Problems of Financing of the USSR Missile Production Branch on the Eve of the Caribbean Crisis

The article is devoted to the problems of financing of the USSR missile production branch on the eve of the Caribbean Crisis. To study the problem, the author of the article uses declassified documents that have already been published and are first introduced into scientific discourse. The methodological basis of this study is the theory of modernization because it has an essential informative and cognitive explanatory potential when studying the history of Russia of the middle of the 20th century. The analysis of the problem on the basis of declassified data and theories has allowed to introduce the new facts into scientific discourse and to draw a number of valid conclusions. In the late 1950s - early 1960s, bases of nuclear missile forces were created in the Soviet Union. Advanced military technologies became one of the reasons of the world recognition of the Soviet Union in the status of a superpower. At the present stage, it is necessary to consider the possible negative consequences of the development of defense technologies not to repeat mistakes of the past and to avoid social and economic crises. The strengthening of military power and arms race led to financial and social problems. First of all, the development of military-industrial production and the creation of service equipment were costly. On the eve of the Caribbean Crisis, the Soviet army spent six billion rubles on missiles. These costs should be doubled: the production of missiles required new production capacities and launch sites. In fact, the absence of private investors and producers forced at first to spend money on the creation of production capacities for making ballistic missiles, and then on the purchasing of products they made. This shows the defect of the Soviet economic system in which the state was forced to pay for missiles twice. All costs were at the expense of the state and society. The high cost of implementation of the Soviet missile project led to a sharp deterioration in the social and economic situation in the country. In order to minimize the negative consequences, it was necessary to reform the system of planning and management of missile production, to organize competition between design organizations and also to refuse from producing many types of missiles and concentrate financial reserves on the creation of the most perspective systems. Nevertheless, the considerable expenses and efforts allowed building a nuclear-missile shield in the country, which strengthened the defence capability of the Soviet Union. During the Caribbean Crisis, the USA realized the impossibility of a victory over the USSR in a nuclear war, which forced them to abandon an aggressive foreign policy concerning the Soviet block, which led to an easing of the international tension.

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