that
tested and used the rocket armaments.
The resolution created a higher state agency for rocket technology—the
“Special Committee”—under the Soviet Council of Ministers chaired by
Georgiy Maksimilianovich Malenkov. Not one of the Chief Designers was
appointed to the Committee.They simply were not there yet in terms of power
and influence. They had only begun to grow accustomed to one another in
Germany at the RABE, Nordhausen, and Berlin institutes. Dmitriy Fedorovich
Ustinov, Minister of Armaments, and Ivan Savelyevich Zubovich, who was
relieved of his duties as Deputy Minister of the Electric Industry, were appointed
deputy Chairmen of the Special Committee. The Committee was given the
responsibility for the development of the new field and invested with very broad
powers. The resolution of 13 May 1946 made projects concerning rocket technology
the most important state mission, and it was imperative that their execution
be given top priority. Georgiy Nikolayevich Pashkov, who directed the
department for the development and production of armaments in Gosplan, determined
the distribution of work between the ministries. 6 The Ministry of Armaments—with
Minister D. F. Ustinov—was appointed the head ministry for the
development and production of rocket projectiles with liquid-propellant engines.
The Seventh Main Directorate, headed by Sergey Ivanovich Vetoshkin, was
formed within the ministry. In the city of Kaliningrad in the Moscow region, the
State Scientific-Research Institute No. 88 of the Ministry of Armaments was
created using the infrastructure of artillery factory No. 88.
In the USSR Armed Forces Ministry (the former People’s Commissariat of
Defense and the future Ministry of Defense), the Directorate of Reactive Armaments
was created within the GAU, and a corresponding directorate was created
in the Navy.The military also created the NII-4 of the GAU and the State Central
Firing Range (GTsP) to serve all ministries involved with missiles. 7
A resolution defined the responsibilities of the other ministries (with the exception
of the Ministry of Armaments) for the creation of reactive armaments. The
Ministry of Aviation Industry was entrusted with developing and manufacturing
6. Gosplan—Gosudarstvennaya planovaya komissiya (State Planning Committee)—founded in 1921 by the
Council of People’s Commissars, was in charge of managing allocations for the Soviet economy.
7. GTsP—Gosudarstvennyy tsentralnyy polygon.
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