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Rockets and People
As the sphere of its activity expanded, the Council was enriched with new
names, and in the ensuing years of the space age its ranks have included Aleksey
Mikhaylovich Isayev, Semyon Ariyevich Kosberg, Aleksey Fedorovich Bogomolov,
Andronik Gevondovich Iosifyan, Yuriy Sergeyevich Bykov, Armen Sergeyevich
Mnatsakanyan, Nikolay Stepanovich Lidorenko, Fedor Dmitriyevich Tkachev,
Semyon Mikhaylovich Alekseyev, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Khrustalev, Gay Ilyich
Severin, and Aleksandr Dmitriyevich Konopatov.
All of these people recognized Korolev as the leader, director, and commander
of Soviet cosmonautics. Each of the individuals listed above had the official title of
Chief Designer. Each became the founder of his own school, developing his own
special field of emphasis. The ideas that emerged in the organizations of these
Chief Designers could only have been realized using the scientific potential of the
entire nation, with the assistance of powerful industry. Hundreds of factories and
industrial, academic, military, and higher education scientific institutions were
drawn into the Council of Chiefs’ ideological sphere of influence.
Ministers and government officials who were directly involved in rocket-space
matters did not oppose the authority of the Council of Chiefs. Sometimes, they
themselves participated in its work. Disposed with real economic and political
power, the ruling echelons of the Soviet state by and large supported the Council’s
technical proposals.
Later Councils of Chiefs were created using the Korolev Council as a model.
These were headed by Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel,Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey,
Aleksandr Davidovich Nadiradze, Viktor Petrovich Makeyev, Dmitiriy Ilyich
Kozlov, Georgiy Nikolayevich Babakin, and Mikhail Fedorovich Reshetnev.
The interconnectedness of these Councils was unavoidable.The Chief Designers—members
of the first Korolev Council enriched by the experience of producing
the first rocket systems—began the development of rockets for other Chief
Designers and entered into new Councils. Glushko created engines for Korolev as
well as for Chelomey and Yangel; Isayev created engines for Korolev and Makeyev;
Pilyugin created guidance systems for Korolev and then for Yangel, Chelomey, and
Nadiradze; Barmin created launch systems for Korolev, Yangel, and Chelomey’s
rockets.The development of Kuznetsov’s gyroscopic systems proved to be the most
universal.They were used on the majority of Soviet rockets and many spacecraft.
It was only a matter of time before the command and measurement complex
equipped with the radio systems of Ryazanskiy, Bogomolov, and Mnatsakanyan
became the standard for everyone.
Similar technocratic structures also existed in the nuclear industry (under the
leadership of Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov) and in the field of radar (under the
leadership of Aksel Ivanovich Berg, Aleksandr Andreyevich Raspletin, Grigoriy
Vasilyevich Kisunko, and Boris Vasilyevich Bunkin).Their sphere of scientific-technical
activity included production, scientific institutions, and military organizations.
Long before the Councils of Chief Designers, which directed the production of
rocket-space technology, the aviation industry had set up its own system of chief
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