Soviet Union. After a promising start in the 1920s with the Gas Dynamics Lab in St. Petersburg, and even a science fiction film with Tsiolkovsky’s consultancy, Soviet research was abruptly halted by a wave of Stalinist purges. In 1936, the leaders of the missile program were arrested and shot within hours, Korolev was sent to a gulag, and Glushko was imprisoned for six years. With the discovery of the V-2 rocket in Germany, the program regained momentum, and in 1953 a plan for an ICBM was approved. Korolev (OKB-1) would build the R-7, with engines supplied by Glushko (OKB-456). Kapustin Yar was too close to American listening stations in Turkey, so Tyuratam, renamed Baikonur, was chosen to purposely confuse it with the Baikonur railway station 280 km to the north. Keldysh, now head of the prestigious Institute of Applied Mathematics, introduces computers to Soviet industry.
