The name of Sergei Alexandrovich Afanasiev can be safely put on a par with such outstanding personalities as Gagarin and Korolev. In the development of the space industry of the USSR, his merit is no less.
Biography
Sergei Afanasiev was born in the city with the funny name Klin on August 30, 1918 in the family of an employee. After graduating from high school, he enters the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman. He graduated with honors in the speci alty "metal-cutting machines", despite the fact that he had to combine his studies with work at the Moscow Automobile Plant. Stalin.
After graduating from university, a young specialist is sent to an artillery factory. With the outbreak of hostilities, in 1941, Sergei Afanasiev went to Perm, along with the evacuated plant.
Afanasyev had a desire to go to the front, but the leadership did not approve of this, and he remained at the plant.
At the plant, Sergey Afanasiev has come a long way from foreman to deputy chief engineer.
Space Minister
Thanks to his perseverance, dedication,initiative, Sergei Alexandrovich held responsible positions. From 1946 to 1957 - in the Ministry of Armaments, from 1957 to 1961 - in the Leningrad Economic Council. In 1961 he became Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federative Republic and held this position until 1965.
March 2, 1965 was organized by the Ministry of General Engineering, which was subordinate to the rocket and space industry of the country. Afanasiev Sergey Alexandrovich headed this ministry in a very difficult time. The tension in relations with the United States of America, which was 10 times superior to the USSR in nuclear missile forces, was very high. There was a high probability of starting a global nuclear war.
Despite all the difficulties, Sergei Afanasyev was able to achieve great success in the work of the Ministry of General Machine Building. He achieved the unification in this industry of all enterprises involved in the work, so that the Ministry of General Machinery could resolve issues at any stage of production.
Research work, mass production and testing were all under the direct control of the ministry.
In addition to the most important tasks for the rocket and space complex, I had to control the work of other enterprises, such as the factory of refrigerators (in Krasnoyarsk), televisions (in Kharkov) and so on. Difficulties in management were added by the scattered infrastructure of the ministry throughout the Soviet Union, right up to the Far East. But Sergei Afanasiev successfully coped with this as well.
For special merit
Thanks to the well-organized work of the department, the volume of production of space and rocket-nuclear systems made it possible to achieve parity of forces in the world by 1980. So, thanks to Sergey Aleksandrovich, the Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering adequately coped with the most important task assigned to them.
Another major accomplishment of Sergei Afanasiev was the development of long-term orbital stations. The well-known orbital station "Mir" was designed on the model of the station "Salyut", which was created by no means for peaceful purposes.
Almost twenty years of Afanasyev's experience as a "space" minister ended in 1983. It was only then that the USSR announced the complete cessation of work on space weapons, being absolutely confident in the full parity of potentials.
From 1983 to 1987, he headed the Ministry of Transport and Heavy Engineering, and from 1988, until the last days, he was a consultant in the Ministry of Defense.
For special merits, Sergei Aleksandrovich Afanasiev was awarded many awards: laureate of the Lenin Prize, twice laureate of the State Prize of the Soviet Union, holder of seven orders of Lenin, Honored Machine Builder of the USSR, awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the October Revolution, many medals, etc.
To remember
Sergey Alexandrovich lived a long and interesting life. He was a very responsible and decent person, had a high organizational ability, always came to the aid of people who found themselves in a difficult situation.life situation and devotedly loved his homeland.
Died Sergei Afanasyev in 2001 on May 13th. His grave is at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
In the city of Klin, in the homeland of the minister, a square was named in his honor and a monument was erected. The local history museum stores materials about him.
On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of his birth in Moscow, a commemorative meeting was organized and a memorial plaque was opened on the house where Afanasyev lived. A book has been published and a commemorative medal has been issued.
