Sergey Korolev - USSR Head of Space Program, Chief Designer of Sputnik

Entering Zhitomyr, a city about 100 km north of Kiev - stands a huge white marble monument with the rocket. I snaped a photo. I like rockets. My colleague Alexey told me this is a monument to Sergey Pavlovich Korolev. I gave Alexey a puzzled look. Alexey explained Korolev is the man responsible for all early "space" successes USSR made in 1950ties. Only thanks to Korolev ingenuity USSR was ahead of US in the space program race.
Upon returning from the trip I googled "Korolev" and from links below I learned thanks to Korolev USSR was:
- first in sending a dog in orbit (Sputnik 2);
- first in launching large scientific satellite (the 1.3 ton Sputnik 3);
- launching first man, first woman and first three men into orbit;
- launching first extra–vehicular walk;
- sending first craft to impact the Moon;
- launching first to orbit the Moon and photograph its back side;
- launching first to impact Venus.

Korolev also designed and launched the Soviet Union’s first communications satellite and first spy satellite.
He also started an ear of intercontinental weapons as he was first to launch a dummy thermonuclear warhead R-7, which traveled about 6000 km from Baikonur in Kazakhstan to Kamchatka.  US would match R-7 only 15 months later.

Korolev's life story is amazing: he was sent to gulag during Staling purges 1938 when he was 31. He was sent to Kolyma gulag - one of most notorious. At that time he worked on rockets design.
Allegedly he was "saved" from Kolyma in 1939 by his professor Tupolev (plane designer). Tupolev  has also been arrested in Stalin purges but put in charge of a special type of Soviet prison - sharaga. Sharaga is a prison for scientists and engineers who were assigned special projects and given relatively decent prison life (especially when compared to Kolyma) but almost totally deprived of outside contact.
Tupolev’s sharaga was assigned to the design of rocket–assisted aircraft, among other products, and it is likely that he put out a call for specialists, like Korolev, who could help him. Korolev remained technically a prisoner until 1958 (following Sputnik launch) when he was rehabilitated.
Korolev related links:

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/korolev/SP5.htm

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/K/Korolev.html

http://wn.com/sergey_korolyov