Shipbuilding minister who built the Soviet nuclear submarine fleet and ocean-going navy
In 1954, Yegorov worked alongside rocket designer Sergei Korolev to develop principles for placing missile armament on surface ships and submarines — the technical turning point that transformed the Soviet Navy into a nuclear-missile ocean fleet.
A Soviet shipbuilding technocrat who served as USSR Minister of the Shipbuilding Industry from 1976 to 1984, completing the Navy's transformation into an ocean-going fleet. After graduating from the Dzerzhinsky Naval Engineering School in 1930, he researched ship seakeeping and in 1939 became head of the 13th Main Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Shipbuilding, directing wartime relocation of design bureaus and warship rearmament. In 1954 he jointly developed principles for missile deployment on ships and submarines with Sergei Korolev, and oversaw the first nuclear icebreaker 'Lenin' and heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers. During his eight-year ministerial tenure, the Project 941 strategic submarines, Project 1144 nuclear missile cruisers, and the carrier 'Baku' were launched, securing naval strategic parity while expanding the merchant fleet to the world's third largest.
Career Timeline
- 1930Graduated from F.E. Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School
- 1930–1939Engineer, senior engineer, and department head at NII of Military Shipbuilding
- 1939–1946Head of 13th/5th Main Directorate, Narkomat/Ministry of Shipbuilding — warship design and research
- 1946–1948Chief engineer of 5th Main Directorate, then restored as its head
- 1953–1955Deputy Minister of Transport and Heavy Machine Building, USSR
- 1955–1965Deputy Minister of Shipbuilding → First Deputy Chairman, State Committee for Shipbuilding
- 1965–1976First Deputy Minister of the Shipbuilding Industry, USSR
- 1976–1984Minister of the Shipbuilding Industry, USSR