Ministry of Defense Industry
(MOP - Ministerstvo oboronnoy promyshlennosti)

The nomenclature "Ministry of Defense Industry" has been used by several different agencies over the years, each with rather different responsibilities. Whereas in Soviet times the nine arms industry ministries probably employed over 10 000 personnel, by 2005 the equivalent number appeared to be little more than 500. Since the adoption of these new administrative arrangements, there were frequent complaints that the state had effectively lost control of the arms industry; it was alleged that the agencies were understaffed and that there was a lack of clarity as to the respective responsibilities.

People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry
Grigory Ordzhonikidze	January 5 1932	18 February 1937
Valery Mezhlauk	25 February 1937	22 August 1937
Lazar Kaganovich	22 August 1937	24 January 1939
People's Commissariat of Defence Industry
Moses L. Rukhimovich	08 December 1936	15 October 1937
Mikhail Moiseevich Kaganovich	15 October 1937	11 January 1939
People's Commissariat of Armaments
Boris Vannikov	11 January 1939	09 June 1941
D.F.Ustinov	09 June 1941	March 1946
Ministry of Armaments
D.F.Ustinov	March 1946	15 February 1953
Ministry of Defense Industry, SU
D.F.Ustinov	15 February 1953	14 December 1957
State Committee of the USSR on Defense Technology
Alexander Domrach	14 December 1957	27 March 1958
Konstantin Rudnev	31 March 1958	10 June 1961
Leonid Smirnov	10 June 1961	13 March 1963
State Committee for Defense Technology of the USSR
Sergey Zverev	13 March 1963	02 March 1965
State Committee of the USSR on Defense Technology
Sergey Zverev	02 March 1965	17 December 1978
Pavel Finogenov	29 January 1979	07 June 1989
Boris Belousov	17 July 1989	14 November 1991

The military industry, as a separate branch of the national economy began to emerge in 1919. This year was established by the Council of the military industry, which gradually began to gather under his leadership all the special plants serving artillery, navy, air force, sapper troops and commissariat. Until that time, these plants were scattered in various departments in the form of individual units or groups, united by special boards. In the process of gathering all these associations were removed from offices and included in the Supreme Economic Council. The composition of the military industry enterprises in the future, in accordance with the circumstances changed, as well as the structure of the military industry management.

In different historical conditions, the composition of the institutions responsible for the formation of the Soviet military-industrial complex, was different. The basic principles of the Soviet permanent military-industrial complex were presented Chief of the Defense Industry of the USSR Supreme Economic Council P.I.Bogdanovym and his assistant for military-technical issues V.S.Mihaylovym professor in the report "On the organization of the military industry", submitted to the Revolutionary Military Council, People's Commissars and SRT on 02 March 1924.

In 1927, in addition to the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs of the USSR and the Main Directorate of the Military Industry Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, performing "defense" function were considered: the OGPU, the People's Commissariat of Railways, People's Commissariat of Commerce, the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs, the People's Commissariat of Labor, Bureau of Special Technical, local agencies Air-Chemical defense. One center of their strategic and operational management was the Council of Labor and Defense.

The report of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR "On the indicative terms of the military industry development" from April 5, 1927, the production capacity of the Soviet military factories were determined lower than the state-owned and private military factories in 1916.

People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR (People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry) - one of the central government in the Soviet Union, operated from January 1932 to January 1939 and oversaw the production of heavy industry.

The People's Commissariat of Defence Industry of the USSR was the Soviet equivalent of the ministry of defense industry, which oversaw production of the defense industry. It was established 08 December 1936 on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR.

With the rapid increase in production and a variety of sophisticated weapons in the ICPC arose all the new departments and divisions. Commissar and his deputies are physically unable to cope with the volume of work, it was difficult to get through. Therefore, it was soon decided to divide the People's Commissariat of Defense Industry. On January 11, 1939 decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of Defence Industry of the USSR was divided into four departments:

1. People's Commissariat of Aviation Industry of the USSR
2. People's Commissariat of the Shipbuilding Industry of the USSR
3. People's Commissariat of Armaments of the USSR
4. People's Commissariat of Munitions of the USSR

The USSR Ministry of Weapons was established 15 on March 1946 from the People's Commissariat of Soviet weapons. On 15 March 1953, the Ministry of arms of the USSR and the Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR were united into the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR.

