MINISTER

Afanasyev, Sergey Aleksandrovich 1918-2001 ‘

First Minister of General Machine Building 1965-1983

Sergey Afanasyev’s organization managed the institutions and workforce that built ballistic missiles and satellites vital to the defense of the Soviet Union, as well as the spacecraft and launch vehicles for their politically important space ex­ploration program. Leonid Brezhnev once told him,

“We believe in you, but if you fail w;e will put you against a brick wall and shoot you.” Known as “the big hammer”, he could be a very rude and intimidating man but he had a talent for orches­trating immense projects. He was among the most powerful people involved in the USSR’s space program, which included Korolev and his rival Glushko. His criticism of Korolev’s management of the manned space program resulted in the separation of the robotic program from Korolev’s bailiwick to that of Georgi Babakin in 1965. He oversaw the Soviet Union’s response to the Apollo project and was ultimately responsible for canceling it after many setbacks.