Ministry of Medium Machine Building (Sredmash)
중형기계공업부 (스레드마시)
A Soviet central government ministry established on 26 June 1953, which under its innocuous name oversaw the entire nuclear industry: warhead development and production, civilian atomic energy, and everything between. Formed by absorbing the First and Third Chief Directorates, it operated under extreme secrecy and cultivated an institutional culture in which production targets and classification took priority over nuclear safety. It existed for 36 years until its merger with the Ministry of Atomic Energy into the Ministry of Atomic Energy and Industry of the USSR on 27 June 1989.
In depth
The Ministry of Medium Machine Building epitomised Soviet secrecy: its name erased 'atomic' entirely, concealing total control over nuclear warhead R&D and production, submarine and icebreaker reactor design, uranium mining and enrichment, radioisotope manufacture, and civilian nuclear power plant construction. Under first minister Vyacheslav Malyshev and especially Yefim Slavsky (1957–1986), Sredmash commanded a vast share of the state budget with extraordinary administrative autonomy. The Chernobyl disaster (1986) brought its culture of secrecy and safety neglect under scrutiny; it was dissolved in 1989 and its successor lineage runs to today's Rosatom.
Related people
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) establishment date (26 June 1953), predecessors, ministers, scope, merger date (27 June 1989)
- Wikipedia (EN) ministry overview, list of ministers including Slavsky's 1957–1986 tenure, CIA initial misidentification of purpose
- pircenter.org PIR Center encyclopedia entry: detailed history, institutional culture, conversion and dissolution, successor lineage to Rosatom