Dmitry Ustinov

During his lifetime, this man was respected by many, some were even afraid. They were afraid because they knew that discipline was above all else for him. This man enjoyed the unlimited trust of Stalin, Khrushchev listened to his opinion, and Brezhnev could not make a single decision important for the country. He is an entire era, personifying all the greatness and power of the Soviet empire. After all, throughout his long life he had to oversee issues of defense and the efficiency of the army. The hydrogen bomb, the first satellites of the earth, the first flight of an astronaut, Sakharov, Afghanistan. And these are not all the pages of history that our fellow countryman had to “flip through.”
Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov was born on October 30, 1908 in the city of Samara. Mitya lived in the area of ​​what is now Samara Square, where today a high-rise building for the local elite was built on the site of his house.
Little Mitya was never spoiled by anyone. The only exception was the beloved grandmother Euphrosinia, who constantly bought sweets for her granddaughter and told bedtime stories.
The Ustinovs were from peasants. Their family was driven to Samara by severe need. The boy knew firsthand what hunger was and how it was possible to stretch a small crust over three days.
Since childhood, Mitya was a brave boy. Once he even saved his friend Sasha, who almost drowned in the Volga. Dmitry himself was never afraid of water. Of course! After all, according to his horoscope, he is Scorpio. He swam across the Volga more than once.
When Mitya was not even 11 years old, he went to earn his living by working as a courier for the Samara Provincial Executive Committee. Later he got a job as a laborer at a pipe factory (now ZIM).
At the age of 14, the boy went from Samara to Samarkand, where he fought the Basmachi as part of special forces. In the summer of 1923, Mitya volunteered for the 12th Turkestan Rifle Regiment. By the way, the chief of staff of this regiment was Vasily Sokolovsky, later the Marshal of the Soviet Union, known throughout the country. That same fall, Ustinov was demobilized. Mitya returned to his beloved grandmother Efrosinia Martynovna, who then lived in the town of Makaryev, Ivanovo-Voznesensk province. In this town there was a vocational school, where Dmitry entered. According to the stories of Dmitry Fedorovich’s son, Nikolai, until his death, the marshal, seeing in front of him metal part, spoke about all the mistakes that the worker made during its manufacture. Even in his youth, Ustinov felt by the sound whether the operating mode of the machine was set.
After graduating from this school, Mitya decided to enter the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute, then the Research Institute of the Maritime Department. In those years, Dmitry met his love Taisiya, whom he soon married.
In 1929, a military mechanical department was opened at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. A little later it was transformed into an independent institute, which was supposed to train technologists and weapons designers. Ustinov was also sent there to study. All his classmates respected Mitya and were a little afraid. They were respected for their strength of character, but feared for their wit. Even then, in his early twenties, an organizational streak was felt in this blond guy. One teacher prophesied, saying: “You, Ustinov, can become a people’s commissar.”
Already at the age of 29, Dmitry was appointed director of the Bolshevik gun factory. Before he had time to sit in the director’s chair, he started a reconstruction of the enterprise, during which all the workshops were transformed and a thermal power plant, unique for that time, was built using pulverized fuel. Academician Abram Ioffe himself helped in creating a plant for producing acetylene not from carbide, but from fuel oil. When the first year of his directorship ended, it became clear to everyone that the plans could not be fulfilled due to the large volume. He tried to talk to the workers, but it was clear that they had no strength left. Then Ustinov invited an orchestra to the plant, which played cheerful music all shifts. And for the first time in several years, the task was completed, and the director was awarded the Order of Lenin.
On the very eve of the Great Patriotic War Ustinov for good job appointed People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR. Thus, Dmitry Fedorovich becomes the youngest People's Commissar (Minister) ever national history. Then he had just turned 33 years old.
Before the war, the Maxim machine gun was discontinued. But the Degtyarev machine gun, which was supposed to replace it, for some reason did not work right away. The plant where they decided to restore production of the Maxim machine gun was evacuated and placed almost in an open field. Ustinov spent a week and a half at this plant. A bed was set up for him right in the workshop, where Dmitry Fedorovich slept no more than 3-4 hours a day, helping the plant workers get production back on its feet faster. Soon the Great Patriotic War began.
In the autumn of '41, the front really needed anti-tank rifles. Their production at that time in mass quantities had not yet been established. At the request of Ustinov, the People's Commissariat of Armaments transferred some factories of a purely peaceful nature, the need for which was no longer necessary. On October 12, Ustinov showed everyone the drawings of Simonov’s anti-tank rifle. The next day the delegation flew with them to the tractor spare parts plant. Ustinov warned everyone that in December the plant should produce a maximum of anti-tank guns. Ustinov gave his assistant blank sheets of paper with his own signature so that he could fill out the demands on behalf of the People's Commissar. For which Ustinov then got into trouble. Among Ustinov's unconditional records is the development and mastery of production of the lightweight 152-mm howitzer "D-1".