With the death of Stalin on 05 March 1953, industry was caught up in the wave of party and government reorganization. On March 15, Malenkov announced to the Presidium a consolidation of eight manufacturing ministries in two ministries. Concurrently, the Ministry of Armaments Production and the Ministry of Aviation Industry were merged to form the Ministry of Defense Industry, headed by Ustinov. The former head of Armaments, D. F. Ustinov, would head the merger.

The Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR was established on 15 March 1953 year with the union of the Ministry of arms of the USSR and the Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR. The rejection of M.V. Krunichev, the former aviation chief, prompted speculation that the aviation industry had lost its special status. Where the Minister of Aviation Industry, M.V.Khrunichev, went is unclear. He did not assume his next known post until July 1953. Given Malenkov's prominence, and previous association with the aviation industry, the subordination of the Ministry of Aviation Industry under the former Minister of Armaments seemed unusual. Ustinov was involved in the decision to start two new long-range winged missile programs. These were assigned to aviation design bureaux (Lavochkin and Miasishchev).

While Beriia was still in charge, Ustinov's missile industry continued to be closely supervised by the security organs. Throughout this time the missile program was still being carried out by Ustinov in the new Ministry of Defence Industry (MOP), but supervision of the program was in the hands of Minister of Medium Machinebuilding, Malyshev. The reorganization was short-lived, however. The Ministry of Aviation Industry was reinstituted as a separate entity on 15 September 1953 [24 August 1953 ?] with Peter Dementyev, Krunichev’s long-time deputy, as its head. Thus, the aviation industry retained its status through the early post-Stalin changes.

Land Combat Chief Designers
Shavyrin	Boris Ivanovich
Koshkin	Mikhail Ilyich
Morozov	Alexander Alexandrovich
Shipunov	Arkady Georgievich
Gorlitsky	Lev Izrailevich
Kotin	Joseph Yakovlevich
Kurchevsky	Leonid

Design and fabrication of offensive missiles initially took place within the Ministry of Defense Industries. By the early 1950s the missile program was centered in D.F.Ustinov's Ministry of Armaments, but it involved the efforts of numerous other ministries.

On 14 December 1957 the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR was abolished. On its base was created the State Committee of the USSR on defense technology. On 13 March 1963 it was reorganized into the State Committee for Defense Technology of the USSR, subordinate to the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR.

On 02 March 1965 the State Committee of the USSR on Defense Technology was reorganized into the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR. It was abolished on 14 November 1991. The Ministry of General Machine Building was established as a separate entity for ballistic missile and spacecraft development and production. Despite the similarity between aircraft and missile production resources there does not seem to have been a significant transfer of people or plants from one activity to the other. Curtailment of bomber production left the aviation industry with surplus resources.

The Ministry of Defense Industry (MOP - Ministerstvo oboronnoy promyshlennosti), was one of eight defense-industrial ministries and a major producer of land arms and several types of missiles, was a good test for the Soviet conversion program. On the one hand, its traditionally large output of civil goods and its extensive excess capacity — increased in the 1980s by weapons cuts provided the potential for sizable contributions to the civil economy. 0n the other hand, unlike the products of the Ministries of the Aviation Industry and of the Shipbuilding Industry — two other defense-industrial ministries - most of MOP’s military products had no close civil counterpart.

To meet their new civil obligations, MOP’s military enterprises must retool production lines, retrain workers, and construct new facilities. Some MOP plants shared industrial technology with civil producers, and others increased output of existing civil product lines—as in the case of plants manufacturing agricultural machinery and consumer goods. However, new civil production capacity must also be brought on line if MOP enterprises are to have a substantial impact. MOP's success in implementing and executing conversion was a gauge for how the rest of defense industry might perform.