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Other Transcripts not in the booksInformation about the development of the military industry in the period from 1917 to 1947
October 15, 1947
RGASPI F. 82, Op. 2, D. 78 L. 58-63
Comrade V.M. MOLOTOV
On your instructions, we are presenting materials on the results of the economic and cultural development of the USSR over 30 years, as well as materials on the military industry.
15/X 47 A. Panov
G. Kosyachenko, P. Kirpichnikov, V. Starovsky
Owls. secret (of particular importance)
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MILITARY INDUSTRY OF THE USSR FOR 30 YEARS.
I. The military industry of Russia before the October Revolution of 1917.
Before the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, Russia had a poorly developed military industry, and some industries did not have at all.
The aviation industry of Russia before the First World War of 1914–1918 consisted of three semi-handicraft workshops: Russian-Baltic workshops in Riga, Shchetinkin workshops in Petrograd and Dux in Moscow, which assembled a total of 315 aircraft in two years (1912–1914). During the war of 1914-1918, up to 10 small aircraft factories operated in Russia, which assembled, mainly from parts received from abroad, about 3,000 aircraft and 5,000 aircraft engines.
There was absolutely no tank industry in tsarist Russia.
The size of the production of artillery factories did not meet the needs of the army, as a result of which, along with domestic ones, foreign artillery systems (mainly French and English) were in service with the Russian army.
The ammunition industry was based on little mechanized small enterprises with backward technology. The enterprises were concentrated mainly in Petrograd and Moscow.
The Russian army was sharply short of ammunition, experienced an acute shortage of shells, especially in 1914-1915. The supply of industry with raw materials, materials, and metal was highly dependent on foreign countries. Foreign deliveries occupied a significant place in providing the Russian army with ready-made ammunition. For example, 76 mm shells, the main decisive shells used in the First World War, produced 55 million pieces in Russia and 40 million pieces came from abroad.
Meanwhile, much has been done by Russian scientists and inventors in the development of world military science and technology.
The great Russian scientist M.V. Lomonosov in 1739 designed an aerodynamic machine, the design principle of which is the basis of helicopters currently under construction.
The idea of the possible use of the force of reactive recoil for flights in the air was expressed by the Russian engineer Narodnaya Volya N.I. Kibalchich in 1881.
K.E. Tsiolkovsky for the first time in 1898 developed a mathematical theory of rocket jet flight in interplanetary space.
At the end of the nineteenth century, prominent Russian scientists: D.I. Mendeleev, N.E. Zhukovsky, S.A. Chaplygin create the scientific base underlying the development of aviation.
NOT. Zhukovsky, 20 years before the implementation by the Russian pilot Nesterov in 1913 of the world's first "dead loop", theoretically proved the possibility of performing aerobatics.
Even at the beginning of the First World War - in August 1914, the master of the machine-building plant in Riga Porohovshchikov designed a tracked vehicle (tank), which, when tested, developed a speed of up to 25 kilometers per hour. The idea of a tank arose and was carried out by the Russian master Porokhovshchikov earlier than in other countries. The design of this tank was several years ahead of the design of tanks of that time.
But the industry of tsarist Russia was not able to master the production of such difficult machines for it, and the Porokhovshchikov tank was forgotten.
Another attempt to create a Russian tank was made in 1915 by Captain Lebedenko, in whose calculations the famous Russian scientist N.E. took part. Zhukovsky.
But this tank suffered the same fate.
II. The development of the military industry during the years of Soviet power.
The development of the military industry in Russia begins under Soviet power, and especially during the years of Stalin's five-year plans.
On the instructions of V.I. Lenin in 1918 is organized by TsAGI. Aviation and the aviation industry are developing rapidly. Cadres of designers, engineers, pilots are being created.
Summing up the results of the implementation of the first five-year plan at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on January 7, 1933, Comrade I.V. Stalin said “... we did not have an aviation industry. We have it now."
From 1936 until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet aviators exceeded international records 124 times. As of January 1, 1946, out of 170 records registered by the FAI, 65 (or 38.2%) belong to the USSR.
In the years leading up to World War II, the aviation industry produced:
* Mainly from the remnants of foreign parts.
1918
1921
1927
1932
1937
1940
aircraft
255*
111
621
2489
6039
10565
Aviamotorov
79*
15
285
4918
15410
21452
In the fall of 1919, the Council of the Military Industry decided to begin the production of Soviet tanks, taking the Renault tank as a model. In December 1920, the first Soviet tank was manufactured at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. But these tanks turned out to be fragile and their production was discontinued.
In 1927, the serial production of Soviet MS-1 tanks began.
From 1925 to 1931, their own tank designs were created, and with the completion of the first five-year plan, a solid technical base was created for the deployment of the tank industry.
