Information 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. Zhukovsky took part. .
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:
| 1918 | 1921 | 1927 | 1932 | 1937 | 1940 |
aircraft | 255* | 111 | 621 | 2489 | 6039 | 10565 |
Aviamotorov | 79* | 15 | 285 | 4918 | 15410 | 21452 |
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