Dmitriy Ustinov Dmitriy Feodorovich Ustinov ( ; 30 October 1908 – 20 December 1984 ) was Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union from 1976 until his death . Early life . Dimitry Feodorovich Ustinov was born in a working - class family in Samara . During the civil war , when hunger became intolerable , his sick father went to Samarkand , leaving Dimitry as head of the family . Shortly after that , in 1922 , his father died . In 1923 , he and his mother , Yevrosinya Martinovna , moved to the city of Makarev ( near Ivanovo - Voznesensk ) where he worked as a fitter in a paper mill . Shortly after that , in 1925 , his mother died . Ustinov joined the communist party in 1927 . In 1929 , he started training at the Faculty of Mechanics in the Polytechnic Institute of Ivanovo - Voznesensk . Afterward , Ustinov was transferred to the Moscow Bauman Higher Technical School . Then , on March 1932 , he entered the Institute of Military Mechanical Engineering in Leningrad from where he graduated in 1934 . Afterward , he worked as a construction engineer at the Leningrad artillery Marine Research Institute . In 1937 , he was transferred to the " Bolshevik " Arms Factory as an engineer . He later became the director of the Factory . War service . At the time of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union , in June 1941 , Stalin appointed the 32 year - old Ustinov to the post of People ' s Commissar of Armaments . From this position , he supervised the massive evacuation of the defense industry from the besieged city of Leningrad to east of the Ural Mountains . Over 80 military industries were evacuated that together employed over six hundred thousand workers , technicians , and engineers . Stalin later rewarded Ustinov , whom he called " the Red - head " , with the Soviet Union ' s highest civilian honour , Hero of Socialist Labor . After the war was over , Ustinov played a crucial role in requisitioning the German missile programme , developed during World War II , as an impetus to the Soviet missile and space programmes . Post war . In 1952 , Ustinov became a member of the Central Committee . In March 1953 , after Stalin died , the Ministry of Armaments was combined with the Ministry of Aviation Industry to become the Ministry of Defense Industry , with Ustinov assigned as head of this new ministry . In 1957 , he was appointed as a Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union and became chairman of the Military - Industrial Commission . Ustinov was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor for a second time in 1961 , this time by Nikita Khrushchev for ensuring that a Soviet cosmonaut , Yuri Gagarin , would be the first man to orbit the earth . Khrushchev valued Ustinov ' s managerial skills enough to appoint him First Deputy Premier and placed him in control of the civilian economy in 1963 . In October 1964 , Khrushchev was ousted . While Dmitry Ustinov served as chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy , he was detailed to fly down to the Black Sea and bring Khrushchev back to Moscow . Ustinov arrived at the Black Sea on the morning of Tuesday , October 13 , as Khrushchev was talking with French Atomic Science Minister Gaston Palewski . Ustinov demanded that Khrushchev return immediately to Moscow for a special meeting of the Presidium . At sunset , Khrushchev and Ustinov landed at Moscow ' s Vnukovo Airport , where a ZiL limousine waited to take them to the Kremlin . Brezhnev years . Leonid Brezhnev took power after the ousting of Khrushchev , and Ustinov returned to the defense industry . In 1965 , Brezhnev made Ustinov a candidate member of the Politburo and secretary of the Central Committee with oversight of the military , the defense industry , and certain security organs . He was also placed in charge of developing the Soviet Union ' s strategic bomber force and intercontinental ballistic missile system . Ustinov was known in the defense industry as Uncle Mitya . He was also Chelomei ' s stolid personal adversary . He issued a directive , on February 1970 , that ordered the Chelomei design bureau to combine its Almaz space station with Sergei Korolyov ' s design bureau , headed by Vasili Mishin . This order was designed as an impetus towards the development of the Salyut space station . Ustinov gained power in the bureaucracy as he rose in the defense industry . When veteran Defense Minister Marshal Rodion Malinovsky died in 1967 , there was widespread speculation that the post would pass to Ustinov . Instead , the Kremlin chose another military man , Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko . Minister of Defense . In 1976 , after Andrei Grechko died on April 26 , Ustinov became the Defense Minister and was promoted to General of the Army on April 29 . On July 30 , he was promoted to the highest military rank in the Soviet Union , Marshal of the Soviet Union , although he had no prior military career . Together , with Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov and the Soviet General Staff , Ustinov embarked on a program to enhance and modernize the Soviet Union ' s development of military sciences . In 1979 , he confidently asserted that " The armed forces of the USSR are on a high level that ensures the accomplishment of any tasks set by the party and the people " . The growing influence of the Soviet military gave Ustinov the role of Kremlin kingmaker , for his support was decisive in allowing Yuri Andropov to succeed Brezhnev . Ustinov was also influential in the Chernenko regime , compensating for the latter ' s serious health problems and inexperience in military affairs . In 1979 , Hafizullah Amin assassinated the leader of Afghanistan , Nur Muhammad Taraki . In October 1979 , the sentiment for Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan grew stronger in the Soviet politburo where Ustinov and Andropov were the strongest proponents for military intervention . Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko also lent his support for an invasion . The introduction of US forces into the Persian Gulf after the 1979 Iran hostage crisis particularly alarmed the Soviet General Staff . Ustinov began to wonder , " If the Americans do all these preparations under our noses , then why should we hunker down , play cautious , and lose Afghanistan ? " In November , Ustinov and Andropov began to formulate plans for a Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan . On 12 December 1979 , the Politburo approved the Ustinov - Andropov plan to invade Afghanistan . In 24 December 1979 , Soviet troops entered Afghanistan . In the early 1980s , the development of the Space Shuttle program in the United States caused considerable concern in the Soviet defense industry . While Defense Minister , Ustinov received a report from his analysts that the US Shuttle could be used to deploy space based nuclear missiles over Soviet territory . Russian space program academic Boris Chertok recounts that Ustinov was so worried about the US Shuttle that he gave the development of the Soviet response program , the Buran Shuttle , top priority . Minister Ustinov and KAL 007 . In 1992 , Russian president Boris Yeltsin disclosed five top - secret memos dating from late 1983 , memos that had been written within weeks of the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 . These memos were published in Izvestia number 228 on October 16 , 1992 . According to these memos , the Soviet Union had been able to recover the " Black Box " from KAL 007 and decipher its tapes . Thereafter , Ustinov , along with Viktor Chebrikov , head of the KGB , recommended to premier Yuri Andropov that their possession of the Black Box not be made public since its tapes could not support the Soviet contention that KAL 007 was on a U . S . espionage mission . " In connection with all mentioned above it seems highly preferable not to transfer the flight recorders to the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO ) or any third party willing to decipher their contents . The fact that the recorders are in possession of the USSR shall be kept secret . As far as we are aware neither the US nor Japan has any information on the flight recorders . We have made necessary efforts in order to prevent any disclosure of the information in future . " ( Memo 5 . ) Death and legacy . On 7 November 1984 , Ustinov did not preside over the annual Red Square Military Parade on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution . First Deputy Defense Minister Marshal Sergey Sokolov stood in for Ustinov to both inspect the troops and deliver the commemoration speech . Ustinov had contracted pneumonia in late October . Emergency surgery had to be performed to correct an aneurysm in his aortic valve . His liver and kidneys later deteriorated . Eventually , he suffered a cardiac arrest that killed him . He was honored with a state funeral , and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on 24 December 1984 . The RFS Marshal Ustinov is a Russian warship named after him in his honor . The Baltic State Technical Military - Mechanical University in Saint Petersburg changed its name to the Ustinov Baltic State Technical Military - Mechanical University . The city of Izhevsk was also renamed after him . However , under Mikhail Gorbachev , cities that had been renamed for recent Soviet leaders were reverted to their former names . Ustinov placed great importance on the military for many decades . For example , he succeeded in always keeping the USSR ' s intercontinental ballistic missiles , ICBMs , current . Ustinov also wrote several books throughout his life . These included " Selected Speeches and Articles " ( 1979 ) , and " To serve my country - the cause of Communism " ( 1982 ) . Personality and family . In his memoirs Mikhail Gorbachev describes Ustinov as a man who normally had an energetic and bright personality . When Gorbachev was facing opposition in the Politburo shortly after Andropov ' s death , Ustinov told Gorbachev to " stand firm " and to " take heart " . Soviet Army Colonel General Igor Illarionov , an assistant of Ustinov for 30 years , described him as " the most Stalinist of all the Commissars " . Indeed , Ustinov had been groomed by Stalin to maintain the established system . Illarionov also spoke that Ustinov , like many of his contemporaries , was shaped by his experiences in the Great Patriotic War . Illarionov described Ustinov as a man who was very passionate about his work and had a habit of working late at night and sleeping for a couple of hours during the day . The former head of the 4th Chief of the Ministry of Health , Academician Yevgeniy Chazov wrote about Ustinov : " I met him for the first time thanks to Andropov , who was his close friend . From the first moment I liked his will power , quick decision making , optimism , drive , expertise , combined with a certain simplicity and openness . In my mind , he represented the best representatives of the so - called command - and - control systems by which we defeated Germany during World War II . I think his only mistake , which he may not have realized , was the Afghan war . A bad politician and diplomat , he , as a representative of the old Stalinist " guard " , believed that all issues could be solved via a position of strength . On the other hand , I saw Andropov tossed and nervous because of the Afghan war . I believe that he ultimately understood their mistake . Ustinov , however , was always calm and apparently convinced that he was right . " Ustinov was married to Taisa Alekseevna Briekalova - Ustinova . They had a daughter , Vera Dmitriyvna Ustinova , and a son , Nikolai Dmitriyvich Ustinov ( 1931 - 1992 ) . Ustinov also had a granddaughter , Nastya Nemtsova . In popular culture . Ustinov appears briefly in Tom Clancy ' s 1984 novel " The Hunt for Red October " in his capacity as Defense Minister ; his death is mentioned by the titular spy Colonel Filitov in " The Cardinal of the Kremlin " . External links . < br >