November 21, 1898 – September 26, 1940
The first chief designer of the T-34 tank, head of the tank design bureau of the Kharkov Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern. Hero of Socialist Labor.
On February 10, 1940, the first two T-34s were manufactured and their testing began. A show of tanks to members of the government is scheduled for March 17 in Moscow, and for this purpose a Kharkov-Moscow tank rally is being organized. Given the importance of the event, Mikhail Koshkin himself goes with the new cars as a responsible representative of the plant.
The Kharkov-Moscow-Kharkov run undermined Mikhail Koshkin’s health; a cold and overwork led to pneumonia.
On September 26, 1940, in the Zanki sanatorium, while undergoing a rehabilitation course of treatment, the legendary designer died
The entire plant followed the coffin of the chief designer. Mikhail Ilyich was buried at the then central Kharkov cemetery - the First City Cemetery, located on Pushkinskaya Street behind the "Giant" campus. But the grave was not destined to exist for long. In 1941, during the bombing of Kharkov by German aircraft, it was destroyed.
Path of Immortality
“Work not to catch up, but to overtake”
- this motto of Koshkin, combined with his method of working in jerks, jumping, as they say, “into the last carriage,” was typical for the entire Soviet period XX century. An emergency style of production life was developed.
And there was a result. March 5, 1940 Early in the morning, another rush began from the gates of the Kharkov plant towards Moscow: two A-34 tanks left. A lot of romantic things have been written about this tank campaign. The film “Chief Designer” was made in the 1960s with the poster handsome actor in the role of Koshkin. The whole country received the film about the first adventures of the Thirty-Four with a bang. She became a national heroine during the war, she was admired,they believed everything good about her. And then, at the beginning of the forties, a spiteful whisper crawled after the tanks leaving for Moscow:
- The raw cars are gone. More than a thousand kilometers is a serious transition. No way. KB will be disgraced.
- Koshkin is itching. Orlena wants it. I’m not young anymore, I should understand that it smells like failure. I was going to put the tanks on platforms, and they would reach Moscow in one night. Why did he change his mind? The party's order was to go along with the tanks.
Among the legends about the “thirty-four” there is a real truth: Koshkin himself decided to go on his own in order to test the capabilities of the new modification of the tank along the way. He was unwell and had a cold, but Mikhail Ilyich never paid attention to “such trifles.”
For the run, a car escort with a repair team was provided. It didn't happen without incident. On the way, near the village of Yakovlevo, where in three years the “thirty-four” would fight bloody battles with new German tanks, a serious breakdown occurred. A deputy came from Moscow to the site of the breakdown. People's Commissar Goreglyad. We repaired ourselves and reached the capital. And two traveling tanks underwent unforgettable tests in the Moscow region. There is also a legend about them, about how a tank took a ford on the Nara River.
Another legend: after the tests at midnight, one of the tanks came to the Kremlin and stood on Ivanovskaya Square. Stalin came out. They helped him climb onto the tank. He disappeared down the hatch, soon appeared and said:
- This will be a swallow in the tank forces.
Somebody. already today. it is unknown from whose words, he described how Stalin that night on Ivanovo Square winced, hearing the incessant cough of the sick Koshkin. Whether this happened or not is unknown, but there is one historical detail discovered in the archives by Zheltov and giving reason to think that Stalin remembered Koshkin himself well, which helped restore historical justice. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Koshkin, who returned from Moscow, literally collapsed into illness. He was carefully treated, raised to his feet, and sent to the Zanki sanatorium, where the design path was not overgrown. His colleagues brought him only positive information, he wanted the truth, he was angry, he was confident. that he will get up and return to the design bureau.
Before his death, Mikhail Ilyich felt well. Everyone was waiting for his return, so the bitter news was received with particular pain.
The factory's large circulation, dedicated to the memory of Mikhail Ilyich, printed, among others, separately the lines of Nikolai Alekseevich. Here they are.
“...From the first days of joining the design bureau, Mikhail Ilyich proved himself to be an experienced designer and an excellent organizer.
The topic was immediately decided and we got down to business. Comrade Koshkin, while directing the work of the bureau, was simultaneously engaged in the creation of an experimental workshop and the introduction of new products into mass production.
He lit us up with his energy and determination. Comrade Koshkin always gave us the right direction in our work and was very demanding. If you don’t complete the task on time, don’t worry about anything. Neither friendship nor good relationships will save you. Demanding of himself, he also demanded from his comrades the exact fulfillment of the assigned work.
A knowledgeable designer, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin never refused to learn from experienced people. He listened to their voice, learned himself and taught others. Comrades like Vishnevsky, Zakharov and Perelshtein. met at comrade. The cat's support, sensitive and attentive attitude.
I remember now that an urgent task was received to install an important mechanism. Mikhail Ilyich himself promoted this issue and in a month and a half (a record time at that time) did a tremendous amount of work together with comrade. Moloshtanov and Tarshinov.
Excerpt from the book by Nikolai Kucherenko. Fifty years in the battle for USSR tanks
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 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.
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 underway 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 by 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 gun 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 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.
