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Birth of the Institute RABE
From the author’s archives.
Boris Ye. Chertok (left) and Nikolay A. Pilyugin in occupied Germany—Bleicherode, winter of 1946.
coming up with new technical ideas.While the ideas weren’t always feasible, they
were very interesting and original.
Two weeks later,Vasiliy Pavlovich Mishin,Aleksandr Yakovlevich Bereznyak, and
Yevgeniy Mitrofanovich Kurilo appeared.Vasiliy Mishin, who was inclined toward
integrated design and theoretical work, immediately set about obtaining materials
from the Germans concerning the theory of rocket flight. He later became
Korolev’s first deputy, and after Korolev’s death in 1966, he became the chief
designer of Korolev’s firm and was selected as a full member of the USSR Academy
of Sciences. Sasha Bereznyak was the initiator of BI development, an enthusiast
only for the winged versions of missiles, and the future chief designer of cruise
missiles.After surveying our work in Bleicherode, he announced that he was leaving
because there was nothing for him to do, but said he would join us again after
Isayev returned from Lehesten.
I set about distributing duties among the new arrivals. In spite of his high rank,
I appointed Pilyugin as the first deputy chief of the Institute RABE and chief
engineer. 2 After receiving his office, he immediately asked the Germans for a set
of precision mechanics tools and ordered that all electromechanical instruments,
no matter where they came from, pass through his office workshop. I visited
Semyon Chizhikov at Villa Franka.Taking into account his exceptional organiza-
2. The title ‘first deputy’ was common in Soviet institutions to denote someone who was ‘first among the
deputies.’
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