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The State Central Range of Rocket Engineering, today known as GTsP MO RF, was created for testing rocket- propelled equipment in support of ministries engaged in these problems. Specifically it became the pioneer in testing missile complexes. The first commanding officer of the range was Lieutenant General Vasiliy Ivanovich Voznyuk. Great state importance was attached to organization of the range. Minister of Armaments D. Ustinov, CINC Soviet Army Artillery Chief Marshal of Artillery N. Voronov, and Chief of Main Artillery Directorate Marshal of Artillery N. Yakovlev delved deeply into these problems. A special state commission performed a site survey of seven possible areas for locating the range. Kapustin Yar was specified as the location of the range by USSR Government decree. The Ministry of Defense State Central Range became the base for ground and flight tests of all kinds of missiles and a powerful scientific research and test center which also engages in training and preparing missile unit personnel.
Reading the memoirs of participants of those events and documentary materials, you clearly see the similarity with frontline routine: difficult situation, shortage of time for performing new missions, and everyday disorder. "Bare steppe, wormwood, camel's thorn and an occasional milkweed. Essentially no water," wrote Vasiliy Ivanovich Voznyuk, the first range commanding officer. "Fighting men of engineer construction units who had become famous during the Great Patriotic War were arriving train after train. There were trains with supplies and equipment. Families were coming in. Accommodation? In tents and in the best case in little towns along a small stream, the water in which was unit for drinking--it was salty. Sand, gravel and brick for construction, water and food products for the personnel--everything brought in... The work is organized in a frontline way. This method did not have to be mastered, since the majority of soldiers were frontlinesmen." The preparation and conduct of test launches of V-2 rockets, both those delivered from Germany as well as those assembled at Soviet plants from German completing parts and assemblies, became a major event for all range personnel. The first launch of a single-stage long-range ballistic missile occurred on 18 October 1947. Eleven launches were made in less than a month in the first series of tests, which confirmed that the missiles' characteristics conformed to the desired ones and that their series manufacture was possible. The selfless labor of hundreds of thousands of people stood behind all this. Tests of domestic medium-range missiles of all generations, from the R-1 to the RSD-10, subsequently were conducted at the range. Simultaneously with tests of ballistic missiles, work was done at the range in 1954 to develop armament in support of other branches of the Armed Forces, for the Academy of Sciences program, and also for international programs. There were 73 launches of Kosmos series spacecraft, 9 of the Interkosmos series and 9 of a mockup of the Buran reusable spacecraft.
A new scientific-research test range was created in Kazakhstan (now the Baykonur Space Launch Center) in 1955 for tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Structures of this range formed on the foundation of command and staff, engineering and technical personnel who had undergone their development at the Ministry of Defense State Central Range.
In the course of implementing the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, an ecologically harmless methodology of recycling solid-propellant missiles by the explosive demolition method was worked out and implemented at the Ministry of Defense State Central Range in 1987. The first explosive demolition of an RSD-10 missile took place on 28 August 1988. A total of 616 RSD-10 missiles were eliminated at the range in three years.
On the whole, the Ministry of Defense State Central Range collective made an enormous contribution to the establishment and development of the Strategic Missile Troops and to creation of arms for other branches of the Armed Forces.
The first missile formation, a special-purpose brigade (BON), was formed on the basis of one of the guards mortar regiments in July 1946 in fulfillment of the aforementioned USSR Government decree for mastery of missile equipment. Its formation took place in the vicinity of the village of Berka on territory of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany under the direction of Major General Aleksandr Fedorovich Tveretskiy. Brigade officer personnel were selected very carefully, with consideration of the specifics of future work: the most intelligent officers were selected not only from guards mortar units, but also from air units, and also the best graduates and post-graduates of military academies. One V-2 was assembled especially for the special-purpose brigade in Germany and classes on the hardware were held on it. All brigade officers underwent training and a probationary period directly at workstations in departments of the Nordhausen Institute, established for studying German rocket building experience.
The brigade was assigned missions of conducting test launches of the first models of guided ballistic missiles, developing fundamentals of combat employment of missile units and subunits and working out operational-technical documentation. The brigade included a brigade headquarters, three launcher battalions, a technical battalion, brigade NCO school, and servicing and maintenance and logistic support subunits.