This man had an amazing destiny. In his youth, he did not even think about what would later become the main work of his life. Koshkin did not live long, managing to build only one tank, to which he devoted all his strength and life itself. His grave was not preserved, and his name never thundered throughout the world.
But the whole world knows his tank. The T-34 is the best tank of the Second World War, a tank whose name is inseparable from the word “Victory”.
Soviet medium tank T-34 (manufactured in 1941). Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
"Sweet life
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was born on December 3, 1898 into a peasant family in the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province. The family had little land, and Mikhail’s father, Ilya Koshkin, was engaged in fishing. Misha was not even seven when his father died in 1905 after overstraining himself while logging. The mother was left with three young children in her arms, and Mikhail had to help her earn a piece of bread.
At the age of fourteen, Misha Koshkin went to work in Moscow, becoming an apprentice in the caramel shop of the confectionery factory, now known as Red October.
The “dolce life” ended with the outbreak of the First World War, which continued into civil war. The former private of the 58th Infantry Regiment joined the Reds, fought in the ranks of the Red Army near Tsaritsyn, near Arkhangelsk, and fought against Wrangel’s army.
A brave, proactive and determined fighter was made a political worker. After several wounds and suffering from typhus, he was sent to Moscow, to the Sverdlov Communist University. A promising leader was considered in Koshkin.
In 1924, a university graduate, Koshkin, was entrusted with the management of... a confectionery factory in Vyatka. There he worked until 1929 in various positions and got married.
It would seem, how could tanks appear in the fate of this man?
Mikhail Koshkin (right) in Crimea. Early 1930s. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The Motherland needs tanks!
It should be noted that until 1929 in the Soviet Union, the tank industry was a very pitiful sight. Or rather, it simply did not exist. Captured vehicles inherited from the White Army, insignificant in-house production, lagging behind the best world models for an eternity...
In 1929, the government of the country decided that the situation must be changed radically. It is impossible to ensure the country's security without modern tanks.
Personnel, as you know, decide everything. And if there are none, they need to be prepared. And party worker Mikhail Koshkin, who by that time was already over 30, was sent to the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute to study at the Department of Automobiles and Tractors.
It is difficult to master a new business practically from scratch, but Koshkin had enough stubbornness and determination for two.
Theory without practice is dead, and while still a student, Koshkin worked in the design bureau of the Leningrad Kirov Plant, studying models of foreign tanks purchased abroad. He and his colleagues are not only looking for ways to improve existing technology, but also hatching ideas for a fundamentally new tank.
After graduating from university, Mikhail Koshkin has been working in Leningrad for more than two years, and his abilities begin to reveal themselves. He quickly makes his way from an ordinary designer to 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.
Koshkin and others
Mikhail Koshkin (right) in Vyatka. 1930s Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
In December 1936, a new sharp turn occurred in the life of Mikhail Koshkin - he was sent to Kharkov as the head of the tank design bureau of plant No. 183.
Koshkin’s wife did not want to leave Leningrad, but followed her husband.
Koshkin’s appointment to the position took place under rather tragic circumstances - the former head of the design bureau Afanasy Firsov and a number of other designers came under investigation for sabotage after the BT-7 tanks produced by the plant began to fail en masse.
Firsov managed to transfer the affairs to Koshkin, and then this circumstance will become a reason to denigrate the name of the designer. They say that the T-34 was developed by Firsov, and not by Koshkin, who was said to be a “careerist and mediocrity.”
Mikhail Koshkin really had a hard time. The design bureau's personnel composition was weak, and it was necessary to deal not only with promising developments, but also with ongoing serial production. Nevertheless, under the leadership of Koshkin, the BT-7 tank was modernized, which was equipped with a new engine.
In the fall of 1937, the Automotive and Tank Directorate of the Red Army issued an order to the Kharkov plant to develop a new wheeled-tracked tank. And here again conspiracy theories arise: in addition to Koshkin, Adolf Dick is working at the plant at this moment. According to one version, it was he who developed the design of a tank called A-20, which met the requirements of the technical specifications. But the project was ready later than planned, after which Dick received the same charges as Firsov and ended up in prison. True, Adolf Yakovlevich outlived both Firsov and Koshkin, living until 1978.
Crawler project
Of course, Koshkin relied on both the works of Firsov and the works of Dick. As, in fact, the entire world experience of tank building. However, he had his own vision of the tank of the future.
After Dick’s arrest, the head of the design bureau, Koshkin, was given additional responsibility. He understood that no one would forgive him for his mistakes. But the wheeled-tracked A-20 did not suit the designer. In his opinion, the desire for wheeled vehicles that perform well on the highway is not very justified in a real war.
The same high-speed BT-7, which flew beautifully through ravines, but had only bulletproof armor, was sarcastically called by the Germans “high-speed samovars.”
What was needed was a high-speed vehicle, with high cross-country ability, withstanding artillery fire and itself possessing significant striking power.
Mikhail Koshkin, along with the wheeled-tracked model A-20, is developing the tracked model A-32. Working with Koshkin are his like-minded people who will later continue his work - Alexander Morozov, Nikolai Kucherenko and engine designer Yuri Maksarev.
