The October Revolution abruptly changed the fate of the peasant son. During the Civil War, as part of the Red Army, he participated in the battles near Tsaritsyn and Arkhangelsk (here Koshkin joined the party in 1919), was wounded. In 1921, directly from the troops, he was sent to study in Moscow. Mikhail Koshkin becomes a student of the Sverdlov Communist University. From "Sverdlovka" his path to science will begin. True, in 1924, after graduating from the Komvuz, he again had the opportunity to plunge headlong into the confectionery industry, so familiar from his youth (he was appointed director of a confectionery factory in the city of Vyatka). From 1925 to 1929, Mikhail Koshkin worked in the party bodies of the Vyatka province. In 1929, Koshkin, among the “members of the thousands”, again sits down for notes and textbooks, and in May 1934 he graduated from the Department of Automobiles and Tractors of the Leningrad Polytechnic (at that time - machine-building) Institute.
While still a student at the Polytechnic, Koshkin began working at OKMO, the experimental design engineering department of the Bolshevik plant, established in 1930. (In 1932, the tank production of the Bolshevik plant and OKMO were transformed into an independent Leningrad State Plant No. 174 named after K.E. Voroshilov. In 1933, on the basis of the Leningrad Experimental Machine Building Plant No. 185 named after S. M. Kirov", which until the second half of 1936 had the name "Experimental Plant of Spetsmashtrest". From such a school of domestic tank building as OKMO, in addition to M. I. Koshkin, famous designers L. S. Troyanov, I. S. Bushnev, G. N. Moskvin, S. A. Ginzburg, I. V. Gavalov.) Having received a diploma of higher education, Mikhail Koshkin is sent to the Experimental Plant, where he works until December 1936, first as a design engineer, then as deputy head of the design bureau .
In the second half of 1936, the Kharkov Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern (KhPZ), which mass-produced BT-7 tanks, was renamed Plant No. 183. Inside the plant, digital indexing of services was also introduced, the T2K tank design bureau was assigned the KB-190 index. This design bureau, despite its youth, already had certain developments (tanks T-12, T-24, BT). However, for the independent design of new modern tanks, the Design Bureau so far lacked experience and design personnel. By order of the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze on December 28, 1936, M.I. was appointed head of KB-190. Koshkin, instead of A.O. Firsov, who was accused of mass breakdowns of gears in gearboxes on BT-7 tanks in military units.
M.I. Koshkin was not chosen by chance. Firstly, he showed himself well in the former design bureau, where he received the Order of the Red Star for participating in the creation of the first domestic "thick-armored" medium tank T-46-5, and secondly, he was a member of the party, which in those years was among the technical specialists not so common occurrence. So, on July 1, 1937, in the design bureau, which was headed by Koshkin, out of 48 people, only 7 had tickets for members of the CPSU (b). At the same time, the deputy head of the design bureau N.A. Kucherenko, and all six heads of sections (P.N. Goryun, A.A. Morozov, V.M. Doroshenko, M.I. Tarshinov, V.Ya. Kurasov, A.S. Bondarenko), i.e. those who could be appointed at the end of 1936 to the post of chief of the design bureau were non-party. And if we consider that at the plant at that time an investigation was underway regarding the supply of 687 BT-7 tanks with structurally non-reinforced gearboxes to the Red Army, then the decision of the manager of Spetsmashtrest (an organization directly involved in tank building in the structure of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry) K.A. becomes clear. Neumann to strengthen the KB with party members.
Koshkin, little known to the plant staff, nevertheless quickly and without any friction entered his life. He sensitively perceived the situation of that time, attracted many designers, production workers and the military to work, sharing their painful problems, difficulties and experiences. He was principled, hardworking and honest. Thanks to these qualities, he very quickly gained prestige at the plant. According to the memoirs of a tank building veteran A. Zabaikin, “Mikhail Ilyich was easy to use and businesslike. Didn't like verbosity. As a designer, he quickly entered into the essence of the design, estimating its reliability, manufacturability, and the possibility of mass production. He listened attentively to us, technologists, and, if our comments were justified, he immediately used them. The team loved him."
In less than a year, under the leadership of M.I. Koshkin, with the participation of his closest assistants A.A. Morozov and N.A. Kucherenko, other designers, the BT-7 tank was modernized with the installation of the BD-2 (V-2) high-speed tank diesel engine created by that time at the plant. BT-7M was the first tank in the world to have a diesel engine. The Kharkov plant transferred 790 BT-7M tanks to the Red Army in 1939-1940.
In mid-October 1937, plant No. 183 received from the Armored Directorate (ABTU) of the Red Army the task of developing a new maneuverable wheeled-tracked tank, designated BT-20 (A-20) (tactical and technical requirements (TTT) were developed by the head of the 2nd Department of ABTU Ya.L. Skvirsky). To fulfill this serious task, M.I. Koshkin organized a new division - KB-24. He personally selected designers for this design bureau, on a voluntary basis from among the employees of KB-190 and KB-35. (KB-35, headed by I.S. Ber, was engaged at plant No. 183 in servicing serial production and improving the design of the heavy five-turreted T-35 tank, designed by the design bureau of the Leningrad Experimental Plant named after S.M. Kirov.) 24 led by Koshkin amounted to 21 people. Design Bureau KB-190, led from November 1, 1937 by N.A. Kucherenko, continued work on the modernization of the BT-7 tank and the finalization of the design documentation for the BT-7M and BT-7A tanks.
In February 1938, tests of an experimental tank BT-SV-2 "Turtle", designed under the guidance of a military technician of the 2nd rank Nikolai Fedorovich Tsyganov, were completed. In the design of the hull and turret of the tank, the armor plates were located at large angles to the vertical. It is believed that it was the geometry of the hull and turret of the BT-SV-2 tank that was used by the designers of KB-24 when designing the A-20 tank. Subsequently, such a principle of building armor protection, as the arrangement of armor plates at an angle, became a classic, widely used in tanks of all countries. A-20, according to TTT, was also distinguished by a new drive to the drive wheels, three of the four rollers (on board) were leading. A project of an "initiative" tank was also created, the essential difference of which was the replacement of the wheel-tracked mover with a simpler, purely tracked one. The abolition of wheel travel made it possible not only to significantly simplify the design of the tank, but also to strengthen armor protection due to the saved weight. The initiative version was distinguished not only by the absence of a wheel drive, but also by the presence of a fifth track roller, which increased the support of the track on the ground.
Even at the design stage of the A-20 tank, in the process of consideration by the commission of the ABTU of the Red Army, chaired by military engineer 1st rank Ya.L. Skvirsky drawings and layout of this tank (September 6, 1938), factory No. 183 was instructed to produce one wheeled-tracked tank with a 45-mm cannon and two tracked tanks with a 76.2-mm cannon, as well as one armored hull - for shelling. On December 9-10, 1938, the Main Military Council of the Red Army considered the drawings and mock-ups of two variants of the A-20 tank (wheeled-tracked and tracked) developed according to the proposals of the ABTU commission, presented by plant No. 183.
