It held the defense. October 30 - 105 since the birth of Marshal DF Ustinov
During the 45 years, Dmitry Fedorovich was closely engaged in everything that even indirectly enters into the concept of national defense - from sackcloths to ballistic missiles. Amazing fate, amazing biography!Fedor Sysoevich and Efrosinya Martynovna Ustinov raised four sons, as it should be in Russian families - in severity, obedience and hard work. Dima was the youngest. Ivan died in the Civil. Peter finished it with a brigade commander in the famous 25-th Chapayev Division. After the war, Nicholas was sent to Central Asia to fight the Basmachis. The Ustinovs' family soon also went there, fleeing hunger. Dmitry volunteered to join CHON - part of a special appointment. Then it is transferred to the 12 th Turkestan Rifle Regiment. It was in Central Asia that the military service of the future marshal began. It will end in some mystical way in the Asian expanses ...
In 1923, the demobilized Ustinov moved to the Ivanovo region, where his brother Nicholas was transferred. As the eldest (the parents were no longer alive), he advised Dima to continue the service - she was given to the young man without much stress. Did not agree. His inquisitive mind attracted engineering, engineering, design work. Ustinov studied! Few Soviet leaders of higher rank compare with Dmitry Fedorovich in his passion for knowledge.
After studying at the Makarievka Vocational School, enters the Ivanovo-Voznesensky Polytechnic Institute. As the best student Ustinov transferred to the Moscow Mechanical Engineering Institute - the future MVTU named after NE. Bauman. In May, 1932, again as an excellent student, Dmitry was transferred to the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. This is because engineering personnel for the Red Army were trained at this university. And the country has always given her all the best - first of all people.
Year 1934. Ustinov brilliantly passes exams and receives a referral to the Leningrad Artillery Marine Research Institute. Here, as a design engineer, he has been working under the direction of Academician A.N. for several years. Krylov. All my life, then Ustinov carefully sharpened himself precisely for this scientist, who had no sense of humor either. “He loved a clever joke, appreciated it, regarded it as an assistant in the work, and sometimes as a means of getting out of a difficult situation,” Ustinov recalled about his mentor.
I can not deny myself the pleasure of recalling that a little more than four years working in the Red Star, I regularly met with Dmitry Fedorovich.
There are several anecdotes in my notebooks labeled: “He told MO Ustinov”. Here is one of them. Brezhnev and Carter signed an agreement on the destruction of all missiles. Destroyed. Carter calls the Kremlin and maliciously says: “Everything, Leonid Ilyich, surrender. We managed to bypass the treaty to save two missiles with nuclear weapons". Frightened Brezhnev calls the Minister of Defense: “What are we going to do?” - “Do not worry, Leonid Ilyich. I was just reported: a whole nuclear missile unreported division was discovered beyond the Urals. Our sloveners did not include it in the contract. ”
... I give DF (all subordinates so lovingly respectfully called the minister for their eyes) “fish” - a draft report on the solemn meeting dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Soviet Army and the Naval Fleet. In a matter of seconds, he looks diagonally at five pages of typewritten text (a jubilee collection), signs it and returns it to me with the words: “Alexandrova (President of the USSR Academy of Sciences - MZ) put immediately after the candidates for membership in the Politburo! "
Probably, I was so dumbfounded that the marshal easily noticed on my face, written in the twentieth pitch: “Comrade Minister of Defense, but you didn’t even read it!” Smiling slyly, he said: “You’d read it for a day, as I have five thousand documents I would learn speed reading. ”
Then he accidentally found out that DF really knew how to read many times faster than an ordinary person. He also slept, like Napoleon, no more than 4 hours a day, and that was enough for him for amazing performance.
... I get out of the Moscow Art Theater long after midnight. On the stairs face to face I come across with Ustinov's adjutant. “Have you really been with the boss at the performance?” - “What a performance! From the service back. DF decided to take a walk a little before bedtime. ”-“ How about tomorrow? " (Ustinov lived in tsekovskom house, near the Moscow Art Theater).