At the Supreme Military Council in Moscow, where projects of both the wheeled-tracked A-20 and the tracked A-32 were presented, the military was frankly not delighted with the “amateur performance” of the designers. But in the midst of the controversy, Stalin intervened - let the Kharkov plant build and test both models. Koshkin’s ideas received the right to life.
The designer was in a hurry, urging others on. He saw that a big war was already on the doorstep, a tank was needed as quickly as possible. The first samples of tanks were ready and entered testing in the fall of 1939, when World War II had already begun. Experts recognized that both the A-20 and A-32 are better than all models previously produced in the USSR. But no final decision was made.
Samples were also tested in real conditions - during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. And here the tracked version of Koshkin clearly took the lead.
Taking into account the comments, the tank was modified - the armor was increased to 45 mm, and a 76 mm cannon was installed.
Pre-war tanks produced by plant No. 183. From left to right: BT-7, A-20, T-34-76 with the L-11 cannon, T-34-76 with the F-34 cannon. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Tank rally
Two prototypes of the tracked tank, officially named T-34, were ready at the beginning of 1940. Mikhail Koshkin disappeared constantly in workshops and during tests. It was necessary to achieve the start of mass production of the T-34 as soon as possible.
Those around him were surprised at Koshkin’s fanaticism - he has a wife and daughters at home, but he only thinks about the tank. And the designer, who fought for every day, every hour, without knowing it, was already waging a war with the Nazis. If he had not shown perseverance, zeal, and dedication, who knows how the fate of our Motherland would have turned out?
Military trials of the tank began in February 1940. But in order for a tank to be sent into mass production, prototypes must travel a certain number of kilometers.
Mikhail Koshkin makes a decision - the T-34 will gain these kilometers by traveling from Kharkov to Moscow under its own power.
In the history of domestic tank building, this run has become a legend. The day before, Koshkin caught a bad cold, and a tank is not the best place for a sick person, especially in winter conditions. But it was impossible to dissuade him - two tanks went through country roads and forests to the capital.
The military said: they won’t make it, they will break, and proud Koshkin will have to transport his brainchild by rail. On March 17, 1940, both T-34 tanks arrived in Moscow under their own power, appearing in the Kremlin before the eyes of the top Soviet leadership. The delighted Stalin called the T-34 “the first sign of our armored forces.”
It seems that’s it, the T-34 has received recognition, and you can take care of your own health. Moreover, he was strongly advised to do this in the Kremlin - Koshkin’s cough sounded simply terrible.
However, for serial production, the experimental T-34 models lack another 3,000 kilometers. And the sick designer climbs into the car again, leading a convoy heading to Kharkov.
Tell me, is a careerist who has stolen and appropriated other people’s projects capable of this, as ill-wishers say about Mikhail Koshkin?
Hitler's personal enemy
Near Orel, one of the tanks slides into the lake, and the designer helps to pull it out, standing in the icy water.
Mikhail Koshkin fulfilled all the requirements that separated the T-34 from mass production, and achieved an official decision to launch the tank into the “series”. But upon arrival in Kharkov, he ended up in the hospital - doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia.
Perhaps the disease would have receded, but the untreated Koshkin ran to the plant, supervising the finalization of the tank and the start of mass production.
As a result, the disease worsened so much that doctors from Moscow arrived to save the designer. He had to have his lung removed, after which Koshkin was sent to a rehabilitation course in a sanatorium. But it was too late - on September 26, 1940, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin passed away.
Postage stamp for the 100th anniversary of Koshkin's birth. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The entire plant came out to see off the 41-year-old designer on his final journey.
But he managed to launch the T-34 into mass production. Less than a year will pass, and German tank crews will report in horror about an unprecedented Russian tank spreading panic in their ranks.
According to legend, Adolf Hitler posthumously declared the designer of the T-34 tank his personal enemy. The designer’s grave has not survived - it was destroyed by the Nazis during the occupation of Kharkov, and there is reason to believe that it was intentional. However, this could no longer save them. Mikhail Koshkin won his fight.
Main award
Skeptics like to compare the technical characteristics of the T-34 with other tanks of the Second World War, arguing that the brainchild of Mikhail Koshkin was inferior to many of them. But here's what Oxford University professor Norman Davies, author of the book “Europe at War. 1939-1945. Without a simple victory": "Who in 1939 would have thought that the best tank of World War II would be produced in the USSR? The T-34 was the best tank not because it was the most powerful or heaviest; 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 gave the clumsy German “Tigers” no chance. American and British tanks were not so 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. Half a century later, in 1990, the first and last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, awarded Mikhail Koshkin the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
But the best reward for Koshkin was Victory. Victory, the symbol of which was his T-34.
More from, incl. about, incl.
Creator of the armored legend: Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin
To the birth of the most famous vehicle of the Second World War - the T-34 tank of all times - its chief designer followed a very tortuous path / Made by Russians
There are geniuses whose fate is like a fuse: from a certain moment they burn without ceasing until death stops them. Such were, for example, Mikhail Lomonosov or Alexander Suvorov. More
And there are geniuses whose life (if we continue the sapper associations) is like a bomb. There comes that one moment when the charge goes off - and the roar of this explosion reverberates for decades. Such people include, for example, the creator of the backpack parachute, Gleb Kotelnikov. And these, of course, include the creator of the most famous tank in the entire history of armored vehicles - the legendary T-34 - Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich.