When April 12, 1943 State Committee The Defense Department adopted a resolution on its release; there were not even drawings - just an idea. And already on April 30, the plant sent the first five howitzers to the front. Dmitry Fedorovich, being an excellent designer, when creating the weapon, proposed a change that made the process much more technologically advanced, and, therefore, less labor-intensive.
The People's Commissar always made a good impression on everyone: from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the common worker. Maybe because he treated everyone very carefully. Dmitry Fedorovich knew many of his subordinates by name and patronymic.
After the war, to carry out one major program, it was necessary to create a new industry. We had to start from scratch. It is necessary to invite workers from somewhere, to remove them from their habitual places. Ustinov acted differently. By that time, some factories in the defense industry seemed to have lost their importance. And then, thanks to him, a plan for their restructuring was drawn up and implemented, taking into account the indispensable requirement: to preserve the core of personnel.
Every day the People's Commissariat reviewed the work of the past 24 hours. Ustinov examined the production of each product, remembering by heart its code, purpose and in which workshop of which plant it was produced. His memory was phenomenal. He knew the number of parts produced both incrementally per month and their daily output. Ustinov did not tolerate technical stagnation. He called those who proposed something new “troublemakers,” but always added that it was impossible without them and did not ignore even the most fantastic idea. Take, for example, the story of the rotor lines proposed at the end of the war by the then unknown designer Lev Koshkin. No one took Koshkin’s plan seriously. When Dmitry Fedorovich brought the discussion to the People's Commissariat, everyone, without exception, was against it, and they “sang the burial service” to the author in the first category. Ustinov let everyone go, but asked Koshkin to stay, saying that “you can’t convince anyone with your fingers.” When the line started working, the People's Commissar gathered everyone again. His subordinates did not know where to go, after which Koshkin was appointed chief designer.
And always in difficult times, Dmitry Fedorovich could support a person. One summer night on the 41st, an enemy plane flew over one of the factories where the People's Commissar was at that moment. He dropped his entire bomb supply. The tool shop at the plant was damaged. Three people were killed, several were shell-shocked. Two months before this, the plant produced purely civilian products. All the workers were shocked. In the morning, Ustinov walked around the territory, looked at how the workshops were equipped, and tried to calm down literally every worker.
But he couldn’t stand many sloppy leaders. One day he arrived at a factory that produced optical devices. The director meets him, and at the gate there is a huge puddle where there are bricks, and people jump over them. Ustinov doesn’t seem to see all this. He greeted the director and spoke to him in a friendly manner. And he walks through the puddle and, somewhere deeper, stops, continuing to say something like that. The director in his fashionable boots only shifts from foot to foot. But he can’t leave - the boss has arrived! Only after a good “pause” in the puddle did Ustinov ask: “By the way, what do you think we should do with this puddle?” And he moved on as if nothing had happened.
Dmitry Fedorovich also made mistakes. For example, when they created an 85-mm cannon, which was then mounted on the T-34. They began to test it for “survivability,” and everything was so good that the Main Artillery Directorate, together with the People’s Commissariat, without waiting for the required number of shots to be fired according to test standards, drew up a report to the State Defense Committee: “The new gun is ready!” They were in a hurry, of course, but Ustinov also signed the paper. The State Defense Committee decided to put it on production in two months. That's when she fell apart.
The head of the GAU, Nikolai Yakovlev, reported to Stalin, saying that the deadlines established by the State Defense Committee would not have to be extended. And this was guaranteed by Ustinov, who immediately after the emergency flew to the manufacturing plant. There he ordered the start of mass production of those parts, the reliability of which no one, including himself, doubted, and the product that was destroyed, he began to carefully check together with the designers and technologists. He controlled everything himself - from the production of drawings to the production of the ill-fated part. Just making sure everything is fine. Returned to Moscow. The gun passed the test.
It was difficult to refuse Ustinov’s courage at all. For example, things didn’t work out with the 37-mm aircraft gun of Boris Shpitalny, who enjoyed special authority from Stalin. The gun had such serious design flaws that after firing the shells began to tumble. But nothing could be changed without the personal permission of the designer, but he stubbornly refused to give permission. The other gun was more successful and weighed 20 percent less. Which is very important for aviation. It was designed by Alexander Nudelman. Ustinov, without hesitation for a second, allows the production of the Nudelman gun to begin, although Stalin ordered the aircraft to be armed with the Shpitalny gun.