In the summer of 1937, Ustinov was appointed first to the Bolshevik design bureau (the famous Obukhov Steel Plant), and then the director of the enterprise. Two years later, the plant will be awarded the Order of Lenin for "major organizational and structural changes, for the development of a single comprehensively grounded production technology." 116 military leaders will be honored with state awards. His first Order of Lenin - the highest award of the country of socialism - received and director. In total, he has eleven of such orders by the end of his life.
In the pre-storm military time Ustinov notices Stalin and appoints him chiefly to the most crucial part of the defense complex. Joseph Vissarionovich always repeated: "In order to win, we need three things: armament, armament and once again armament." So in 33, Dmitry Fyodorovich becomes one of the Stalinist "iron commissars." That was the time when the world's first executives appeared, who came to high posts from urban and rural proletarians. Stalin connected all his hopes with them, “cook children”. And practically none of the Stalinist "iron commissars" did not let the leader down.
Already on the fifth day of the war, Ustinov presented to the government a well-developed algorithm of further actions - “Mobilization Plan for the III Quarter”. Picky for such documents, Stalin did not change a word in Ustinov’s proposals.
So began the unparalleled in stories of humanity, the movement of enterprises and their work collectives beyond the Urals. In three months, as Ustinov calculated, 1364 large plants and factories were evacuated. By early December 1941, the State Defense Committee decided to create strategic reserves to strengthen the Army in the field. To carry it out, Ustinov clearly defined the amount of equipment, weapons for manning hundreds of rifle, artillery, anti-aircraft and tank regiments, dozens of rifle divisions, brigades, made calculations of the necessary weapons according to the nomenclature, organized in a short time the production and delivery of military equipment from factories scattered throughout the vast country. In parallel, the People's Commissariat also ensured the implementation of the strategic plan to create headquarters reserves for the counteroffensive near Moscow.
Chief of the Main Artillery Directorate Marshal of Artillery N. D. Yakovlev recalled: “When we ran out of strength at long and frequent meetings, the bright smile and relevant joke of Dmitry Fedorovich relieved the tension, infused new forces into the people around him. It seemed he was on the shoulder absolutely everything! ".
In the Soviet myth-making, there are many legends connected with Stalin’s cruelty towards his subordinates. As for Ustinov, until the last day of his life he spoke of the leader exclusively with reverence. As a delegate of the 18th party congress, he recalled: “I felt an overwhelming concern for my native country, responsibility for its fate. This feeling arose from the very first minutes after JV Stalin rose to the podium, speaking at the congress with the Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.). His low, slightly deaf voice imperiously seized the attention, and everything he said fit in his mind firmly, tightly, almost weightily.
On another occasion, Dmitry Fedorovich wrote: “Stalin had a unique capacity for work, great will power, and great organizational talent. Understanding the complexity and versatility of war management issues, he trusted the members of the Politburo, the Central Committee, the State Defense Committee, the leaders of the People's Commissars much, managed to arrange flawlessly clear, coordinated, coordinated work of all levels of management, sought unconditional execution of decisions.
Moreover, the leader demanded from Ustinov, however, as well as from any other, invested with power, by the highest and strict standards.
When it was not possible to fulfill the daily output rate of rifles once, and Dmitri Fyodorovich honestly named the number: 9997 instead of 10 000, Stalin insinuatedly said that if Comrade Ustinov once again repeated such a report, another person would sit in the people's commissar’s chair.
And at the same time I find a well-known historian and publicist Arseny Zamostyanov: “Incidents have happened. Ustinov in those years loved to drive a motorcycle. By the way, in the post-war years, it was Dmitry Fedorovich who established the production of motorcycles (and later, cars) at the Izhevsk plant. Once he had an accident, broke his leg. He had to hold meetings of the board of the People's Commissariat in the hospital ward. He was preparing for a severe punishment for childishness. When he came to the Kremlin, at the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, he heard from Stalin the following words: “There is a war, every person counts, and some commissars by their own stupidity break their legs. Comrade Ustinov, didn’t you get a car? I will dispose of this. ” This meant that punishment would not follow. Stalin highly appreciated the "Russian nugget". Which in the correspondence competition with the imperial Reich minister of arms and military industry Albert Speer won unconditionally, as they say, with a crushing score. On average, the enterprises of the People's Commissariat for the year gave the front one and a half times more guns, 5 times more mortars than the industry of Germany and the countries occupied by it. The total number of Soviet small arms has grown over the war in 22 times.