Designer Mikhail Koshkin
Now, three quarters of a century after his death, there is a great temptation to find those turning points in the fate of the future designer of the “thirty-four” that predetermined his “tank” future. But no. The fact that Mikhail Koshkin became interested in tanks is a consequence of a long chain of coincidences. And this chain itself is a classic example, as Arkady Gaidar wrote, of “an ordinary biography in an extraordinary time.”
Caramel shop apprentice
How ordinary the biography of Mikhail Koshkin is can be clearly seen from the history of his childhood. This is where there is nothing outstanding! A typical story of a peasant family in Central Russia. Born on December 3, 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl province, Misha Koshkin was the third child in a family with little land - which, in fact, explains such a small number of children. His father, realizing that the land could not feed everyone, was forced to constantly disappear in waste industries: logging and construction. And one day he simply did not return home: he injured himself while felling a forest and died.
That year Mikhail Koshkin turned six years old. And four years later, he left his mother and two sisters, who were working hard on the farm, at home and went to work in Moscow. The first place of work of the future designer was the Einem confectionery factory - the future Red October factory. In 1908, a smart and efficient teenager from the Yaroslavl province became an apprentice in a caramel shop. And he sent almost all the money he earned through hard work to his mother and sisters - and thus literally saved them from starvation.
Mikhail Koshkin worked in the red-brick buildings on Bersenevskaya Embankment for nine years, until it was his turn to be drafted into the army: Russia participated in the World War for the third year. Koshkin entered the service exactly on the eve of the February Revolution, and therefore did not fight for long. He ended up on the Western Front, where he served throughout the command of General Anton Denikin, was wounded in August, and mobilized at the end of the year.
But in the Red Army, the military career of the future tank designer turned out differently. In 1918, Koshkin volunteered to serve in the railway detachment of the Red Army, fought near Tsaritsyn, then near Arkhangelsk, did not get to the Polish Front due to typhus, but made it to the Southern Front, where he already served as a political worker.
Party worker from Vyatka
Everything that happens to Mikhail Koshkin after the Civil War also fits perfectly into the concept of “an ordinary biography in an extraordinary time.” As an active political worker, in 1921 he went to study at the Sverdlov Communist University: the Soviet government needed its own management personnel to replace those lost in troubled times. Moreover, the personnel are ideologically correct: it is no coincidence that the university occupied the same complex of buildings on Miusskaya Square in Moscow, where the Higher Party School of the CPSU was located until the very end of the USSR.
University graduates, as a rule, quickly finished working in production and moved to party bodies. This is what happened with Koshkin: sent in 1924 to Vyatka to manage a confectionery factory (presumably, the assignment took into account nine years of experience as a party agitator at one of the best confectionery production facilities in Russia), a year later he left to work as head of the propaganda department in the district Communist Party. . In four years, Koshkin made a good party career, reaching the post of head of the provincial committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
Koshkin (right) in Vyatka
And then his fate took another unexpected turn. By this time, Mikhail Koshkin managed to meet perhaps the most famous Vyatichi in Soviet Russia - Sergei Mironovich Kirov. And, as the designer’s daughter Elizaveta recalls, it was Kirov who, by his personal order, included Mikhail Ilyich among the “party thousands” - communists mobilized to study at universities: the country, which was beginning an industrial breakthrough, urgently needed new engineering personnel.
Apparently, precisely because the lists were approved by Kirov, Koshkin ended up studying at the newly opened Leningrad Mechanical Engineering Institute, which arose on the basis of the mechanical engineering faculties of the Polytechnic and Technological Institutes and reported directly to the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry. It is curious that Mikhail Koshkin was one of several hundred LMSI students who spent their entire studies within the walls of this university. In 1934, when Mikhail Ilyich had already received assignment to the former Putilov plant, the institute was included in the Leningrad Industrial Institute - the recreated Polytechnic Institute.
Tank building student
A student of the military-mechanical department of the Leningrad Mechanical Engineering Institute, Mikhail Koshkin, completed his practical training at the Gorky Automobile Plant, where work on creating their own tanks began at that time. And for pre-graduation practice I ended up in the experimental design engineering department - OKMO - Leningrad plant No. 174 named after K.E. Voroshilov, created on the basis of the tank production of the Bolshevik plant.
Self-confident and good with people, Koshkin was liked by the GAZ management, and the plant clearly did not have enough of its own design personnel for tank production. It is not surprising that even before Mikhail Ilyich went on pre-graduation practice, a personal call was received from Gorky to the office of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry for Koshkin. But, apparently, he himself perfectly understood that he did not have enough knowledge for independent design work, and there was simply no one to get it at GAZ. And therefore, when the distribution commission announced Gorky’s “order” for Koshkin, he decided to seek an appointment to OKMO.
