Vyacheslav Malyshev

Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malyshev (; 3 December 1902 — 20 February 1957) was a Soviet politician and an engineer who was one of the senior program managers in the Soviet program of nuclear weapons during the 1940s and 1950s. After his discharge from the Red Army in 1927, he worked as a driver at a depot near Moscow He took on the role of Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union in 1940 as well.

In 1943, he was appointed to the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry. In 1945, he was named a Colonel General of Engineering and Technical Services and headed the People's Commissariat of Transport Engineering, where he stayed until 1947. He was among the engineers that built the Soviet's first nuclear submarine.

In the mid-1950s, he headed a committee to investigate the explosion that destroyed the Novorossiysk, an Italian battleship the Soviets commandeered after World War II despite Malyshev's attempts to convince Stalin not to take it on in 1946. This was used as an excuse to prevent Nikolai Kuznetsov, who opposed Nikita Khrushchev's idea of a submarine-based navy, from commanding the Red Fleet and replace him with Sergey Gorshkov, who was much more obedient to the premier's wishes.

Death There were reports in February 1957 of a "mystery patient" or "Patient X" who was treated by a German blood specialist; his identity as Malyshev was secret until his death within the month. The New York Times reported his cause of death as leukemia but he ultimately died of acute radiation syndrome after inspecting a Soviet nuclear plant before it was safe to do so. His ashes are buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. He was awarded with the Order of Lenin on 16 December 1952. He received the State Stalin Prize twice.