There was another case. It happened at a factory where they were setting up the production of anti-tank rifles. The director ran away. One evening he ordered his assistant to prepare two cars, forbidding anyone, especially Ustinov, to talk about it, and left for the east. A few hours later the plant had a different director.
Dmitry Fedorovich was a very cheerful person. He loved his son Nikolai. He treated his daughter Vera and grandchildren with amazing tenderness. And in relation to his wife Taisia ​​Alekseevna, he was always a real knight. He obeyed his mother until the last day. Only she could force him to take medicine during a sore throat. He never showed it when anything happened at work. And the marshal’s hobby was steering the steering wheel. He drove the car great. I just drove too hard! Even the personal driver became scared, for which Dmitry Fedorovich reproached him for cowardice. Once it almost ended badly.
On May 1, 1943, he was riding a motorcycle and had an accident on First Meshchanskaya Street in Moscow. Only three months later he left the hospital, and the next day Stalin called him to his place. In addition to Stalin, there were members of the State Defense Committee in the cabinet. Ustinov tried very hard to hold the stick on which he was leaning more inconspicuously, and greeted Stalin and the others. Stalin asks insinuatingly: “Comrade Ustinov, do you know that there is a war going on now?” Dmitry Fedorovich was stunned by such a question. “Of course I know,” he answers. - “You, as the People’s Commissar, represent specific state property. Do you know that those who damage state property during the war are punished?” Ustinov prepared for the worst. “Well, we’ll punish you. What should we do, comrades?” Stalin turned to those. Who was in his office? Everyone is silent, no one dares to offer anything. The pause dragged on. Suddenly Zhdanov says: “Let’s give Ustinov a new motorcycle.” Everyone burst out laughing, and that was the end of the matter, only Stalin said in parting: “If you, Comrade Ustinov, get on a motorcycle again before the end of the war, we will talk differently.” So I had to part with my favorite mode of transport before the Victory.
His performance was fantastic. During the war, he arrived at the People's Commissariat at 10 a.m. without lunch and worked until 6 p.m. From 6 to 9 - break. Potov again, the People's Commissariat. I left there no earlier than 4-5 o’clock in the morning. Until the very last days, I did not leave my office before 11 pm.
Guests at the Ustinovs' house never felt like they were in the marshal's apartment. Everything was so modest. Dmitry Fedorovich was very happy when friends came to his children. I loved talking to young people. Ustinov also loved opera. I always drove in the car with the receiver on.
Quite rarely, the Minister of Defense of the USSR visited his native Samara land. He liked to relax at the Volzhsky Utes sanatorium. And on September 2, 1982, after many years of separation from his hometown, he came to present the Order of Lenin to the top officials of the Regional Committee. After which he visited the place where he had once been small house. He walked along Samarskaya Street and entered the park that bears his name.
At one time, in this park in the fall of 1978, they tried to blow up the bust of Ustinov. The Marshal of the Soviet Union read the investigation materials. It turned out that the guys had nothing against the person of the USSR Minister of Defense. Ustinov Square on Samara Square simply turned out to be the safest place from their point of view. And as other objects, Revolution Square and even a number of Moscow points were considered (TV tower in Ostankino, State Committee on Prices, etc.). They say that the Minister of Defense even put in a good word for the would-be terrorists and asked the authorities not to be so strict with them.
On the day Ustinov visited Kuibyshev, ordinary Samarans watched the legendary old man through the security cordon. He was still cheerful.
Despite all his positivity, many noted that Ustinov was a secretive person. He never talked at home or with friends about work. He did not remember how Stalin instructed him to oversee the development hydrogen bomb, about how in Kuibyshev he led the construction of a bunker for the Kremlin leadership, how one of the few was against the introduction of troops into Afghanistan and the appointment of Chernenko to the post of General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, did not reveal “space secrets.” They say that once in a conversation with Gorbachev, then Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Dmitry Fedorovich complained that it was too unreasonably cruel for the authorities to treat the disgraced academician Sakharov in those years and that they should not put so much pressure on the scientist so as not to please the Western media.
Ustinov took all these secrets with him without revealing any of them. He knew how to remain silent. Perhaps, thanks to this character trait, he always enjoyed great confidence among the country's top leadership from Stalin to Andropov.
Dmitry Fedorovich died on December 20, 1984. Academician Chazov believes that even then Dmitry Fedorovich could have been saved, if not for a number of circumstances that played into the hands of his death. The urn with the ashes of our fellow countryman rests in the Kremlin wall, and we still have the memory of him. Memory of a man who did so much for the Victory of our people in one of the most terrible wars in the entire history of the Earth.

