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VLADIMIR GENNADIEVICH SADOVNIKOV (1928-1990)

Outstanding Technical Officer of Solid-Fuel Missiles; Director of the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant; General Director of the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant (the Udmurt Republic).

Vlladimir G. Sadovnikov was born in 1928 in the Republic of Tatarstan in a family of rural workers. In 1953, he graduated from the Kazan Aviation Institute and was sent to work in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine). In 1953-1958, V. Sadovnikov worked as an engineer at the Yangel Design Office at the Yuzhmash Defense Enterprise, and also as the head of the design team, specialized in air-to-air missiles. Due to the fact that the production of these missiles was transferred to the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, in 1958 he moved to Izhevsk. At the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, Sadovnikov established a special design bureau, and in 1960, he was promoted to chief engineer of the plant.

In June 1966, he was appointed director of the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, and later - the general director of the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant. In 1967, according to the Decree of the USSR Government, the plant began preparations of production of the TEMP-2S Intercontinental Ballistic Missile developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT). In 1972, the delivery of the first completely assembled missiles began. In 1974, the tests of TEMP-2S Missiles were completed, and the first batch of missiles was transferred to the Ministry of Defense. Despite the successful test results, by Government decree, the further work on the missile was discontinued and the production was suspended. In 1973, the plant was assigned to develop two-stage solid-fuel intermediate-range missiles for the Pioneer mobile missile systems. In 1976, serial deliveries to the Ministry of Defense began. Since 1978, the plant began production of a more advanced modification of the missile.

In 1975, the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant was approved as the leadplant for the production of the OKA Operational-Tactical Complex with a single-stage solid-fuel missile. In June 1980, this missile complex was put into service. In 1977, the development of a new solid-fuel intercontinental missile of the TOPOL Mobile Missile Complex was initiated. The flight tests began in 1983, and serial production of Topol missiles began in 1988.

Vladimir G. Sadovnikov was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor title with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin (1971, 1976, 1981), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1966), and medals. V. Sadovnikov is the USSR State Prize Laureate (1969), Honorary Citizen of Votkinsk.

In Votkinsk, a machine building college and one of the city streets were named after him. A bust of V.G. Sadovnikov was placed on the territory of the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant, and the memorial plaque was put up in his honor on the building of KNRTU-KAI.