Pavel Podvig
graduated from the General and Applied Physics Department of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) in 1988. Since 1991 he works as a Researcher at the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at MIPT. In 1991-92, he organized the translation and Russian publication of Soviet Nuclear Weapons. Pavel Podvig has written in Russian and U.S. press on matters of missile defense, early warning, U.S.-Russian arms control negotiations. Pavel Podvig authored the first and eighth chapters of this book, and also parts of the second chapter that deal with political leadership and principles of political control over the military forces. In addition to this, he co-authored other parts of the second chapter and those parts of the seventh chapter that are devoted to strategic defense and early warning system. As the editor of the book, Pavel Podvig also was directly involved into work on all its chapters.

Oleg Bukharin
received his Ph. D. in physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1992. He has also received training in international relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and was a researcher at the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at MIPT from 1991 to 1992. Currently Dr. Bukharin is a researcher at the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University (formerly part of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies). His research work is centered around safeguards for and the security of nuclear material and the disposition of fissile materials from weapons. In 1995 Oleg Bukharin was a co-author (with T. Cochran and S. Norris) of the book Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin. Oleg Bukharin authored the parts of the third chapter that deal with the history of nuclear weapons development and describe the weapon material production complex. He was also directly involved into work on other parts of the third chapter.

Timur Kadyshev
received his Ph.D. in mathematical modeling from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1991. The subject of his thesis was mathematical models of strategic stability. His current research focuses on history and the current status of the strategic aviation and arms-control and security issues raised by ballistic missile proliferation. Since 1991 Timur Kadyshev works at the Center for Arms Control Studies. He authored the sixth chapter of the book, devoted to strategic aviation.

Eugene Miasnikov
received his Ph.D. in physics (oceanography) from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1989. In 1991 he joined the Center for Arms Control Studies and started working on history and role of a strategic naval fleet and implications of submarine survivability for arms control. He has written extensively on issues of submarine vulnerability, problems of submarine dismantlement, other arms control problems. Eugene Miasnikov authored the fifth chapter of the book which is devoted to strategic navy. The part of the fifth chapter that deals with sea-launched ballistic missiles was written in co-authorship with Maxim Tarasenko.

Igor Sutyagin
graduated from the Moscow State University (Physics Department) in 1988 and since then has worked at the Institute of U.S. and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1995 he received his Ph. D. in history from the U.S. and Canada Institute. The areas of his research activity include the structure and operations of the Russian and U.S. strategic forces, strategic command and control, and nuclear weapons development and production. Igor Sutyagin is the author of numerous publication on these subjects. He wrote the seventh chapter of the book, which deals with issues of strategic defense (part of it--in co-authorship with Pavel Podvig), and parts of the third chapter that deal with nuclear weapons development and handling. Igor Sutyagin was also directly involved in work on other parts of the third chapter and parts of the second chapter that are devoted to the strategic command and control.

Maxim Tarasenko
received his Ph.D. in physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1988. Since 1991 he worked at the Center for Arms Control Studies. Maxim Tarasenko was widely recognized as a leading expert in the Soviet civilian and military space program. He wrote extensively on these subjects. Among his publications are the book Military Dimension of the Soviet Space Program (in Russian) as well as numerous publications about the history and the current status of the Soviet/Russian space program. Maxim Tarasenko wrote the fourth chapter that is devoted to strategic land-based missile forces and parts of the fifth chapter that deal with sea-launched ballistic missiles. In May 1999 Maxim Tarasenko died in a car accident.

Boris Zhelezov
graduated from the Moscow Institute of Communications in 1985. Since 1989 he worked at the U.S. and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he receive his Ph.D. in political sciences in 1994. Boris Zhelezov works on problems of civil-military relations and various political and legal aspects of arms control. Since 1998 he works with the Open Society Institute in Moscow. Among his publications--the book Civilian Control over Russia's Military Budget (in Russian). Boris Zhelezov took part in the work on the second chapter of the book that deals with structure of the strategic forces.