Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich - former chief designer of the tank design bureau (KB) of the Kharkov Plant named after the Comintern of the People's Commissariat for Armaments of the USSR, Ukrainian SSR.
Born on November 21 (December 3), 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, now Pereslavl-Zalessky district, Yaroslavl region, into a peasant family. Russian. He graduated from a parochial school and at the age of 11 went to work in Moscow, where he acquired the profession of a confectioner.
During the First World War he was mobilized into the Russian army. He was wounded at the front.
In April 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army. Member of the Civil War. Member of the RCP(b)/VKP(b) since 1919. He served in the army as a political worker.
In 1924, after graduating from the Y.M. Sverdlov Communist University, he worked at a confectionery factory in the city of Vyatka (now the city of Kirov). Then he switched to party work - head of the propaganda department of the 2nd district party committee, head of the provincial Soviet party school, head of the propaganda department of the Vyatka provincial party committee.
In 1929, Mikhail Koshkin, as an enterprising worker, among the “thousanders of the party”, was sent to study at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (Department of Automobiles and Tractors), which he successfully graduated in 1934 and, along with a diploma, was assigned to the position of designer of the plant named after S.M. Kirov in Leningrad, and then worked as deputy head of the design bureau of this enterprise.
Since 1937, Mikhail Koshkin has been the chief designer of a tank design bureau at the Kharkov plant named after the Comintern of the People's Commissariat of the Defense Industry (since 1939 - armaments) of the USSR. By this time, it became obvious that the tanks that were in service with the Red Army were not able to withstand enemy artillery, and first of all, Nazi Germany. And the international situation, indicating the coming war, required the designers to create a combat vehicle that was technically superior to all samples of potential opponents.
In the middle - late summer of 1939, new models of tanks were tested in Kharkov. The commission concluded that "in terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are higher than all those produced earlier ..." But no preference was given to any of the tanks, although it was noted that they were "well made and suitable for exploitation in the troops.
The practical application of experimental products put everything in its place: a caterpillar tank proved its great tactical mobility in rough terrain during the battles of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.
In record time, the Kharkiv residents carried out the refinement of the tank according to the commission's comments: armor protection, weapons, and more were strengthened. So, in the A-32, in addition to the idea of a caterpillar, M.I. Koshkin embodied a harmonious combination of high combat qualities in terms of fire, armor protection and maneuverability.
By resolutions of the Defense Committee, it was prescribed: to make two tracked tanks based on the A-32, taking into account armor thickened to 45 millimeters and installing a 76-mm gun, and also to continue to call the tank - "T-34".
Two experimental T-34s were urgently manufactured and transferred to military trials on February 10, 1940. These tests, which took place in February - March 1940, fully confirmed the high technical and combat qualities of the new tank.
On March 5, 1940, two T-34 tanks left the Kharkov plant for a test run along the Kharkov-Moscow route. This run was headed by the chief designer M.I. Koshkin.
On March 17, 1940, on Ivanovskaya Square of the Moscow Kremlin, T-34 tanks, as well as combat vehicles manufactured by other factories, were demonstrated to members of the Soviet government.
At the request of I.V. Stalin, the drivers N. Nosik and O. Dyukalov drove through the square. After examining both T-34s, I.V. Stalin spoke approvingly of them, calling the new tank "the first sign."
After a review in the Kremlin, the T-34s 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 "thirty-fours" capsized into the water. Helping to pull out the tank, which had already caught a cold, M.I. Koshkin, very wet. Upon his return to Kharkov, he was urgently hospitalized.
"Kremlin Brides" became a turning point in the annals of the creation of the T-34 tank, which was recommended for immediate production. Work on the preparation of the serial production of this combat vehicle was in full swing at plant No. 183.
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, despite his illness, continued to actively manage the refinement of the tank and worked hard. And his illness suddenly worsened. A specialist surgeon was urgently called from Moscow. The patient had to have his lung removed. But unfortunately it didn't help...
The general designer of the best tank during the Second World War of 1939-1945, without knowing what a heroic and legendary fate was in store for his offspring, died on September 26, 1940 in the Zanki sanatorium near Kharkov, where he underwent a rehabilitation course of treatment.
