Boris Vannikov

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

Vannikov served as People's Commissar for Defense Industry from December 1937 until January 1939 and People's Commissar for Armament from January 1939 through June 1941. On June 7, 1941, Vannikov was arrested for "failing to carry out his duties" and was condemned to death. However, after Nazi Germany attacked the USSR on 22 June 1941, Vannikov was released on 25 July 1941 and then appointed People's Commissar for Ammunition, a post he held from February 1942 until June 1946. Two of his siblings died during fighting in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

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 leadership of Lavrenty Beria overseeing the Soviet atomic bomb project. He inadvertently helped the nuclear scientists Yulii Khariton and Igor Kurchatov by walking close to their test reactor. His body fat reflected enough neutrons to approach criticality.

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." Chertok claimed that "Vannikov’s tremendous contribution was to eliminate problems in ammunitions production and delivery. Therefore, it was not the least bit surprising that Stalin and 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, 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."

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