1922 - Volunteered into the Red Army (ChON detachments) in Samarkand.

1923 - Volunteered in the 12th Turkestan Regiment. Participated in hostilities with the Basmachi.

After demobilization in 1923, he worked his way up from a mechanic to a plant director.

In November 1927 he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

1927-1929 - mechanic at the Balakhninsky paper mill, then at a factory in Ivanovo-Voznesensk.

In the fall of 1929 he became a student at the mechanical faculty of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Polytechnic Institute. He worked as secretary of the Komsomol organization and was a member of the party bureau of the institute.

In 1932, the group in which D. Ustinov studied was sent in full force to Leningrad to staff the newly created Military Mechanical Institute (now BSTU "Voenmekh" named after D. F. Ustinov)

1934 - successful graduation from the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute.

Since 1934 - engineer, head of the operation bureau and experimental work at the Leningrad Artillery Research Maritime Institute.

Since 1937 - design engineer, deputy chief designer, director of the Leningrad Bolshevik plant. According to N.V. Kochetov, chief designer of the plant, D.F. Ustinov, having headed the Bolshevik, constantly used obscene language. This “tradition” was preserved at Bolshevik after D. F. Ustinov’s transfer to Moscow.

In 1955, by order of the USSR Minister of Defense, he was recognized as being in active military service from the moment he was awarded a military rank.

December 14, 1957 - March 13, 1963 - Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Chairman of the Commission of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on military-industrial issues

March 13, 1963 - March 26, 1965 - First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of the USSR of the Council of Ministers of the USSR

Member of the CPSU(b)-CPSU since 1927. Member of the CPSU Central Committee in 1952-84, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee in 1976-84 (candidate member of the Presidium-Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee in 1965-76). Delegate to the XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV and XXVI Congresses of the CPSU(b)-CPSU.

Deputy Supreme Council USSR in 1946-1950. and in 1954-1984. Deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR in 1967-1984.

Marshal Dmitry Ustinov was a member of the unofficial, “small” Politburo, which included the oldest and most influential members of the USSR leadership: Brezhnev, the main ideologist and second person in the party and state Suslov, KGB chairman Andropov, Foreign Minister Gromyko. In the “small” Politburo, the most important decisions were made, which were then formally approved at a vote of the main Politburo composition, where they sometimes voted in absentia. When deciding to send Soviet troops into Afghanistan, Ustinov supported Brezhnev, Andropov and Gromyko, and the deployment of troops into Afghanistan was decided.

In addition, Dmitry Ustinov supported the candidacy of Yuri Andropov for the post of Secretary General, overcoming the resistance of internal party groups who wanted to see the old and sick Chernenko in this post. However, Andropov, having served as Secretary General for a year and 3 months, died. But ironically, the sick Chernenko managed to outlive the strong and energetic Ustinov beyond his years. D. F. Ustinov, having caught a cold during a demonstration of new military equipment, died on December 20, 1984 from transient severe pneumonia.

Among the members of the Politburo in the 1970-1980s. differed in that he slept for 4-4.5 hours. He was exceptionally energetic, enterprising, and very quickly solved the problems of managing and managing enterprises.

He was buried on Red Square (cremated, the urn with the ashes was walled up in the Kremlin wall).

"Ustinov Doctrine"

The appointment of D. F. Ustinov as Minister of Defense of the USSR in 1976 led to significant advances in the Soviet Army and in Soviet military doctrine. Previously, the main emphasis was on creating powerful armored forces in accordance with the scenarios of a “non-nuclear conflict” high intensity" V Central Europe and on Far East.

Under D.F. Ustinov, greater emphasis is placed on tactical and operational-tactical nuclear weapons (the theory of “strengthening the European strategic direction”). In accordance with it, in 1976, the planned replacement of monoblock medium-range missiles R-12 (SS-4) and R-14 (SS-5) with the latest RSD-10 Pioneer (SS-20) began. In 1983-1984. in addition to them, the USSR deployed the OTR-22 and OTR-23 “Oka” operational-tactical complexes on the territory of Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic, which made it possible to shoot through the entire territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. On this basis, US and NATO analysts concluded that the USSR was preparing for a limited nuclear conflict in Europe.