Buried in the city of Kharkov. During the funeral of M.I. Koshkin, the whole plant followed the coffin of the chief designer.
Decree of the President of the USSR of October 4, 1990 for outstanding services in strengthening the defense power of the Soviet state and a great personal contribution to the creation of the T-34 tank Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (04.10.1990; posthumously), the Order of the Red Star (1936). Laureate of the Stalin Prize (1942; posthumously).
In Kharkov, not far from the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985, a monument was solemnly opened to the creator of the legendary “thirty-four” M.I. Koshkin. In Kharkov, a memorial plaque was installed on the house in which he lived. The monument to the T-34 tank, and in fact to M.I. Koshkin, was erected by the road, near his native village of Brynchagi in the Yaroslavl region. A bust was discovered in the village of Brynchagi itself. In the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky, a street is named after him.
ABOUT THE T-34 TANK:
“... before leaving for the Russian front, Paulus had to stay. Halder warned him:
You have been included in a special commission. The fact is that they managed to capture the Russian T-34 in good condition, they even found a technical form with it. You and the designers will have to dismantle the T-34 piece by piece, and let the metallurgists at the same time find out what kind of manure the Russians are loading into their blast furnaces? In order not to get dirty, grab your tank overalls too ...
P The appearance of the medium tank T-34 was a shock blow for the Germans, sensation No. 1, a revelation and a mystery. “This is a devilish obsession! they said. - No, it's not even a car, but some fairy-tale prince among our plebeian tanks ... "
At the tank track where the captured T-34 stood, Paulus argued that one should not despair ahead of time:
The Russians have not yet mastered mass production, and therefore we will knock out all the T-34s one by one, at least from the “eight-eight” caliber. Thanks to neutral Switzerland, which supplies such wonderful anti-aircraft guns for the Wehrmacht ...
Called from the laboratories of the Nibelungwerke, the famous German tank builder, Ferdinand Porsche, also arrived.
It is true, he said, that the enemy still does not have enough T-34s. But you, Paulus, don't forget Bismarck's warnings: Russians take a long time to harness, but they drive fast. We know from history that Russia is always not ready for war, but in some strange way it turns out to be the winner...
German specialists were most struck by the engine - a 500 horsepower diesel engine, entirely made of aluminum: "The Russians are crying that they do not have enough materials for aircraft, but they found aluminum for tank engines ..." Paulus (based on Abwehr data) said that the T-34 was subjected to very severe criticism in Moscow, they did not even want to put it into mass production. If so, the commission will have to identify weaknesses in the design of the tank.
Alas...they don't exist! Porsche answered.
But the Russians criticized their car.
This caused the chief designer to laugh:
Dear Paulus, are you living the first day in the world? You should know that genuine talents always have a lot of envious people who want to discredit his achievements. Only this, and nothing else, I explain the criticism of this machine.
Paulus jumped off the armor of the tank to the ground: a German anti-tank gun with a caliber of 76 mm was already being rolled out for direct fire. Everyone took cover, watching from a distance. The first shell, ricocheting, pulled out the brightest sheaf of sparks from the Soviet armor, the second ... The second, hitting the tower, made a “candle”, and the illuminated flight path was an exact geometric vertical - into the sky!
I did not think, - said Porsche, getting out of the dugout, - that Russian metallurgy is capable of destroying ours. As a representative of the Krupp firm, I testify to its defeat.
T-34 the Germans got it intact, everything was left inside it, as it was under the Russians. The driver had a portrait in front of him, and the turret, sending shells into the cannon, could look at the photo with his snub nose with the inscription: “Remember Lyuska!” Paulus was struck by the wretched simplicity inside the car: there were no seats upholstered in red leather, nickel did not sparkle anywhere, but in the deep laconicism of the car one sensed something concentrated for the sake of a single goal - a combat strike. The German T-IIIs and T-IVs were designed to be superior to obsolete Soviet tanks. But in front of the T-34, the Wehrmacht vehicles appeared as pitiful dachshunds in front of a thoroughbred bulldog. The commission found: the T-34 had a specific pressure per square centimeter of 650 grams, which explained its high mobility, while the German T-IV pressed on the soil with an increased mass of one kilogram at once, which promised big trouble in the impassable slush of Russian roads).
