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Rockets and People #1
Ракеты и люди
Мемуары разработчика систем управления ракет и космичесих аппаратов, заместителя Генерального Конструктора С.П. Королева, содержат уникальные свидетельства по истории космической программы в СССР, от создания первых ракет до неудачного лунного проекта Н-1.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
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307 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 16, 2022
This is the deepest rabbit hole I've gone down since reading Space Shuttle: Developing an Icon 1972-2013.
This is Volume 1 of 4 of - as another reviewer calls it - the "excruciatingly detailed" memoirs of Boris Chertok, who was involved in the USSR's program and its predecessor organizations for his entire life. Born in 1912 in Poland (part of the Russian Empire which predates the USSR), he saw the first planes that flew over Soviet skies and was hooked on technology.
This first volume covers his childhood, his education, and some of the early technical institutions where he worked on airplanes and bombers, and eventually a prototype rocket-powered interceptor. It also covers his role in WW2, including recovering information on the German V-2 rocket after the war ended, and creating the initial infrastructure and institutions in the USSR to build a rocket program.
Volume 1 ends in 1946, so we're not even close to space yet. What I loved most about this book was the up-close look at what life was like for an engineer/scientist in the "planned economy" of the USSR in the 1930s, and Chertok's perspective and experiences in WW2. I am bad at processing/retaining Russian names, so I struggled to retain much of the specific details.
I've read a couple books now about Soviet space (Korolev of the space race era and Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir in the 80s/90s) but nothing beats original source material, and to my knowledge nobody has had as comprehensive experience and has written so extensively as Chertok. One wild detail from the intro, he was in his 80s when he wrote this series in Russian, and in his early 90s when he re-wrote them for translation by NASA's history office.
I was tempted to go 5 stars because I love the details, but I think this first volume loses the star because it wasn't all about space - it was all the groundwork. If the 2,300 pages of the remaining 3 volumes are of the same quality I expect I'll love it! Finishing this series is my 2022 reading goal. It will be a slow burn, but worth it.
This is Volume 1 of 4 of - as another reviewer calls it - the "excruciatingly detailed" memoirs of Boris Chertok, who was involved in the USSR's program and its predecessor organizations for his entire life. Born in 1912 in Poland (part of the Russian Empire which predates the USSR), he saw the first planes that flew over Soviet skies and was hooked on technology.
This first volume covers his childhood, his education, and some of the early technical institutions where he worked on airplanes and bombers, and eventually a prototype rocket-powered interceptor. It also covers his role in WW2, including recovering information on the German V-2 rocket after the war ended, and creating the initial infrastructure and institutions in the USSR to build a rocket program.
Volume 1 ends in 1946, so we're not even close to space yet. What I loved most about this book was the up-close look at what life was like for an engineer/scientist in the "planned economy" of the USSR in the 1930s, and Chertok's perspective and experiences in WW2. I am bad at processing/retaining Russian names, so I struggled to retain much of the specific details.
I've read a couple books now about Soviet space (Korolev of the space race era and Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir in the 80s/90s) but nothing beats original source material, and to my knowledge nobody has had as comprehensive experience and has written so extensively as Chertok. One wild detail from the intro, he was in his 80s when he wrote this series in Russian, and in his early 90s when he re-wrote them for translation by NASA's history office.
I was tempted to go 5 stars because I love the details, but I think this first volume loses the star because it wasn't all about space - it was all the groundwork. If the 2,300 pages of the remaining 3 volumes are of the same quality I expect I'll love it! Finishing this series is my 2022 reading goal. It will be a slow burn, but worth it.
March 19, 2012
A very deep and interesting history of the first stages of the Soviet rocket program, from inception, through the foraging in the recently conquered Germany, and up to the development of R-7, later known as the Sputnik rocket. After reading both this book and "Red Moon Rising" by Matthew Brzezinski, it is apparent that the latter used Chertok's work extensively in the part dedicated to the Soviet developments, quoting whole paragraphs at times. The book value lies in several facets. First, it provides a detailed overview of the history of the Soviet rocket program. Second, it examines in details the relations between the Soviet and the German programs (and there are quite a few surprises for the uninitialized there). Next, it examines another aspect of the Soviet history of the relevant period: that of purges and forced labor: many of the constructors of the Soviet rocket program where sentenced to many years of labor camps, and survived by the skin of their teeth. And last, but not least, Chertok discusses the design, implementation and testing of complex systems - probably the most complex systems developed by the humanity up to that time. His lessons remain relevant even up to this day. There is quite a lot of bureaucratic gobbledygook and (rather irrelevant and uninteresting) details of various reorganizations within the rocket-related structures, so the book may have been made much shorter and easier to read, but still, a fascinating read.
