From Stalingrad to the Strategic Rocket Forces: the marshal who built the nuclear triad's third leg
In 1966, de Gaulle visited a missile division in Novosibirsk. On Brezhnev's signal, an ICBM erupted from a camouflaged silo. "Do you have one aimed at Paris?" "Don't worry. Not that one." France withdrew from NATO's military command that year.
Krylov volunteered for the Red Army at sixteen and served through every major Soviet conflict from the Civil War to Manchuria. At Stalingrad he was Chuikov's chief of staff in the 62nd Army; he later commanded the 5th Army through Bagration and the Manchurian offensive, earning two Hero of the Soviet Union awards. Promoted to marshal in 1962, he became C-in-C of the Strategic Rocket Forces and transformed a force outnumbered three-to-one by American missiles after the Cuban Missile Crisis into a combat-ready branch built around hardened underground silos, developed with Mikhail Yangel. His nine-year tenure was the SRF's formative growth period, establishing it as a pillar of the nuclear triad.
Career Timeline
- 1919Volunteers for the Red Army at 16; fights in the Civil War
- 1941–1942Chief of Staff, Coastal Army: defence of Odessa and Sevastopol
- 1942–1943Chief of Staff, 62nd Army at Stalingrad under Chuikov
- 1943–1945Commands 5th Army: Bagration, East Prussia, Manchuria
- 1947–1960Commands Far Eastern, Ural, Leningrad, Moscow Military Districts
- 1962Marshal of the Soviet Union
- 1963–1972C-in-C of Strategic Rocket Forces; builds combat-ready missile branch
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCivil War participant
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarChief of Staff, 62nd Army; Commander, 5th ArmyBegan as Coastal Army chief of staff in the defence of Odessa and Sevastopol, then served as Chuikov's chief of staff in the 62nd Army through the Stalingrad street fighting. He later commanded the 5th Army through Operation Bagration, the East Prussian offensive, and the Manchurian operation, earning two Hero of the Soviet Union awards.
Builder of the Strategic Rocket Forces
When Krylov took command of the Strategic Rocket Forces in March 1963, the branch was barely four years old and already on its fourth commander. The Cuban Missile Crisis had exposed the Soviet Union's strategic inferiority: by 1965, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, the United States fielded 650 ballistic missiles against the USSR's 200.
Krylov worked closely with missile designer Mikhail Yangel to make underground silo launchers (ShPU) the centerpiece of the force. Yangel's design bureau produced a new generation of missiles (including the R-36) with ranges far exceeding the R-12, and Krylov built the hardened silo network to house them. This marked a decisive break from the above-ground R-12 posture that Nikita Khrushchev had favoured.
Krylov personally inspected every missile unit and division, checking not only combat readiness but also officers' quarters, family housing, schools, hospitals, and cultural facilities. Under his command, virtually all missile-base towns were built to plans he approved. In 1965 the RVSN Combat Regulations were adopted, codifying the branch's operational doctrine. Over his nine-year tenure the RVSN matured into the land-based ICBM pillar of the Soviet nuclear triad, and Krylov is regarded as its effective founder.
Each year after the new officer class graduated, Krylov invited young lieutenants to his headquarters, heard their complaints, and personally tracked solutions. After one base inspection he noted: "The chief of staff showed me the duty rosters—all colorful and beautiful. Then I checked the barracks. After those pretty charts, things looked grim." His authority within the RVSN was absolute.