Boris Vannikov

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Boris Vannikov
Hero of Socialist Labor
USSR State Prize

Boris Lvovich Vannikov (Russian: Бори́с Льво́вич Ва́нников; 26 August 1897 – 22 February 1962) was a Soviet government official and three-star general.

Vannikov served as

Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.[1]

From 1945 through 1953 Vannikov was Head of the 1st Main Directorate of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. In this position Vannikov worked under direct

Yulii Khariton and Igor Kurchatov by walking close to their test reactor. His body fat reflected enough neutrons to approach criticality.[2]

Boris Chertok, a Soviet military engineer, described Vannikov as "quite energetic, typically Jewish in appearance, sometimes rudely cynical, sometimes very blunt, and friendly and amicable when necessary... [with] quite exceptional organizational skills."

Beriya
, despite Vannikov's past and his Jewish ethnicity, put him in charge of all operations for the development of the atomic bomb as head of the First Main Directorate."

Vannikov was the first person who was awarded (by 2nd and 3rd stars) as a

Hero of Socialist Labor three times (in 1942,[4] 1949, and 1954), and he was twice awarded the Stalin Prize
(in 1951 and 1953). After Beria's arrest and death in 1953, Vannikov was moved to the position of First Deputy Minister of Medium Machine-Building Ministry (made of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Main Directorates merged; the code-name for nuclear-related R&D and production in the USSR). He retired in 1958.

Vannikov purportedly disliked the Soviet regime. According to Beria's son, Vannikov said of the Soviet Union, "I hate it and yet I work for it. And I work honestly. What else can I do?" and that "Instead of shutting myself up in research I had to go into politics... Thereafter, I was done for."[5]

Vannikov died on 22 February, 1962 in Moscow, and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

References

  1. ^ "Boris Vannikov". www.yadvashem.org. Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  2. ISBN 9780684804002
    .
  3. ^ Chertok, Boris. Rockets and People, Vol II: Creating a Rocket Industry. p. 8.
  4. ^ Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР «О присвоении звания Героя Социалистического Труда товарищам Быховскому А. И., Ванникову Б. Л., Гонор Л. Р., Еляну А. С., Новикову и Устинову Д. Ф.» от 3 июня 1942 года // Ведомости Верховного Совета Союза Советских Социалистических Республик : газета. — 1942. — 15 июня (№ 22 (181)). — С. 1.
  5. ^ Beria, Sergo (2001). Beria, my father: inside Stalin's Kremlin. p. 181.
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