Opinions and ratings

Memory

• Ustinov became the last whose ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall (more than two months before the last funeral at the Kremlin wall - K. U. Chernenko).
• In 1984, the city of Izhevsk was renamed Ustinov; The renaming of the capital of the autonomous republic was unusual (previously, only regional centers - Naberezhnye Chelny and Rybinsk - were renamed in honor of Brezhnev and Andropov). This renaming was received sharply negatively by the townspeople, and already on June 19, 1987, Izhevsk was returned to its previous name.
• At the same time, the name of Marshal of the Soviet Union D.F. Ustinov was assigned to the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute. Currently, the university, having undergone changes in its name, still bears the name of D. F. Ustinov, but without mentioning the military rank.
• In 1985, Osenny Boulevard in Moscow was renamed in honor of Ustinov, which became Marshal Ustinov Street, but in 1990 it was returned to its previous name.
• In Ustinov's homeland - Samara - a square in the historical part of the city is named in his honor; There is a bust of Ustinov in the park.
• In St. Petersburg, a street in the Rybatskoye microdistrict is named in his honor.
• The Northern Fleet includes the missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov.

Military ranks

• January 24, 1944 - Lieutenant General of the Engineering and Artillery Service.
• November 18, 1944 - Colonel General of the Engineering and Artillery Service.
• April 29, 1976 - Army General.
• July 30, 1976 - Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Awards

USSR awards

• Hero of the Soviet Union (1978)
• Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1942, 1961)
• 11 Orders of Lenin (1939, 1942, 1944, 1951, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1983)
• Order of Suvorov, 1st class (1945)
• Order of Kutuzov, 1st class (1944)
• 17 USSR medals
• Lenin Prize laureate (1982)
• Laureate of the Stalin Prize, 1st degree (1953)
• Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1983)

MPR Awards

• Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (08/06/1981)
• 3 Orders of Sukhbaatar (1975, 1978, 1981)
• Order of the Red Banner of Battle (1983)
• 6 medals of the MPR

Czechoslovakia Awards

• Hero of Czechoslovakia Socialist Republic (6.10.1982)
• 2 orders of Klement Gottwald (1978, 1983)
• Order of the White Lion, 1st class (1977)
• 2 medals of Czechoslovakia

Vietnam Award

• Order of Ho Chi Minh (1983)

NRB Awards

• 2 orders of Georgiy Dimitrov (1976, 1983)
• 7 NRB medals

PPR Award

• Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (1976)

Peru Award

• Air Force Order of Merit

VNR Awards

• 2 Orders of the Banner of Hungary with rubies (1978, 1983)
• Hungarian People's Republic Medal

DRA Award

• Order of the Sun of Freedom (1982)

GDR awards

• 2 Orders of Karl Marx (1978, 1983)
• Order of Scharnhorst (1977)
• Medal of the GDR

Ustinov Dmitry Fedorovich (10/17/1908, Samara - 12/20/1984, Moscow), military leader. Marshal of the Soviet Union (1976), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1942, 1961), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1953).

Son of a worker. He received his education at the Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute (1934). From 1927 he worked as a mechanic in factories (Balakhna, Ivanovo-Voznesensk). In 1927 he joined the CPSU(b). Since 1934, engineer at the Artillery Research Maritime Institute (Leningrad). In 1937 he was transferred to the Bolshevik plant, where, in conditions of mass arrests of the engineering and administrative staff, he made a brilliant career, moving from engineer to director, which he was in 1938-41. On 06/09/1941 he was appointed People's Commissar (from 1946 - Minister) of Armaments of the USSR. During the Great Patriotic War, he led a sharp increase in military production for the needs of the Red Army. After the war, he played a decisive role in using German rocketry research to develop the Soviet rocket and space programs. During the transformation of the government after the death of I.V. Stalin, 15.3.1953 his Ministry was merged with the Ministry of Aviation Industry into the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR, and Ustinov became minister. In 1946-50 and from 1954, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Since 1952 member of the CPSU Central Committee. Later he held high positions in the government: deputy. (Dec. 1957 - March 1963), 1st deputy. (March 1963 - March 1965) prev. Council of Ministers of the USSR, prev. Supreme Economic Council of the USSR of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (March 1963 - March 1965). After the fall of N.S. Khrushchev became one of the central figures of the new government, Secretary of the Central Committee (March 1965 - Oct. 1976) and Minister of Defense of the USSR (from Apr. 1976). Since 1965, candidate member of the Presidium (since 1966 - Politburo) of the Central Committee, since 1976 member of the Politburo. In 1982 he received the Lenin Prize, in 1983 - the State Prize. Under Brezhnev, for many years he was almost the most influential member of the top leadership of the USSR, possessing unquestioned authority in the army and the Politburo. According to information circulating, it was Ustinov who insisted on the appointment of Yu.V. as General Secretary. Andropov, breaking the resistance of the party group that nominated K.U. Chernenko. Author of the memoir "Serving the Motherland, the Cause of Communism" (Moscow, 1982). The ashes are buried in the Kremlin wall.

