Hero of Socialist Labor Mikhail Koshkin. Biography, achievements, main events and interesting facts

In the poor family of the Koshkins living in the Yaroslavl province, in 1898, on December 3, Mikhail's son was born. The boy was left without a father early and began working at the Moscow confectionery factory at the age of eleven. During the Civil War of 1917, he went to the front. After getting injured in the same year, in August, he was demobilized. After completing the course of rehabilitation treatment, he returned to military service as a volunteer. Took part in the battles near Tsaritsyn (1919), in battles with Wrangel. I managed to have typhus during this period of time Mikhail Koshkin. The biography of a design engineer will be considered in this article.

The first steps towards the dream

The twentieth century was famous for its mass enthusiasm for people with various techniques. People have learned to control technology, constructed from iron and working with the help of an engine. The man was subdued by the power of these machines and was delighted with the possibilities of his own brain. Almost every Soviet engineer of that time dreamed of conquering the earth and the sky. The zeal of engineers was of great benefit to the stopping empire. The recruiting country of the Soviets set itself the tasks in which the machines were to work in the fields, transport cargo and people, and protect borders. In the technical development of that time, everything was invested: money, work, ideas, people's lives. Before those who designed the technique (tanks, cars, airplanes), they bowed, they worshiped.

Koshkina sent to study at the Moscow Communist University immediately after the end of military service in 1921. In 1924, after completing his studies, he was appointed to the post of director of the confectionery factory in Vyatka. In 1927, Mikhail Koshkin joined the Vyatka Provincial Party Committee, where he became the head of the agitation and propaganda department. In 1929, he was among the workers, who were recruited into higher education institutions to prepare for replacement (party cadres) of the old specialists (the intelligentsia).

At the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Mikhail Koshkin studied at the Department of Automobiles and Tractors. In 1934, when he became a certified specialist, I went to work as a designer at the experimental machine-building plant No. 185 in Leningrad. In the Security Committee he was one of the designers of T-29-5, T-46-5. Only a year he needed to become a deputy general designer. And in 1936 Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin received the Order of the Red Star.

The hard way of the leader

In 1936, on December 18, People's Commissar Grigory Ordzhonikidze issued an order appointing Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, head of the TKB plant, No. 183. At that time, the security committee had a difficult staffing situation. With the note "for sabotage" was taken into custody by his predecessor Afanasy Osipovich Firsov, interrogations of designers were conducted.

The summer of 1937 brought changes in the security committee, the employees had to share responsibilities and break up into two camps: the first employees carried out development work, the second - engaged in mass production of equipment.

The project of the BT-9 tank was the first project that Koshkin was engaged in, but due to errors in the design and non-compliance with the requirements of the tasks, he was rejected. The workers 'and peasants' Red Army of the auto-armored administration ordered the plant No. 183 to create a new tank BT-20.

At the plant, in view of the weakness of the security committee of the enterprise, they created a separate design bureau from which Adolf Dick, the adjutant of the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, was appointed. It included some engineers of the design bureau of the plant and graduates of this academy. Work on the development took place in difficult conditions: the arrests that took place at the plant did not stop.

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, whose biography is presented to your attention in the article, despite the chaos around him, along with the engineers who worked under Firsov, worked on the drawings that were to become the basis for the development of a new tank.

With a delay of almost two months, the design bureau under Dick developed the BT-20 project. Because of the deadline work on the head of the security committee, an anonymous letter was written, which entailed the arrest of Dick and his subsequent conviction for a period of twenty years. Although Adolf Dick did not spend much time on the mobility of the car, his contribution to the development of the T-34 was considerable (installation of the running gear, another skating rink).

hit or miss

For the experiments, a pair of T-34 tanks were created, and on February 10 in 1940 they were sent for testing. In 1940, in March, Mikhail Ilyich travels from Kharkov to Moscow, the tanks get their own, despite the weather conditions and the state of technology (badly worn after the tests). The government representatives got acquainted with the tanks on March 17 of the same year. After testing in the suburbs, it was decided to immediately begin their production.

