Avraami Zavenyagin

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Avraami Zavenyagin
Авраамий Завенягин
Zavenyagin in 1938
Minister of Medium Machine Building
In office
28 February 1955 – 31 December 1956
PremierNikolai Bulganin
Preceded byVyacheslav Malyshev
Succeeded byMikhail Pervukhin
Personal details
Born(1901-04-14)14 April 1901
Uzlovaya, Tula Governorate, Russian Empire
Died31 December 1956(1956-12-31) (aged 55)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Political partyCommunist Party of the Soviet Union
EducationMoscow Mining Academy [ru]

Lieutenant-General Avraami Pavlovich Zavenyagin (1 May 1901 – 31 December 1956; his first name is also sometimes given as Avram or Abraham) was a leading figure in the Soviet nuclear projects of the 1940s and 1950s.[1][2][3][4]

Early career[edit]

Zavenyagin was made plant director of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works in August 1933 and served in that capacity until 1936 when he was appointed the assistant to the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry.[4]

From April 1938 until March 1941, Zavenyagin was in charge of the construction works at Norillag in Norilsk. While there, he established for himself and his subordinates "Zavenyagin's laws of management":[5]

  • First Law: Maximum performance in inhumane circumstances.
  • Second Law: salvation (including your own) lies in extraordinary decisions.
  • Third Law: youth is more an advantage than a disadvantage.

Nuclear industry[edit]

On 8 December 1944, by decree of the State Defense Committee No. 7102 ss/ov, which accelerated geological exploration work for uranium, Zavenyagin was appointed responsible for the search for uranium in the Soviet Union and in the occupied territories; to carry out the search, the Ninth Directorate of the NKVD was deployed. By the same decree, Zavenyagin was appointed responsible for issues of the country's uranium mining and processing complex. He supervised the construction of factories in mining areas.[6]

After the USSR State Defense Order of 20 August 1945 No. 9887ss/ov "On the Special Committee [on the use of atomic energy] under the State Defense Committee," Zavenyagin was responsible for the following areas of work:

  • He became a member of the special committee and had a voice in resolving all issues within the jurisdiction of the committee.[7]
  • He became a member of the technical council of a special committee that dealt with issues of scientific research and scientific installations.[7]
  • From the moment of the formation (20 August 1945) of the First Main Directorate [ru] (PGU), Zavenyagin was its first deputy head[7] and supervised the work of the special contingent.[8]

Another important area of work was the solution of personnel issues: by Lavrentiy Beria's order, Mikhail Pervukhin, Vyacheslav Malyshev, Boris Vannikov, and Zavenyagin staffed the council sections with scientific and engineering personnel and selected experts to resolve individual issues.[9]

Later career[edit]

A protégé of Lavrenti Beria,[2] Zavenyagin survived the purge after the death of Joseph Stalin because of a long friendship with Nikita Khrushchev, which dated back to the 1920s. During the Khrushchev era, he headed the Ministry of Medium Machine Building, responsible for nuclear weapons production, for two years. He died of a heart attack in 1956.

Personal life[edit]

Zavenyagin was ethnically Russian.[10]

Legacy[edit]

The icebreaker Avraamiy Zavenyagin was named after him.[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Antony Beevor, The fall of Berlin, 1945, 2002
  2. ^ a b Richard Lee Miller, Under the cloud: the decades of nuclear testing, 1986
  3. ^ George A. Lopez and Nancy J. Myers, Peace and security: the next generation, 1997
  4. ^ a b John Scott, Behind the Urals: an American worker in Russia's City of Steel, 1942
  5. ^ "Принципиальный Завенягин" [Principled Zavenyagin]. Donetsk: history, events, facts (in Russian). 2009-05-12. Archived from the original on 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  6. ^ "Постановление ГКО № 7102сс/ов от 08.12.44" [Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 7102ss/ov dated 12/08/44]. Wikisource (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  7. ^ a b c "Распоряжение ГКО № 9887сс/оп от 20.08.45" [State Defense Order No. 9887ss/op dated 08.20.45]. Wikisource (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  8. ^ "История создания атомного и термоядерного оружия. 10 декабря 1945 постановлением СМ СССР при Специальном комитете" [History of the creation of atomic and thermonuclear weapons. December 10, 1945 by resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR under the Special Committee] (in Russian). 2019-08-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-15. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  9. ^ "Протокол № 9 заседания Специального комитета 30 ноября 1945" [Minutes No. 9 of the meeting of the Special Committee on November 30, 1945]. Wikisource (in Russian). 2013-11-18. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  10. ^ "Завенягин Авраамий Павлович". warheroes.ru (in Russian). 2015-03-16. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  11. ^ Авраамий Завенягин
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