August 12, 2019
Достаточно интересная книга про становление ракетных технологий в СССР. Здесь еще нет космоса, а только первые шаги по использованию немецких технологий и импорта этих технологий в СССР. Интересно, что первые пару лет все это происходило на территории Германии и только потом в СССР вывезли несколько сот специалистов. Впрочем, довольно быстро их отпустили назад, потому что не хотели доверять им разработки новых секретных технологий. Забавно наблюдать, как это отличается от подхода США, где немецких инженеров и ученых отлично интегрировали в отрасль.
Интересно сравнение быта в послевоенной Германии и СССР. В Германии все было клево, а в СССР полная жопа, коммунальные квартиры с одним умывальником на 4 семьи и карточки. Вроде бы и победители, а заботы о людях ноль.
Хорошо описаны процессы вывоза в СССР огромного количества немецкого оборудования и разрыв в качестве технологий. Германия ушла далеко вперед и СССР с удовольствием эшелонами увозил к себе заводы целиком. Черток с восхищением описывает устройство лабораторий в Германии и количество крутого оборудования, о котором они не могли и мечтать.
Поразительно как в условиях жесткой диктатуры и репрессий ученые и инженеры не утратили волю к творчеству и риску.
Освобожденные из шарашек и лагерей ребята с невероятной энергией и самоотдачей создавали и строили ракеты.
Местами книга скучновата, изобилует фамилиями и проходными персонажами. Но в целом твердая 4 за контент и дух эпохи. Это все передано великолепно.
Интересно сравнение быта в послевоенной Германии и СССР. В Германии все было клево, а в СССР полная жопа, коммунальные квартиры с одним умывальником на 4 семьи и карточки. Вроде бы и победители, а заботы о людях ноль.
Хорошо описаны процессы вывоза в СССР огромного количества немецкого оборудования и разрыв в качестве технологий. Германия ушла далеко вперед и СССР с удовольствием эшелонами увозил к себе заводы целиком. Черток с восхищением описывает устройство лабораторий в Германии и количество крутого оборудования, о котором они не могли и мечтать.
Поразительно как в условиях жесткой диктатуры и репрессий ученые и инженеры не утратили волю к творчеству и риску.
Освобожденные из шарашек и лагерей ребята с невероятной энергией и самоотдачей создавали и строили ракеты.
Местами книга скучновата, изобилует фамилиями и проходными персонажами. Но в целом твердая 4 за контент и дух эпохи. Это все передано великолепно.
February 10, 2019
¡Menudo viaje! Como ya he comentado en mis notas a medida que iba avanzando, he leído muy poco sobre la historia de Rusia (más allá de lo que me enseñaron en la asignatura de Historia del Mundo Contemporáneo en el COU de hace ya veinte años, y ¡cuán importante es tener un buen profesor!), por lo que me he visto en más de una ocasión acudiendo a Wikipedia para refrescar la memoria acerca de la Rusia zarista, los bolcheviques y Lenin y Stalin. El autor da lógicamente por sentado que se tiene un mínimo conocimiento sobre estos temas, y profundiza en muchos aspectos burocráticos que incluyen interminables nombres de personas e instituciones en ruso. Esto ha hecho que la lectura se haga muy pesada en algunos puntos, sobre todo al inicio del libro, aunque no por ello esos datos sean poco necesarios (más bien todo lo contrario); la lectura se vuelve más amena y ligera en cuanto estalla la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En cualquier caso, Chertok nos ofrece de primerísima mano un testimonio de hasta qué punto no solo la política de Stalin y sus terribles purgas, sino también ciertas decisiones tomadas por Hitler, marcarían el curso de los acontecimientos.
El libro incluye algunas fotos (la mayoría provenientes de los archivos del propio Chertok). Como curiosidad, el diseño de los V-2 me ha parecido precioso...
Los cuatro volúmenes de Rockets and People se pueden descargar en PDF de manera gratuita desde la web de historia de la NASA. Los dos últimos volúmenes también están disponibles en formato EPUB.
El libro incluye algunas fotos (la mayoría provenientes de los archivos del propio Chertok). Como curiosidad, el diseño de los V-2 me ha parecido precioso...
Los cuatro volúmenes de Rockets and People se pueden descargar en PDF de manera gratuita desde la web de historia de la NASA. Los dos últimos volúmenes también están disponibles en formato EPUB.
March 19, 2016
Определенно, эта книга займет почетное место в моей библиотеке, на самой главной полке. Многогранная книга: историческая, управленческая, книга роман. С первых страниц хочется верить в объективность Бориса Евсеевича - на столько подкупает стиль изложения. Вполне могло статься, что книга должна называется Люди и ракеты. Вот именно так - "люди" на первом месте. Книга о людях, которые живут одной целью, люди которые превращают фантастику в реальность. Книга о создание по настоящему больших систем, о создание с нуля новых областей промышленности, об организации работы государственного аппарата с промышленностью. Содержит множество как сейчас модно говорить управленческих "юз кейсов", разбор причин успехов и неудач. Настоящий технократический роман.
