Ministry of Radio Industry

The Ministry of Radio Industry traditionally managed military radar and missile defense programs. The separate Ministry of Electronic Industry managed other non-radar electronics programs. Deputy Minister of Radio Engineering Industry of the USSR in 1955-57 was Alexander Ivanovich Shokin, who later became Minister of Electronic Industry.

In 1933, M.N.Tukhachevsky supported the proposal of engineer P.K. Oschepkov about the possibility of developing equipment for aircraft radio detection using electromagnetic energy reflected from it. In early 1934, the Leningrad Electrophysical Institute received an order from the Red Army Air Defense Directorate to manufacture a sample of an experimental radar station, which in July of the same year passed successful tests that proved the possibility of detecting aircraft using radio waves at a distance of several tens of kilometers. Due to insufficient funding of research and development work on radar, the development and adoption of radar complexes was delayed until 1939.

The Ministry of Radio Industry was the largest branch of the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union. The Ministry, at whose enterprises developed and introduced qualitatively new types of military equipment, carried out space research. The Ministry of Radio Industry was not only the most powerful in defense complex, but also a huge mass of consumer goods were produced in the industry's plants. These factories were located throughout the country, and the minister considered it his duty not only to supervise their work, but also to visit them several times a year.

Initially, electronics went to the People's Commissariat (Ministry) of the electrical industry of the USSR (Minister - IG Kabanov). In the years 1943-1945. its additional governing body is the Radar Council under GKO (Chairman GM Malenkov), the advisory body for the study, development and use of radar technology. On June 28, 1946, the Ministry of Communications Industry was established. It was the head of the development and production of radar stations, the main one on electric vacuum devices, radio measuring devices, electrochemical current sources, solid rectifiers, resistors, capacitors and high-frequency ceramic parts (Minister - G.V. Alekseenko).

In June 1947 the Radar Council was reorganized into the Committee on Radiolocation under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (Chairman MZ Saburov), better known in the literature under the name "Special Committee No. 3". In August 1949 . The radar committee was abolished and its responsibilities were divided between the Ministry of Defense and the ministries of defense industries.

In 1950 the Third General Directorate (TSU) was created under the Council of Ministers of the USSR ( Head - V. M Ryabikov.) - a secret government agency - the state customer of the complex (radar and anti-missile) system of air defense of Moscow. The project was led by the deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers L.P. Beria, whom some modern researchers consider "one of the most ingenious managers of the 20th century."

In 1953, after the death of Stalin and the "exposure" of L.P. Beria electrovacuum and radio engineering industry joined the Ministry of Power Plants and Electrical Industry, which was headed by a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) M.G. Pervukhin.

In 1954 the Ministry of Radio Engineering Industry was established, with responsibility for developing air defense radars and related electronic systems. The 1957 reforms affected plants of the radio engineering industry in two ways: It decentralized administration by transferring jurisdiction over radio plants and organization to regional councils; and it centralized the control of the centralized planning organs over the operation of the radio equipment industry for defense purposes. A list of the plants and the organizations affected by the decentralizing acts of the law was approved by the Supreme Soviet but was not made public. The dates of transfer of these enterprises, as well as of their equipment, material, and other assets were to be set by the USSR Council of Ministries and completed by 1 July 1957. Soviet sources revealed that the two main criticisms of the radio enterprises as that that they did not utilize or incorporate the latest technical developments and that they did not produce enough radio equipment. The 1957 reorganization was designed to overcome both of these shortcomings.

In a speech made before the Supreme Soviet in February 1957 Khrushchev said: "The new direct administration of radio enterprises by the regional councils will spark a tempestuous growth in new techniques, better production techniques, improved development of integrated mechanization and automation, and better specialization and cooperation in production." Under the reorganization, production of equipment by radio plants was to be increased through the local administrations by developing -- quoting from Khrushchev " . . direct connections among the plants, factories, and building sites on the one hand, and their immediate supplies of raw materials and parts as being the best method of supplying and marketing output, and avoiding the tremendous amounts of time wasted on paper work going through administrative channels."