The future military man Dmitry Ustinov was born in Samara in an ordinary working family. Despite the fact that he was born in 1908 (very shortly before the start of the Revolution), he managed to take part in Civil War- at its very end. The teenager did not even have time to finish his studies.

Service in the Red Army

In 1922, he voluntarily joined the Red Army. He was assigned to the so-called special purpose units (SPO). They were created in the first years of the Soviet state. These were “military party” detachments that appeared under party cells and regional committees in order to fight the counter-revolution.

Young Dmitry Ustinov was sent to Central Asia. In Turkestan he had to fight with the Basmachi, who were one of the last strongholds of resistance to the new communist government.

Studies

The following year, 1923, the volunteer was demobilized and sent to the Kostroma province. There he studies at a vocational school. In the last year, Dmitry Ustinov joined the CPSU (b). After graduation he worked a little as a mechanic. First in Balakhna at a paper mill, then at the Ivanovo-Voznesensk factory.

In the new year of 1929, the young man entered the local polytechnic institute. There he quickly makes his way up the Komsomol ladder and becomes one of the members of the party bureau. The makings of a leader allowed him to go to Leningrad, where at that time the Military Mechanical Institute was being staffed.

It existed back in tsarist times and after the revolution it was modified many times, including into a secondary educational institution. Now artillery and ammunition faculties have been opened there. In 1934, Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov graduated from there with a degree in engineering. Today the university bears his name.

"Bolshevik"

The talented engineer immediately entered the Leningrad Artillery Research Institute maritime institute. A professor of many years of hardening and titanic experience worked here. Ustinov's leader was the famous Alexey Nikolaevich Krylov, a mechanic, mathematician and shipbuilder. He was known for numerous theoretical works, for which he received awards from both the Tsarist and Soviet states. According to Ustinov himself, this was his main teacher, who instilled in him organization and inquisitiveness in his own research.

During these years, massive repressions took place in the ranks of the nomenklatura and technical elite of the Soviet Union. Old cadres perished in the Gulag, they were replaced by new names. Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov was from this very “youngest” conscription.

He ends up at Bolshevik, where he very quickly (in 1938) becomes director. This enterprise was the successor to the famous and important strategic object. The first Soviet tractors and tanks appeared here a little earlier.

Dmitry Ustinov came here under the patronage of the first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee and city committee. He demanded maximum return from his subordinate. The planned economy was working at full speed, everyone was required to fulfill the norms. Ustinov took over the enterprise in a sad state. But he was not afraid to take risky measures: he replaced equipment with imported ones, retrained workers, etc. As a result, the plant began to supply high-quality tools. The State Planning Commission was overfulfilled, and the young director received the Order of Lenin.

Ustinov, like many of his galaxy, remained a firm Stalinist until the end of his life. When the repressions affected his entourage, including Nikolai Voznesensky, he attributed these events to the intrigues of the leader’s entourage.

People's Commissar of Armaments

Two weeks before the start of the war, the young and promising director was appointed People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR. Stalin believed that a direct conflict with the Reich was inevitable, but it would not happen earlier than in a year or two. During this time, he hoped to rearm the country, relying on the abilities and devotion of the Ustinov generation.

It is believed that the appointment of the Bolshevik director to the post of People's Commissar was patronized by Lavrentiy Beria. At this time, he was Stalin's main confidant, and his voice was decisive in personnel matters.

Before the appointee had time to delve into the affairs of the entrusted department, on June 22, the chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee, Nikolai Voznesensky, woke him up with a call and said that the war had begun. The time has come for the labor-intensive daily work of evacuating the entire military-industrial complex to the east of the country, away from the approaching front.

Stalin hardly had any “untouchables,” so the very fact that the future marshal of the Soviet Union remained alive and at his post speaks volumes. However, his success was obvious even without such comparisons. The well-organized work of enterprises in the rear largely helped defeat Germany in the war of attrition. Later, already in the Brezhnev era, the Marshal of the Soviet Union was especially respected precisely for the successful evacuation of production.

There were also funny incidents at work. For example, Ustinov broke his leg while riding a motorcycle (he generally loved motorcycles). Fearing punishment from his superiors, he arrived in the Kremlin. But Stalin, according to his peculiar sense of humor, ordered the handing over to the People's Commissar new car so that he doesn’t break any more limbs.