Whose word can outweigh the request of the Gorky residents addressed to one of the most proactive people's commissars - Sergo Ordzhonikidze? Koshkin found such a person in the person who had already turned his fate around once. Mikhail Ilyich turned to Sergei Kirov with a request to leave him in Leningrad. And he respected the wishes of his “godson”: the all-powerful leader of Leningrad, who had only a few months to live, ensured that Koshkin was appointed to where he himself asked. And a few months later, already in 1935, the Leningrad Experimental Engineering Plant No. 185, where the future creator of the “thirty-four” came to work, was named after the deceased Kirov.
Leningrad graduate
It was here that Mikhail Koshkin, a graduate of the military-mechanical department of LMSI, learned the basics of tank design. Among its immediate leaders were legendary tank designers such as Semyon Ginzburg and Nikolai Barykov. And the fact that the design bureau of Plant No. 185 dealt primarily with medium tanks predetermined the further direction of its own work.
Mikhail Koshkin, who came to the position of designer, gained his first experience in creating medium tanks when the design bureau was developing the T-29 tank. Work in this area was led by another legendary Soviet tank builder - leading designer of the design bureau, Professor Nikolai Zeits. And although the experimental medium tank, built in five copies, never went into production, the developments on it were used in the next project - the T-46-5 medium tank, also known as T-111.
The basis for this armored vehicle was the T-46 light tank, which was supposed to replace the T-26 light tank, which had proven itself, but was no longer capable of withstanding anti-tank artillery. When, based on the experience of fighting in Spain, it became obvious that the battlefield of the coming war would belong to medium tanks, the design bureau of the 185th plant had already been developing its own vehicle with projectile-proof armor for a year. And most importantly - and this was a fundamentally important aspect of the project! - without the ability to move only on wheels: Semyon Ginzburg and most of his subordinates have already assessed the futility of the idea of a wheeled-tracked tank. The designers understood well: a purely tracked vehicle has a much larger margin of modernization, it can be equipped with much thicker armor, and its design is more technologically advanced and simple.
All these ideas were incorporated into the design of the T-46-5 from the very beginning of work on it, in which Mikhail Koshkin also participated. But he was unable to develop a new tank for long: at the end of 1936, having worked his way up from an ordinary designer to deputy head of the design bureau in just two years, he was transferred to strengthen the design bureau of the Kharkov Locomotive Plant, the main manufacturer of wheeled-tracked tanks of the BT series. It was here, in Kharkov, that his finest hour awaited him, that same explosion, the echo of which can still be heard.
Kharkov appointee
...On December 28, 1936, People's Commissar of Heavy Industry Sergo Ordzhonikidze signed an order appointing Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin as head of the tank design bureau of plant No. 183 - the former Kharkov Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern. In the design bureau itself, the newcomer, who arrived in the city in early January, was looked at with doubt. An old party apparatchik, a recent university graduate, a man who managed to survive arrests and investigations against several of his bosses without loss... In short, Koshkin was received with caution in Kharkov. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the design bureau was seriously in a fever. Former director Afanasy Firsov, who paid for the unreliability of the gearbox of the new BT-7 tank, has been removed from his post and works as a simple designer. The bureau itself is actually divided in half: while some engineers are developing new tanks, others are working day and night in production to bring to life the ones already put into service.
It is no wonder that, first of all, Mikhail Koshkin, who was instructed and brought up to date by Firsov himself, decides to deal with the problems of the BT-7s on the assembly line. And pretty soon, with the help of lead designer Alexander Morozov and other colleagues, he manages to improve the reliability of the capricious BT gearbox. And soon a solution will be found for the problem of the gluttony of a high-speed tank. Under Koshkin’s leadership, instead of the exhausted and fuel-consuming gasoline engine on the BT-7, the factory workers install the “high-speed diesel” BD-2, developed here. It is he who will soon receive the B-2 index and will become the heart of the future “thirty-four”. It will also be installed on the latest modification of high-speed tanks - BT-7M.
But neither the modernization of the BT-7 already in service, nor the design work to create the next wheeled-tracked modification of the BT-9 was truly exciting work for Mikhail Koshkin. Understanding full well that the future belongs exclusively to tracked tanks, he was looking for an opportunity to prove his point in practice. And such a chance presented itself to Mikhail Ilyich and his like-minded people from KB-24 in the fall of 1937. It was at this time that the Automotive and Tank Directorate of the Red Army gave the Kharkovites the task of developing a new BT-20 tank. The document, which provided for the creation of a light tank with projectile-proof armor, a 45-mm cannon and sloped armor, was signed on October 13, 1937. In fact, it is from this day that the fate of the T-34 tank can be counted.
Parent of the legendary tank
In documents of the second half of the 1930s, the development of each tank design bureau had its own letter index. The first letter - A - was assigned to the products of Kharkov plant No. 183. Therefore, the first prototype of a light wheeled-tracked tank created as part of the work on the BT-20 was called A-20. At the same time, work began on an “initiative” project for a purely tracked vehicle, which eventually received first the index A-20(G), that is, “tracked”, and later - A-32.