By the end of November 1946 brigade personnel had completely mastered functional duties in their positions. In December of that same year a special train was attached to the brigade with equipment for preparing and conducting launches of the first V-2 ballistic rockets. Brigade officers, working in close contact with civilian missile specialists, "turned" into military missile specialists. The special-purpose brigade marked the beginning of the formation of missile formations and of new military units armed with guided ballistic missiles. In August 1947 this brigade was redeployed to the Ministry of Defense State Central Range and transferred to its subordination. On 18 October 1947 its personnel took a direct part in the country's first launch of a guided ballistic missile. A memorial obelisk now rises at the launch site. The names of those who took part in this event also are not forgotten. The combat team which conducted the missile launch included operator Engineer-Captain Nikolay Nikolayevich Smirnitskiy (subsequently a lieutenant general and deputy CINC Strategic Missile Troops for Armament); launch team chief Engineer-Major Yakov Isayevich Tregub; Leonid Aleksandrovich Voskresenskiy and Boris Yevseyevich Chertok, deputies to General Designer Sergey Pavlovich Korolev; Nikolay Alekseyevich Pilyugin, chief designer of the guidance and control system; and his deputy Abram Markovich Ginzburg.
In 1948 honorary designations and awards of the 92nd Guards Mortar Regiment were transferred to the special- purpose brigade as a successor and it began to be called the Gomel Order of Lenin, Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitskiy Special-Purpose Brigade. Major General of Artillery Vasiliy Mikhaylovich Gumirov was appointed as its commander in 1949.
In December 1950 a combined-arms number was conferred on the brigade--22nd Special-Purpose Brigade of the Supreme High Command Reserve (RVGK)--with retention of the honorary designations. It served as the backbone of command and engineering-technical cadres of five RVGK engineer brigades formed during 1951-1953.
The brigade was restationed from the Ministry of Defense State Central Range to the village of Medved, Novgorod Oblast in October 1952 under the plan for operational deployment of RVGK missile formations. Under the direction of Hero of the Soviet Union Major General of Artillery Vasiliy Nikolayevich Ivanov, its personnel successfully coped with missions of building living quarters, a barracks zone, motor pools and a training facility. Officer personnel began successful mastery of a new missile complex with the R-5 missile.
A mission of special state importance to redeploy to GDR territory under the direction of Brigade Commander Colonel Aleksandr Ivanovich Kholopov was an important test in a check of the brigade's combat readiness to perform the missions for which it was intended. The brigade, with organic weapons and military equipment, was covertly deployed to the vicinity of the city of F[u umlaut]rstenberg and the village of Vogelsang in early 1959 and became part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. After withdrawal from the GDR in August 1959, the brigade was redeployed to the city of Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad Oblast, up-armed with the medium-range R-12 missile complex, and in 1960 was reorganized as a missile division. It became part of a missile large strategic formation, the headquarters of which was located in the city of Smolensk, and up to the moment of its disbanding in 1990 honorably performed assigned missions on alert duty in defense of the homeland.
In preparing to celebrate the semicentennial of formation of missile units, we realize more and more clearly that the foundations for solving many scientific problems in the area of creating missiles, nuclear warheads and systems for controlling them, and the principles of alert duty, combat employment and operation of the most powerful weapons were laid down specifically in those years. All this was achieved by the talent and courage of scientists, designers, production workers, builders and missile soldiers under very difficult conditions in the absence of what was most necessary for normal life. They were the ones who laid the foundation for the Strategic Missile Troops, which, thanks to the might of their weapons, are the main component of the Strategic Nuclear Forces, Russia's nuclear missile shield. By possessing and preserving this shield, Russia is guaranteed against military danger no matter from whence it comes. Russia's strategic missilemen recall that Great Patriotic War participants, united a half-century ago by performance of a new and unexplored mission of mastering nuclear missile weapons, stood at the sources of creation of the Motherland's missile shield. The formation of the first missile units is a memorable date not just for servicemen of the Strategic Missile Troops; to no less an extent, this jubilee is close to scientists and engineer- technical personnel of design bureaus and scientific research institutes and to workers of plants and of construction and installation organizations--to everyone who strengthened and continue to strengthen the country's defense capability by their selfless labor.