There are many beautiful women in the world,” Porsche said. - However, at beauty contests, the one and only wins. Same with the tank! The T-34 has no analogues in the world yet: it is unique, and it is impossible to copy it. If we try to do this, we will immediately run into an impenetrable wall of technical problems that will remain insoluble for Germany ... And what is your opinion, Paulus?
I found the only flaw, - said Paulus. - The crew is too crowded inside the tank, but the Russians love to live in cramped communal apartments, managing to spend the night with the whole family in one room ...
German designers were frankly afraid of diesel engines made of aluminum, solid-cast towers made of special hardened steel (they were not familiar with submerged arc welding according to the method of our academician). But the obstinate Guderian insisted on getting an exact copy of the Soviet tank. However, both Ferdinand Porsche and the engineers of the Berlin company Daimler-Benz objected to him:
By exact copying of the Russian tank, we will sign our own impotence. Unfortunately, we have already brought the T-IV to its limiting parameters, and its latest modifications are impossible. The only way left is to create tanks T-V and T-VI, which will defeat the armor and strength of the T-34 ...
This is how the idea of future "tigers" and "panthers" was born.
But the monstrous ghost of the "thirty-four" no longer left the imagination of the Germans, and in the creation of new tanks, Germany from now on only imitated the ideal forms of the Russian tank. Now, when I write these lines, it’s even scary at the thought that they wanted to reject the best tank in the world, the T-34: the diesel engine, the welded hull, the cast turret and the purely caterpillar drive, in other words, all the most worthy in the design, which brought the tank international fame. And in 1965, the military community of Germany celebrated the 25th anniversary of the birth of the first "thirty-four", and on this memorable date the Germans imposed a gloomy web of fatal memories. The Soldat und Technik magazine admitted that with its appearance, the T-34 gave a perfect tank design, and therefore the entire world tank building (until the end of the 20th century) will proceed only from those technical results that were achieved by Soviet science. We, retreating in the forty-first, could be sure that there would be weapons and that these weapons would be better than the enemy's.
Pikul V.S. "Square of the fallen fighters". - M .: Publishing house "Voice", 1996 (Part one. "Barbarossa". Chapter 18. First crises), p. 158-161)
The T-34 tank was developed under the guidance of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, Chief Designer for Tanks of the Kharkov Locomotive Plant.
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was born on November 21 (December 3, according to a new style) in 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl province, into a large peasant family. His father was fatally injured in 1905 while working in logging. Having reached the age of 14, Mikhail went to Moscow to work, where he got a job as an apprentice at a confectionery factory. In the caramel workshop, he mastered the craft of a confectioner, which will still be useful to him in adulthood.
Upon reaching draft age, Mikhail was taken to serve in the tsarist army. His fate was drastically changed by the revolution of 1917. Koshkin joined the Red Army, participated in battles with the White Guards near Tsaritsyn and Arkhangelsk, received a non-dangerous wound. In 1921, right from the army, Mikhail was sent to study in Moscow at the Ya.M. Sverdlov, who trained leading personnel for the young Soviet Republic. From Moscow, Mikhail Koshkin was assigned to Vyatka, where he had to remember his profession as a confectioner - for some time Koshkin worked as the director of the Vyatka confectionery factory. But Koshkin did not have long to produce sweets and goodies. He was appointed to party work in the Vyatka Provincial Committee. This allowed Mikhail Ilyich to gain experience as a leader and organizer.
In 1929, among the "party thousand" Koshkin went to study at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. His specialty is cars and tractors. Interestingly, Mikhail Ilyich had an internship at the newly built Gorky Automobile Plant under the guidance of A.A. Lipgart. Actually cars, tractors and tanks are united by the fact that all of them, despite their external dissimilarity, are trackless vehicles with an internal combustion engine, consist of units and assemblies operating on similar principles, and the production of cars, tractors and tanks belongs to the transport industry. engineering.
