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Rockets and People
schools, but also embittered debates surrounding the doctrines and strategies of
development between the very statesmen endowed with real power.These debates
were not antagonistic, since no one was struggling to appropriate or seize state
public property for mercenary aims in the interests of some clan.
A great qualitative advancement that resolved many organizational conflicts was
the resolution of 1965 under the Brezhnev Politburo concerning the creation of a
special Ministry of General Machine-Building (MOM). The name of the new
ministry had nothing in common with the actual content of its work; however, to
openly announce to the entire world that in the Soviet Union a rocket-space
ministry or nuclear industry ministry had been created was considered impermissible.There
was not a problem with aviation or radio engineering, but rocket-space
was strictly forbidden!
Sergey Aleksandrovich Afanasyev was named Minister of “General Machine-
Building.” Afanasyev’s biographical early life is typical of many other defense
industry managers. In 1941, he graduated from the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical
Institute (MVTU). 28 During the war he was a foreman and designer at an
artillery factory, as well as shop chief and deputy chief mechanic.After the war he
was transferred to the Ministry of Armaments, where, beginning in 1955, he
headed the Main Technical Directorate. In 1957, he became deputy chairman, and
beginning in 1958, chairman of the Leningrad Economic Council. In 1961, he
became deputy chairman of the All-Union Council of the National Economy.
And then on 2 March 1965, he was appointed MOM minister. He worked in this
high-level state post for eighteen years!
Afanasyev left for another ministry—not voluntarily or for reasons of health, but
at the will of a member of the Politburo, Minister of Defense Marshal Ustinov. In
1965, unexpectedly for many, Ustinov promoted Afanasyev to the post of minister
of the rocket industry and supported him in every possible way. However, he did
not forgive him for his opposition in the conflict that we called the “little civil
war,” which resulted from disagreements between General Designers Yangel and
Chelomey on principles of defense doctrine and the development of strategic
nuclear missile armaments.The “little civil war” began in 1964 under Khrushchev
and did not end until 1976 when Ustinov, having become Minister of Defense,
ended it.
Ustinov profoundly felt and understood the importance of science for state
security. At one of the meetings on the lunar program, while addressing the president
of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician Keldysh, he said that
science must be the “headquarters” of government. He also suggested this to
Afanasyev, who was beginning his ministerial career. The fact that Afanasyev
succeeded in convincing Brezhnev to transfer to his new ministry not only all of
the main rocket-space design bureaus, scientific-research institutes, and series
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28. MVTU—Moskovskoye vyssheye tekhnicheskoye uchilishche.