Under the Ministry of Radio Engineering Industry, liaison between producing plants and radio research institutes was criticized as being poorly organized. An extremely weak spot in the system of scientific establishments was their concentration in the capitals, a situation in which almost 40 percent of the scientific establishments of the RSFSR -- that is Russia itself -- were situated in Moscow and Leningrad. Under the new reorganization, two measures were made to change this situation. Research and design organizations were transferred from the Leningrad-Moscow area to the centers of population in the East, and the majority of research and design organizations were subordinated to the local councils. Thus, under the new reorganization, radio plants in each of the economic regions were to have their own research institute and design bureau. To get an adequate number of research and design organizations, they were to be transferred from Moscow and Leningrad and the other central areas.

The Ministry of Radio Industry of the USSR was established on March 2, 1965 on the basis of the State Radio Electronics Committee of the USSR, which in its turn was formed on March 13, 1963 by renaming the USSR State Committee on Radio Electronics, which was established on December 14, 1957 on the basis of the Ministry of Radio Engineering industry of the USSR, which was formed by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 21, 1954 on the basis of enterprises and organizations of radio engineering, electrovacuum andtelephone and telegraph industry of the Ministry of Power Stations and Electrical Industry of the USSR.

In the defense sector, the transformation of existing state committees into line ministries with the transfer to their subordination to profile factories was carried out early in 1965, long before the September plenum of the Central Committee, in which, in fact, the decisions on economic reform as a whole were taken. Eight defense ministries were headed by outstanding representatives of the next generation of leaders of Soviet industry. The oldest was E.P.Slavsky - Minister of Medium Engineering (the so-called nuclear industry). Minister of General Engineering (and so called missile technology) was Afanasyev. The defense industry was headed by a native of opticians S.A.Zverev, aviation - PV Dementiev, shipbuilding - B.E.Butoma, radio engineering - V.D.Kalmykov. All of them went through a severe school during and after the war, learned a lot from their predecessors, who left active roles in the Khrushchev era, grew into big leaders. These were the last of the Stalinist mohicans among the leaders of the military-industrial complex. In 1974, V.D. Kalmykov died, in 1976 - B. Ye. Butoma, in 1977 - P. V. Dementiev, in 1978 - S. A. Zverev, in 1980 - K. N. Rudnev.

The Ministry was transformed into the state corporation "Radio Complex" headed by the last Minister V.I.Shimko.

Those who conduct radio electronic systems are not recognized anywhere in the world as an independent industry. Manufacturers of component base and systems there combines the concept of "radio electronics". At the same time they were artificially divided, which did not benefit either one. And inside the radio industry there were a number of independent, practically unrelated directions. The only core that united them into the industry was the common resources. The majority of production managers had no doubts that the Russian radio industry should be preserved.

JSC Corporation Radiocomplex was established in 1991. This is an open joint-stock company, the founders of which were almost all enterprises of radio industry in Russia and some CIS countries. Among them, 60% are state-owned enterprises. The rest are joint-stock companies with different state ownership, there are also completely private enterprises. However, today it is rather difficult to determine who actually owns a particular plant.

The Department of Radio Electronics and Instrument-Making of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation had a small staff (about 50 people). Although formed from the most highly professional managers, the department was not in a position to fully coordinate the work of radio industry enterprises, to help them in solving current problems. In the "Radio Complex" there were a little more employees - 70 people, and all of them are also professionals.

In November 1993, the Department of Industrial Radio Electronics of the International Academy of Informatization was formed. This made it possible to unite the scientific and technical forces of various industries during the period of the country's reform. As a collective member, the Branch consisted of 30 leading Russian radio companies, and more than 20 enterprises of Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary became members of its Southern and Eastern branches. The Division of Industrial Radio Electronics became the largest branch of the Academy.