Future military Dmitry Ustinov was born in Samara in an ordinary working-class family. Despite the fact that he was born in 1908 (just before the Revolution), he managed to take part in the Civil War - at its very end. The teenager did not even have time to finish his studies.
Service in the Red Army
In 1922, he voluntarily joined the Red Army. He was assigned to the so-called Special Purpose Units (CHOZ). They were created in the first years of the Soviet state. These were the "military-party" detachments that appeared with party members and regional committees in order to combat counter-revolution.
Young Dmitry Ustinov was sent to Central Asia. In Turkestan, he had to fight with the Basmachi, who were one of the last strongholds of resistance to the new communist government.
Study
The following year, 1923, a volunteer was demobilized and sent to the Kostroma province. There he studies in the city of Makaryev at a vocational school. In the last year, Dmitry Ustinov joined the CPSU (B.). After graduation, he works a little as a mechanic. First in Balakhna at a paper mill, then at the Ivanovo-Voznesensk factory.
In the new 1929, a young man enters the local Polytechnic Institute. There, he quickly makes his way along the Komsomol ladder and becomes one of the members of the party bureau. The makings of the leader allowed him to go to Leningrad, where at that time the staffing of the Military Mechanical Institute was going on.
It existed even in tsarist times and, after the revolution, was modified many times, including in a secondary educational institution. Now they opened the faculties of artillery and ammunition. In 1934, Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov graduated from there with a degree in engineering. Today, the university bears his name.
"Bolshevik"
Immediately a talented engineer got into the Leningrad Artillery Research Marine Institute. The professors of many years of hardening and titanic experience worked here. The leader of Ustinov was the famous Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov - a mechanic, mathematician and shipbuilder. He was known for numerous theoretical works, for which he received awards both from the tsarist and from the Soviet state. According to Ustinov himself, it was his main teacher who instilled in him the organization and inquisitiveness in his own research.
During these years, mass repressions were taking place in the ranks of the nomenclature and technical elite of the Soviet Union. Old cadres perished in the Gulag, new names replaced them. Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov was from this very “young” draft.
He ends up at Bolshevik, where he very quickly (in 1938) becomes a director. This enterprise was the successor of the famous Obukhov plant and an important strategic object. The first Soviet tractors and tanks appeared here a little earlier.
Dmitry Ustinov came here under the patronage of the first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee and city committee Andrei Zhdanov. He demanded maximum submission from the subordinate. The planned economy worked with might and main, everyone was required to comply with the norms. Ustinov accepted the enterprise in a sad state. But he was not afraid to take risky measures: he changed equipment to imported samples, re-trained workers, etc. As a result, the plant began to supply high-quality tools. The Gosplan was overfulfilled, and the young director received the Order of Lenin.
Ustinov, like many of his galaxies, remained a solid Stalinist until the end of his life. When repression affected his entourage, including Nikolai Voznesensky, he attributed these events to the intrigues of the leader’s entourage.
People's Commissar of Arms
Two weeks before the start of the war, a young and promising director was appointed People's Commissar of Arms of the USSR. Stalin believed that a direct conflict with the Reich was inevitable, but he would happen no earlier than in a year or two. During this time, he expected to rearm the country, relying on the ability and devotion of the Ustinov generation.
It is believed that the appointment of the director of the "Bolshevik" to the post of People's Commissar was patronized by Lavrenty Beria. At that time, he was Stalin’s chief close associate, and his voice was crucial in personnel matters.
Before he was appointed to delve into the affairs of the entrusted department, on June 22, the chairman of the USSR State Planning Commission, Nikolai Voznesensky, woke him up and said that the war had begun. The time has come for the laborious daily work of evacuating the entire military-industrial complex to the east of the country, away from the approaching front.
Stalin was hardly “inviolable,” so the fact that the future marshal of the Soviet Union remained alive and at his post already says a lot. However, its success was obvious without such comparisons. The well-established work of enterprises in the rear helped in many ways to defeat Germany in the war of attrition. In the future, already in the Brezhnev era, the Marshal of the Soviet Union was especially respected precisely for the successful evacuation of production.
There were funny incidents in the work. For example, Ustinov broke his leg while riding a motorcycle (he generally liked motorcycles). Fearing punishment from his superiors, he arrived in the Kremlin. But Stalin, in accordance with his peculiar sense of humor, ordered the drug dealer to be given a new car so that he would not break any limbs anymore.
Further career
After the war, Ustinov remained in his post. In 1946, there was a reform of the people's commissariats. They were renamed the ministries (the department of Dmitry Fedorovich became the USSR Ministry of Arms). In 1953, he changed his chair and began to lead the defense industry of the state.
For six years (from 1957 to 1963) he worked in the Council of Ministers, where he headed the commission in his profile. As one of those involved in the flight of Gagarin into space, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
Minister of Defense
Ustinov was opposed to Khrushchev and joined the ranks of the conspirators who ousted him. When Brezhnev came to power, Dmitry Fedorovich naturally retained his place in the state elite. Since 1976, he is the USSR Minister of Defense and a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee. He will retain these posts until his death.
During the Brezhnev years, he was one of the few who took part in the discussion of key issues of Soviet politics. This small group also included Leonid Ilyich himself, Suslov, Andropov, Gromyko and Chernenko.
As Minister of Defense, Ustinov is primarily known for his doctrine. According to it, Soviet troops were rearmament and received new equipment. This concerned nuclear (RSD-10) and non-nuclear weapons (armored forces).
Ustinov was one of the initiators of the war in Afghanistan, including the very first landing operations. In many ways, it was his activity that led to this decision of the Politburo. So Ustinov opposed the chief of the General Staff Ogarkov, who, on the contrary, did not want to send troops.
Under the leadership of Ustinov, one of the largest military exercises in Soviet history took place. They received the code name "West-81." Then in the Soviet army for the first time automated control systems and several types of precision weapons were tested.
The Minister’s decisions were largely dictated by the country's participation in the Cold War, when relations between the USSR and the USA either restored or cooled again.
Death
The last person whose ashes were buried in an urn in the Kremlin wall was Dmitry Ustinov. The family received a qualifying pension. He died at the end of 1984 after having caught a cold at the next military equipment show. At that time, Andropov had already died and Chernenko was living out the last days. The generation of Soviet leaders during the stagnation period quietly came to naught by old age. The people called this series of deaths "race on carriages." Ustinov was 76 years old.
In honor of the marshal, Izhevsk was briefly renamed - the city of gunsmiths. However, citizens disapproved of the change, and through three cities the historical name was returned.
Awards
Ustinov’s biography includes his numerous awards, including the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of Socialist Labor (twice), as well as 11 orders of Lenin and one more order of Suvorov and Kutuzov (both first degrees).
In addition, it was noted several times by the governments of the Warsaw Pact countries and the entire communist axis: Mongolia, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Bulgaria, etc.