At a meeting in the Kremlin, after reviewing the mock-ups of the 100 and SMK heavy tanks, they discussed the drawings and mock-ups of the A-20 tank in wheeled-tracked and tracked versions, presented by the lead tank engineer A.A. Morozov and the head of KB-24 of plant No. 183 M.I. Koshkin. Most of the military leaders present, including Deputy People's Commissar of Defense G.I. Kulik, they preferred the wheeled-tracked version of the A-20 tank, which had greater operational mobility. And at the moment when the scales finally tipped in favor of the wheeled-tracked version, M.I. Koshkin, accustomed to firmly and to the end to defend his views, in the presence of I.V. Stalin expressed his opinion that it was necessary to manufacture and submit for state tests both vehicles designed by plant No. 183 in wheeled-tracked and tracked versions. I.V. Stalin offered not to hamper the initiative of the plant and allowed the production of prototypes for both submitted projects. By the Decree of the Defense Committee (KO) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 45 of February 27, 1939, the drawings and models of the A-20 tank were finally approved for production. The wheeled-tracked tank remained under the name A-20, the tracked tank was given the name A-32 (T-32).
By the middle of 1939, prototypes of the A-20 and T-32 tanks were manufactured and presented to the State Commission for testing. The commission noted that both tanks "are superior in strength and reliability to all prototypes produced earlier ...", but did not give preference to any of the options, noting that both of them were well made and suitable for use by the troops. Conducted secondary tests of experimental tanks A-20 and T-32 in the fall of 1939, and most importantly, those taking place at that time fighting in Finland, it was clearly confirmed that tactical mobility in rough terrain, especially in the autumn-winter period, can only be provided by tracked vehicles. At the same time, the need was determined to further increase the combat parameters of the T-32 tank, and especially to strengthen its protection. The resolutions of the Defense Committee ordered the production of two tracked tanks based on the A-32, taking into account the armor thickened to 45 mm and the installation of a 76 mm gun. In an extremely short time, the design bureau finalized the T-32 tank by further strengthening armor protection, armament, and implementing a number of other design changes. Decree of the CO under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 443 of December 19, 1939 "On the adoption of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery tractors into service with the Red Army and on their production in 1940" the T-32 tank with armor increased to 45 mm and a 76-mm cannon F -32 was put into service with the assignment of the name T-34.
In connection with the sharply increased volume of design work to finalize the T-32 tank and the release of drawing and technical documentation for prototypes of the T-34, as well as in connection with the cessation of production of T-35 tanks, at the end of 1939, the three tank design bureaus (KB-24, KB-190, KB-35) into one tank design bureau, which was assigned the code - department 520 (KB-520). M.I. became the chief designer of the joint design bureau. Koshkin. In the conclusion of the attestation commission, signed by the director of plant No. 183 Yu.E. Maksarev (who arrived in October from the Leningrad Kirov Plant) and the chief engineer of the plant, S.N. Makhonin, said: “Working as the head of the design bureau, comrade. Koshkin did a great job in terms of improvements in the design of the machine.
A qualified design engineer, fully prepared for the position of chief designer of the plant. Initiative, energetic and persistent. A good organizer and leader, enjoys prestige among the commanding staff of the plant. He works on himself in the sense of improving his technical knowledge. A.A. was appointed Head of Design Bureau and Deputy Chief Designer. Morozov, deputy head of the design bureau - N.A. Kucherenko.
Two experimental T-34 tanks were manufactured and transferred to military trials on February 10, 1940. These tests, which took place in February-March, fully confirmed the high technical and combat qualities of the new tank. And on March 5, 1940, two T-34 tanks left the factory for a test run along the Kharkov-Moscow route. Chief Designer Mikhail Koshkin led this run. On March 17, 1940, T-34 tanks, as well as combat vehicles manufactured by other factories, were demonstrated to members of the government on Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. At the request of I.V. Stalin, the drivers N. Nosik and O. Dyukalov drove through the square. After examining the "thirty-fours", Stalin spoke approvingly of them, calling the new tank "the first sign." After the Kremlin review, T-34 tanks were tested at a training ground near Moscow and on the Karelian Isthmus. In April 1940, returning under its own power to Kharkov, near Orel, one of the tanks capsized into the water. Helping to pull him out, Koshkin, already with a cold, got very wet. Upon his return to Kharkov, he was hospitalized at the insistence of doctors.
The display of tanks in the Kremlin was a turning point in the annals of the creation of the T-34. The tank was recommended for immediate production. At the 183rd plant, work began on the preparation of the serial production of the "thirty-four". Mikhail Koshkin, despite his illness, continued to actively manage the refinement of the tank. The chief designer worked hard. His illness suddenly worsened. A specialist surgeon was urgently called from Moscow. The patient was operated on: the lung had to be removed. But it did not help. Mikhail Ilyich died on September 26, 1940 in the Zanki sanatorium near Kharkov, where he underwent a rehabilitation course of treatment. The entire plant followed the coffin of the chief designer.
In October 1940, serial production of T-34 tanks began. At the end of the fortieth year, A.A. was appointed head of the design bureau - chief designer. Morozov. He continued the work of his predecessor, fine-tuning the T-34 put into mass production. Sam A.A. Morozov immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War in 1945 wrote: “The foundations for the design of the T-34 tank were laid and developed by Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin. He organized a team of young designers, constantly taught them not to be afraid of difficulties, which are always a lot when solving complex problems. First of all, we owe this wonderful designer the appearance of such a perfect type of tank as the T-34.
April 10, 1942 designer Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin "for the development of the design of a new type of medium tank" was awarded (posthumously) Stalin Prize 1st degree. A.A. Morozov and N.A. Kucherenko. (Nikolai Alekseevich Kucherenko was awarded the Stalin Prize twice more - in 1946 and 1948. Being the head of the design bureau KB-520, in which the birth, formation and improvement of the legendary machine took place, he made a huge contribution to the creation and modernization of the T-34. From November 1, 1939 to August 23, 1947, N.A. Kucherenko was also the deputy chief designer of plant No. 183 A.A. Morozov, then he headed the department of the chief designer of the Glavtank in the Ministry of Transport Engineering until August 1949. In the fall of 1949, he returned to his native plant in Nizhny Tagil and worked as the chief engineer of this country's largest tank and car building enterprise until April 1952. In 1952-1969, Colonel-engineer N.A. Kucherenko was the head of the Main Directorate and a member of the collegium of the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR.He died on September 13, 1976 G.)