During the period of the second and third Stalin's five-year plans, there was a further, rapid development of the tank industry. Powerful design bureaus were created.
For 10 pre-war years, 42 samples of various experimental types of tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts were designed and manufactured in metal, 19 of them were mastered in serial production. During this time, 27349 tanks were manufactured.
In the process of implementing the Stalinist five-year plans, the armaments industry strengthened and developed, in which advanced production technology was introduced, and mass conveyor production of weapons was used. During the same time, a powerful ammunition industry based on advanced technology and modern technology was almost anew created.
Serious successes have been achieved during the years of Soviet power in the field of shipbuilding. The navy of tsarist Russia in 1913 had a displacement of 274 thousand tons, and in 1940 it already totaled 421 thousand tons. A powerful submarine fleet was created anew with domestic types of boats and domestic designs of mechanisms and weapons.
During the years of Soviet power was built:
268 submarines
6 cruisers
57 destroyers
21 patrol ships
174 minesweepers
9 river monitors
1433 combat boats
1367 auxiliary ships
3240 support boats
In the shipbuilding industry of the USSR, a technically advanced instrument-making base was recreated to equip warships with sophisticated navigational, artillery fire control, hydroacoustic and other instruments.
The experience of the combat use of ships in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 showed the high combat qualities of the ships of the navy.
III. The military industry of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Army needed huge amounts of military equipment. The production facilities of the military industry and the cadres of designers, engineers and production workers created during the years of the Stalinist five-year plans made it possible to successfully satisfy this need of the Army.
Comrade I.V. Stalin, in a speech at a meeting of voters of the Stalinist electoral district of Moscow on February 9, 1946, gave the following assessment of the work of the military industry during the war years:
“... Except for the first year of the war, when the evacuation of industry to the east slowed down the turn of military production, then during the remaining three years of the war the party managed to achieve such successes that enabled it not only to supply the front in sufficient quantities with artillery, machine guns, rifles, planes, tanks, ammunition, but also accumulate reserves. At the same time, it is known that our weapons were not only not inferior in quality to German ones, but in general even surpassed them.
It is known that during the last three years of the war our tank industry produced an average of more than 30,000 tanks, self-propelled guns and armored vehicles annually.
It is further known that during the same period our aviation industry annually produced up to 40,000 aircraft.
It is also known that during the same period our artillery industry annually produced up to 120,000 guns of all calibers, up to 450,000 light and heavy machine guns, over 3 million rifles, and about 2 million machine guns.
Finally, it is known that our mortar industry during the period 1942-1944 produced an average of up to 100,000 mortars annually.
It is clear that at the same time, an appropriate amount of artillery shells, various kinds of mines, aerial bombs, rifle and machine-gun cartridges were produced.
It is known, for example, that in 1944 alone, more than 240 million shells, bombs and mines and 7,400,000 cartridges were produced.
For the entire period of the war of 1941–1945, the military industry of the USSR produced:
142.770 aircraft and 209.705 aircraft engines;
110.340 tanks and self-propelled guns;
483.000 guns of all calibers, 1.452.300 hand and easel
machine guns, 12 million rifles and 6 million
350 thousand automatic machines;
1 billion 600 million of all types of ammunition;
22 billion 600 million rounds.
The course of the war demanded constant, uninterrupted improvement of military equipment and the adaptation of industry to the ever-growing and more complex requirements of the Soviet Army.
During the Second World War, 27 new models of various types of tanks and self-propelled guns were designed and made in metal, 18 of them were produced in large quantities.
Along with field artillery, the armaments industry supplied the Army with: tank guns and machine guns, self-propelled guns, anti-tank guns and rifles, rapid-fire aircraft guns and machine guns, automatic anti-aircraft guns, combat rocket launchers, powerful mortars and a number of other types of weapons.
During the war, the production of mines for mortars, mine explosives, rockets, aircraft shells, aerial bombs, and anti-aircraft shells increased especially sharply.
The quality of weapons and ammunition changed dramatically:
the range of artillery has almost doubled;
in connection with the development of aviation, anti-aircraft artillery and shells for it were significantly improved - the firing height and the action of the tubes increased by 2–2.5 times;
in connection with the appearance of powerful tanks and self-propelled artillery, special shells were developed and widely used: armor-piercing, sub-caliber and cumulative, as well as anti-tank bombs.
By the 30th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Soviet aircraft manufacturers created such first-class aircraft as high-speed jet aircraft designed by Mikoyan, Yakovlev, Lavochkin, Tupolev, Ilyushin and Sukhoi and engines designed by Lyulka [ handwritten insert: Mikulin?] for the air force of the Soviet Army and comfortable transport aircraft designed by Ilyushin for the civil air fleet.
Kirpichnikov
15/X 47