Research Catalog

Title

A memoir of the missile age : one man's journey / Vitaly Leonidovich Katayev, project advisor, Ksenia Kostrova.

Author

Katayev, Vitaly Leonidovich

Publication

• Stanford, California : Hoover Institution Press, 2015.
• ©2015

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Kostrova, Ksenia

Description

xiii, 210 pages, 10 unnumbered plates : photographs (black and white); 24 cm

Summary

Vitaly Katayev witnessed the dawn of the age of nuclear-armed missiles as a designer. In the1980s and early 1990s, he became deeply involved in government oversight of arms development and, later, disarmament. In this extraordinary memoir he offers a firsthand look at Soviet decisions and calculations during the Cold War. From his inside perspective, he captures the drama of the Soviet system at first racing forward, then reversing course as Gorbachev comes to power and begins the process of negotiating arms control agreements with President Reagan. Katayev reveals how misunderstandings of both sides were a symptom of the deepest chasm of the Cold War: Soviet leaders were often hobbled by a poor understanding of what was happening in the United States, and Americans had a weak grasp of what was happening in Moscow. He tells how the defense industry establishment, often at odds with the uniformed military, drove the development of Soviet weapons, as he takes the reader on a journey through this most important and often-overlooked archipelago of launching pads, design bureaus, factories and policy-making offices. He joined the Defense Industry Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1975, after fifteen years as a designer in the defense industry, ultimately rising to deputy head of defense under Gorbachev and serving until the department was disbanded in 1993.

Series Statement

Hoover Institution Press publication

Uniform Title

Hoover Institution Press publication ; 622.

Subject

• Katayev, Vitaly Leonidovich
• Rocketry > Biography
• Rockets (Aeronautics) > Soviet Union
• Nuclear weapons > Soviet Union
• Nuclear aircraft > Soviet Union > History
• Arms control > Decision making
• Cold War
• Soviet Union > Military policy
• Soviet Union > Defenses
• Soviet Union > Foreign relations > 1945-1991

Note

• This book is based on Katayev's original manuscript, materials from his personal archive, and fragments of his interview for the oral history project of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The material was prepared for publication by his granddaughter Ksenia Kostrova. Portions of the memoir were translated from Russian to English by Natalia Alexandrova and Irina Makaorva. Additional excerpts were translated by Roman Ozornov and edited by Scott Bean of the Russian Translation Company.
• Includes index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

PART I: Snapshots from a Career in Soviet Rocket Design -- Chapter 1: Omsk Civil Aviation Plant -- Chapter 2: Yuzhnoye Design Bureau -- Chapter 3: The Nedelin Disaster -- Chapter 4: Baikonur Test Range -- Chapter 5: The R-16, R-36, and Other Missile Products -- Chapter 6: Two Profiles: Chief Designers Mikhail Yangel and Viktor Petrovich Makeyev -- PART II: An Insider's View of Soviet Arms Development and Limitation -- Chapter 7: Military-Industrial Complex -- Chapter 8: Communist Party -- Chapter 9: Government Defense Agencies -- Chapter 10: Interdepartmental Working Group.

ISBN

• 9780817914745
• 0817914749
• 9780817914752
• 0817914757

OCLC

903764003

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library