In February 1939, both projects - the ordered A-20 and the “smuggled” A-32 - were considered at a meeting of the Defense Committee in the Kremlin. The fact that two projects, and not one, came to discussion was a great merit of the new head of plant No. 183, a native of the Kirov plant in Leningrad, Yuri Maksarev, who arrived in Kharkov in October 1938. Despite the strongest pressure from the military, and especially from Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Kulik, Mikhail Koshkin, who personally presented the projects, managed to insist that the plant be commissioned to produce prototypes of both vehicles. As far as we know, such a decision was made only after the designer was supported by Stalin himself, who by that time was no longer as clear as before when looking at the prospects of wheeled-tracked vehicles.
Competing tanks were tested in the second half of the summer of 1939 and were highly appreciated by the state commission. But the commission members still did not dare to give preference to one tank or another. Apparently, the reason for the indecision was not so much the tactical and technical data of the tested samples (the tracked tank clearly proved its advantages), but rather purely political motives. After all, to give preference to one of the options meant entering into conflict either with the leadership of the Red Army or with the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which no one clearly wanted. So everything was decided by military tests, in which the military clearly liked the purely tracked A-32 more.
The final decision regarding the fate of the new tank was made in December 1939. On December 19, the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted resolution No. 443ss. This document decides to adopt 11 new models of tanks, armored vehicles and tractors into service with the Red Army. The first item in the resolution is the Leningrad KV tank, the second is the T-32 tank “tracked, with a V-2 diesel engine, manufactured by plant No. 183 of Narkomsredmash.” The same document ordered the following changes to be made to the design of the tank: “a) increase the thickness of the main armor plates to 45 mm; b) improve visibility from the tank; c) install the following weapons on the T-32 tank: 1) F-32 76 mm cannon, coaxial with a 7.62 mm machine gun; 2) a separate 7.62 mm machine gun for the radio operator; 3) separate 7.62 mm machine gun; 4) 7.62 mm anti-aircraft machine gun. Assign the name to the specified tank “T-34”.
Pre-war tanks produced by plant No. 183. From left to right: A-8 (BT-7M), A-20, T-34 model 1940 with L-11 gun, T-34 model 1941 with F-34 gun
And the third item was “BT tank - with a V-2 diesel engine, manufactured by plant No. 183 of Narkomsredmash.” Moreover, the fate of this tank is the first created by the factory design bureau under the leadership of Mikhail Koshkin! - was placed in direct dependence on the production of the T-34. Because in the same resolution, plant No. 183 was instructed: “a) to organize the production of T-34 tanks at the Kharkov plant No. 183 named after. Comintern; b) produce 2 prototypes of T-34 tanks by January 15, 1940 and an initial batch of 10 by September 15, 1940; c) produce at least 200 T-34 tanks in 1940; d) increase the capacity of plant No. 183 for the production of T-34 tanks as of January 1, 1941 to 1,600 units; e) until the serial production of T-34 tanks is fully mastered, from December 1, 1939, to produce the BT tank with the installation of a V-2 diesel engine on it; f) to produce at plant No. 183 in 1940 at least 1000 BT tanks with a V-2 diesel engine; g) in 1942, discontinue the BT tank with the V-2 diesel engine, replacing it completely with the T-34...”
Immortal constructor
Two prototypes of the T-34 tank were required for military testing. And even if not by mid-January, but by February 10, the tanks were ready and handed over to the military, who confirmed that the new items fully justified the hopes placed on them. And a month later, these same two vehicles set off under their own power from Kharkov to Moscow to participate in the demonstration of new equipment adopted by that famous decree.
This stage, during which Mikhail Koshkin himself spent a lot of time behind the levers of the new products, has long become a legend. The same as the words of Stalin, who allegedly after the demonstration of the T-34 in the Kremlin called it either “the first swallow”, or simply “swallow”... But what was definitely not a legend was the severe pneumonia with which Koshkin returned back to Kharkov from this run. It was she who brought the creator of the “thirty-four” to the grave. Neither an urgent operation to remove a lung, which was carried out by surgeons who came from Moscow, nor intensive treatment could save him: on September 26, 1940, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin died.
At the funeral, the entire team walked behind the coffin of the chief designer of design bureau of plant No. 183, as eyewitnesses later recalled. In four years, everyone fell in love with Koshkin: his immediate subordinates, his foremen, and ordinary workers. And no one knew that day that they were burying not just a tank designer - they were burying the man who created the most famous vehicle of the Second World War.
Less than a year later, the T-34 received a baptism of fire, and five years later they became the main symbol of victory in the Great Patriotic War. And they forever immortalized the name of their creator, which, however, did not immediately become widely known. The Stalin Prize for the creation of the T-34 was awarded posthumously to Mikhail Koshkin only in 1942. And half a century after his death, in 1990, he was awarded the highest labor award - the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
T-34 in Berlin, May 1945. Late production vehicle of 1944
By this time, not even the grave of the famous designer remained in Kharkov. The Germans destroyed it during the occupation - apparently quite deliberately: not being able to take revenge on Koshkin himself, they destroyed the memory of him. But the “thirty-fours” avenged their creator and immortalized his name. After all, it is this winning tank that is more often than any other found on the pedestals of many monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. And each of them is a monument not only to fallen heroes, but also to the man who created the legendary tank, the most widespread and most famous in the history of world tank building. From the comments:
Yuri writes: - Good afternoon! Once again I can urge the author to prepare articles in more detail and more carefully... what are the comments today...
