Bokov, Vsevolod Andreevich

Born on February 8, 1921 in the village of Novodmitrievka, Ivanovo district, Kherson region. Back in school years, he showed a love for technology, he dreamed of becoming an engineer. In 1938 he graduated from 10 classes and entered the Bezhitsky Machine-Building Institute.

At the beginning of World War II, the institute was evacuated to the city of Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region . From there, a fourth-year student of Bokov was drafted into the Red Army in April 1942 and sent to study at the F.E.Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy. He studied at the faculty of small arms on an accelerated program, in October 1943, Lieutenant Bokov received a diploma in mechanical engineering. He was eager for the front, wrote reports to the draft board, but he was refused.

He was sent to serve as a senior military acceptance technician of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army in the management of orders and production of small arms at factories No. 828 and No. 2 of the USSR People's Commissariat of Arms. For more than two years, V. A. Bokov controlled the quality of the manufactured submachine guns of the designer A. I. Sudaev, tank and light machine guns of the designer V. A. Degtyarev.

The post-war service of the young engineer turned out to be closely related to the creation of the missile shield of the Motherland and space exploration. Since 1946, he served in the first department of the first department of the State Central Testing Site “Kapustin Yar” as a senior assembly technician, and since 1948, as a senior test engineer. Member of the first ballistic missile launch in the USSR on October 18, 1947.

In 1952 he graduated from the Higher Engineering Courses at the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N.E. Bauman. He continued his service at the Kapustin Yar State Central Testing Ground, participated in providing flight tests of the first Soviet ballistic missiles, senior test officer, group leader, deputy department head.

During the staffing of the Baikonur training ground, where flight tests of intercontinental missiles were planned, Lieutenant Colonel V. A. Bokov proposed the creation of a special department for analyzing the flight performance of missiles. This initiative was justified by the increased complexity of automatic control systems of units and autonomous flight control. It was assumed that the processing and analysis of information that will be automatically “dumped” from a flying rocket into a single center will help to quickly find “pain points” in its single “body”. Such an analysis department was created at Baikonur in 1955, and V. A. Bokov was appointed its first chief.

The legitimacy of the existence of the new structure was confirmed by life itself. May 15, 1957, the launch of the first intercontinental missile R-7 ended in an accident. The analysis department prepared a report that reflected the chronology of the operation of all rocket systems in strict accordance with the sequence of commands of ground and airborne program-time mechanisms. This approach made it possible to find the cause of the accident. At the meeting of the State Commission, after the report of Lieutenant Colonel V. A. Bokov, the chairman proposed to speak to Chief Designer S. P. Korolyov. He said: "The report is quite complete, and I have nothing to add to this report." Similar statements were made by academicians V.P. Glushko and N.A. Pilyugin. So the debut of the analysis department. Similar reports became the norm and were made based on the results of all subsequent missile launches. In addition, employees of the department constantly participated in joint analyzes with industry representatives of the causes of missile failures and accidents.

As statistics accumulated, the analysis department began to give reasoned suggestions to improve the reliability of individual missile systems. So, for example, the study of data on an abnormally high or, conversely, very low temperature in the tail compartments of some blocks in flight made it possible to conclude that the hydraulic lines are not tight. The developer organization has fixed this defect. Along with the growing authority of the department, office equipment for analysis became more complicated, computers were more often used, and the number of its employees increased. Soon, similar departments were created at the Kapustin Yar and Plesetsk training grounds.

On October 4, 1957, from the Baikonur test site, the Soviet R-7 rocket launched the world's first artificial satellite into orbit and marked the beginning of an era of conquering outer space. At the suggestion of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences M.V. Keldysh, participation in this launch of a number of specialists at the training ground, including Lieutenant Colonel V. A. Bokov, was marked by the conferment of the degree of candidate of technical sciences.

Intercontinental missile R-7 after refinement was adopted in 1960. The design turned out to be so solid that on its basis they created a whole family of launch vehicles that have been successfully working for more than 40 years in various space programs.

The beginning of a new generation of more powerful intercontinental missiles was laid by the design bureau of chief designer M.K. Yangel. The test of this rocket abruptly changed the nature of the service activities of Lieutenant Colonel V. A. Bokov. On October 24, 1960, during the preparation of the first launch of the R-16, a catastrophe occurred in which the Chief Marshal of Artillery M. I. Nedelin and many other test participants were killed. The government commission conducted a detailed analysis of this tragedy. Measures were taken, including to strengthen the personnel management of the landfill and test units. Lieutenant Colonel V. A. Bokov was appointed deputy head of the Baikonur training ground for scientific experimental testing. With his inherent energy and responsibility, he embarked on new responsibilities.

First of all, measures were taken to improve the safety of work during the tests, the number of participants performing dangerous operations was sharply reduced, and shelters for personnel were built on the launch pad. Everything was done to minimize the loss of people in the event of emergency situations, which, alas, are inevitable when testing any complex equipment.

In a new position, V. A. Bokov became a participant in another historical event - a flight into space on April 12, 1961, by Yu. A. Gagarin. Preparations for the launch of the Vostok spacecraft launch vehicle took place in a strict and business setting. On the launch pad it was not crowded, and all the work went on schedule, people worked collectively and carefully. Chief Designer S.P. Korolev decided to take the elevator to the ship. He was accompanied by Colonel V.A. Bokov.

The launch was successful, but all 108 minutes of the flight of Yu. A. Gagarin were full of anxious and painful expectations. Tension subsided only after reports of the astronaut's landing.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 17, 1961, for outstanding achievements in creating rocketry models and ensuring the flight of Soviet people into outer space, Colonel Engineer Bokov Vsevolod Andreyevich was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Medal "Hammer and Sickle" .

In 1961, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Main Directorate of Missile Arms of the Strategic Missile Forces. Since 1962 - member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Strategic Missile Forces, since 1965 - member of the defense problems section under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1970, he was appointed head of the 2nd Directorate of the Main Department of Space Facilities of the USSR Ministry of Defense. In April 1980, with the rank of Major General-Engineer V. A. Bokov, he was sacked to the reserve by the Sevastopol District Military Commissariat in Moscow .

Then he worked for another 8 years in the publishing house Mashinostroenie, and was a member of the editorial board of labor Weapons of Victory.

He is the author of more than 50 inventions and research projects, a member of the authorial teams of reference books on space topics. According to the totality of work in 1967, he was awarded the academic title of "Senior Researcher" in the department of special weapons. Candidate of technical sciences without defending a dissertation on the totality of practical works.

He lived in Moscow . He died on August 20, 2007. He was buried at the Khovansky cemetery in Moscow .

He was awarded the orders of Lenin , the Red Banner of Labor , the Red Star , the Badge of Honor, medals "For Military Merit", "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", and other medals.

• “Military Encyclopedic Dictionary of Strategic Missile Forces” / Ministry of Defense of Russia .; Editor-in-chief: I. D. Sergeev , V. N. Yakovlev , N. E. Solovtsov . - Moscow: Big Russian Encyclopedia, 1999 .-- 632 p. - 8500 copies. - ISBN 5-85270-315-X . . - S.66.

• Vsevolod Andreevich Bokov (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ". Date of treatment September 1, 2014.