Creator of the T 34 Koshkin tank. Literary and historical notes of a young technician. A difficult task and confrontation with military officials



Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Brynchagi village, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province
Date of death:
A place of death:	Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR

	Vera Nikolaevna
	Daughters? Elizaveta, Tamara, Tatyana

early years

(December 3, 1898, village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, Russian empire- September 26, 1940, Zanki rest house, Kharkov region, Ukrainian SSR) - Soviet designer, head of the tank design bureau of the Kharkov plant, which created the famous T-34 tank.

Biography

early years

Born on November 21 (December 3, new style) 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, now Pereslavl district, Yaroslavl region. The family lived poorly, the family had little land and the father was forced to engage in waste farming. In 1905, while working in logging, he overstrained himself and died, leaving behind his wife, who was forced to go to work as a farm laborer, and three young children. Mikhail graduated from the parochial school. From 1909 to 1917 he worked at a confectionery factory in Moscow.

From February 1917 he served in the army as a private. In the spring he was sent to the Western Front as part of the 58th Infantry Regiment, and was wounded in August. He was treated in Moscow, received leave and was demobilized at the end of 1917. On April 15, 1918, he volunteered to join the railway detachment of the Red Army formed in Moscow. Participated in the battles near Tsaritsyn. In 1919, he was transferred to Petrograd to the 3rd railway battalion, which was transferred to the Northern Front against the British interventionists, and took part in the capture of Arkhangelsk. On the way to the Polish front he fell ill with typhus and was removed from the train. After recovery, he was sent to the 3rd Railway Brigade and took part in the battles against Wrangel on the Southern Front.

From 1919 to 1920 - political worker. After graduation Civil War from 1921 to 1924 he studied at the Communist University named after Ya. M. Sverdlov. After graduation, he was appointed to Vyatka, where from 1924 to 1925 he worked as the head of a confectionery factory, from 1925 to 1926 - head of the propaganda department of the 2nd district committee of the CPSU (b), from 1926 to 1928 - head of the Gubsov Party School, in 1928 year - deputy head, from July 1928 to August 1929 - head of the propaganda department of the Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

In 1929, by personal order of S. M. Kirov, as an initiative worker, among the “Party members”, he was enrolled in the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (department of “Automobiles and Tractors”); He completed his industrial practice at the Gorky Automobile Plant, and his pre-graduation internship in the development department of one of the Leningrad plants.

After graduating from university in 1934, he worked for 2.5 years in the tank design bureau of the Leningrad plant named after. S. M. Kirov. From the position of an ordinary designer he quickly rose to the rank of deputy head of the design bureau. For his participation in the creation of a medium tank with projectile-proof armor, the T-46-5 (T-111) received the Order of the Red Star. He also participated in the creation of the T-29 tank.

Kharkiv

Since December 1936, Koshkin has headed the Design Bureau of the Tank Department "T2", plant No. 183, Kharkov Locomotive Plant (KhPZ). At this time, a critical personnel situation developed in the design bureau: the previous head of the design bureau, A. O. Firsov, was arrested “for sabotage,” the designers were being interrogated, the design bureau was divided into two directions: since the summer of 1937, one part of the employees has been engaged in development work (14 topics), the other ensures ongoing serial production.

The first project created under the leadership of Koshkin, the BT-9 tank, was rejected in the fall of 1937 due to gross design errors and non-compliance with the requirements of the task. On October 13, 1937, the Armored Directorate of the Red Army (ABTU) issued plant No. 183 (KhPZ) with tactical and technical requirements for a new tank under the designation BT-20.

Due to the weakness of the design bureau of plant No. 183, a separate design bureau, independent of the Koshkin design bureau, was created at the enterprise to work on the new tank. The design bureau included a number of engineers from the design bureau of plant No. 183 (including A. A. Morozov), as well as about forty graduates of the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army (VAMM). The leadership of the design bureau was entrusted to VAMM adjunct Adolf Dick. Development is proceeding in difficult conditions: arrests continue at the plant.