1. “Despite the strongest pressure from the military, and above all from the Deputy People’s Commissar of Defense Marshal Kulik, Mikhail Koshkin, who personally presented the projects, managed to insist that the plant be instructed to produce prototypes of both machines” - here we are talking about the events of 1939, Grigory Ivanovich Kulik became a marshal only on May 7, 1940, after the Finnish War, when the T-34 had already gone into mass production.
2. “By this time, not even the grave of the famous designer remained in Kharkov. The Germans destroyed it during the occupation - apparently, quite deliberately: not being able to take revenge on Koshkin himself” - I will disappoint the author - the grave of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin never existed at all. After his death, he was cremated. At the very beginning of the war (and not during the occupation), a bomb hit the columbarium and the ashes were lost. Later, a legend was born that the columbarium was bombed on Hitler’s personal orders. Firstly, the Germans at that time had not yet fully appreciated what the T-34 was, and secondly, Hitler or his subordinates really didn’t have enough worries to specifically look for Koshkin’s burial place. And, thirdly, the Germans bombed the structures of a nearby aircraft factory at night and apparently accidentally hit the columbarium.
The October Revolution radically changed the fate of the peasant son. During the Civil War, as part of the Red Army, Mikhail Koshkin took part in the battles of Tsaritsyn and Arkhangelsk and was wounded. In 1921, he was sent straight from the troops to study in Moscow. Mikhail Koshkin becomes a student at the Sverdlov Communist University. His path to science will begin from Sverdlovka. True, in 1924, after graduating from the Communist University, he again had the opportunity to plunge headlong into the confectionery production 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 again sat down to take notes and textbooks, and in 1935 he graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.
While still a student at the Polytechnic, he began working in the design bureau of the famous Leningrad Kirov Plant (OKMO). Having received a diploma of higher education, he comes to this team for a permanent job. At that time, Leningraders were working to create the armored power of the young Soviet state. Young specialist Koshkin also throws himself into this work. To raise the most important defense industry, tank building, in the shortest possible time was a requirement of a formidable time. The Nazis came to power in Germany, and Japanese militarism threatened the Far East. Prominent military leaders (I. Yakir, I. Uborevich, I. Khalepsky) and leaders of heavy industry (G. Ordzhonikidze, K. Neumann, I. Bardin, I. Tevosyan) were active supporters of the creation of powerful tank units in the Red Army. Mikhail Koshkin, who fought on the fronts of the First World War and the Civil War, also understood how the Fatherland needed a powerful armor shield.
Let us present the main milestones in the birth of domestic tank building, which help to understand how great was the contribution to this most important matter of both Mikhail Koshkin himself and the team of Kharkov creators of formidable vehicles.
A number of factories, including Kharkov, were involved in the repair of tanks. In the same year, the first-born domestic tank came out of the gates of the Nizhny Novgorod plant "Krasnoe Sormovo", which was named in the spirit of the times: "Freedom Fighter Comrade Lenin." In 1919 - 1929, light tanks "Russian Renault" were manufactured in the Soviet Union at the Izhora, Sormovsky and Amo-ZIS factories. In general, in the USSR until 1929 there was no production and technical base for tank building, there was no technology for the production of high-quality armor and tank engines. And most importantly, the necessary personnel of specialists and workers were missing. Accepted in In 1929, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Party and the Council of People's Commissars "On the State of Defense of the USSR" set, in particular, the most important task - to obtain prototypes within the next two years and introduce modern types of tanks into the army.
Experimental tank building began at five factories in Moscow, Leningrad, Gorky and Kharkov. In 1930, samples of modern tanks were purchased abroad: light Vickers-6t (England) and high-speed wheeled-tracked Christie (USA). In the same year, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars "On the installation of diesel engines in cars and tractors" was adopted, which played a significant role in the creation of a tank diesel engine. On Kharkov Locomotive Plant(KhPZ) research work on tank building began back in 1926, when a group of designers was created in the design bureau of the tractor department to develop prototype tanks. Later, a special tank design bureau was created, and a tank assembly section was created in the tractor workshop. In March 1931, after testing at a training ground near Voronezh, the plant was given one high-speed tank from the Christie company for study. By that time, the construction of tank production buildings and workshops was already underway at KhPZ. The organization of tank production was not carried out in a vacuum. In 1920 - 1923, the plant repaired about thirty captured tanks. The experience of manufacturing and repairing armored trains, armored locomotives, armored cars was also used...
In the second half of 1936, the Kharkov Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern was renamed plant No. 183. By order of the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G. Ordzhonikidze dated December 28, 1936, M. Koshkin was appointed head of the tank design bureau of plant No. 183. Before that, he worked as deputy chief designer of Leningrad Plant No. 185 and had already received the Order of the Red Star for his participation in the creation of the first domestic “thick-armored” medium tank T-46-5. Koshkin arrived at plant No. 183 during a difficult period of repression, the reason for which was the fact that massive breakdowns of gears in gearboxes on BT-7 tanks began in military units. (Thus, his predecessor A. Firsov, who was initially removed from the post of head of the design bureau, continued to work as a designer in the bureau until his arrest.)