Further career

After the war, Ustinov remained in his position. In 1946, a reform of the People's Commissariat took place. They were renamed into ministries (Dmitry Fedorovich's department became the USSR Ministry of Armaments). In 1953, he changed his chair and began to lead the state's defense industry.

For six years (from 1957 to 1963) he worked in the Council of Ministers, where he headed a commission in his field. As one of those involved in Gagarin's flight into space, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Minister of Defense

Ustinov was opposed to Khrushchev and joined the ranks of the conspirators who removed him. When Brezhnev came to power, Dmitry Fedorovich naturally retained his place in the state elite. Since 1976, he has been a member of the Politburo. He will retain these posts until his death.

During the Brezhnev years, he was one of the few who took part in the discussion of key issues of Soviet policy. This small group also included Leonid Ilyich himself, Suslov, Andropov, Gromyko and Chernenko.

As defense minister, Ustinov is primarily known for his doctrine. According to her Soviet troops rearmed and received new technology. This concerned nuclear (RSD-10) and non-nuclear weapons (armored forces).

Ustinov was one of the initiators of the war in Afghanistan, including the very first landing operations. In many ways, it was his activity that led to this decision of the Politburo. So Ustinov opposed the Chief of the General Staff Ogarkov, who, on the contrary, did not want to send troops.

Under the leadership of Ustinov, some of the largest Soviet history military exercises. They received the code name "Zapad-81". Then in Soviet army Automated control systems and several types of precision weapons were tested for the first time.

The minister's decisions were largely dictated by the country's participation in cold war, when relations between the USSR and the USA were either restored or cooled again.

Death

The last person whose ashes were buried in an urn in the Kremlin wall was Dmitry Ustinov. The family received the due pension. He died at the end of 1984 after catching a cold at the next show military equipment. At that time I was already alive last days Chernenko. The generation of Soviet leaders during the period of stagnation quietly faded away due to old age. People called this series of deaths the “carriage race.” Ustinov was 76 years old.

In honor of the marshal, Izhevsk was briefly renamed - the city of gunsmiths. However, citizens did not approve of the change, and after three cities the historical name was returned.

Awards

Ustinov's biography includes his receipt of many awards, including the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor (twice), as well as 11 Orders of Lenin and one more each of Kutuzov (both first degree).

In addition, it was celebrated several times by the governments of the Warsaw Pact countries and the entire communist axis: Mongolia, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Bulgaria, etc.

It is not for nothing that Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov is called “the most Stalinist minister”: the marshal gained respect already in the post-war years. However, the death of the USSR Minister of Defense gave rise to a lot of rumors, the most popular of which were versions about the liquidation of Ustinov.

The mysterious death of Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov, which overtook him on December 20, 1984, exactly after major maneuvers of the armies of the Warsaw Pact member countries, still remains a mystery to all historians and conspiracy theorists around the world. Why did Ustinov, who was called “the most Stalinist minister,” die under mysterious circumstances immediately after military exercises? Why did the Minister of Defense of the GDR Hoffmann (December 2, 1984), the Minister of Defense of Hungary Olah (December 15, 1984) and the Minister of Defense of Czechoslovakia Dzur (December 16, 1984) die with the same symptoms? Did this chain of deaths become the first “bell” of the overthrow of the socialist system in the Warsaw Pact countries and the USSR?

Dmitry Ustinov was appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR on June 9, 1941. Already in 1953, he became the Minister of Defense Industry of the USSR, from 1953 he held high positions in the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and in 1965 he became Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. The peak of Ustinov's career came in 1976: he was appointed Minister of Defense of the Union, and it was in this position that he served until his death.

Ustinov, among others, was involved in the development of unique Moscow air defense systems. It was he who took the most active part in the development and modernization defense complexes. Ustinov also worked daily to improve the defense capability of the USSR and increase combat readiness Armed Forces and the development of military science in general. It was Ustinov who was an ardent opponent of the world’s slide towards thermonuclear war.

People who knew Ustinov noted that four hours was enough for him to sleep, and at the same time he was always cheerful and energetic. Colonel General Igor Illarionov, who worked as Ustinov’s assistant for almost 30 years, recalls: “Ustinov came to the plant for the creation of air defense systems at ten o’clock in the evening. He had the habit of working at night since the entire leadership of the country adjusted to Stalin, who worked at night. But he rested during the day. But Ustinov never slept two or three hours a day. For years, they somehow knew about his visits, and all the bosses stayed in their places. He came and went to all the workshops. all the bosses in the director’s office. And it’s already three o’clock in the morning. He listens to everyone, speaks himself, gives some useful advice. Then he looks at the clock, and it’s already four, and says: “Yes... We’ve been too late today. You still need to go home and get a good night's sleep. Go and be back around eight o'clock."

