The Ministry of Armament () was a
government ministry
Ministry or department (also less commonly used secretariat, office, or directorate) are designations used by first-level Executive (government), executive bodies in the Machinery of government, machinery of governments that manage a specific se ...
in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. Before 1946 it was known as the People's Commissariat of Armament of the USSR (''Народный комиссариат вооружения СССР'').
The Ministry of Armaments was subordinate to the
USSR Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...
and was located on Mayakovskogo Street in Moscow.
History
On January 11, 1939 the
People's Commissariat of Defence Industry of the USSR
The Ministry of Defense Industry (Minoboronprom; ) was a Government of the Soviet Union, government Ministries of the Soviet Union, ministry in the Soviet Union, established 8 December 1936.
History
It was originally established on 8 December 1936 ...
(''Народный комиссариат оборонной промышленности'') was divided into several departments, among which was the People's Commissariat of Armament.
It oversaw the work of 28 manufacturing plants and eight design offices. In 1939 it employed 204,458 workers.
It played a leading role in the whole complex of arms which devotes major attention to the head of
Lavrenty Beria. In 1946 the office was renamed the Ministry of Arms of the USSR (''Министерство вооружения СССР'' – МВ).
Responsibilities
The ministry was in charge of the production of weapons equipment and ammunition for the
USSR Armed Forces; it had under its administration all plants factories and workshops manufacturing any armaments or ammunition, regardless whether this production represented the main or secondary occupation of such plants.
There were few plants in the Soviet Union that were strictly military plants, and since the tendency was to keep the production of war materials as secret as possible, it was customary to assign some peacetime production line to any plant manufacturing armaments. All such plants, even though they were concerned with the production of peacetime goods, were put under the administration of the Ministry of Armaments. Each plant working for the Ministry of Armaments was assigned a number that was used in official correspondence, e.g., Kirov Plant 304 and Plant 707.
[ ]
List of ministers
''Source'':
*
Moses Rukhimovitsh (8.12.1936 - 16.10.1937)
*
Mikhail Kaganovich (16.10.1937 - 11.1.1939)
*
Boris Vannikov
Boris Lvovich Vannikov (; 26 August 1897 – 22 February 1962), was a Soviet politician and a political commissar of Azerbaijani Jewish origin who was one of the senior program managers in the Soviet program of nuclear weapons.
Biography
Bor ...
(11.1.1939 - 9.6.1941)
*
Dmitri Ustinov (9.6.1941 - 6.3.1953)
References
Armament
A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law e ...
Defence industry of the Soviet Union
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