The novice engineer was noticed by the leader of the Leningrad party organization (at that time - the head of the city administration) Sergei Mironovich Kirov. Soon Koshkin was invited to work at the Leningrad Experimental Machine Building Plant - Putilovsky, and later the Kirov Plant. At that time, Leningraders were working on creating the armored power of the young Soviet state. The young specialist Koshkin also goes into this work with his head. The task was to create tank building, an important defense industry, as soon as possible. This required a terrible 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 heavy industry leaders G. Ordzhonikidze, K. Neumann, I. Bardin, and I. Tevosyan were active supporters of the creation of powerful tank units in the Red Army. Mikhail Koshkin, who participated in the First World War and the Civil War, also understood perfectly well how much the Soviet Union needed a powerful armor shield. In Leningrad, the peak of Koshkin's career was the position of Deputy Chief Designer of the Kirov Plant, in which Mikhail Ilyich received the Order of the Red Star.
In December 1936, M.I. Koshkin received a new appointment. By order of the People's Commissar of Heavy Engineering G.K. Ordzhonikidze (Comrade Sergo Ordzhonikidze), Design Bureau No. 183 is created at the Kharkov Steam Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern, and Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin is appointed Chief Designer. On the one hand, it was an honorary appointment - the Kharkov Locomotive Plant produced the most massive tanks of the Red Army BT-5, BT-7, and, therefore, was the largest manufacturer of Soviet armored vehicles. On the other hand, the Koshkin family had to move to a provincial town, but that was not the worst. In 1937, mass repressions began against executives and engineering and technical workers. The NKVD authorities arrested Koshkin's colleagues, designers A.O. Firsova, N.F. Tsyganova, A.Ya. Dick. The position of Chief Designer became deadly - for any mistake and failure he was threatened with prison and execution.
In such conditions, the best qualities of Mikhail Ilyich manifested themselves. At first, the new Chief, little known to the plant staff, quickly and without any friction found contact with colleagues and subordinates. 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 got 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."
Despite the huge risk of becoming an "enemy of the people", Koshkin was not afraid to defend his point of view in front of leaders of any level and promote bold innovative ideas. It was in 1937, based on the results of the participation of Soviet tankers in the international brigades in the war in Spain, that the Armored Directorate of the Red Army developed a technical assignment for the development of a new generation tank, which should replace the light high-speed BT-7. The task was to be solved by the design bureau No. 183 and personally by Mikhail Ilyich.
At that time, a discussion unfolded about the type of chassis of the tank. Many military and engineers advocated the preservation of wheeled-tracked propellers, like the BT. Koshkin was among those who understood that the future belongs to the caterpillar mover. It radically improves the tank's cross-country ability, and, most importantly, has a much higher carrying capacity. The latter circumstance makes it possible, with the same dimensions and engine power, to sharply increase the power of the tank’s armament and the thickness of the armor, which will significantly increase the vehicle’s protection from enemy weapons.
As part of one technical task, Koshkin Design Bureau designed two tanks - the A-20 (sometimes called BT-20) on a wheeled-caterpillar track and the A-32 on a tracked one. Comparative tests of these machines in the first half of 1939 did not reveal any radical advantages in any of them. The question of the type of chassis remained open. It was M.I. Koshkin had to convince the leadership of the army and the country that a caterpillar tank had additional reserves to increase the thickness of the armor, increase the combat weight without sacrificing speed and maneuverability. At the same time, a wheeled-tracked tank does not have such a reserve, and on snow or arable land it will immediately get stuck without tracks. But Koshkin had enough serious and influential opponents from among the supporters of the combined chassis.
To finally prove the correctness of Koshkin, in the winter of 1939-1940, two experimental A-34 tanks were built at the plant, in which a caterpillar track with five road wheels made it possible to increase the combat weight by about 10 tons compared to the A-20 and A-32 and increase the thickness armor from 20 to 40-45 mm. These were the first prototypes of the future T-34.
Another merit of M.I. Koshkin became an unmistakable choice of engine type. Kharkov designers K.F. Chelpan, I.Ya. Trashutin, Ya.E. Vikman, I.S. Ber and their comrades designed a new V-2 diesel engine with a power of 400-500 hp. The first samples of the new engine were installed on the BT-7 tanks instead of the M-17 gasoline aircraft. But the BT transmission units, designed for lower loads, could not withstand and failed. The resource of the first V-2s, which the plant had not yet learned how to manufacture, also left much to be desired. By the way, breakdowns of BT-7 with V-2 became one of the reasons for the removal from office and criminal prosecution of A.O. Firsov. Defending the need to use the V-2 diesel engine, M.I. Koshkin also took risks.
