Decree from N.S. Khrushchev and M. Smirtyukov on Cosmonaut Training Center

Nº 866-361^[1]    

August 3, 1960

Top Secret

In development of the CPSU CC and USSR Council of Ministers Decrees Nº 569-264 of May 22, 1959^[2] and Nº 1388-618 of December 10, 1959^[3] the USSR Council of Ministers DECREES to:

1. Approve the attached Regulations on Cosmonauts of the Soviet Union.

2. Hold the USSR Ministry of Defense responsible for:

a) the creation of a USSR Cosmonaut Training Center in the third quarter of 1960

b) choosing living quarters in 1960-1961 for officials of the State Scientific-Research and Testing Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine;

c) increase the assigned strength of the State Scientific-Research and Testing Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine to the size needed to conduct the scientific-research work associated with the development and support of the necessary living conditions for habitable interplanetary stations and spacecraft;

d) building and putting into operation during 1960-1961 a complex of structures for the Cosmonaut Training Center on a plot allotted for the USSR Ministry of Defense in the area of the 41-kilometer railway platform of the Northern Railroad;

e) conducting the reconstruction of the existing buildings of the Scientific-Research Aviation Hospital in Moscow in the area of Sokol’niki Park.

3. Hold the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet under the USSR Council of Ministers responsible for transferring a Tu-104D to the USSR Ministry of Defense at the expense of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

The State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Aviation Technology in coordination with the USSR Ministry of Defense is to develop the technical documentation within two months for the conversion of the Tu-104D aircraft into a flying laboratory for conducting tests, special training exercises of cosmonauts, and tests of the manned flight support systems in conditions of weightlessness with the participation of the LII [Flight-Research Institute] of the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Aviation Technology.

4. Charge the USSR Ministry of Defense with developing and in coordination with the USSR Ministry of Finance approving within a month a regulation concerning the monetary awards to those participating in tests and research with effects on the human organism in laboratory conditions and in flight on aircraft (airplanes, helicopters, airships, high-altitude balloons, etc.)

5. Hold the Moscow Oblast’ Executive Committee (Comrade Konotop) responsible for resettling during 1960 to 1962 the civilians and their families from the grounds of the Chkalov aviation garrison who do not have labor relations with the GK NII VS [State Red Banner Scientific-Research Institute of the Air Force] and also the servicemen in the reserves and their families and those who are retired (who have served in the Soviet Army less than 25 calendar years), a total of 388 families.

Charge the RSFSR Council of Ministers with providing for the allocation of the necessary capital investments in the plans for 1961-1962 for the construction of 10,000 square meters of housing to accommodate those being resettled.

6. Hold the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers for Aviation Technology (Comrade Dement’yev) together with the USSR Council of Ministers State Committee for Radio-Electronics (Comrade Kalmykov) and the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministersfor Defense Technology (Comrade Rudnev) responsible for designing and building a 30-35-meter diameter centrifuge in accordance with performance requirements coordinated with the USSR Ministry of Defense in 1962, producing an acceleration force of up to 40 units with a speed of increase of 7-8 units per second and with an automatic control system to imitate the conditions of aircraft flight.

USSR Gosplan is to provide an allocation of funds for materials and components to manufacture the centrifuge on presentation of the USSR Council of Ministers’ State Committee for Aviation Technology, the State Committee of the USSR Council of Ministersfor Defense Technology, and the USSR Council of Ministers State Committee for Radio-Electronics.

Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers

N. Khrushchev^[4]

Deputy Manager of the USSR Council of Ministers Directorate of Administration

M. Smirtyukov^[5]

APRF, f. 3, op. 47, d. 277, ll. 29-31. Copy on a form. Published.

^[1] On the top margin of the first page, on the left, there is a typewritten label “Central Committee of the CPSU - General Department,” under which there is a handwritten label “P294 / 94.” There are no signatures. There is a mastic seal “Office of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. General office.” The draft resolution of the Council of Ministers was approved by the resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU ("Question of the Commission of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on Military-Industrial Issues") adopted on August 3, 1960 for P294 / 94 (see: APRF, f. 3, op. 47, d . 277, l. 28).

^[2] See Document No. 5.

^[3] This was the Central Committee and Council of Ministers decree no. 1388-618 issued on December 10, 1959 under the title “On the Development of Research on Cosmic Space.”

^[4] Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (1894-1971) was 1^st Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1953 to 1964.

^[5] Mikhail Sergeyevich Smirtyukov (1909-2004) was deputy manager of the USSR Council of Ministers Directorate of Administration.