Therefore, immediately after the war, Stalin instructed Ustinov to coordinate the work of numerous research institutes, design bureaus, and industrial enterprises for the needs of the country's defense.
Dmitry Fyodorovich played an exceptional role in creating a fundamentally new type of strategic weapons - ballistic missiles, having made a correct forecast for the development of military equipment and weapons.
In many ways, thanks to his perseverance, the creation of a rocket industry, a rocket range and specialized military units began.
In 1957, Dmitry Fedorovich - the head of acceptance of the first nuclear submarine. For many underwater and surface nuclear powered ships, he became the “godfather”. For example, the third-generation submarines of the type "Shark" and today carry their ocean watch. In general, hand on heart, it must be admitted that our Armed Forces are still half, if not more, using the groundwork and the know-how in equipment and armament, laid down by the “Stalinist People's Commissar”.
As a former peveoshnik, I can not pass by a whole layer in the biography of Dmitry Fedorovich, associated with the creation of the country's air defense. Back in 1948, Stalin set a task for defense industry workers - to organize a reliable defense of the sky of Moscow. For the "impenetrable" air defense system needed anti-aircraft missile systems with radar early warning. Among other things, it took the creation of an electronic database. So, on the initiative of Ustinov, our "Silicon Valley", Zelenograd, was built. For four and a half years, the Moscow air defense system was created with unique multi-channel C-25 air defense systems. The next-generation C-75 complex was hit by a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Then, with the support of Ustinov, the С-125, С-200, С-300 complexes were adopted. The C-300PMU1 system began to enter the troops after the death of Dmitry Fedorovich. But the fact that it still forms the basis of the fire defenses of air defense is solely his merit. In other words, it can be said, Ustinov was at the origins of the creation of an air defense system, rocket production and a rocket-carrying fleet, and space exploration.
Knowing his worth, he had never fawned before. Even before Stalin. With Khrushchev just knew how to get along. And with Brezhnev, he was humanly friendly, they didn’t “pull the blanket over” even when, in due course, the military industry and space were supervised by a couple.
Moreover, both have always found common ground with such obstinate, but renowned academicians like Kurchatov, Keldysh, Aleksandrov, Sakharov, Korolev, Glushko, Yangel. What helped them in this? Yes, probably, first of all, the very qualities that Stalin once noted in them: humanity, sense of duty, genuine interest in human needs, devotion to socialist ideals.
Here with Marshal A.A. Grechko domineering Ustinov, frankly, was "in the counter." They say that Andrei Antonovich told Brezhnev more than once: “Lenya, tell this“ Redhead ”to yours, let it not go to my business, or else you will receive it according to the status quo. It is clear that the "Red" did not remain in debt, everywhere calling Grechko "cavalryman." What in his understanding meant: finished retrograde. In fairness, it must be admitted that Dmitry Fedorovich was generally quite down on all the generals, especially the Marshal's corps. He often repeated: “You don’t have to fight a lot of mind on a box of sand, and draw blue and red arrows on maps.” Frank hint that the lamp people in Soviet times did not really worship science, intellect. He himself studied until the last days of his life. Chief Designer of the Missile Attack System VG Repin recalls: “Dmitry Fedorovich did not hesitate to learn even at the highest post and persistently forced his subordinates to learn. Already as minister of defense, he instructed me to read to him and the ministry’s colleges a series of lectures on the principles of building complex information systems for strategic purposes, methods of ensuring the highest reliability of strategic information, and modern and promising technical means of these systems. He was the most active listener of these lectures and, in my opinion, already in my absence, he gave his closest subordinates something like an exam. ”
When appointing Ustinov as minister, Brezhnev said at the Politburo meeting: “In the person of Dmitry Fyodorovich, we have an experienced, past school party job who knows the issues of the country's defense well. Of course, 40-year-old comrade to put on such a site would be impractical. It is very good that a person from a “citizen” comes to the Ministry of Defense. From the point of view of defusing tensions in the international situation, this will also be taken correctly. Comrade Ustinov knows and design bureaus, leading designers, knows defense factories. We must also assign him the rank of army general. " (He will become a Marshal in exactly three months. - MZ).
