Sergey Korolyov: Encyclopedia II - Sergey Korolyov - Gulag

Sergey Korolyov - Gulag

On June 22, 1938, during the Great Purge, men from the NKVD entered his apartment and summarily took him away. He was accused of subversion, apparently due to his desire to work on liquid-rocket powered aircraft rather than solid rockets. Supposedly he had spent too much money on a project that the RNII did not consider a top priority. Korolev was not given a trial, but was beaten by his captors and a "confession" was thus extracted. He was sentenced to imprisonment for ten years. Korolev later learned that he had been denounced by Glushko, and this resulted in a life long animosity between the two men as well as Korolev's constant suspicion of the other Chief Designers.

After months of transport and abuse, he finally arrived at the notorious Kolyma gulag camp in Siberia. The conditions in the camp were brutal, with harsh treatment, poor food and lack of adequate clothing and shelter against the elements. His camp is known to have produced a death rate in the tens of thousands per year, killing roughly 30 percent of the prison population per annum.

Other members of the RNII had also been arrested and the group's military leader was executed. Every person of significance who worked at the institute was executed during 1937-8, leaving Korolev very fortunate to have even survived. The program was set back for years and fell far behind the rapid progress taking place in Germany. Stalin's purges during this period left his military nearly decapitated, and gravely weakened the army just prior to the Nazi invasion in 1941.

Sergei survived the gulag experience, but he lost all of his teeth, suffered a broken jaw, and developed a heart condition. He stayed five months in the camp (actually a surface gold mine) and spent his time there performing manual labor. Back in Moscow, however, they had decided to re-investigate his case. As a result he was to be shipped back west. On the train trip home, however, he suffered a case of scurvy and nearly died.

Following the reinvestigation, Korolev's sentence was reduced to eight years. At this point a number of notable Russians interceded on his behalf, and he was kept from returning to the gulag. Instead he was assigned to a "sharashka", a type of penitentiary for intellectuals and the educated. These were effectively a slave-labor camp for scientists and engineers to work on projects assigned by the communist party leadership.

The Central Design Bureau 29 (KB-29, ЦКБ-29) of the NKVD, served as Tupolev's engineering facility, and Korolev was brought here to work for his old mentor. During World War II, this sharashka designed both the Tupolev Tu-2 bomber and the Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft. The group was moved several times during the war, the first time to avoid capture by advancing German forces.

In 1942 Korolev managed to be moved to another "sharashka" under the rocket engine designer Glushko. The sharashka designed rocketry plane busters. Korolev was kept in this sharashka and isolated from his family until 1944. He lived under constant fear of being shot for the military secrets he possessed, and was deeply affected by his time in the gulag, becoming reserved and cautious. On June 27, 1944, Korolev (along with Tupolev, Glushko and others) was finally discharged by special government decree and his prior convictions were dismissed. The design bureau was handed over from NKVD control to the government's aviation industry commission. Still Korolev continued working with the bureau for another year, serving as deputy designer under Glushko and studying various rocket designs.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Gulag", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki