Ustinov, Dmitrii

Born Oct. 17 (30), 1908, in Samara (present-day Kuibyshev). Soviet party, state, and military figure. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1942 and 1961). Hero of the Soviet Union (1978). Marshal of the Soviet Union (1976). Member of the CPSU since 1927.

Ustinov, the son of a worker, graduated from a vocational-technical school in Makar’ev in 1927 and from the Leningrad Military Engineering Institute in 1934. From 1927 to 1929 he worked as a fitter at the Balakhna Pulp and Paper Mill in Gorky Oblast and at the Zariad’e Factory in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. Between 1934 and 1941 he was an engineer at the Artillery Scientific Research Naval Institute and worked in plants as head of the bureau of operations and experimental work, deputy to the chief design engineer, and manager.

Ustinov was a people’s commissar from 1941 to 1946, minister of armaments of the USSR from 1946 to 1953, and minister of the defense industry of the USSR from 1953 to 1957. He was deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from 1957 to 1963 and first deputy chairman of the Supreme Council on the National Economy of the USSR from 1963 to 1965. Ustinov was secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1965 to 1976. He became minister of defense of the USSR in April 1976.

Ustinov joined the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1952. He was a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1965 and 1966. In April 1966 he became a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, and in March 1976 he became a member. He was a deputy to the second and fourth through tenth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Ustinov received the State Prize of the USSR in 1953. He has been awarded ten Orders of Lenin, the Order of Suvorov First Class, the Order of Kutuzov First Class, and various medals.