M. Koshkin arrived at the plant when the BT-5 and BT-7 tanks were being mass produced and the design bureau, despite its youth, already had certain developments (T-12, T-24, BT tanks). However, the design bureau still lacked experience and design personnel to independently design new modern tanks. M. Koshkin, little known to the plant staff, nevertheless quickly and without any friction entered his life. He was sensitive to the situation of that time, attracted many designers, production workers and military personnel to the work, sharing their pressing problems, difficulties and experiences. He was principled, hardworking and honest. Thanks to these qualities, he very quickly gained authority at the plant. According to the memoirs of tank building veteran A. Zabaikin, “Mikhail Ilyich was easy to use and businesslike. He did not like verbosity. As a designer, he quickly got into the essence of the design, assessing its reliability, manufacturability, and the possibility of mass production. He listened carefully to us, the 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. Koshkin, with the participation of his closest assistants A. Morozov and N. Kucherenko, and other designers, the BT-7 tank was modernized with the installation of a V-2 diesel engine. It was the world's first tank with a tank diesel engine. The Kharkov plant transferred 790 modernized BT-7M tanks to the Red Army in 1936 - 1940. In September 1937, the Red Army Automotive and Tank Directorate received an order to develop a new maneuverable wheeled-tracked tank. Mikhail Koshkin formed a group of the most qualified designers to create a new tank. The design of the new A-20 tank was completed in a short time, in strict accordance with the customer’s instructions. Fundamental innovations were introduced into the project: an armored hull with thick anti-ballistic armor plates positioned at an angle, a new drive to the drive wheels, three of the four road wheels (on the side) became drive wheels, etc. During the work on the project, a discussion arose: is it needed on the tank? wheel travel in the presence of a tracked one? The operating experience of BT tanks, including during the Spanish Civil War, showed that the wheel drive was good only on the highway, but on virgin soil, on sand, the drive wheels (even though there were three pairs of them) failed. It was then that the initiative was taken in Kharkov to create a second version of the tank - a purely tracked one under the symbol A-32.
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The initiative version of the A-32 differed from the A-20 not only in the absence of wheel travel, but also in the presence of a fifth road wheel, which increased the support of the caterpillar track on the ground. During the period of launching mass production of the high-speed tank diesel engine BD-2, completion of design developments |
| to create the wheeled-tracked tank A-20 and the initiative version of the A-32 with a purely tracked drive, plant No. 183 was “decapitated” due to the arrests and repressions of the management. In October, it was headed by Yuri Maksarev, a native of the Leningrad Kirov Plant. Yuri Evgenievich managed to achieve consideration of the projects of both tanks at the Supreme Military Council in Moscow: both the A-20 and the A-32. Stalin, after listening to the opinions of those present, decided to give the plant the opportunity to produce both options and then test them in parallel. By mid-1939, prototypes of the A-20 and A-32 tanks were manufactured and, after acceptance runs, presented to the State Commission for testing. | |
In July - August 1939, the tanks were tested in Kharkov. The commission rendered a verdict: “In terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are superior to all previously produced ones...” However, the commission did not give preference to any of the options, noting that both of them were well made and suitable for use in the army. Practice decided everything: the tracked tank proved great tactical mobility in rough terrain during the battles in Finland (autumn-winter 1939). In an extremely short period of time, the tank was modified according to the commission’s comments: strengthening armor protection, armament, etc. In the A-32, in addition to the innovative idea of a tracked drive, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin embodied a harmonious combination of high combat qualities in fire, armor protection and maneuverability. Resolutions of the Defense Committee ordered the production of two tracked tanks based on the A-32, taking into account armor thickened to 45 mm and the installation of a 76 mm gun, and also calling the tank T-34.
Two experimental T-34 tanks were manufactured and submitted for military testing 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 control and test run along the route Kharkov - Moscow. Chief designer Mikhail Koshkin headed this run. On the Ivanovo Square of the Kremlin on March 17, 1940, T-34 tanks, as well as combat vehicles manufactured by other factories, were demonstrated to members of the government. At Stalin's request, driver mechanics N. Nosik and O. Dyukalov drove through the square. Having examined 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 overturned into the water. While helping to pull him out, Koshkin, already suffering from a cold, got very wet. Upon returning to Kharkov, at the insistence of doctors, he was hospitalized.
The display of tanks in the Kremlin became 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 to prepare the serial production of the Thirty-Four. Mikhail Koshkin, despite his illness, continued to actively supervise the development 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 in September 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 forties, A. Morozov was appointed head of the design bureau - chief designer. He continued the work of his predecessor, fine-tuning the T-34 put into mass production. A. Morozov himself immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War in 1945 wrote: “The foundations of 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 there are always many when solving complex problems. We, first of all, owe the appearance of such a perfect type to this wonderful designer tank, which is the T-34."