A magnificent designer without a higher education Morozov Alexander in technical issues became the right hand of M. Koshkin. Also in the process participated designer Nikolai Kucherenko, former deputy. Firsova. Together with their families they could take a walk in the weekend in Gorky Park, they went to the football with the entire staff of the security committee. But they could work 18 hours without rest. Koshkin came to the plant as an outsider, but managed to unite different people who are doing a common job.

The name for his brainchild he invented long ago, the main role played in 1934 his meeting with Kirov, it was then that the first steps began to create the tank of his dreams, so the T-34.

Irreplaceable loss

For this success M. Koshkin had to pay dearly. A number of reasons provoked pneumonia. Despite this, he continued to lead the work until the disease worsened. This resulted in the removal of one of the lungs. Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich died in 1940 on September 26 during the rehabilitation course in a sanatorium near Kharkov.

To my great regret, it was not possible to keep the grave of this great designer. Since in 1941 Hitler declared Koshkin personally his enemy. German pilots were instructed to destroy his grave - they attacked the cemetery.

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, whose short biography is told in the article, died, but tanks created by his idea throughout the war were indispensable helpers.

Oblivion

Voroshilov asked to give the tank the name of the leader, but Koshkin agreed. Perhaps this played one of the important roles in the fate of the tank and its creator.

In 1982, it became known that Mikhail Koshkin for his services did not receive a single award. All the other participants in the creation of the T-34 wore the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. For 50 years, they kept silent about his feat. Mikhail Koshkin only insisted that the wheeled-caterpillar tank should be left in the past. He paid with his life for the timely start of the creation of T-34 tanks. It was this that enabled the release of 1,225 T-34 tanks by June 22, 1945, which helped to reduce human losses in combat.

Residents of Pereslavl did not suspect that their compatriot MI Koshkin - the very creator of the T-34 victory tank. In 1982, a petition was written for the conferment of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union M.I. Koshkin, which was not approved (since it is not dated for a round date). Pereslavl concluded that the name of the creator of the T-34 is not accidentally deleted from the historical pages.

The award that found the hero

Veterans of war and labor did not stop the refusal. They expressed their disagreement with the decision and asked, in the form of a gift to the present generation, to award Koshkin the posthumously deserved title of Hero of the Soviet Union twice, timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Great Victory. The letter was addressed to the President of the USSR in 1990. Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, whose basic dates you already know, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor on May 9, 1990 by presidential decree of the USSR.

Received awards

Koshkin MI, whose life story can serve as a vivid example for many generations, was awarded the following awards:

1. Order of the Red Star.
2. The Stalin Prize (posthumously).
3. Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously).
4. The order of Lenin.

Koshkin through the eyes of his children

Koshkin was married. His wife Vera Koshkina (nee Shibykina) gave birth to three daughters: Elizaveta, Tamara and Tatiana. They managed to survive the Great Patriotic War. After its termination they remained to live in different cities. Elizabeth in Novosibirsk (after the collapse of the Soviet Union came there from Kazakhstan), Tamara and Tatiana in Kharkov. About the father, they say that he was a cheerful, was fond of football, cinematography. He was not a scandalous person. They do not remember the case when Koshkin spoke in high tones. He had one very bad habit - smoking.

To remember

In Kharkov there is a monument to Koshkin since May 1985, but near the village where Mikhail Ilyich (Brynchagi) was born, the monument was placed by his offspring - the T-34 tank. In Brynchag there is a monument to the designer himself. In the city of Kirov along Spasskaya Street, 31, there is a memorial plaque by M.I. Koshkin, because in this house he lived. The same board was installed at the place of his studies in Kharkov (Pushkin, 54/2).

Director V. Semakov shot the film "Chief Designer" about the life and work of Mikhail Koshkin. The main character in this film was played by Boris Nevzorov.

Hero of Socialist Labor Mikhail Koshkin, father of the T-34 tank, is one of the examples of that selfless and in some way unique generation. A bright memory of this remarkable man.