For a long time, the name of the creator of the legendary T-34, Mikhail Koshkin, was practically unknown. And the plant where this most advanced combat vehicle of the Second World War was born (now the Kharkov plant named after Malyshev) was called Yuzhny in the literature. Not far from his entrance, in May 1985, a monument to the creator of the "thirty-four" was opened, and in 1990, 50 years after his death, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Every year on December 3, flowers are laid at the foot of the monument - a tribute of grateful memory to the genius of tank building, a true patriot and a wonderful person. And on the house where he lived (the corner of Pushkinskaya and Krasin streets), a memorial plaque was installed.
115 years ago, on December 3, 1898, Mikhail Koshkin, chief designer of the T-34, was born. Everyone knows the best medium tank of the Second World War, but in the homeland of its creator, alas, devastation and desolation.
They burned down their home
153rd kilometer of the Yaroslavl highway, on a high pedestal - "T-34-85". There is also a road sign: “Brynchagi, the birthplace of M.I. Koshkin, the designer of the T-34 tank.” To the left, and - an amazing coincidence - exactly 34 kilometers. At the turn there are dilapidated houses surrounded by woodpile. And here is a local resident - I notice a bent figure in a padded jacket and a gray scarf.
Baba Tatyana remembers how the “thirty-four” appeared here. “It was under Yeltsin. The tank was being taken to Brynchaghi, but abandoned here, at the turn. Either their car broke down, or maybe they were too lazy to drag further. He lay here for several years, then they made him a monument. But only after the veterans began to write to Moscow,” the old woman said. And she clarified that you can not go to the homeland of Mikhail Koshkin - "there is nothing there."
In the direction of the village of Brynchagi, from the asphalt road of regional significance, there is an excellent primer on a capital embankment, clearly built according to the Soviet program “Roads of the Non-Black Earth Region”. A modest bust of the designer, installed in 1998, is located right at the entrance to locality. There really is no house-museum here.
The place where the Koshkins' hut was located was shown to me. Snow-covered wasteland. No one - "so far no one has grabbed it." They looked at the Moscow numbers of the car with apprehension. And when they found out that I was from the newspaper, they immediately advised me: “Get out of here…”
The reason for such a negative attitude of local residents to the media became clear on the way back. He drove a man from the village of Rakhmanovo to Lychentsy, and he explained everything. “Koshkin’s house stood in the early 80s, they wanted to make a museum in it. Just led the way there. The USSR was destroyed, and then, in the 90s, the hut was taken away for firewood. But this is a taboo subject for us. A year ago, television came to Brynchaga and filmed a story about Koshkin. The people talked. That the village is dying, the authorities don’t care, and they don’t give a damn about the memory of the designer. So our regional authorities got angry, ”the peasant broadcasted. However, he quickly fell silent and did not utter a word for the rest of the journey. Apparently, he understood - he blurted out too much.
The story about Brynchags was found on the Internet, a year ago it really went on the air. Very sharp report, honest. It is not surprising that someone was tapped on the hat so as not to chatter. The head of the Pereslavl district, Vladimir Denisyuk, refused to discuss the topic of the memory of Mikhail Koshkin with a correspondent of Kultura, sending him to his deputy social policy Vera Markova. Vera Vyacheslavovna, unfortunately, turned out to be elusive. In general, it is customary to remember the hero here only in his native village.
Thin armor came
It's about the hero. Designer Koshkin did not fight in the Great Patriotic War, but he accomplished a feat. And in order to realize this, you need to have an idea of the situation in the Soviet tank industry in the 30s.
The basis of the park were light cars. The licensed English Vickers Mk E, after a radical modernization, became known as the T-26, the American prototype of engineer Christie was brought to serial BTs. The completely domestic three-tower T-28 did not fit into the theories of Tukhachevsky and his associates. And they no longer demanded thousands, but tens of thousands of light, high-speed vehicles with bulletproof armor, completely ignoring the appearance of anti-tank artillery. And the factories riveted them regularly.
However, not very well. Reading the documents of that time, one is amazed at what "order" was going on in the shops and design bureaus. It was a cocktail of incompetence, outright sloppiness, wrecking and... self-interest. Factories received money for each unit of production. And these are bonuses to management, cars, apartments and other blessings of life. It is not necessary to idealize the Stalin era, they stole even then. “The plan of Spetsmashtrest ordered KhPZ to produce 510 tanks during the first half of 1936. Over the past six months, only 425 tanks have been manufactured and tested. The Armored Directorate of the Red Army out of the indicated quantity was recognized as fit and only 271 tanks were accepted ... The main reason for the failure of the tank building program is the poor quality of a number of decisive components of the BT-7 tank, - this is a brief excerpt from the document, which indicates the situation at the Kharkov Locomotive Plant (KhPZ ). Is it any wonder that by the end of the decade, someone retrained as a lumberjack, and someone was put up against the wall.
There was also espionage. “In 1938, the director of the KhPZ, Ivan Bondarenko, was arrested. He immediately admitted that back in the 18th he was recruited by the Germans and regularly passed them secret information about the state of affairs in Soviet tank building. This is confirmed by the memoirs of the German General Guderian. Until 1938, he knew how many cars the USSR produced per day. After that, he no longer had such data. And information about the work on the T-34, too, the appearance of this tank was a surprise for the Germans. By the way, Bondarenko, who was sentenced to capital punishment, was not shot, as is often written about, he died in prison in 1941,” explained the deputy director for scientific work Museum and Memorial Complex "History of the T-34 Tank", author of numerous books on armored vehicles, Colonel of the Reserve Igor Zheltov.
During the investigation, the security officers found out that, in general, there was nothing to meet the war of the USSR. By that time, Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Gaulle had already published the revolutionary work The Professional Army, in which the idea of using large mechanized formations first appeared. His German colleague Heinz Guderian was inspired by the Frenchman's theory and began to develop it in every possible way. First, the Panzerwaffe trained with plywood tanks, then with real ones. Vehicles with anti-shell armor were built, the caliber of guns in the turrets grew. Against such a background, the "26s" and "batashki" with their protection of 10-15 mm had little chance. And the resource for the modernization of these devices was already exhausted.
From what was
War is not far off - everyone understood this. Accordingly, there was no time, no effort, no money left to develop a new tank from scratch. It was necessary to make the most of the already produced components and assemblies. The genius of Mikhail Koshkin lies precisely in the fact that in the most difficult conditions he managed to put together an excellent car “from what was”. And this is not only the talent of an engineer, but also the ability of an extraordinary organizer.
Suspension according to the Christie principle, tracks with ridge gearing, rollers with rubber tires from BT-7M, diesel V-2 already tested on it. They tried to apply armor with rational angles of inclination before (an experimental tank "BT-"turtle"), but it was no longer possible to increase the thickness of the steel sheets - the tank would not have gone. Koshkin solved the problem.
"T-34" model 1940 came out beautiful and ... completely "raw". “In fact, at first it turned out to be a kind of completion of the BT series, with all the ensuing flaws. Hence the problems with ergonomics, observation devices, transmission, engine. The country lacked qualified personnel, rethinking the world experience in tank building and creating new domestic designs was very difficult, ”says Maxim Kolomiets, a historian of armored vehicles.
