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A Register of the Vitalii Leonidovich Kataev Papers
2002C48
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Title: Vitalii Leonidovich Kataev Papers
Dates: 1966-1999
Collection number: 2002C48
Creator:
Kataev, Vitalii Leonidovich, 1932-
Collection Size:
20 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize folder
(8 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Papers of the Russian engineer, Soviet defense industry official, and
adviser to President Mikhail Gorbachev include reports, memoranda, correspondence, diaries, notes,
meeting and conference materials, electronic documents and sound recordings, relating to
Soviet military policy, the Soviet defense industry, Soviet nuclear weapons, and Soviet participation
in arms limitation negotiations.
Physical location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
Russian
Boxes 15-20 closed. Use copies of materials in box 15 are available. The remainder of the collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives
[Identification of item], Vitalii Leonidovich Kataev papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2002
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared.
To determine if this has occurred, find the collection in Stanford University's online catalog
Socrates at
http://library.stanford.edu/webcat . Materials have been added to the collection
if the number of boxes listed in Socrates is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid.
| 1932 October 29 | Born, Perm, Russia |
| 1956 | Graduated from the Kazan Aviation Institute, Russia |
| 1956-1960 | Aviation system designer, senior engineer - Ministry of aviation industry, Omsk aviation factory, Russia |
| 1960-1974 | Senior Engineer Group, leading designer – specialist on engine system of missiles (strategic missile complexes SS-7, SS-9, SS-17, SS-24, and space complex "Interkosmos"), Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk Southern Factory, Ministry of General Engineering |
| 1974-1990 | CPSU Central Committee, Department of Defense Industry Production. Instructor, head of sector, deputy head of department-curator for creation and production of strategic submarine-launched missile complexes (SS-H-17, SS-H-18, SS-H-20, SS-H-23), Moscow, Russia |
| 1974-1990 | Organizer and member of the interdepartmental working group ("Five") |
| 1974-1990 | Initiator of international joint experiments to demonstrate the technology of liquidating medium-range missiles |
| 1974-1990 | Participated in underground tests of nuclear weapons to detect elements of control |
| 1974-1990 | Demonstrated options for eliminating armored vehicles according to the OBSE plan |
| 1974-1990 | Demonstrated to the international group of specialists the presence of nuclear cruise missiles on a military ship without the inspection group being present on the ship (air control) |
| 1974-1990 | Organizer of mutual demonstration of the military equipment of strategic missiles of the USSR and the USA and the dimension criteria of strategic missiles under inspection control agreement |
| 1974-1990 | Took part in international negotiations to create of security, technical, and political directives to the Soviet delegations negotiating questions of reducing armaments and military security and eliminating medium- and long-range missiles |
| 1974-1990 | Took part in reducing strategic offensive weapons, conventional forces in Europe, and space weapons and eliminating chemical weapons, prohibiting bacteriological (biological) weapons |
| 1974-1990 | Worked on reducing the testing of underground nuclear weapons |
| 1974-1990 | Worked on the nonproliferation of missiles and missile technology imposing "open skies" and "open land" regimes and preventing dangerous military activities |
| 1974-1990 | Studied the mutual reduction of armed forces and strengthening trust in the military on the Soviet-Chinese border and military and technical cooperation with foreign countries |
| 1990-1992 | Deputy head of the department for state defense and security, part of the apparatus of the president of the USSR |
| 1992 | First deputy to the chief of the state council of the Russian Federation for converting military industry; prepared material for establishing a security council |
| 1992 | Director-general, Business Center, military-industrial complex |
| 1997-2001 | Research fellow, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow. Held copyrights and patents on classified subjects |
| 2001 September | Died, Moscow |
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection documents the activities of Vitalii Kataev, who worked as deputy head of Defense and
Security in the Staff on the President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Vitalii Kataev took a direct part
in negotiations on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive weapons, conventional armed forces
in Europe, space weapons, and the destruction of chemical weapons. He also worked on limiting underground
testing of nuclear weapons, the non-proliferation of missiles and missile technology; on the prevention of
dangerous military activities, on the mutual reduction of armed forces on the Soviet-Chinese border,
as well as other defense topics. He covered military and technical cooperation with foreign countries,
particularly the supply of arms and military equipment. Vitalii Kataev was also an aviation systems designer,
Chief designer of projects for strategic ground-based missile complexes and sea-based strategic missile.