In this chaos, Koshkin continues to develop his direction - the drawings, which the core of the Firsov design bureau (KB-24) is working on, should form the basis of the future tank.

The design bureau under the leadership of A. Dick developed a technical design for the BT-20 tank, but with a delay of a month and a half. This delay led to an anonymous denunciation of the head of the design bureau, as a result of which Dick was arrested, accused of disrupting a government assignment and sentenced to 20 years in the camps. The contribution of A. Dick, who briefly worked at the design bureau on issues of tank mobility, to the creation of the future T-34 tank was the idea of installing another road wheel on board and an inclined arrangement of suspension springs, which was important for the chassis.

The design bureau was reorganized, and Koshkin became its head. In March 1938, the tank project was approved. However, by this time, the country's military leadership had doubts about the correctness of the chosen type of propulsion for the tank. On April 28, 1938, Koshkin in Moscow, at a meeting of the People's Commissariat of Defense (NKO), sought permission to manufacture and test two new tanks - a wheeled-tracked one (as intended by the original assignment) and a purely tracked one. They are somewhat different from the sides of the BT-IS tank by N. F. Tsyganov. In the mid-late summer of 1939, new tank models were tested in Kharkov. The commission concluded that “in terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are superior to all previously produced ones... they are well made and suitable for use in the army,” but it could not give preference to one of them. Greater tactical mobility in rough terrain during battles Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940 showed the A-32 tracked tank. In a short time, it was modified: the armor was thickened to 45 mm and a 76-mm cannon was installed, etc. - this is how the T-34 appeared.

Two experimental T-34s were manufactured and submitted for military testing on February 10, 1940, which confirmed their high technical and combat qualities. At the beginning of March 1940, Koshkin set off with them from Kharkov to Moscow “on his own.” In the conditions of the onset of the spring thaw, with the tanks being severely worn out by previous run tests (about 3000 km), the run that began was on the verge of failure several times. On March 17, 1940, tanks were demonstrated to government representatives on Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. Tests in the Moscow region and on the Karelian Isthmus were completed successfully. The T-34 was recommended for immediate production.

Koshkin himself paid dearly for this demonstration success - a cold and overwork led to pneumonia, but Mikhail Ilyich continued to actively supervise the development of the tank until the disease worsened and one lung had to be removed. The designer died on September 26, 1940 in the Zanki sanatorium near Kharkov, where he underwent a rehabilitation course of treatment.

He was buried in Kharkov in the city cemetery, which in 1941 was destroyed by Luftwaffe pilots by targeted bombing in order to eliminate the designer’s grave (Hitler declared Koshkin his personal enemy after his death).

Family

Wife - Vera Nikolaevna.
Daughters:

Elizaveta - geography teacher,
Tamara is a geologist,
Tatyana is a teacher at Kharkov University.

Awards

Order of the Red Star for the development of a prototype model of the T-111 medium tank
Stalin Prize (posthumously, April 10, 1942) “for developing the design of a new type of medium tank” (T-34)
Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously, by Decree of the President of the USSR No. 824 of October 4, 1990)

Memory

Monuments

In Kharkov, not far from the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985, a monument to Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was inaugurated.
The monument to the T-34 tank, and in fact to M.I. Koshkin, was erected along the road, near his native village of Brynchagi in the Yaroslavl region.
The monument to M.I. Koshkin was erected in the center of his native village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl region, and there is a memorial plaque installed on the house in which he was born and lived.
In Kirov (Vyatka), a memorial plaque was installed on the house where M.I. Koshkin lived (Drelevskogo St., 31).

Reznik Ya. L. Creation of armor. - M.: Voenizdat, 1987.
Vishnyakov V. A. A tank ahead of its time. - For the sake of life on earth. - M.: DOSAAF, 1986. - 525 p. — 100,000 copies.
Vishnyakov V. A. Designers. 1989.
Brochure “Mikhail Koshkin: unique documents, photographs, facts, memories (on the 110th anniversary of his birth)”, 2009.