According to the results of the famous Kharkov-Moscow-Kharkov run in 1940, the list of necessary improvements exceeded 400 positions. The welded turret of the “pie” type was cramped and difficult to manufacture, the gun needed to be replaced with a more powerful one, and the diesels had a monstrously small engine life. Mikhail Ilyich knew this, far from everything was subject to him (for example, armament and engine building is another diocese), but he did what he could.
A vision for the future
"T-34" is an excellent blank for a tank, "- something like this german tanks hundred characterized the Soviet cars of the first series at the beginning of the war. And they were actively used, previously modernized. The same was done in Soviet factories. Each new version of the "thirty-four" became more perfect. Mikhail Koshkin left his team with a huge reserve for the future. It was he who determined the direction in which to move.
First, technology. If the first T-34s cost 430 thousand rubles, then by 1942 their price had fallen to 166 thousand, and by the 45th - to 130 thousand. Considering that, in fact, a completely different car was produced at the end of the war, this is an amazing result.
Secondly, increase the efficiency of the crew. Improved a lot - and drastically. The turret of the "nut" type became much more spacious, soon a commander's "panorama" and a powerful ventilation system appeared in it. The gearbox was made five-speed.
It is believed that the fundamental modernization of the tank - the T-34M project - Mikhail Ilyich began shortly before his death. But it's not. “In the spring of 1940, when they started working on the emka, Koshkin was already in the hospital. On the way from Moscow to Kharkov, the tank fell into the river, the designer fell into icy water and thus thoroughly undermined his health. Until that moment, he worked for wear and tear, and the cold finally knocked him down, ”says Igor Zheltov.
By June 1941, the T-34M was 60 percent ready. With the same hull forms, the armor increased greatly, a spacious turret appeared and, most importantly, a fundamentally different suspension - torsion bar. It not only provided a comfortable ride, but also freed up a lot of space inside. Due to this, the fuel supply and ammunition load increased.
But the T-34M was not accepted into service - the war began. No doubt, an excellent device, but it was impossible to put it on the conveyor without stopping the factories for re-equipment. They took the most successful nodes from the emka and began to install them on production tanks. The fate of the T-43 project turned out to be similar. It was even adopted, and several of these machines managed to make war. But the industry did not pull a new tank. They borrowed a turret with a shoulder strap of increased diameter and a powerful cannon from him, all this was adapted to the usual “thirty-four”. So the Victory tank appeared - "T-34-85".
It is he who stands on the Yaroslavl highway, indicating to those passing by the place where the museum should be. The great Soviet designer deserves to be remembered.
After the end of the Second World War, Winston Churchill was asked what weapon was decisive in the recent war. He replied: “The English line gun, the German Messerschmitt aircraft and the Soviet T-34 tank. But if I know everything about the first two, then I just can’t understand who and how created the miracle tank. ”
Not only Churchill is so slow-witted. "Thirty-four" was taken apart by screws and studied under a microscope by specially trained people - the best designers in Germany, England, the USA ... And they reverently froze in a dead end: you can see - you can not understand and repeat. And indeed - well, how can a mere mortal copy a mysterious mechanism born by another civilization? No way. Even hurt yourself - anyway, some kind of "Sherman" turns out or, God forgive me, "Tiger".
Because there is a tank. And there is a Russian tank.
To make the T-34, one had to be born at the right time in the right country.
Mikhail Koshkin did just that.
Technology and life
Passion for technology in the early twentieth century was rampant. Having invented and subjugated huge iron structures with motors, a person himself was fascinated by their power, and at the same time by the hitherto unknown possibilities of his mind.
In Russia after 1917, admiration for technology was aggravated by revolutionary enthusiasm: "We were born to make a fairy tale come true." Soviet engineers of the pre-war period, regardless of their love for Lenin and Stalin, were obsessed with the ideas of conquering the earth and sky. And the irrepressible curiosity of the pioneers, in turn, turned out to be very useful for the empire growing from the ashes.
young Soviet Republic she was supposed to drive on the roads, plow the fields and fight on the fronts. Well, according to the standards of that harsh time, beyond the control of modern courts, not only money, not only labor and ideas, but also human life were invested in technology. Designers of aircraft and tanks were idolized, but exactly until the moment when the mechanism did not give at least some kind of failure.
They had to be everywhere. At that time, the country did not have such a luxury as setting priorities: what, they say, is more important - a tractor for an unprecedented agricultural reform or tanks so that this agriculture is useful to someone. The priority turned out to be both... And the third... And the fifth... And the tenth...
In general, expanse for a burst of scientific and technical imagination.
But our hero today is Koshkin. Therefore, our priority is the Russian tank. Which doesn't exist yet.
American contribution
During civil war Captured English and French tanks, captured from the troops of Wrangel, Denikin, Yudenich, appeared in the arsenal of the Red Army. By 1920, there were over a hundred such trophies.
Experimental tank building in Soviet Russia was started at five factories - in Moscow, Leningrad, Gorky and Kharkov. In 1930, samples of modern tanks were purchased abroad: the light Vickers-6t (England) and the high-speed wheeled-tracked Christie (USA).
For the second - special thanks to the fraternal American people, the accommodating Congress and personally to Walter Christie for selling a couple of "tractors" to the Soviet Union without delay. The tank itself was so-so - unsuitable for real combat operations. But from one absurd fantasy of an American colleague, our engineers already lost their breath. There is a suspicion that Christie himself did not understand what he had done.
And what did he do? And he simply - either out of fright, or out of an innocent prank, or because of a genius - put the engine of the tank into ... Well, in general, like the "Zaporozhets". The uncles from the US military department - they definitely did not understand anything. A with Soviet designers ecstasy happened. Collective.
Such an arrangement in one fell swoop solved all the problems that the then progressive world tank building puzzled over: the silhouette of the car is pressed to the ground, the consumption of materials (hence, weight) for the “mandatory program” becomes minimal, the engine is removed from the line of enemy fire - “away from sin ". And from the saved resources, you can hang armor of any required thickness, and put a little more powerful fluff on the tower.
In general, not to go into technical details ...
From that moment on, a Russian tank began to inexorably roll into the history of mankind - in order to stay in it forever.
spanish tour
And I must say that the tank is an offensive weapon.
Soviet BT tanks (high-speed tanks), which grew out of Christie's models - nimble, one might say, elegant - were designed for civilized European roads. However, Soviet military forecasts did not extend beyond Europe.
In 1936, "bateshki" and T-26 came from the dusty roads of the Iberian Peninsula. About this, Konstantin Simonov wrote the play "A Guy from Our City", insanely popular, along with the 1942 film of the same name. Main character, tanker Sergey Lukonin, speaks with inspiration that tanks can do everything - swim, jump.