On March 17, 1940, a demonstration in the Kremlin to the country's top leaders of new models of tank equipment was scheduled. The production of two prototypes of the T-34 had just been completed, the tanks were already driving under their own power, all the mechanisms worked for them. The speedometers of the cars counted the first hundreds of kilometers. According to the standards in force at that time, the mileage of tanks allowed for display and testing was to be more than two thousand kilometers. In order to have time to run in and wind up the required mileage, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin decided to overtake the experimental cars from Kharkov to Moscow on his own. It was a risky decision: the tanks themselves were a secret product that could not be shown to the population in any way. One fact of leaving on public roads, law enforcement agencies could regard as the disclosure of state secrets. On a thousand-kilometer path, equipment that was not run-in, plainly unfamiliar to driver-mechanics and repairmen, could get up due to any breakdowns, get into an accident. In addition, the beginning of March is still winter. But at the same time, the run provided a unique chance to test new vehicles in extreme conditions, to check the correctness of the chosen technical solutions, to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the tank's components and assemblies.
Koshkin personally took on a huge responsibility for this run. On the night of March 5-6, 1940, a convoy left Kharkov - two camouflaged tanks, accompanied by Voroshilovets tractors, one of which was loaded with fuel, tools and spare parts, and the second was a passenger body like a "kunga" for rest of the participants. Part of the way, Koshkin himself led the new tanks, sitting at their levers alternately with the factory drivers. The route for secrecy ran off-road through snow-covered forests, fields and rough terrain in the Kharkov, Belgorod, Tula and Moscow regions. Off-road, in winter, the units worked at the limit. I had to fix a lot of minor breakdowns, make the necessary adjustments.
But the future T-34s nevertheless reached Moscow on March 12, and on the 17th they were transferred from the tank repair plant to the Kremlin. During the run M.I. Koshkin caught a cold. At the show, he coughed heavily, which was noticed even by members of the government. However, the show itself was a triumph of novelty. Two tanks, led by testers N. Nosik and V. Dyukanov, drove off along the Kremlin's Ivanovskaya Square - one to the Trinity Gate, the other to the Borovitsky Gate. Before reaching the gate, they effectively turned around and rushed towards each other, carving sparks from the paving stones, stopped, turned around, made several circles at high speed, and braked in the same place. I.V. Stalin liked the elegant fast car. His words are given in different ways by different sources. Some eyewitnesses claim that Iosif Vissarionovich said: "This will be a swallow in the tank troops," according to others, the phrase sounded different: "This is the first sign of the tank troops."
After the show, both tanks were tested at the Kubinka training ground, controlled fire from guns of various calibers, which showed a high level of protection for the new item. In April we had to return to Kharkov. M.I. Koshkin proposed to go again not on railway platforms, but on their own through the spring thaw. On the way, one tank fell into a swamp. Barely recovered from the first cold, the designer was very wet and cold. This time, the disease turned into complications. In Kharkov, Mikhail Ilyich was hospitalized for a long time, his condition worsened, he soon became disabled - the doctors removed one of his lungs. On September 26, 1940, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin died in the Lipki sanatorium near Kharkov. He was not even 42 years old. Behind his coffin was the message of the plant staff, his wife Vera and three children were left without him. Work on the development of the T-34 tank was continued by Comrade Koshkin, the new Chief Designer A.A. Morozov.
In 1942 M.I. Koshkin, A.A. Morozov and N.A. Kucherenko for the creation of the T-34 became laureates of the Stalin Prize, for Mikhail Ilyich it turned out to be posthumous. He did not see the triumph of his offspring.
A few decades later, at the end of the 70s, the feature film "Chief Designer" about M.I. Koshkin, his struggle for a new tank and about that very thousand-kilometer run. The role of Mikhail Ilyich was played by the capable and charismatic actor Boris Nevzorov. Despite some "inconsistencies" caused by the ideological restrictions of those years, the film still looks exciting today, attracting the viewer's attention with the authenticity of the acting. You even believe in the realism of what is happening on the screen, despite the not entirely successful selection of gaming machines - the role of the T-34 prototypes is played by the late T-34-85, the post-war AT-L tractor acts as the "technical" escort, and Koshkin's service GAZ-M1 is very "okolhozhen ". All these mistakes can be forgiven to the authors of the picture only because they managed to competently build a plot narrative, and, most importantly, to convey the living image of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin - a talented designer, a skilled leader, strong, strong-willed, confident in himself and his rightness, an honest decent person .