March 20, 2017
The first volume in an excruciatingly detailed memoir of Boris Chertok, this volume includes an extensive introduction of the author, and the period from his childhood through the first year(s) of WWII Russian occupation of eastern Germany. If you're really, really interested in the history of Russian Rocketry, this may be for you. The most interesting part of this volume was the last few chapters, which cover the discovery and transfer of German rocket technology, while the Russians advance on the eastern front, up through the not-so-voluntary transfer of German experts to Russia in early 1947. Only 3 volumes, and 2400 pages to go...
Note that all 4 volumes are available as a free PDF download on nasa.gov, the last 2 volumes as EPUB also.
Note that all 4 volumes are available as a free PDF download on nasa.gov, the last 2 volumes as EPUB also.
July 22, 2021
Got this at a NASA HQ History Office conference awhile back and only got around to reading it this spring. Asif Siddiqi, who wrote Chariots for Apollo, the best English-language history of Soviet space projects, calls this the single most important set of memoirs to come from the former USSR and I have to agree. A basic working knowledge of Soviet history helps: Those who've never heard of Stalin, Beria or the Gulag may find it confusing. In this volume, Chertok covers his own experience with early Soviet rocket experiments (including what sounds remarkably like an attempt to build a Russian equivalent to the Messerchmitt-163 Komet point-defense fighter) and joining the USSR's team that found and exploited the WWII German work on the V-2 ballistic missile. This includes his first meetings with key figures in later Soviet space development including Korolev, Mishin and Glushko. Chertok is particularly good in telling the largely unknown story of Helmut Gottrup and other Germans who worked for the Soviets - initially in Germany and later as well paid and relatively comfortably housed prisoners in Russia. Of the four volumes in Chertok's English-language memoirs, I found this the easiest to read - it's more of a memoir and less a work of professional history than later volumes. I got a real feel for the man, and the world he lived in. Very highly recommended!
January 21, 2020
Много очень интересных фактов не только о ракетостроении и развитии науки в СССР, но и вообще о жизни и бытовых мелочах как в довоенные, так и в послевоенные годы. Очень понравился рассказ о жизни в Германии сразу после войны, впечатления и сравнения автора на эту тему. В целом книга пропитана "совковым подходом" ко многим рабочим процессам и об этом очень интересно читать, хорошо видны положительные и отрицательные стороны такого подхода.
Из минусов замечу то, что автор явно не профессиональный писатель и стиль изложения хромает: много перескоков с одного на другое, упоминание большого числа фамилий, дат, названий продукции. Но это с лихвой компенсируется действительно интересной историей из первых уст.
Из минусов замечу то, что автор явно не профессиональный писатель и стиль изложения хромает: много перескоков с одного на другое, упоминание большого числа фамилий, дат, названий продукции. Но это с лихвой компенсируется действительно интересной историей из первых уст.
December 30, 2023
Увлекательное описание работ над созданием ракет в Союзе за авторством одного из разработчиков. Без пафоса и прикрас, с подробностями о технических решениях, о персоналиях. В данном томе - от довоенных работах над реактивными двигателями до первого пуска ракеты с атомной боеголовкой. Подробно рассказано о работе в послевоенной Германии. Из минусов - иногда кажется перегруженным именами.
abandonate
January 19, 2022Foarte detaliat prezentat totul de la avioane la rachete, cu siguranta rusii au fost si probabil inca sunt top pe industria militara.
May 23, 2023
A remarkable view inside the life of the Soviet Union, from a man who dedicated his life to moving his country into the first rank of developed nations.
March 13, 2017
A nice perspective on the rise of Soviet heavy airplane and rocket industry
February 15, 2014
The memoirs of a distinguished Soviet rocket scientist give an insider's view of the Soviet space program. Like the American one, it began with captured German V-2 ballistic missiles, which greatly exceeded anything the Allies possessed. With the help of German specialists, the Soviets cloned and improved upon the V-2, doubling its range. With this experience behind them, they started creating rockets of their own design, including one with a nuclear warhead. The biggest, the R-7, was the first rocket in the world that could lob a thermonuclear bomb across continents. A variant of it propelled into space the world's first artificial satellite. A madcap race between the two superpowers followed: who will be the first to launch a probe at the Moon and photograph its far side; who will be the first to launch a man into space, probes to Mars and Venus, land a man on the Moon. The Soviet Union failed to do the last, and as a compensation launched the first space station.