Indeed, the jumps of military vehicles over rivers and ditches made an impression, especially at reviews. Only in battle, jumping tanks often ended up at the bottom of rivers and ditches, and they burned like candles because of the gasoline engine, becoming a grave for combat personnel.
At that time, the Kharkov Locomotive Plant mass-produced wheeled-tracked BTs. The tank had the ability to take off and put on the tracks, like "galoshes", on a wheel drive. It is clear that the process of "changing shoes" of the tank was extremely inconvenient. But it is necessary from the point of view of the tactics of future hostilities - all on the same smooth and comfortable European highways. The main direction of development was to increase the speed.
On tests, where they were fond of beautiful “jumps” of tanks, failure after failure occurred, and Stalin at one of the meetings quietly uttered: “Are there too many breakdowns in the gearboxes? ..”.
The chief designer of the Kharkov plant, Afanasy Firsov, was arrested on charges of wrecking, the director of the plant, IP Bondarenko, was arrested and soon shot. After Firsov, the design bureau of the Kharkov plant was taken over by Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin. And he did not give anyone else to plant.
Road to Kharkov
Mikhail Koshkin was born in 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl province, as a boy, after the death of his father, he went to work ... He fought in civilian life. While working at the Soviet Party School in Vyatka (Kirov), he met Vera Kataeva, they got married. Vera Nikolaevna went with him to Leningrad, where Mikhail Ilyich studied at the Industrial Institute. They had a room in a hostel, a little daughter, Liza, then Tamara was born. In the evenings, Mikhail crammed English, Vera laughed. Vera Nikolaevna's brother worked at Lenfilm, and the Koshkin family reviewed all the new films, often at closed night screenings.
In 1934, in Leningrad, Koshkin met Kirov and could not help but succumb to the charm of this man. Kirov also spotted a young party member who did not engage in empty ideological chatter, but ardently promoted advanced technical ideas. He drew attention to Koshkin and Stalin, even when he was giving a course of lectures on Leninism for future party leaders at the Communist University. Sverdlov. The memory of the red emperor was excellent.
There must have been some intrigue in the fact that Koshkin was sent to Kharkov to replace Firsov, who was repressed after the assassination of Leningrad leader Sergei Kirov. But Mikhail Ilyich did not know about this. Vera Nikolaevna did not want to go to Kharkov. In Leningrad there were relatives, cultural life. But wives are not chosen - and she left with her husband.
The Koshkins' apartment was on Pushkinskaya Street, in a factory building. The factory provided for the family. In the rooms there was furniture made in workshops, a special department gave out cuts of fabrics. There was an atelier nearby, where a famous Kharkov tailor sewed factory workers.
In a coat from this tailor, Vera Nikolaevna and the girls left for evacuation to Nizhny Tagil. The first echelon ordered by the plant. But Mikhail Ilyich was no longer alive then.
Back in Leningrad, Koshkin defended his diploma in armored vehicles and dreamed of creating a new generation tank, which he had already begun working on in Leningrad. For the T-46-5 tank (existed only in experimental models), he and a group of designers were awarded the Order of the Red Star.
The T-46 was a tracked tank, but no one wanted to give up wheeled-tracked vehicles. Production cycles were established, the tanks were tested in battles and, with all the shortcomings, were considered quite satisfactory weapons. Heavy industry, especially military industry, is generally difficult to move from its "familiar" place ... But this is exactly what Koshkin wanted.
He thought of only one thing: to create a new tank. High-speed and maneuverable, with impenetrable armor, with a diesel engine that is safe for fire, with a long-range gun and all-terrain tracks. But political intrigues and industrial sluggishness made this task practically unsolvable, simply impossible.
Plant, Kremlin, plant
Mikhail Ilyich disappeared at the factory. He had an amazing personality. In those years, harsh leaders were in fashion - and he smiled, never raised his voice, wrote down everyone's remark in a notebook and repeated: “We think everything! We think together!
A brilliant designer, a nugget who did not even have higher education, Alexander Morozov became his mainstay in technical matters. The talented designer Nikolai Kucherenko, who had previously been the deputy of the arrested Firsov, also joined the work. On weekends, families went for a walk in Gorky Park. Sometimes all design bureaus - for football matches (Koshkin was an avid fan). But on weekdays they worked 18 hours a day. To come to the plant as a stranger, but to unite and lead a team of skittish talents: engineers, designers, drivers, workers; to make their idea common, to infect everyone with their frenzied "workaholism" - for this it was necessary to have very special spiritual and intellectual qualities.
After Spain, Koshkin's group first worked on the BT-7, a new wheeled-tracked tank. It is equipped with a diesel engine. But Mikhail Ilyich considers the routine work on "bateshki" unpromising. Beautiful jumps of wheeled tanks impress the leadership, and it is almost impossible to break through the caterpillar tracks. Koshkin is annoyed by the purely external side of the issue. Although his tank, as planned, could do this ...
He came up with the name of the tank a long time ago. Koshkin could not forget 1934, the meeting with Kirov. This was the beginning of his armored biography. So - "T-34".
On May 4, 1938, a meeting of the Defense Committee was held in Moscow, to which tankers who had returned from Spain were also invited. The meeting was chaired by Vyacheslav Molotov, then chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and the USSR Defense Committee. Stalin and Voroshilov were present. The experts were tankers, heroes of Spain D. Pavlov and A. Vetrov. An argument arises between them, but each looks askance at Stalin's reaction: what does he like, caterpillars or wheels? Tracked wheelless tank contemptuously called "galoshes without boots." And it is not known where the Soviet tank building would have moved on if Stalin did not like unexpected turns. He proposes to work on two tanks at the same time, which actually legalizes Koshkin's initiative.
Three months later, at a meeting in the presence of Blucher and Budyonny, the caterpillar version is again criticized, and again Stalin says: “Do not interfere with the designers' work. We'll take a look at both tanks. And may the best man win."
By March 1940, two experimental T-34s were ready. They are installed on platforms, and by a special train they must go to the bride in the capital.
But their field tests - the number of kilometers traveled - were not up to par. There is no time left to make circles around the polygon. Koshkin uses all his connections in Moscow, but receives a response from a person close to the people's commissar for defense: “Misha, don't even ask. Until the required mileage has been completed, the T-34 does not exist in nature ... "
Tankoprbeg-1940
And here something happens that makes some researchers attribute to Mikhail Ilyich both adventurism and a penchant for “partisanism”. For some reason, they think that he flaunted when he committed an act that cost him, as a result, his life. No, Koshkin remained a gentle man, a leader of the non-Stalinist type. He was just, as they would say today, a creative. And the creative will never leave his offspring.
Mikhail Koshkin, smiling calmly, says that the T-34 will get the required run and on time. Tanks will go under their own power from Kharkov to Moscow. Together with him, the chief designer.
They convince him that the tanks will get stuck in the snow, that they will be "declassified" along the way, that unexpected breakdowns are possible. And - the main thing is that he, Koshkin, already exhausted by a protracted cold, cannot ride in a tank!
Koshkin is still calm: we will go through country roads and forests - the T-34 has excellent cross-country ability, in the event of a breakdown, we will make repairs on the spot. I'll go myself in the lead tank.
Vera Nikolaevna knows that it is useless to persuade him, although many years later she confirms: he was already sick, it was deadly ... During the tank run, Mikhail Koshkin was already the father of three daughters - Tatyana was born in 1939. She no longer has time to remember her father.
The tank cortege left the gates of the factory on a dark March morning, passed through the empty streets of Kharkov, and left the city.
The T-34 was not a comfortable tank. The Germans upholstered their Tigers from the inside with a soft coating, and the British and Americans wondered how you can fight in a car if you can’t make coffee with sandwiches in it. The Russian tank was shaking violently and hitting against the walls, it was cold there, the drivers and Mikhail Ilyich himself were in cotton pants, felt boots, short fur coats. Koshkin is shivering, he is coughing.
Having run over half of the kilometers laid down according to the test rules, two “thirty-fours” enter the Kremlin. As in the movies, at Koshkin's command they "scatter": one - to the Spassky, the other to the Trinity Gates. Before reaching the gates, the tanks turned abruptly and rushed towards each other, effectively striking sparks from the Kremlin paving stones.
Stalin's words sounded triumphant: "This will be the swallow of our armored forces!"
The go-ahead was given for serial production, and in the evening Koshkin, along with the top management, was invited to the Bolshoi Theater. He coughs so much that the neighbors on the stalls look at him with displeasure. Mikhail Ilyich leaves at the first intermission, and a letter from the people's commissar is brought to the hotel with an urgent recommendation to go to Kharkov by train and immediately take care of his health.
The next morning, Koshkin leaves Moscow again in a tank turret. Having reached Kharkov, they will just pick up the full mileage.
On the way back, while crossing the Seversky Donets, one of the tanks capsizes into the water. After bathing in icy water, Koshkin arrives in Kharkov completely ill, but he does not leave the design bureau and workshops for several more days: production needs to be put on.
This story became the basis of Y. Reznik's book "The Creation of Armor" (1988). Director V. Semakov made the film "Chief Designer" (1980) with Boris Nevzorov in the role of Mikhail Koshkin. The story of V. Vishnyakov "Constructors" (part 1, "Having accomplished his feat") is also dedicated to this feat (1989). And all these works - with a tragic end.
The main business of life. And the last
T-34s went into production, Morozov replaces Koshkin as chief designer. And Mikhail Ilyich himself is being operated on by the luminary of Kharkov medicine. In September 1940, he completed his treatment in a sanatorium. He goes for a walk with little Tanyusha. He is annoyed by vacationers aimlessly slaughtering the "goat" for hours. Zhenya says: “Vera, I will go to work, I will make a new car. I will construct such that all the devils will be sick!
After a short improvement, Mikhail Ilyich died quietly in his ward. The urn with his ashes perished under the bombs along with the entire columbarium. There is no grave of Koshkin. For the first time, they wrote about him personally only 40 years later.
And by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army received an almost perfect tank. Simple, reliable, fast and maneuverable, with a good gun, maintainable, technologically advanced, with a huge resource for modernization, and finally, cheap.
Hitler learned about the existence of the T-34 only on the third day after the attack on the USSR. He ordered the tank army of Heinz Guderian, who was victoriously marching towards Moscow, to turn back: "Kharkov is more important than Moscow." However, 40 echelons with equipment and tank builders have already gathered to evacuate from Ukraine to the Urals.
“The Russian T-34 tanks showed our tankers accustomed to victories their superiority in armament, armor and maneuverability. The T-34 tank made a sensation,” wrote German General E. Schneider. Guderian himself admitted that hitting the Russian "thirty-four" is a great art.
And in operation, the T-34 was just a gift to front-line mechanics: wrecked vehicles were repaired right on the field and returned to battle again. By the way, fake T-34s are shown in films about the Great Patriotic War. Almost all of them were in combat. Rare rarities today in the museum market are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Underline whatever applicable
Koshkin, Morozov, Kucherenko, Firsov... Who was in charge of creating the victorious T-34 tank? Were these great designers equal in talent, was their contribution to the “Russian miracle” equal?
If Mikhail Koshkin had not died so early, perhaps they would have worked side by side with Kucherenko and Morozov for many years. Probably, they would not share the glory and no one would have thought about who the chief designer really was. They would share the Stalin Prize for the T-34, which the three of them received in 1942. But Koshkin received this award posthumously.
If Afanasy Firsov had not been arrested, he would have become a co-author, and possibly the founder of the T-34 project. Firsov had a pre-revolutionary technical education, he was invited to work in Switzerland, but he remained in Russia. Already in 1935, he developed the foundations of a fundamentally new caterpillar tank with powerful armor.
N. Kucherenko and M. Tarshinov were Firsov's deputies. But history, as you know, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. Alexander Morozov became the head of the design bureau after the death of Koshkin. A great tank builder, a developer of new generation tanks, he always said that the foundations of the T-34 were laid and developed by Mikhail Koshkin. However, never for post-war years he did not visit the family of Mikhail Ilyich, although he lived with them in the same yard.
Nikolai Kucherenko went to work in Moscow after the war. His daughter, the famous writer and poet Larisa Vasilyeva (Kucherenko), created her T-34 museum in the Moscow region. She says: “It would be wrong to believe that Koshkin is the only creator of the T-34 tank, but it would also be wrong not to think so.” Nikolai Kucherenko himself believed that the T-34 was made in those years by the whole country.
Vasily Vishnyakov, a writer and journalist, was the first to write: “No one doubts that when creating such a machine, the entire team of associates, including A. Morozov, N. Kucherenko, M. Tarshinov and workers from other plant services worked heroically. It is surprising that it was the creator and inspirer of this design, who gave his life for its production, that after its development was not even awarded a medal.
“If you go outside now and ask: who is Koshkin? - hardly anyone will answer. But on the other hand, recently students of the faculty of journalism in Russia were unable to answer the name of President Putin ... ”says the director of the museum of the Kharkiv plant named after. Malysheva (former KhPZ) Anna Bystrichenko. Memory flows along with history in a spiral, but more often it burns out. The spiral has to be repaired, the memory has to be restored.
The essence of the tank is firepower, protection and maneuverability. In the 1930s, there was still no theory in world tank building which of these three qualities should be preferred.
Constructor Koshkin
Koshkin's merit, as it turned out later, was that he found their perfect combination. What was it? Strong common sense, according to the English specialist Orgill, or the courage of engineering, a flash of talent and energy caused by a grand shake-up of the revolution? But not only that.
The great merit of Koshkin is that he was able to convince the top leadership in the person of Stalin of the need to create a prototype.