IN recent years Throughout his life, Ustinov was often and seriously ill - age affected him. Thus, the USSR Minister of Defense underwent urological surgery, as well as two surgical interventions to remove malignant tumors. He also once suffered a myocardial infarction. The imprint on Ustinov’s general condition was left by illness and the subsequent death of his wife. However, immediately after undergoing operations and illnesses, Ustinov, out of old habit, got up from his hospital bed and, as if nothing had happened, continued his work at the usual military pace and with a soldier’s precision.

Many experts, historians and conspiracy theorists have linked the deaths of Ustinov, Hoffman, Olah and Dzur into a single chain of events. This is not surprising: all four ministers of the countries of the socialist camp died in a fairly short period of time. According to one version, all of them were eliminated with the help of a “terrorist operation”, since there was an agreement between them on the need to quickly send troops to Poland, where, despite the internment of the opposition and the introduction of martial law, the political situation continued to heat up. This was pointed out by Colonel of the General Staff of the Polish Army Ryszard Kuchlinski, who is also a recruited CIA agent. At the same time, opponents of this version believe that the decision of the four military ministers would not have been made without the permission of the Politburo and Gorbachev personally. It is also noted that there was no need to kill Olah and Hoffmann, since Gorbachev had already become the Secretary General of the USSR, and, thus, the destruction of the socialist bloc had already begun.

Another conspiracy theory about the death of “Stalin’s minister himself” states that Ustinov planned... to destroy socialism through the “Chilean scenario” - that is, by creating in the Warsaw Pact countries the power of a military junta similar to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, established in 1973 as a result of the overthrow Socialist rule led by Salvador Allende. One of the main ideologists of Perestroika, Alexander Yakovlev, spoke about this version as follows: “There is a lot of evidence that the highest military generals were thinking about a military coup in the socialist camp (in one form or another). I was fascinated by the experience of other countries when on the way from totalitarianism a temporary military autocracy was established in favor of democracy. The conspiracy then failed.” At the same time, experts urge not to consider Yakovlev’s words as truth, since they very often did not correspond to reality.

One way or another, it was Dmitry Ustinov who in the war and post-war years became the personification of the defense capability of the USSR and the military power of the state. In December 1984, Ustinov, after returning from major military exercises, suddenly felt unwell and was hospitalized. Subsequently, doctors diagnosed changes in the lungs and the onset of fever.

Colonel General Igor Illarionov does not connect the death of the USSR Minister of Defense with any conspiracy theories: “There was nothing strange about it. The 40th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising of 1944 was celebrated. All the defense ministers of the socialist camp were invited. Ustinov spoke there a lot, and the weather It was not good. After the meeting, everyone was taken to the mountains, where a banquet was held at the residence on the open terrace. A cold wind blew, and Dmitry Fedorovich got very sick, but still got through. And soon the annual final training was held at the Ministry of Defense. the minister addressed them. We began to tell Dmitry Fedorovich that this was not necessary. After all, the first deputy, Marshal Sergei Sokolov, can speak. But he doesn’t, that’s all. We involved the head of the Central Military Medical Directorate, Fyodor Komarov. He injected supporting drugs, and Ustinov began performing. He spoke normally for about thirty minutes, and then he began to make mistakes, I felt things were bad... After the meeting, Dmitry Fedorovich was urgently hospitalized at the Central Clinical Hospital. It turned out that my heart was bad. Both age and hard work took their toll... As I was told, the Central Clinical Hospital determined that it was necessary to have an operation. And before, when Ustinov was sick, he was prescribed a lot of aspirin and analgin. And the blood did not clot. What they didn’t do! About 30 people - his security, hospital workers, other people with a suitable group - gave him blood. Transfused directly. This went on for a whole day. But the blood never began to clot..."

Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov died on December 20, 1984. All Soviet radio and television stations broadcast live for more than an hour from Red Square, where the funeral procession took place, and newspapers devoted the front pages to this ceremony. After Ustinov’s death, many predicted Gorbachev’s rapid decline political career, however, history decreed somewhat differently.

After the death of the marshal, the capital of Udmurtia was renamed the city of Ustinov. Even under Gorbachev, the city was returned to its previous name - Izhevsk, a name the city has retained to this day.