Chertok was there when all this happened, working first on military, and later on space rockets. During World War II he worked on an experimental rocket interceptor plane. In defeated Germany he was an underground factory where shortly before concentration camp inmates assembled the V-2. He was there when a Soviet clone was being tested, and a defect, sometimes causing premature explosions, was fixed, 10 years after the German rocket was created. For launching the first two Sputniks, Chertok, with Sergey Korolyov and three other rocketeers, got the Lenin Prize. Later he worked on Moon, Venus and Mars probes and on the N1 Soviet Moon rocket, which the fourth book of the memoirs describes, all four launches of which ended in explosions. The first Mars probe was supposed to photograph the mysterious canals and whatever other built-up structure it would see.
Chertok tells about all this in great detail, mentioning not only successes, but also failures, which were made secret in the Soviet Union: a medal with the Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union that was supposed to end up on Venus actually fell into a Siberian river. The most interesting thing is of course people, not rockets. The American Apollo 11 module landed on the Moon two weeks after the second N1 explosion. Another rocketeer said, drinking a shot of cognac, "It is all Chertok's fault. In 1945 he tried to kidnap von Braun from the Americans, but failed." Chertok took offense, "[...] Von Braun would have sat here pointlessly on the island [of Gorodomlya on lake Seliger, where German specialists were sent after World War II], and then he would be sent to East Germany. There, as a former Nazi, he would not be allowed to do anything. As is, with American help, he fulfilled not only his own dream, but that of all of humanity."
Chertok was there when all this happened, working first on military, and later on space rockets. During World War II he worked on an experimental rocket interceptor plane. In defeated Germany he was an underground factory where shortly before concentration camp inmates assembled the V-2. He was there when a Soviet clone was being tested, and a defect, sometimes causing premature explosions, was fixed, 10 years after the German rocket was created. For launching the first two Sputniks, Chertok, with Sergey Korolyov and three other rocketeers, got the Lenin Prize. Later he worked on Moon, Venus and Mars probes and on the N1 Soviet Moon rocket, which the fourth book of the memoirs describes, all four launches of which ended in explosions. The first Mars probe was supposed to photograph the mysterious canals and whatever other built-up structure it would see.
Chertok tells about all this in great detail, mentioning not only successes, but also failures, which were made secret in the Soviet Union: a medal with the Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union that was supposed to end up on Venus actually fell into a Siberian river. The most interesting thing is of course people, not rockets. The American Apollo 11 module landed on the Moon two weeks after the second N1 explosion. Another rocketeer said, drinking a shot of cognac, "It is all Chertok's fault. In 1945 he tried to kidnap von Braun from the Americans, but failed." Chertok took offense, "[...] Von Braun would have sat here pointlessly on the island [of Gorodomlya on lake Seliger, where German specialists were sent after World War II], and then he would be sent to East Germany. There, as a former Nazi, he would not be allowed to do anything. As is, with American help, he fulfilled not only his own dream, but that of all of humanity."
February 10, 2017
Born before Red October
The first volume of this thorough autobiography describes the first decades of Boris Chertok’s life. Wisely mixing professional and personal anecdotes, with historical time-points' commentaries, the author finds a way to describe - far from any Iron Curtain propaganda - his experience as an electronic radio engineer working at the cutting-edge production technology of the URSS aviation military program. Spanning from the early twenties to the end of the Second World War, on the backdrop of a country struggling to find a new identity and purpose, the book delivers an unusual viewpoint and an unbiased historical account on the challenges, victories, losses and lucky breaks of Soviet reaction flight development.
The first volume of this thorough autobiography describes the first decades of Boris Chertok’s life. Wisely mixing professional and personal anecdotes, with historical time-points' commentaries, the author finds a way to describe - far from any Iron Curtain propaganda - his experience as an electronic radio engineer working at the cutting-edge production technology of the URSS aviation military program. Spanning from the early twenties to the end of the Second World War, on the backdrop of a country struggling to find a new identity and purpose, the book delivers an unusual viewpoint and an unbiased historical account on the challenges, victories, losses and lucky breaks of Soviet reaction flight development.
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October 12, 2009I've read the original Russian edition of this book. It is quite unique in content and material covered. The author was one of leading scientists-engineers of soviet space programme. Being head designer rocket and spacecraft command and control systems, he was directly involved in all milestones of soviet space exploration. The original book in Russian covers period from early days of space program to loosing the Moon race in mid-70s. Details of the Russian edition can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/69...
September 29, 2012
Great history of soviet space industry, including science and military programs from the personal point of view of person, who was responsible for control systems in a very big number of space rockets, ships, satellites
September 13, 2013
Взгляд участника на развитие ракетных технологий в СССР. Очень интересно и поучительно. Забавно, что давая нелестные характеристики иным советским руководителям, автор в дальнейшем невольно сам, рассказами о делах, показывает их ошибочность.
October 12, 2009
Уникальные личные свидетельства с неизбежной в таком жанре личной интерпретацией ключевых событий.
December 17, 2015
Very impressive.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews