10 Facts About Dmitry Ustinov

Dmitry Ustinov was born in the city of Samara to a Russian working-class family in 1908.

Under Leonid Brezhnev's leadership, Dmitry Ustinov joined the Central Committee Secretariat and rose to become a candidate member of the Politburo by 1965.

In 1952, Dmitry Ustinov became a member of the Central Committee.

In March 1953, after Stalin died, the Ministry of Armaments was combined with the Ministry of Aviation Industry to become the Ministry of Defense Industry, with Dmitry Ustinov assigned as head of this new ministry.

Dmitry Ustinov issued a directive, in February 1970, that ordered Chelomey's OKB-52 design bureau to combine its Almaz space station with Sergei Korolyov's OKB-1 design bureau, then headed by Vasili Mishin.

In 1976, after Andrei Grechko died on 26 April, Dmitry Ustinov became the Defence Minister and was promoted to General of the Army on 29 April.

On 7 November 1984, Dmitry Ustinov did not preside over the annual Red Square Military Parade on the October Revolution Day.

Dmitry Ustinov was honored with a state funeral, and his ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis on 24 December 1984.

Dmitry Ustinov appears briefly in Tom Clancy's 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October in his capacity as Defense Minister; his death is mentioned by the titular spy Colonel Filitov in The Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Dmitry Ustinov is given a more important role in the 2002 novel Red Rabbit, which takes place in between the events of Patriot Games and Red October.