“Chief Designer” directed by V. Semakov, the role of Koshkin was played by Boris Nevzorov.

In 1998, for the 100th anniversary of the birth of M.I. Koshkin, a Russian postage stamp with his portrait was issued. In the picture on the left is a T-34 tank mounted on a pedestal. The stamp has the text: “M. I. Koshkin. 1898-1940." The cost of the stamp is 1 ruble. The drawing was made by L. Zaitsev.

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was born on November 21 (December 3), 1898, in the village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl province (Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Oblast). His father suffered from heavy labor while logging and died in 1905, leaving behind his wife and three young children. The widowed mother had to become a farm laborer to earn a piece of bread.

Misha tried his best to make his contribution - and at the age of 14 (according to another source, at the age of 10) he went to Zlatoglavaya to earn money. In the capital, Koshkin found a place at a confectionery factory (now Red October) as an apprentice. A few years later, Mikhail was entrusted with servicing caramel machines.

Before February revolution Koshkin ended up on the Western Front, where he fought as part of the 58th Infantry Regiment of the Russian Imperial Army. After the defense of Tsaritsyn and participation in the capture of Arkhangelsk, Mikhail, who had suffered from typhoid, became a member of the RCP(b). In 1921, he graduated with honors from military-political courses in Kharkov (Kharkiv).

Koshkin was sent for further studies to Moscow, where in 1924 he graduated from the Communist University. Sverdlov and became the head of the Vyatka confectionery factory. Mikhail remained on Vyatka land for four years. At the age of 30, he tied the knot with Vera Nikolaevna Kataeva. The family had three children - Elizaveta, Tamara and Tatyana.

In 1929, Koshkin, who had experience working in a design bureau, was enrolled in the Leningrad Technological Institute, from where, due to loss of interest, he transferred to the mechanical engineering department of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.

A holder of the specialty “mechanical engineer for the design of cars and tractors,” Mikhail directly followed the decree “On the State of Defense of the USSR” and began to develop modern types of tanks. He participated in the creation of the T-29 wheeled-tracked tank and the top-secret experimental medium tank T-111, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Considering all of Koshkin’s impressive achievements, he was entrusted with heading a special tank design bureau in Kharkov. Vera Nikolaevna liked living in Leningrad, but the new appointment of the head of the family was not discussed. On December 28, 1936, People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze (G.K. Ordzhonikidze) signed an order to transfer Mikhail to the KhPZ named after the Comintern (No. 183).

Under the leadership of the new manager, work was carried out to modernize the unfinished tank model. Less than a year later, Koshkin released the BT-7M armored vehicle with a tank diesel engine. In the fall of 1937, designer Adolf Dick began developing a new wheeled-tracked tank BT-20 (factory code A-20) at plant No. 183. He did not meet the deadline, for which he was accused of disrupting a government assignment and received 10 years of camps.

Koshkin managed not only to move “to overtake, not after,” so as not to become an “enemy of the people,” and to make numerous modifications to the A-20 project, but also received permission from I.V. Stalin (Joseph Stalin) to develop a purely tracked tank A-32. The new model with increased 45 mm armor and a 76 mm cannon impressed during tests with its “extraordinarily beautiful shape,” maneuverability and level of armor protection. On November 19, 1939, the Defense Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 443 accepted the A-32 model, called the T-34 tank, into service with the Red Army.

Before mass production, it was necessary to accumulate the required mileage. The Kharkov-Moscow-Kharkov run, unprecedented in the history of tank building, was led by Koshkin himself. On March 17, 1940, two T-34 tanks were the first to reach the Kremlin, where Stalin met them.

On the way to Kharkov, one of the combat vehicles drove into a lake, and Mikhail helped rescue the tank from ice water. Cold and exhausted, the designer finally gave up near Oryol and fell ill with pneumonia. Kharkov doctors threw up their hands, so they had to call a surgeon from the capital.

It was decided to remove one of Koshkin’s lungs, and after the operation the patient was sent for rehabilitation to the Zanki factory sanatorium. Mikhail died at the age of 41, on September 26, 1940, nine months before the start of the Great Patriotic War. His wife, as if repeating the fate of his mother, early became a widow with three children.

His daughter Elizaveta became a geography teacher, Tatyana a teacher at Kharkov University, and Tamara a geologist.

Mikhail was buried at the First City Cemetery in Kharkov, but the grave has not survived to this day. According to one version, it was destroyed as a result of fascist bombing.

On April 10, 1942, Koshkin was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1990, the inventor of the T-34 was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

In May 1985, a monument to Mikhail was erected in Kharkov, next to the entrance of the Malyshev Plant. Another memorial, to the T-34 tank, appeared in the designer’s home village, in Brynchagi, Yaroslavl region.

In the city of Kirov, on the house at st. Spasskaya, 31, where Koshkin lived, a memorial plaque was installed. Memorial plaques also appeared in St. Petersburg, on the Main building of St. Petersburg State Pedagogical University, and in Kharkov, on the house at the address: st. Pushkinskaya, 54/2, where Mikhail lived.

In 1980, the Soviet two-part film by Vladimir Semakov “Chief Designer” was released, telling about the creation of the legendary T-34 at a secret Kharkov plant. The role of Koshkin in the film was played by the famous actor Boris Nevzorov.

Glory to the hero.
Balamutick 2006-08-30 14:17:18

Glory to the hero. An excellent tank, the best tank of the Second World War. The T-34 is the best, defeated the enemy, skeptics and will.

On December 3 (November 21), 1898, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, a Soviet designer and creator of the legendary T-34 tank, the best tank of World War II, was born. During the war, 35,895 Thirty-Fours were produced, and about 68 thousand in total.

While still a student at Leningradsky machine-building plant Koshkin asked to practice at the tank design bureau and soon wrote to the first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee S.M. Kirov with ideas for improving tanks. Kirov personally met with Koshkin and appreciated his idea. This happened in 1934, a few months before the death of Kirov. It was then that Koshkin’s idea of abandoning wheeled systems and thereby strengthening weapons and armor became stronger. The novice designer promised Kirov to create such a tank and called it a memorable figure for the date of the meeting with Kirov - “34”. Working at the design bureau as an engineer, he participates in the development of the T-29, T-35, T-46-5, and T-III. For the thick-armored T-III, he, among others, was awarded the “Red Star” in 1936.

Since 1937, Koshkin, on the recommendation of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, became the chief designer of the plant named after. Comintern in Kharkov. Here he improves the BT-7, introducing a completely new (aviation) diesel engine and taking greater responsibility for it. Subsequently, all tanks began to be made with just such engines.

However, military customers did not want to change the wheeled version of the tank, glorified at Khasan and sung in songs, and issued an order to develop the A-20, also in a wheeled-tracked version. Only the designer’s foresight prevented him from going to this extreme. He persuaded his associates and the directorate to make another tank, the promising T-32, ahead of schedule and without damage to the A-20. It was presented to the Commission in the fall of 1939, along with the A-20.

The bureaucratic military did not accept T-Z2. Only Stalin's personal opinion allowed the plant to make two copies of a fully armored vehicle called the T-34. Tests of the T-34 were scheduled for March 1940, but the new vehicles had not yet passed the chassis tests for cross-country ability according to the instructions. We decided to get from Kharkov to Moscow on our own, off-road, and thereby gain kilometers. The designer, who had caught a cold in the cold workshops, had to personally participate in moving the cars and, as a result, he arrived in Moscow with pneumonia.