Childhood and youth
The name of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin is among the outstanding personalities of the twentieth century. He went down in history as the creator of the legendary T-34 tank, which not only became a new word in this type of military equipment, but also made a revolution in world tank building. His creative life in the field of a designer, and then the chief designer, is estimated at only six years, but even during this relatively short period, his talent, outstanding abilities, and ability to be an organizer were fully manifested.
Mikhail Ilyich was born on December 3, 1898 in the small village of Brynchagi, Pereslavsky district, present-day Yaroslavl region, in a large peasant family. His father, a poor peasant, died tragically when the boy was seven years old. The family had neither a horse nor a cow. A small piece of land could not feed her, and her mother worked as a farm worker. From early childhood, Koshkin had to help her with the housework. He studied very little - he completed only three classes.
At the age of 11, after graduating from a parochial school, Mikhail Ilyich left for Moscow to work, where he acquired the profession of a confectioner. In the spring of 1917, after the February Revolution, he was drafted into the army and sent to the German front, however, Koshkin did not have to fight for long - in August, after being wounded, he ended up in the hospital. Here he found the news of the October Revolution, which he accepted immediately and completely. During the battles with the junkers in Moscow, he fought on the side of the Bolsheviks, and in April 1918 he volunteered for the Red Army; which is confirmed by the Military ID, a duplicate of which is kept in the Koshkins' home archive. During his service, he was accepted into the Bolshevik Party, became a political worker.
Koshkin was familiar with Blucher Vasily Konstantinovich. The commander spoke of Koshkin as follows: “I was fascinated by the sincerity of this man. He was the ideal of many. A fearless fighter with the enemies of the Soviet Republic, a wonderful Bolshevik, a wonderful comrade and a talented commander.
During the Civil War, Mikhail Ilyich participated in the defense of Tsaritsyn from the troops of General Krasnov, then ended up in the north - he fought against the White Guard detachments of General Miller and his British allies, and participated in the liberation of Arkhangelsk. In the spring of 1920, he was sent to the Polish front, but he did not reach his destination, as he fell ill with typhus.
Years of study
After demobilization in 1921, Koshkin entered the Y. M. Sverdlov Communist University. At that time, it was a very strong educational institution, which provided not only political, but also general education. In 1924, after graduating from the university, he was appointed to Vyatka as the head of a confectionery factory. Under his leadership, the factory soon turned from a lagging and unprofitable factory into one of the best enterprises in the city.
Mikhail Ilyich's organizational abilities were noticed and in 1925 he was transferred to work in the industrial department of the district party committee. Later he worked as the head of the provincial party school and the head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Vyatka provincial committee. Thus, almost 10 years, Koshkin gave the work of a party functionary. A decisive turning point in his fate occurred during the years of the first five-year plan, when the question of creating its own engineering and technical personnel became extremely acute in the Soviet Union. Then came the decision of the leadership of the CPSU (b) to send communists who had gone through the school of party work to the higher technical institutions of the country. Koshkin, who had long dreamed of becoming an engineer, sat down with textbooks - he himself went through the entire school course in mathematics, physics, and in 1929 entered the Leningrad Machine-Building Institute. A memorial plaque is placed on the house where the Koshkin family lived during this period. He studied diligently, although the time was not easy. All these years there was a catastrophic lack of money - Koshkin was already married and had two children; they all had to live on one of his scholarships. Five years of study not only confirmed the correctness of the chosen path in him, but also developed creativity, a sense of the new and a desire to create. Finally, in 1934, he received an engineering degree, and from that moment his life was inextricably linked with tank building.
From the memoirs of Vera Koshkina, the wife of the chief designer:
“Mikhail Ilyich loved his family and children very much. He was cheerful and healthy. It was not enough just to be with children and see them. I left for work early, they were sleeping. Arrived late, saw them sleeping. Only on the day off were they all together. He loved football, literature, cinema, theater, but did not have enough time for everything. He worked for about 4 years at the plant, was not on vacation. I was very tired."
