The munitions administrator who commanded Soviet conventional-ammunition mass production for 19 years of the Cold War
He told a young designer at his old Degtyaryov plant: 'We'll stop making cannons one day, and rockets too. But as long as people live they need warmth, and the atom, besides nuclear weapons, is also peaceful energy.'
Soviet military-industrial leader who served as Minister of Machine Building (1968–1987), overseeing all conventional ammunition, bombs, fuses, and rocket-propellant production. A Moscow State University graduate in mechanics, he rose from engineer at the Degtyaryov Plant in Kovrov to director, leading development of aircraft cannons and anti-tank missiles. With Dmitry Ustinov's backing, he became First Deputy Minister of Defence Industry (1965) and then the first head of the re-established Ministry of Machine Building, commanding the vast sector that supplied shells, bombs, naval mines, and solid rocket fuel for nineteen years while contributing to the world's first supercavitating underwater rocket, the Shkval. He balanced defence production with civilian goods and peaceful nuclear applications, but was retired in 1987 as perestroika ushered in a generational turnover.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1941Engineer, Design Bureau, Degtyaryov Plant, Kovrov
- 1948Deputy Head for Experimental Work, OKB-2
- 1950–1952Chief Designer, Plant No. 575
- 1952–1954Head of OKB-2
- 1954–1960Chief Engineer & Deputy Director, Degtyaryov Plant
- 1960–1965Director, Degtyaryov Plant
- 1965–1968First Deputy Minister of Defence Industry, USSR
- 1968–1987Minister of Machine Building, USSR
Diversifying the Kovrov plant and reorganizing the arms sector
As chief engineer and then director of the Degtyaryov Plant from 1954 to 1965, Bakhirev broadened its production base while maintaining armaments output. The K-58, whose development he supported from 1957, entered series production in 1958 as a 125 cc road motorcycle; the plant also prepared production of the more powerful 175 cc K-175. In 1959 he joined a group of plant specialists sent to Leningrad to study the design and manufacturing technology of gas centrifuges, and a dedicated production unit was established at the plant. In 1964 he shared the Lenin Prize for mastering production of equipment for nuclear power, specifically the VT-3 gas centrifuge. This was one example of the plant combining its established arms production with nuclear-power equipment and civilian goods.
After becoming Minister of Machine Building in 1968, he led the reorganization of the sector responsible for ammunition and rocket fuel. The ministry was re-established to strengthen those areas of defence industry; during Bakhirev's tenure it pursued technical modernization of factories and design organizations and the creation of new enterprises, research institutes, and design bureaux. Its products included artillery shells, multiple-launch rocket systems, anti-submarine, anti-tank and engineering munitions, aircraft bombs, fuses, and pyrotechnics. He also sought to expand consumer-goods output at the ministry's enterprises. The Moscow University chronicle reports that the target he set, producing more than one ruble's worth of consumer goods for each ruble of industry payroll, was achieved. For his contribution to solid-propellant rocketry he received the title Hero of Socialist Labour in 1976; in 1978 he received the USSR State Prize for his personal contribution to development of the high-speed underwater rocket Shkval.