On March 17, 1940, the tanks were enthusiastically assessed at a training ground near Moscow by the Government Commission. Voroshilov begged Koshkin for a long time to rename the tank after the leader, but the designer was faithful to the memory of S.M. Kirov and refused Voroshilov. Apparently, this played a fatal role in the fate of the car and its designer. The attitude towards the tank immediately changed. Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Kulik demanded additional test already approved machine. They could have been pushed back to the spring of 1941.

Koshkin reasonably feared that the war could begin before the production of the T-34 was mastered. He decided to return to Kharkov under his own power in order to “get” the three thousand kilometers required for the test. Sick with pneumonia, Koshkin returned to Kharkov in an iron box for more than a week and arrived at the plant in a semi-conscious state. He was immediately taken to the hospital, but they could not save him.

Thanks to its combat qualities, the T-34 was recognized best tank Second World War. Serial production of the T-34 and its modifications was carried out during the war and post-war years. During the war, 35,895 Thirty-Fours were produced, and about 68 thousand in total. A large number of these tanks of various modifications have survived to this day in the form of monuments and museum exhibits. The latter (T-34-85) is in service with some countries to this day.

early years

From 1919 to 1920 - political worker. After the end of the Civil War, from 1921 to 1924 he studied at the Communist University named after Ya. M. Sverdlov. After graduation, he was appointed to Vyatka, where from 1924 to 1925 he worked as the head of a confectionery factory, from 1925 to 1926 - head of the propaganda department of the 2nd district committee of the CPSU (b), from 1926 to 1928 - head of the Gubsov Party School, in 1928 year - deputy head, from July 1928 to August 1929 - head of the propaganda department of the Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Kharkiv

In this chaos, Koshkin continues to develop his direction - the drawings, which the core of the Firsov design bureau (KB-24) is working on, should form the basis of the future tank.

The design bureau was reorganized, and Koshkin became its head. In March 1938, the tank project was approved. However, by this time, the country's military leadership had doubts about the correctness of the chosen type of propulsion for the tank. On April 28, 1938, Koshkin in Moscow, at a meeting of the People's Commissariat of Defense (NKO), sought permission to manufacture and test two new tanks - a wheeled-tracked one (as intended by the original assignment) and a purely tracked one. They are somewhat different from the sides of the BT-IS tank by N. F. Tsyganov. In the mid-late summer of 1939, new tank models were tested in Kharkov. The commission concluded that “in terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are superior to all previously produced ones... they are well made and suitable for use in the army,” but it could not give preference to one of them. The A-32 tracked tank showed great tactical mobility in rough terrain during the battles of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. In a short time, it was modified: the armor was thickened to 45 mm and a 76 mm cannon was installed, etc. - this is how the T-34 appeared.

He was buried in Kharkov at the First City Cemetery (now Youth Park), which was destroyed in 1941 by Luftwaffe pilots by targeted bombing in order to eliminate the designer’s grave (Hitler declared Koshkin his personal enemy after his death). The grave has not been restored.

Family

Wife - Vera Nikolaevna.
Daughters:
- Elizaveta - geography teacher,
- Tamara - geologist,
- Tatyana is a teacher at Kharkov University.

Awards

Order of the Red Star for the development of a prototype model of the T-111 medium tank
Stalin Prize (posthumously, April 10, 1942) “for developing the design of a new type of medium tank” (T-34)
Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously, by Decree of the President of the USSR No. 824 of October 4, 1990)

Memory

In Kharkov, not far from the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985, a monument to Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was inaugurated.
The monument to the T-34 tank, and in fact to M.I. Koshkin, was erected along the road, near his native village of Brynchagi in the Yaroslavl region.
The monument to M.I. Koshkin was erected in the center of his native village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl region, and there is a memorial plaque installed on the house in which he was born and lived.
In Kirov (Vyatka), a memorial plaque was installed on the house where M.I. Koshkin lived (Drelevskogo St., 31).
The memorial plaque is installed in the main building of St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, where Mikhail Ilyich studied.

