Yes, but he directly supported Tsiolkovsky and helped publicise his work, set up the early rocket research groups, and in the 1930s Soviet Space Science was arguably ahead of German efforts. Stalin personally had a hand in the career of Tikhonravov, an apprentice of Tsiolkovsky and the inventor of the Katushya launcher.
Stalin had a hand in personally rescuing Korolev from the Gulag after he found out what had happened with the whole purge situation (There's a whole story about German infiltration and a scheming wrecker here, but short story Yezhov had been intercepting Korolev's personal pleas to him. Beria in a rare moment of humanity showed them to him.)
While obviously the primary purpose of the rocket effort was the ICBM, Stalin was clear on the more radical applications, with him having several memos with Korolev on the subject and arranging a presentation to the Central Committee just before his death.
Korolev presented his designs for a satellite in April 1954, and the proposal was narrowly voted down without Stalin's support. However, Korolev leaked info on rocket developments to Tikhonravov, who published a series of national newspaper articles describing the Soviet's intent to dominate space. The USA read these and panicked, the Soviets saw the US panicking and thought giving Korolev his little satellite would be great trolling, starting the initial phases of the space race, which until this moment had been ICBM focused.
Look up the Verin Fur Raumschiffahrt, which was an amatuer (read: rich aristo-scientists with no day job and a bundle of under-the-table military funding) society that got snapped up in the mid 30s by the Nazi's, but were basically doing the same liquid fuel experiments Goddard et al were doing in the states before Hitler came to power.
the space race started after his death though?
Yes, but he directly supported Tsiolkovsky and helped publicise his work, set up the early rocket research groups, and in the 1930s Soviet Space Science was arguably ahead of German efforts. Stalin personally had a hand in the career of Tikhonravov, an apprentice of Tsiolkovsky and the inventor of the Katushya launcher.
Stalin had a hand in personally rescuing Korolev from the Gulag after he found out what had happened with the whole purge situation (There's a whole story about German infiltration and a scheming wrecker here, but short story Yezhov had been intercepting Korolev's personal pleas to him. Beria in a rare moment of humanity showed them to him.)
While obviously the primary purpose of the rocket effort was the ICBM, Stalin was clear on the more radical applications, with him having several memos with Korolev on the subject and arranging a presentation to the Central Committee just before his death.
Korolev presented his designs for a satellite in April 1954, and the proposal was narrowly voted down without Stalin's support. However, Korolev leaked info on rocket developments to Tikhonravov, who published a series of national newspaper articles describing the Soviet's intent to dominate space. The USA read these and panicked, the Soviets saw the US panicking and thought giving Korolev his little satellite would be great trolling, starting the initial phases of the space race, which until this moment had been ICBM focused.
cool i didnt know that. i was a big sucker for space exploration history when i was younger.
i didnt even know the germans had a space effort in the 30, since they were a bit worried over the becoming a dictatorship bit
Look up the Verin Fur Raumschiffahrt, which was an amatuer (read: rich aristo-scientists with no day job and a bundle of under-the-table military funding) society that got snapped up in the mid 30s by the Nazi's, but were basically doing the same liquid fuel experiments Goddard et al were doing in the states before Hitler came to power.