Inspired, Koshkin returned to the factory. The air already smelled of thunder. Two prototypes of the "T-34" did not have time to test when in March 1940 the question arose of showing them in the Kremlin. The solution was not immediately found, it was decided to send the tanks on their own, and of course the chief designer took a place inside the tank.
Was it really necessary? It is known that he was already unwell and the director of the plant Yu. Maksarev dissuaded him. But can you dissuade Koshkin? He wanted to see the tanks at the crossing, to show them to the members of the Military Council himself, especially since the fate of the vehicle had not yet been decided.
Of course, he could ride in the accompanying van, but he wanted to personally check everything and bring the tank to perfection. The project was approved by the Supreme Headquarters.
Six months remained before his death and a little more than a year before the start of the war. When the fascist bombs howled, the country's factories had already begun production of the T-34.
So is it a coincidence that he died so early?
No, he ruined himself with his obsession, burned out from his own energy, - says Maloshtanov, - He sacrificed his life to prove the superiority of the T-34.
Constructor Morozov
After the funeral of Koshkin, the Design Bureau was headed by Alexander Alexandrovich Morozov. A technician by education, whom, noticing among others, immediately upon arrival appointed Koshkin as his deputy.
Like Koshkin, we know him little, no films were made about him, he did not have time to write his memoirs, although several large notebooks with notes have been preserved.
Meanwhile, the government appreciated creative thought Morozov, twice awarding him the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
If Koshkin is a strategist, then he did not know higher mathematics, a talented nugget from Bezhitsa. Morozov was, as they say, a designer from God. He caught ideas on the fly, in the scheme he saw the design, in the drawing - the operating mechanism.
Possessing exceptional design intuition, Morozov, according to Matyukhin's memoirs, quickly oriented himself and returned sketches, demanding simplicity, manufacturability and cost-effectiveness of parts.
Not without reason, during the war years, the T-34 (it cost 100 thousand rubles in 1943) could be bought and presented to the front even by a collective farmer.
Morozov's talent manifested itself especially clearly in the dramatic months of 1941, when the scales swung in both directions. A German bomb had already demolished one of the rooms of his apartment, the Nazis were near Kharkov, when he flew by plane to Moscow, and then to the Urals, where the plant was evacuated.
Huge spans of buildings were intended for the manufacture of wagons. They had not yet had time to print the drawings, but from memory, according to the records, they began to produce tanks.
Constructor Kucherenko
The third of those awarded in 1942 with the State Prize for the creation of the T-34 after Koshkin (posthumously) and Morozov was named N. Kucherenko. He was Morozov's deputy, connected the design bureau with production, organized the mass production of new cars.
It was this communicative, broad, good-natured person who provided a creative environment, uninterrupted work of designers when the trains arrived at the Ural plant. Later he worked in the central bodies. His daughter, the poetess Larisa Vasilyeva, dedicated her "Book of the Father" to him.
Marshals G. Zhukov, I. Konev and our other commanders highly appreciated the reliable and easy-to-handle "soldier's tank", as it was called at the front. It is impossible not to say about the gloomy recognition of his qualities German generals, including the theorist of tank wars.
For the first time he saw Russian tanks with a silhouette unfamiliar to him in the first days of the war at the crossing over the Berezina, where the “thirty-fours” knocked out several fascist tanks and forced the theorist himself to rush to the ground.
And in October, fierce tank battles unfolded near Mtsensk, where his armored hordes, rushing to Tula and Moscow, were stopped by M. Katukov's brigade.
Confrontation between the design bureaus of the USSR and Germany
Fierce battles were fought not only on the fronts. Far in the rear, an invisible duel continued, which had begun so dramatically in prewar years between tank design bureaus of the USSR and Germany.
It is known that with hysterical persistence he demanded to achieve an advantage in tank armament. Old cars were feverishly modernized, the Daimler and Man firms hastily designed the Panthers.
Hitler's favorite, Professor F. Porsche, created his own monster at the Krupp factories with a frightening name - the tiger. At the same time, famous professors did not hesitate to borrow forms from the "thirty-four".
It is interesting to note that American designers, in turn, came from German ones, and thus Russian technical thought had a decisive influence on world tank building, which even now considers the medium tank to be the main combat vehicle.
Confrontation T-34 and German tanks
However, let's return to Hitler's decisive headquarters - the well-armored "", "" and "", armed with a cannon that hit the T-34 from a longer distance. How elastic was the design idea of the creators of our tank, if during the war, without stopping production, it was possible to increase the tower and install a long-barreled 85-mm gun instead of a 76-mm one, which returned the T-34 their superiority.
Already in the first period of the war, our still few and scattered “thirty-fours” more than once confused the cards of the Nazis, intoxicated with victories, delaying their advance in oncoming tank battles.
Their strength was especially striking in the battles near Moscow and Stalingrad, in the grandiose battle on the Kursk Bulge, when on July 12, the “thirty-fours” of Rotmistrov’s army rushed towards the tank avalanche of the Nazis in the Prokhorovka area.
One and a half thousand cars, shrouded in clouds of dust and smoke, huddled into a giant tangle, and the T-34s at close range, from a distance of one hundred meters, pierced the armor of the Panthers and Tigers.
Only on this day the Nazis lost four hundred tanks and self-propelled guns. "Thirty-fours" instilled confidence in our soldiers in offensive battles in Ukraine, the Baltic states and East Prussia.
It was these most massive tanks of our army that took part in rapid breakthroughs and raids, overcame water barriers, stormed fortified areas and were the first to break into the liberated cities.
And at the final stage of the war, along with the breakthrough tanks created by the design bureau of Zh. Kotin - heavy "IS" and self-propelled guns - they played decisive role in the Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations, in the rescue of Krakow and Prague.
So our designers and tank commanders to smithereens dispelled the myth of the tank power of the Wehrmacht, shamed the proud elite of the armored forces Nazi Germany. But the T-34 tank is the main impact force ground forces - not the only weapon that sowed terror and death among the invaders.
The 35,000th T-34, produced by the Ural plant, was put on a pedestal in the spring of 1945. And, imagine, many years later, when it was required in connection with engineering work move it, the memorial T-34 was refueled. The diesel engine roared, the exhaust puffed, and before the eyes of the astonished people, the tank moved to a new place.
For several generations of citizens of our country, the T-34 tank is one of the symbols of the Victory, a symbol of the power of domestic weapons.
The man who created the "thirty-four" did not live to see the triumph of his offspring. He sacrificed his life for Soviet Union got a new tank as soon as possible.
"Sweet life" of a peasant son
Nothing said that Mikhail Koshkin could become an armored vehicle designer. He was born on December 3, 1898 into a peasant family in the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province. The boy was not even seven when his father died, having overstrained himself in logging. The mother was left with three young children in her arms, and Mikhail had to think not about studying, but about earning a living.
At the age of 14, he left to work in Moscow. Koshkin was accepted as an apprentice in the caramel shop of a confectionery factory, which would later be called "Red October".
In 1917 he was drafted into the army. As part of the 58th infantry regiment Koshkin fought at the front, was wounded. By the time health was restored, the demobilization of the old tsarist army, and Michael took off his military uniform.
True, not for long - in April 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army. In its ranks, Koshkin fought near Tsaritsyn, near Arkhangelsk, fought with the army of Wrangel.
After several wounds and typhoid military career ended. But in Koshkin they saw the potential of a leader, so he was sent to Moscow, to the Sverdlov Communist University.
After graduating from university in 1924, Mikhail Koshkin became the director of a confectionery factory in Vyatka. There he began to move along the party line, by 1929 becoming the head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
The country needs tanks, and tanks need designers
He is 30 years old, has a wife, a child, he is a confectioner in the past, and in the present a party worker - what kind of tanks can there be?
But the country has a problem - the tank industry is practically absent. The situation needs to be radically changed. Educated personnel are urgently needed.
The call "Communists, forward!" sounded very serious. And among other party workers, Koshkin went to receive a technical education, enrolling in the mechanical engineering department of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.
But those who knew Mikhail said that he gnawed the "granite of science" furiously, his stubbornness and determination would be enough for two.
While still a student, Koshkin works in the design bureau of the Leningrad Kirov Plant, studying models of foreign tanks purchased abroad. Together with his colleagues, he is not only looking for ways to improve existing equipment, but also hatches ideas for a fundamentally new tank.
In 1934, Mikhail Koshkin defended his diploma in the specialty “mechanical engineer for the design of cars and tractors”, the theme of his thesis was “Variable Gearbox of a Medium Tank”.
Firsov and Dick
After graduating from the university, the "young specialist", who is already 36, works in Leningrad, and his abilities begin to unfold. He quickly goes from an ordinary designer to the deputy head of the design bureau. Koshkin participated in the creation of the T-29 tank and an experimental model of the T-111 medium tank, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
In December 1936, Mikhail Koshkin was sent to Kharkov as the head of the tank design bureau of plant No. 183.
Afanasy Firsov
Koshkin's appointment to the post took place under rather tragic circumstances - former head of design bureau Afanasy Firsov and a number of designers fell under the case of sabotage after the BT-7 tanks produced by the plant began to fail en masse.
Firsov, who managed to transfer the cases to Koshkin before his arrest, was shot in 1937. Conspiracy theorists will later call him the real "father" of the T-34.
Under the leadership of Koshkin, the BT-7 tank was modernized, which was equipped with a new engine. And in the fall of 1937, the Armored Directorate of the Red Army issued a task to the Kharkov plant to develop a new wheeled-tracked tank.
At the plant in Kharkov, he works simultaneously with Koshkin designer Adolf Dik. According to one version, it was he who developed the design of the tank called A-20, which met the requirements of the terms of reference. But the project was ready later than planned, after which Dick received the same charge as Firsov and ended up in prison. But Dick was lucky - unlike Firsov, he escaped execution, spent many years in exile, then returned to work as a designer. Adolf Yakovlevich lived until the end of the 1970s.
Model A-32
Let's return to Koshkin. Of course, he relied on both the work of Firsov and the work of Dick. As, in fact, for the entire world experience in tank building. However, he had his own vision of the tank of the future.
Koshkin wanted to create a high-speed vehicle, with high cross-country ability, withstanding artillery fire and with significant striking power.
Along with the A-20 wheeled-tracked model, the designer is developing the A-32 tracked model. Together with Koshkin, his like-minded people work, who will later continue his work - Alexander Morozov, Nikolai Kucherenko and engine designer Yuri Maksarev.
At the Supreme Military Council in Moscow, where the projects of both the wheeled-tracked A-20 and the tracked A-32 were presented, the military is frankly not enthusiastic about the "amateur" designers. But in the midst of the controversy, Stalin intervened - let the Kharkov plant build and test both models. Koshkin's ideas got the right to life.
Pre-war tanks manufactured by plant No. 183. From left to right: A-8 (BT-7M), A-20, T-34 model 1940 with the L-11 gun, T-34 model 1941 with the F-34 gun
The designer was very fast. He understood that big war stands on the threshold. The first samples of tanks were ready and entered for testing in the fall of 1939, when World War II had already begun. Experts recognized that both A-20 and A-32 are better than all models previously produced in the USSR. But no final decision was made.
Kharkov - Moscow - Kharkov
Taking into account the comments, the tank was finalized - the armor was increased to 45 mm, and a 76-mm gun was installed.
Two prototypes of the caterpillar tank were ready in early February of 1940. Koshkin tried to put the vehicle into mass production as soon as possible, but for this, apart from other tests, the tanks had to cover a certain number of kilometers.
On March 17, 1940, a show of cars that received the official name T-34 was scheduled in Moscow. Koshkin decides that his tanks will go from Kharkov to the capital on their own, picking up the required mileage along the way.
March 17, 1940 tanks were presented in the Kremlin. Admired, Stalin called the T-34 "the first sign of our armored forces."
Koshkin deserved recognition, he was invited to the Bolshoi Theater for a performance, which was attended by the first persons of the country. But the disease intensified, the designer's cough became frightening, and he was strongly recommended to take care of his health.
Wherever there ... Tanks lacked another 3,000 kilometers for mass production. The designer ordered - we will also go back to Kharkov on our own.
Near Orel, one of the tanks slides into the lake, and the designer helps to pull it out, standing in the icy water.
In Kharkov, he was nevertheless hospitalized with a diagnosis of pneumonia. But as soon as it became easier, Koshkin ran to the factory to continue finalizing the project and follow the start of mass production.
These escapes were not in vain. The designer's health deteriorated so much that a medical team was sent from Moscow to help local specialists. Koshkin had to have his lung removed, after which he was sent for rehabilitation. And he continued to think about his tank, and colleagues who came to visit him were forced to discuss not the designer's well-being, but the progress of work at the plant.
During the years of the German occupation of Kharkov, even the grave of the designer who sacrificed his life for the sake of the T-34 will disappear.
Winner
But this sacrifice will not be in vain, and his name will not be forgotten. Oxford University professor Norman Davies, author of Europe at War. 1939−1945. Without a simple victory,” he wrote: “Who in 1939 would have thought that the best tank of the Second World War would be produced in the USSR? The T-34 was the best tank, not because it was the most powerful or heaviest, the German tanks were ahead of it in this sense. But it was very effective for that war and made it possible to solve tactical problems. The maneuverable Soviet T-34s "hunted in packs" like wolves, which did not give the clumsy German "Tigers" a chance. American and British tanks were not as successful in opposing German technology.
On April 10, 1942, designer Mikhail Koshkin was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize for the development of the T-34 tank.
Associates of the designer continued to improve the tank, which will go through all the roads of the war, and enter Berlin as a winner.
Designer Koshkin did everything he could for this victory.
Fifty years after his death, in October 1990, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin will be awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