At first, the army and navy personnel, who had strained himself at first against the “civilian” minister of defense, soon began to breathe deeply. It became clear to everyone: no one would offend warriors.
Moreover, Ustinov took up the matter decisively. Otherwise, this finished workaholic simply did not know how. He began by breaking through the construction of a new General Staff building above the Arbatskaya metro station. Everyone kept saying: it was theoretically impossible to do the same over a ramified subway. And the minister insisted. And the architects "stuck" the GSH building with surgical precision, making an exit and entrance for the metro in it. Have you seen anywhere in other countries of the world that the metro station was under the building of the General Staff? In general, he was able to solve any problems arising in front of him outside the box.
It took Dmitry Fyodorovich to make a report on the next “red” date of the Soviet calendar. The assistants quickly “bungled” the 20 boss with the cool text pages. The minister honored him, and he almost had a heart attack - the report turned out to be so furious, in the best ideological traditions. “That's what, brothers,” said the assistants, “let one report be prepared at the Institute of Military History, another at the Academy of the General Staff, the third at the editorial office of the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.” And I also pointed out some two organizations, I don’t remember them. They brought five reports to the minister. Ustinov carefully studied them. He took one as a basis and wrote his own sixth version. But that's not all. Dmitry Fyodorovich ordered to find the author of the variant he liked. It turned out to be my colleague in the "Red Star", Lieutenant Colonel Valery Manilov. The marshal first took him as his own referent, then he appointed the head of the MO referenture. In the future, Valery Leonidovich will become deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, and will end his service as first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Ustinov had such an unsurpassed ability to seek out capable people. Unlike many Soviet commanders, and even large nomenklatura workers, he was not afraid of clever subordinates.
On the contrary, he cultivated them as best he could. Let me remind the reader that having become a minister, Dmitry Fedorovich immediately removed Marshal VG Kulikov from the post of chief of the General Staff and appointed to her a wonderful military intellectual, General of the Army N.V. Ogarkov. To make such a "castling", to change the marshal for a general, could not even all taken together by the politburo. Ustinov also approached another clever general - SF Akhromeeva. He made him the first deputy of the NGS and assigned him the rank of Marshal. In the history of the USSR, I have not met more cases when the deputy chief of the General Staff, even the first, would become a marshal.
And what about the example of Leonid Ivashov. Dmitry Fedorovich once briefly talked with him, still a lieutenant colonel, the chief of staff of the regiment. He took to his adjutants. And here is your further career as an officer: the head of the ministerial secretariat Ustinov and Sokolov; Head of Administration at Yazov. Then - Secretary of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the CIS countries; Chief of Staff for the Coordination of Military Cooperation of the CIS Member States; Head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense. Now he heads the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, he teaches at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He writes, by the way, excellent poems and songs. By the way, he himself performs them ...
Radically changed Dmitry Fedorovich and military doctrine. In past times, our army was preparing for a "high-intensity non-nuclear conflict," in which the armored forces and aviation. Ustinov became the ideologist of the "Euro-strategic" theory of military operations on the "old" continent, which suggested a sharp increase in nuclear potential. The latest missile systems were adopted. In modern warfare (and also in its prevention!) It was they who should play a paramount role. It was envisaged: by preventive nuclear strikes to support the advance of a group of forces in the alleged conflict with NATO. For a minute Ustinov did not lose sight of his main opponent, the United States. Under his personal leadership, the Topol and Voivode intercontinental ballistic missiles were developed.