Series comprise documents from the period of the cold war and early post-cold war period; computer
discs with working materials from the cold war period and new technology draft projects; and audio cassettes
of interviews of participants in the cold war from the Soviet military industrial complex (VPK).
Documents from the period of the cold war and early post-cold war period include materials for the
review of problems in USSR military policy, for the preparation of CPSU Central Committee resolutions
on military-political issues, issues in Soviet-American relations, and problems of national security and
stability of relations.
Collection contains retrospective (beginning from the 1960s) and organizational documents regarding
the structure of the higher units of analytical work and preparation of reports regarding military-political
problems, directives to Soviet delegations involved in negotiations with the West (excluding the withdrawal
of troops from Warsaw Pact countries), as well as regarding the more important problems in the work of the
Interdepartmental Working Group – Piaterka (Group of Five) and of the Commission of the
Politburo – the higher or Big Piaterka.
Papers include scientific-technical, military-technical and military-political materials for delegations
negotiating for the liquidation of intermediate range missiles (INF negotiations), limiting and reducing
strategic missiles, space weapons and SDI/ABM, "Open Skies," non-proliferation of missiles and missile
technology, the cessation of nuclear testing. Collection contains extensive material on the liquidation of
chemical and biological weapons, the reduction of conventional arms and armed forces in Europe (CFE),
armed forces along the Soviet-Chinese border. There are also documents on confidence-building measures
and open territories, summit meetings, and military-technical cooperation with Warsaw Pact countries and
other countries, and materials which characterize the relationship between individual military political leaders
of the USSR and these issues.
Diaries beginning from 1974 include notes of the author made during work in the CPSU Central
Committee Defense Industry Department, in the apparat of the Defense and Security Department of the
USSR President (Gorbachev), and as a state advisor of the Russian Federation on conversion.
Diaries include the analysis of technical and organizational problems, descriptions of types of
technology, and tables indicating test results. They also contain transcripts of local meetings on
technology, of the Head Constructors Councils, of the leadership of the IUzhnoe defense plant in
Dnepropetrovsk, and of the CPSU Central Committee and other organs.
Notes on Electronic Documents
The 637 digital files acquired with this collection are primarily in Russian, although some files are in English. A list of
the contents of the digital files on each computer disk came with the collection and is provided below, along with a list
of the files on each disk. While there is no information linking the descriptive information to specific digital files, but
the file names may be helpful in identifyign the content of the digital files. The descriptions have not been verified by
the Hoover Archives, and no other information about the files is available.
During processing of the original files, most were individually opened by Hoover Archives staff in Microsoft Word as 866 DOS
Cyrillic, converted to RTF, and then batch converted to PDF; a prefix of "2002c48_disk0X_" was also added to the PDF filenames.
A few files were opened in other programs, such as Microsoft Excel, a text editor, or HTML because they displayed better in
those applications, and then saved as PDF.
A few files were "edited" by Hoover staff. Editing included replacing corrupted text with characters in cases where one could
infer what characters were missing, deleting inefficient page breaks, and deleting corrupted text. These edited files are
identified with a "_edited" as a suffix in the filename.
When using the PDF files on the digital workstation in the Hoover Archives reading room, be sure to always scroll through
the entire document, because sometimes there is garble at the beginning, but readable text in the middle. Some of the files
contain garbled characters that were unrecoverable by the means available to Hoover staff. Several files that were recoverable
but could not be saved as PDF were printed to paper and are available in the boxes of paper documents.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
Stanford University's online catalog.
Nuclear weapons.
Arms control.
Soviet Union--Military policy.
Soviet Union--Defenses.
Phonotapes.
Engineers.