The defence-industry administrator who sent Gagarin into space
The day after his return, Gagarin handed Rudnev the 13 April 1961 issue of Pravda, inscribed: "To the supervisor from the performer. Gagarin."
Soviet administrator of the defence and space industries. An arms engineer from Tula, he directed an evacuated munitions plant during World War II, then rose through rocket-research institutes and defence-bureaucracy posts to become chairman of the State Committee for Defence Technology (GKOT) in 1958. As GKOT chairman he oversaw the early ICBM and satellite programs and chaired the State Commission that approved Yuri Gagarin's historic first human spaceflight on 12 April 1961. He then served as Deputy Premier for science-research coordination (1961–1965) before being appointed Minister of Instrument-Making, Means of Automation and Control Systems (1965–1980), a move into civilian industry that some colleagues read as a demotion. He remained in the post until his death, a key figure in the Soviet military-industrial complex.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1935–1941Designer, design bureau chief, chief engineer at Tula Arms Plant
- 1941–1947Chief engineer, then director of Plant No. 314, Mednogorsk (evacuated Tula arms plant)
- 1947–1950Director of NII-61, rifle-cannon aviation armament research institute
- 1950–1952Director of NII-88 rocket research institute
- 1952–1953Deputy Minister of Armaments of the USSR
- 1953–1957Deputy Minister of Defence Industry of the USSR
- 1957–1958Deputy Chairman, State Committee for Defence Technology
- 1958–1961Chairman of GKOT, Minister of the USSR
- 1961–1965Deputy Chairman, USSR Council of Ministers; Chairman, State Committee for the Coordination of Scientific Research
- 1965–1980Minister of Instrument-Making, Means of Automation and Control Systems (Minpribor)
Related historical events
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarDirector of evacuated arms productionHe directed evacuated arms production in Mednogorsk from 1941 to 1943.
- 1957–1965The Soviet Space ProgramChairman of the State Commission for Gagarin's flightAs GKOT chairman, he chaired the State Commission that approved Yuri Gagarin's historic first human spaceflight on 12 April 1961, and was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor by unpublished decree on 17 June 1961 for this achievement.
From Tula engineer to deputy minister, 1935-1952
Rudnev was born in Tula in 1911, the son of teachers, graduated from the Tula Mechanical Institute in 1935 and from that year until 1941 worked as a designer, department head and chief engineer in the design bureau (TsKB-14) of the Tula arms plant. He took part in developing a synchronising gear that let an aircraft machine gun fire through the arc of a turning propeller, work that brought him his first award, the Medal for Labour Valour (1939). In 1935-1937 he led the design group that developed the MSSh, a twin mounting of ShKAS machine guns; its two-round automatic cycle gave the pair a rate of fire of up to 6,000 rounds a minute, but work was stopped because the small 7.62 mm calibre no longer satisfied the military.
When World War II began, the Tula arms plant was evacuated to Mednogorsk in the Orenburg region as Plant No. 314, and Rudnev directed evacuated production there as chief engineer in 1941-1943 and then as plant director in 1943-1947. After the war he directed the research institute for aircraft small-arms and cannon armament (from 1948 NII-61) in 1947-1950, served in 1950 as head of the Fifth Main Directorate and board member of the Ministry of Armaments, and in 1950-1952 directed NII No. 88, today within the town of Korolyov. This is the phase in which a Tula designer became head of an evacuated wartime plant and then of a rocket research institute, entering central administration in 1952 as a deputy minister of armaments.