Dmitriy Ustinov
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| Dmitriy Fydorovich Ustinov Дмитрий Фёдорович Устинов |
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| In office March 26, 1965 – December 20, 1984 |
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| In office July 30, 1976 – December 20, 1984 |
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| Born | October 17, 1908 Samara, Russia |
| Died | December 20, 1984 (aged 76) Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
| Profession | Mechanical Engineer |
| Religion | Atheist |
Dmitriy Fyodorovich Ustinov (Russian: Дмитрий Фёдорович Устинов) (October 17, 1908–December 20, 1984) was Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union from 1976 until his death.
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[edit] Early Life
Dimitry Fyodorovich Ustinov was born in Samara to a working-class family. In the civil war, when hunger became intolerable, the entire family headed by Fyodor, his sick father went to Samarkand, which served as his elder brothers. Short time after that, in 1922, his father died. In 1923, together with his mother, he moved to the city of Makarev (near Ivanovo-Voznesensk) where he worked as a fitter in a paper mill. Shortly after, in 1925 his mother, Yevrosinya Martinovna died.
In 1929 he started training at the Faculty of Mechanics in the Polytechnic Institute of Ivanovo-Voznesensk. After some orgmeropriyaty group of students, including Ustinov, was transferred to the Moscow Bauman Higher Technical School. Then, on March 1932 he entered the Institute of Military Mechanical Engineering in Leningrad, from which he graduated in 1934. After graduating he worked first as a construction engineer at the Leningrad artillery Marine Research Institute. In 1937, he was transferred to the "Bolshevik" Arms Factory, first as an engineer, then worked as the director of the Factory. He joined the communist party in 1927.
[edit] War Service
When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin appointed Ustinov, who was then 33 years old and the director of Leningrad's Bolshevik Arms Factory, to the post of People's Commissar of Armaments, and he supervised the evacuation of the defense industry to the east of the Ural Mountains. Stalin later rewarded Ustinov, whom he called "the Red-head," with the Soviet Union's highest civilian honour: Hero of the Socialist Labor. After the war was over, Ustinov played a crucial role in the use of German missiles programme for the Soviet missile and space programmes.
[edit] Post War
In March 1953, after Stalin died, the Ministry of Armaments was combined with the Ministry of Aviation Industry, to become the Ministry of Defense Industry, and Ustinov headed this ministry. In 1952 he also became a member of the Central Committee. In 1957, he became deputy premier. Ustinov earned this prestigious award a second time in 1961, from Nikita Khrushchev for his work in ensuring that the first man to orbit the earth was a Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. Khrushchev valued Ustinov's managerial skills enough to appoint him First Deputy Premier and place him in control of the civilian economy in 1963.
In October 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was ousted. while Dmitry Ustinov served as chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, he was detailed to fly down to the Black Sea and bring Khrushchev back. Ustinov arrived on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 13, as Khrushchev was talking with French Atomic Science Minister Gaston Palewski. Ustinov demanded that Khrushchev return immediately to Moscow for a special meeting of the Presidium. At sunset, Khrushchev and Ustinov landed at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, where a ZIL limousine waited to take him to the Kremlin.
[edit] Brezhnev Years
After the ousting of Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev took power, and Ustinov returned to the defence industry. In 1965 Brezhnev made Ustinov a candidate member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee, with oversight of the military, defence industry, and security organs. Among projects he was in charge of were the developing the Soviet Union's strategic bomber force and intercontinental ballistic missile system. Ustinov who was known in the defence industry as Uncle Mitya, and also as Chelomei's stolid personal adversary, issued a directive In February 1970, which ordered the Chelomei design bureau to combine its Almaz space station with Korolev’s design bureau’s (then headed by Vasili Mishin), experience in building manned spacecraft to develop the Salyut space station.
Ustinov gained power in the bureaucracy as he rose in the defense industry. When veteran Defence Minister Marshal Rodion Malinovsky died in 1967, there was widespread speculation that the post would pass to Ustinov. Instead, the Kremlin chose another military man, Marshal Andrei Grechko.
[edit] Minister of Defence
In 1976, after Andrei Grechko died Ustinov became the Defence Minister, at which time, though he had no prior military career, he was also awarded the highest military rank in the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1979 he confidently asserted that "The armed forces of the U.S.S.R. are on a high level that ensures the accomplishment of any tasks set by the party and the people".
The growing Soviet military clout gave Ustinov the role of a Kremlin kingmaker: his support was apparently critical in giving the edge to former KGB Chief Yuri Andropov in the race to succeed Brezhnev. Ustinov emerged as a decisive player in the deathly ill Chernenko regime, making up for the new leader's serious health problems and limited experience in military affairs.
[edit] Death & Legacy
In November 7, 1984, Soviet television viewers had fully expected to see him pass through Red Square to review the Military Parade on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, but he never appeared. Instead, it was Marshal Sokolov who came out to review the troops. Ustinov had contracted pneumonia in October. Emergency surgery had to be performed to correct an aneurysm in the aortic valve. His liver and kidneys later malfunctioned, and he suffered a cardiac arrest and died. He was honoured with a state funeral and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on December 24th in a temperature of -7 Celsius.
On his death the city of Izhevsk was briefly renamed for him, but under Mikhail Gorbachev cities that had been renamed for recent Soviet leaders reverted to their former names. Baltic state technical military-mechanical university in Saint Petersburg changed its name to Ustinov Baltic state technical military mechanical university (БГТУ им. Д.Ф.Устинова). The Russian cruiser Marshal Ustinov, a warship of the Russian Navy is named after him.
Ustinov had a son named Nikolai (1931-1992).
Ustinov holds the record for being the person awarded the most Orders of Lenin at eleven.
| Preceded by Andrei Grechko |
Minister of Defence of Soviet Union 1976–1984 |
Succeeded by Sergei Sokolov |
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