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.
Activities and affiliations
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
Related historical events
The wartime main directorate: relocating design bureaus and re-arming the fleet
In August 1939 Yegorov moved from research work into the leadership of the newly created People's Commissariat of the Shipbuilding Industry, becoming head of its 13th Main Directorate, the department responsible for ship design and shipbuilding science, renamed the 5th Main Directorate in June 1950. He held that post through the whole of the Great Patriotic War.
His wartime task had two sides. One was dispersing the central design bureaus to new locations; the other was restoring ships under repair and re-arming vessels already built. For organizing urgent defence orders for the fighting fleets and flotillas, and the research they required, he received four orders during the war.
His position did not immediately stabilise afterwards. In July 1946 he was demoted to deputy head of the same directorate, and in November 1946 demoted again to chief engineer of the directorate. In December 1948 he was restored as head of the 5th Main Directorate. The record does not explain the reasons for these demotions and his reinstatement; only what the sources document is stated here.