Vishnyakov V. A. Designers. 1989.
Brochure “Mikhail Koshkin: unique documents, photographs, facts, memories (on the 110th anniversary of his birth)”, 2009.

“Chief Designer” directed by V. Semakov, the role of Koshkin was played by Boris Nevzorov.

In 1998, for the 100th anniversary of the birth of M.I. Koshkin, a Russian postage stamp with his portrait was issued. In the picture on the left is a T-34 tank mounted on a pedestal. The stamp has the text: “M. I. Koshkin. 1898-1940". The cost of the stamp is 1 ruble. The drawing was made by L. Zaitsev.



Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Brynchagi village, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province
Date of death:
A place of death:	Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR

	Vera Nikolaevna
	Daughters? Elizaveta, Tamara, Tatyana

early years

(December 3, 1898, village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, Russian Empire - September 26, 1940, Zanki rest house, Kharkov region, Ukrainian SSR) - Soviet designer, head of the tank building design bureau of the Kharkov plant, which created the famous T-34 tank.

Biography

early years

Kharkiv

In this chaos, Koshkin continues to develop his direction - the drawings, which the core of the Firsov design bureau (KB-24) is working on, should form the basis of the future tank.

The design bureau was reorganized, and Koshkin became its head. In March 1938, the tank project was approved. However, by this time, the country's military leadership had doubts about the correctness of the chosen type of propulsion for the tank. On April 28, 1938, Koshkin in Moscow, at a meeting of the People's Commissariat of Defense (NKO), sought permission to manufacture and test two new tanks - a wheeled-tracked one (as intended by the original assignment) and a purely tracked one. They are somewhat different from the sides of the BT-IS tank by N. F. Tsyganov. In the mid-late summer of 1939, new tank models were tested in Kharkov. The commission concluded that “in terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are superior to all previously produced ones... they are well made and suitable for use in the army,” but it could not give preference to one of them. The A-32 tracked tank showed great tactical mobility in rough terrain during the battles of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. In a short time, it was modified: the armor was thickened to 45 mm and a 76-mm cannon was installed, etc. - this is how the T-34 appeared.

Family

Wife - Vera Nikolaevna.
Daughters:

Elizaveta - geography teacher,
Tamara is a geologist,
Tatyana is a teacher at Kharkov University.

Awards

Order of the Red Star for the development of a prototype model of the T-111 medium tank
Stalin Prize (posthumously, April 10, 1942) “for developing the design of a new type of medium tank” (T-34)
Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously, by Decree of the President of the USSR No. 824 of October 4, 1990)

Memory

Monuments

In Kharkov, not far from the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985, a monument to Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was inaugurated.
The monument to the T-34 tank, and in fact to M.I. Koshkin, was erected along the road, near his native village of Brynchagi in the Yaroslavl region.
The monument to M.I. Koshkin was erected in the center of his native village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl region, and there is a memorial plaque installed on the house in which he was born and lived.
In Kirov (Vyatka), a memorial plaque was installed on the house where M.I. Koshkin lived (Drelevskogo St., 31).

Reznik Ya. L. Creation of armor. - M.: Voenizdat, 1987.
Vishnyakov V. A. A tank ahead of its time. - For the sake of life on earth. - M.: DOSAAF, 1986. - 525 p. — 100,000 copies.
Vishnyakov V. A. Designers. 1989.
Brochure “Mikhail Koshkin: unique documents, photographs, facts, memories (on the 110th anniversary of his birth)”, 2009.

“Chief Designer” directed by V. Semakov, the role of Koshkin was played by Boris Nevzorov.

In 1998, for the 100th anniversary of the birth of M.I. Koshkin, a Russian postage stamp with his portrait was issued. In the picture on the left is a T-34 tank mounted on a pedestal. The stamp has the text: “M. I. Koshkin. 1898-1940." The cost of the stamp is 1 ruble. The drawing was made by L. Zaitsev.