It should be noted here that under Ustinov, the constant reinforcement of the rocket forces did not at the expense of all other genera and species.
Thanks to his main efforts, the army received modern tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, aircraft. The airborne troops acquired a landing vehicle capable of landing with the crew. The fleet first received aircraft carrier cruisers.
At the same time, of course, I know quite a common opinion among some military experts that Marshal Ustinov, building up the Soviet nuclear potential, in parallel with this massively reduced conventional armed forces, turned off work on many "non-nuclear-missile" projects. Especially often it is criticized for the rejection of aircraft carriers, as fundamentally outdated large surface ships. And this, allegedly, caused significant damage to the development of the Soviet fleet, led to the emergence of the so-called "mutants" - the heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers of the 1143 project.The first real aircraft carrier of the USSR - now in the ranks of the Russian fleet "Admiral Kuznetsov" - was laid back in the 1982 year. When Ustinov. As far as it was not easy, you can judge at least by such “indirect” features: the development of an aircraft carrier, it took almost 20 years to dispute around it! In the project, he was "Soviet Union". When laying - "Riga". When launching - "Leonid Brezhnev." When tested - "Tbilisi".
Great historical figures are always controversial and contradictory. They have great mistakes. Thanks to the extraordinary, truly titanic efforts of Ustinov, we can safely say that at the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties there was a peak, the heyday of the Soviet military-industrial and defense complexes. The Soviet Union, the country of the workers, peasants and labor intelligentsia, has reached military-strategic parity with the country of "decaying" capitalism by the United States of America. And no one in the world denied this. And in personal terms, Ustinov achieved unprecedented power. It only seemed that the country was ruled by a dozen and a half elderly people from the Politburo headed by the ill-speaking Ilyich. In fact, all the real (and I would add - unlimited!) Power during this period was in the hands of the triumvirate Andropov - Gromyko - Ustinov.
But unlimited power played a cruel joke with the most energetic and capable of the Commissars of the Stalinist school. Responsibility for the introduction of our troops into Afghanistan lies solely on the aforementioned triangle.
As it now turns out, Leonid Ilyich in the open, and some members of the Politburo, on a fool, resisted a military adventure that had lasted for ten long years. They say that Brezhnev died under moaning: “But Dima promised me that everything would end quickly.” Incredible Commissary energy Ustinova needed a collegiate shortage. But it, alas, was not. The whole Politburo turned out to be weaker than the “iron Stalinist people's commissar” ...
After the death of Andropov, Ustinov became both de jure and de facto the most influential person in the USSR. It was he who put the sick Chernenko in the position of the Secretary General, although he could easily have appropriated it. His sovereignty did not last long - yet he had two operations to remove malignant tumors. I once went to the Semipalatinsk test site and caught a bad cold there. Returned to Moscow and died on December 20 1984 of the year. His ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall. It is said that candidates and members of the Politburo, whom he didn’t give a penny, opposed a separate grave for Ustinov. Dmitry Fyodorovich was the last, whose ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall.
***
The name is twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Hero of the Soviet Union D.F. Ustinov wore Izhevsk for three years. Then it was decided to name the newly formed district of Izhevsk in honor of the minister. The name of the marshal was given to the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. For five years in Moscow was Ustinov Boulevard, but in 1990, the old name Autumn was returned to him. For the capital, Gabriel Popov, this was more important. At his homeland, Ustinov, in Samara, a square was named after him in the historic part of the city, where a bust was also installed. In St. Petersburg, the street is named after him. The Northern Fleet includes the Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser. In 2012, in Kovrov, a street in one of the microdistricts was named after Ustinov. Iron Stalin Commissar captured in several films. There is a mark of his name. But much more important than the other. Our entire military industry is still moving due to the impulse from the big Ustinov push. And it remembers the Russian people.
Information