Igor Dmitriyevich Spasskiy (, born August 2, 1926) is a Russian (and former Soviet) scientist, engineer and entrepreneur, General Designer of nearly 200 Soviet and Russian nuclear submarines, and the head of the Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering Rubin.
Spasskiy was born in the town of Noginsk in the Moscow Region on August 2, 1926. In 1949 he graduated from the Engineering Department (паросиловой факультет) of Dzerzhinsky Higher Naval Engineering School, after which he briefly served as lieutenant-engineer on the cruiser Frunze.
Hero of Socialist Labor
In 1950 he started work as a submarine designer, first in Construction Design Bureau-143 (currently Malakhit Design Bureau). Since 1953 he has worked in Construction Design Bureau-18 (currently Rubin Design Bureau). In 1956 he became the vice Chief Engineer of Rubin; in 1968 he became the Chief Engineer; and since 1974 he has been the head of that bureau with the position title of Chief Designer (, after 1983 General Designer ).
As General Designer, he was the main designer of all of Rubin's projects since 1974, which according to Rubin's website include: strategic ballistic missile submarines: Delta III-class submarine (or 667BDR Kal'mar since 1974) Typhoon-class submarine (or Project 941 Akula built since the 1980s). Delta IV-class submarines (or Delfin since 1981) Cruise missile submarines: Oscar I (or Project 949 Granit) class of submarines Oscar II (or Project 949A Antey) class of submarines and other submarines as surface ships. Altogether, Spassky's projects have included 187 submarines (91 diesel-electric and 96 nuclear) that have been the core of the Soviet and Russian Navy.
Spassky has also published scientific works on the theory of submarine design and construction. He has been a full member of the Soviet Academy of Science since 1987 (a corresponding member since 1983). He is the Chairman of the Commission on Hydrodynamics of the Russian Academy of Science. He has been awarded the Lenin Prize (1965), became a Hero of Socialist Labor (1978), USSR State Prize (1983), received two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution and two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour.
"Hero of Capitalist Labor" Since the time of the perestroika and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, state orders for new nuclear submarines have dramatically decreased. Nevertheless, Spassky continued to work on nuclear submarines, including the new fourth-generation ballistic missile Yuriy Dolgorukiy class (construction started in 1996), but he expanded his Bureau into new areas in order to provide a livelihood for his employees.
One such area was the design and construction of oil platforms (together with Halliburton) that are now used for oil drilling around Sakhalin island, in the Sea of Okhotsk, and off the coast of South Korea.
Another important project was Sea Launch, a unique spacecraft launch service that uses a specially modified floating oil drilling platform, positioned in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, for its launch platform. Spassky was the chief constructor of the marine part of the project. Sea Launch provides an economical way to send satellites into space, almost ten times cheaper than NASA.
Spassky also became a CEO of the Non-Nuclear Submarines consortium (which includes Rubin, Admiralty Shipyards, and other shipbuilding companies). The company provides non-nuclear military submarines for the Russian Navy (among them diesel-electric submarines of the Petersburg class) and for export to India, Poland and others, among them submarines of the Amur class and the Sadko class ("tourist submarine"). Two of the latter were built and are now operating on Cyprus.
Spasskiy also proposed such exotic projects as a cargo submarine for year-round operations in the Arctic Ocean, and a nuclear underwater gas transfer station for trans-ocean natural gas pipelines, as well as more humble projects such as modifications of city trams.
These projects provided a reasonably smooth transition for thousands of Rubin employees to the market economy as well as some help to the Saint Petersburg city and philanthropy. Spasskiy and his enterprises financed reconstruction of Nikolo-Bogoyavlensky Cathedral in Saint-Petersburg, Church of John the Baptist (Ioann Pretechi) in Old Ladoga, the monument to the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy, the celebration of the centenary of the Russian Museum, and many other projects. For his philanthropy, the Russian Orthodox Church awarded Spassky the Order of Saint Prince Daniil of Moscow. Anatoly Sobchak referred to Spassky's success in the transformation to a market economy when he called him a "Hero of Capitalist Labor".