Footnotes
1. Translator note: the following terms were translated in this article as indicated:
reaktivnyy - rocket, rocket-propelled
reaktivnoye vooruzheniye - rocket-propelled weapons
reaktivnaya tekhnika - rocket engineering
raketnyy - missile
raketa - missile (except V-2)
raketnoye vooruzheniye - missile weapons
raketnaya tekhnika - missile engineering or equipment
Reading the memoirs of participants of those events and documentary materials, you clearly see the similarity with frontline routine: difficult situation, shortage of time for performing new missions, and everyday disorder. "Bare steppe, wormwood, camel's thorn and an occasional milkweed. Essentially no water," wrote Vasiliy Ivanovich Voznyuk, the first range commanding officer. "Fighting men of engineer construction units who had become famous during the Great Patriotic War were arriving train after train. There were trains with supplies and equipment. Families were coming in. Accommodation? In tents and in the best case in little towns along a small stream, the water in which was unit for drinking--it was salty. Sand, gravel and brick for construction, water and food products for the personnel--everything brought in... The work is organized in a frontline way. This method did not have to be mastered, since the majority of soldiers were frontlinesmen." The preparation and conduct of test launches of V-2 rockets, both those delivered from Germany as well as those assembled at Soviet plants from German completing parts and assemblies, became a major event for all range personnel. The first launch of a single-stage long-range ballistic missile occurred on 18 October 1947. Eleven launches were made in less than a month in the first series of tests, which confirmed that the missiles' characteristics conformed to the desired ones and that their series manufacture was possible. The selfless labor of hundreds of thousands of people stood behind all this. Tests of domestic medium-range missiles of all generations, from the R-1 to the RSD-10, subsequently were conducted at the range. Simultaneously with tests of ballistic missiles, work was done at the range in 1954 to develop armament in support of other branches of the Armed Forces, for the Academy of Sciences program, and also for international programs. There were 73 launches of Kosmos series spacecraft, 9 of the Interkosmos series and 9 of a mockup of the Buran reusable spacecraft.
A new scientific-research test range was created in Kazakhstan (now the Baykonur Space Launch Center) in 1955 for tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Structures of this range formed on the foundation of command and staff, engineering and technical personnel who had undergone their development at the Ministry of Defense State Central Range.
In the course of implementing the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles, an ecologically harmless methodology of recycling solid-propellant missiles by the explosive demolition method was worked out and implemented at the Ministry of Defense State Central Range in 1987. The first explosive demolition of an RSD-10 missile took place on 28 August 1988. A total of 616 RSD-10 missiles were eliminated at the range in three years.
On the whole, the Ministry of Defense State Central Range collective made an enormous contribution to the establishment and development of the Strategic Missile Troops and to creation of arms for other branches of the Armed Forces.
The first missile formation, a special-purpose brigade (BON), was formed on the basis of one of the guards mortar regiments in July 1946 in fulfillment of the aforementioned USSR Government decree for mastery of missile equipment. Its formation took place in the vicinity of the village of Berka on territory of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany under the direction of Major General Aleksandr Fedorovich Tveretskiy. Brigade officer personnel were selected very carefully, with consideration of the specifics of future work: the most intelligent officers were selected not only from guards mortar units, but also from air units, and also the best graduates and post-graduates of military academies. One V-2 was assembled especially for the special-purpose brigade in Germany and classes on the hardware were held on it. All brigade officers underwent training and a probationary period directly at workstations in departments of the Nordhausen Institute, established for studying German rocket building experience.
The brigade was assigned missions of conducting test launches of the first models of guided ballistic missiles, developing fundamentals of combat employment of missile units and subunits and working out operational-technical documentation. The brigade included a brigade headquarters, three launcher battalions, a technical battalion, brigade NCO school, and servicing and maintenance and logistic support subunits.
By the end of November 1946 brigade personnel had completely mastered functional duties in their positions. In December of that same year a special train was attached to the brigade with equipment for preparing and conducting launches of the first V-2 ballistic rockets. Brigade officers, working in close contact with civilian missile specialists, "turned" into military missile specialists. The special-purpose brigade marked the beginning of the formation of missile formations and of new military units armed with guided ballistic missiles. In August 1947 this brigade was redeployed to the Ministry of Defense State Central Range and transferred to its subordination. On 18 October 1947 its personnel took a direct part in the country's first launch of a guided ballistic missile. A memorial obelisk now rises at the launch site. The names of those who took part in this event also are not forgotten. The combat team which conducted the missile launch included operator Engineer-Captain Nikolay Nikolayevich Smirnitskiy (subsequently a lieutenant general and deputy CINC Strategic Missile Troops for Armament); launch team chief Engineer-Major Yakov Isayevich Tregub; Leonid Aleksandrovich Voskresenskiy and Boris Yevseyevich Chertok, deputies to General Designer Sergey Pavlovich Korolev; Nikolay Alekseyevich Pilyugin, chief designer of the guidance and control system; and his deputy Abram Markovich Ginzburg.
In 1948 honorary designations and awards of the 92nd Guards Mortar Regiment were transferred to the special- purpose brigade as a successor and it began to be called the Gomel Order of Lenin, Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitskiy Special-Purpose Brigade. Major General of Artillery Vasiliy Mikhaylovich Gumirov was appointed as its commander in 1949.
In December 1950 a combined-arms number was conferred on the brigade--22nd Special-Purpose Brigade of the Supreme High Command Reserve (RVGK)--with retention of the honorary designations. It served as the backbone of command and engineering-technical cadres of five RVGK engineer brigades formed during 1951-1953.
The brigade was restationed from the Ministry of Defense State Central Range to the village of Medved, Novgorod Oblast in October 1952 under the plan for operational deployment of RVGK missile formations. Under the direction of Hero of the Soviet Union Major General of Artillery Vasiliy Nikolayevich Ivanov, its personnel successfully coped with missions of building living quarters, a barracks zone, motor pools and a training facility. Officer personnel began successful mastery of a new missile complex with the R-5 missile.
A mission of special state importance to redeploy to GDR territory under the direction of Brigade Commander Colonel Aleksandr Ivanovich Kholopov was an important test in a check of the brigade's combat readiness to perform the missions for which it was intended. The brigade, with organic weapons and military equipment, was covertly deployed to the vicinity of the city of F[u umlaut]rstenberg and the village of Vogelsang in early 1959 and became part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. After withdrawal from the GDR in August 1959, the brigade was redeployed to the city of Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad Oblast, up-armed with the medium-range R-12 missile complex, and in 1960 was reorganized as a missile division. It became part of a missile large strategic formation, the headquarters of which was located in the city of Smolensk, and up to the moment of its disbanding in 1990 honorably performed assigned missions on alert duty in defense of the homeland.
In preparing to celebrate the semicentennial of formation of missile units, we realize more and more clearly that the foundations for solving many scientific problems in the area of creating missiles, nuclear warheads and systems for controlling them, and the principles of alert duty, combat employment and operation of the most powerful weapons were laid down specifically in those years. All this was achieved by the talent and courage of scientists, designers, production workers, builders and missile soldiers under very difficult conditions in the absence of what was most necessary for normal life. They were the ones who laid the foundation for the Strategic Missile Troops, which, thanks to the might of their weapons, are the main component of the Strategic Nuclear Forces, Russia's nuclear missile shield. By possessing and preserving this shield, Russia is guaranteed against military danger no matter from whence it comes. Russia's strategic missilemen recall that Great Patriotic War participants, united a half-century ago by performance of a new and unexplored mission of mastering nuclear missile weapons, stood at the sources of creation of the Motherland's missile shield. The formation of the first missile units is a memorable date not just for servicemen of the Strategic Missile Troops; to no less an extent, this jubilee is close to scientists and engineer- technical personnel of design bureaus and scientific research institutes and to workers of plants and of construction and installation organizations--to everyone who strengthened and continue to strengthen the country's defense capability by their selfless labor.
Footnotes
1. Translator note: the following terms were translated in this article as indicated:
reaktivnyy - rocket, rocket-propelled
reaktivnoye vooruzheniye - rocket-propelled weapons
reaktivnaya tekhnika - rocket engineering
raketnyy - missile
raketa - missile (except V-2)
raketnoye vooruzheniye - missile weapons
raketnaya tekhnika - missile engineering or equipment
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