Work on the T-32 tank
The beginning of independent design activity of Mikhail Ilyich was laid by the work on the new T-28 tank. It was then that Koshkin's engineering talent first manifested itself. From an ordinary designer, he rose to the deputy chief designer. In 1936, M. I. Koshkin was appointed chief designer of the Kharkov Tank Plant. Soon he was assigned to work on a completely new T-11 tank. But Mikhail Ilyich already then began to understand that the future belongs to tanks with powerful armor protection. However, strengthening the armor immediately increased the weight of the tank, required a more powerful engine and gave rise to a host of new problems. Not all of them were resolved in the T-11, but working on it helped Koshkin to gain the necessary experience. Then Mikhail Ilyich created the T-32 tank. The tank he developed was equipped with a purely tracked propulsion system. This made it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the undercarriage by increasing the thickness of the armor and the caliber of the gun. Remaining a medium tank in terms of weight, Koshkin's vehicle was at the level of heavy tanks in terms of armor thickness and firepower. Instead of the 45 mm cannon, which is customary for medium types, the designers planned to install the most powerful of those developed at that time - the 76 mm one.
In the summer of 1938, the draft of the new tank was proposed for discussion by the Main Military Council. Many people did not like the novelty of the car. The T-32 was criticized. But Stalin, who had the last decisive word, did not allow the project to be banned and ordered the production of prototypes.
Army General A. A. Epishev said:
“I remember well how many difficulties I had to experience and overcome before the first samples of the new combat vehicle appeared. And this is understandable. There was no such analogue in the world practice of tank building. Their own experience was not so rich either ... Therefore, designers, engineers, technicians largely had to follow unbeaten paths, showing creative, technical and certain political courage in the search for the most optimal solutions.
In the course of working on prototypes, Koshkin decided on another experiment - the welded turret was replaced by a solid cast one, which should have greatly simplified mass production. In 1939, the T-32 was presented to the State Commission for sea trials. Weighing 26.5 tons, the tank showed excellent cross-country ability. Its speed reached 55 km / h. This made an impression even on notorious opponents.
The commission noted that the new tank "is distinguished by its reliability in operation, simplicity of design and ease of operation." But many still did not like the purely caterpillar mover. But soon the outbreak of the Finnish war forced the defense committee in mid-December 1939 to accept the new tank into service, while, as Mikhail Ilyich originally intended, it was proposed to increase the thickness of the armor to 45 mm and install a new 76-mm gun on the vehicle. In this version, the tank received a new name T-34, under which it went down in history.
The birth of the "thirty-four"
A close friend of Koshkin, V. Vasiliev, who worked under his leadership in the design group where the T-34 was born, said: “A man of amazing moral purity, who lived in constant tension of mind and will, in active and impatient action, Koshkin was an outstanding designer and organizer , fearless in achieving a lofty goal - to create a fundamentally new, unprecedented tank in the world. ¹
The T-34 tank was first tested at the plant in early 1940. The main tests were to take place at the training ground near Moscow. According to the rules, before appearing before the commission, the tank had to travel at least 3000 km. There was no time for this, and Koshkin decided to drive the tanks to Moscow on his own.
Vera Koshkina spoke about her husband like this:
“Koshkin was one of those for whom business comes first, who want to be in time everywhere, take on as much as possible. During the transfer of T-34 tanks to the general bride in Moscow, Mikhail Koshkin decided to go along with mechanics and drivers, he wanted to see with his own eyes how the vehicles would behave on such a long march. Thanks to these qualities, he very quickly gained prestige 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. the comments were justified, he immediately used them. He was loved by the team. "
In March 1940, two experimental T-34s set off and on March 17 appeared at the training ground before a commission headed by Stalin himself. The T-34 made a strong impression on him: the speed, maneuverability, maneuverability, fire and armor power of them really seemed to prepare the tank for mass production. The designer made his way back to Kharkov on his tank. He was full of creative plans. However, he was not destined to carry them out. Immediately after returning to the factory, he went to the hospital and died of a lung abscess in September 1940.
Colleagues of Koshkin said about him: “Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was an infinitely modest person. He lived for people and died for the sake of life on earth. Koshkin skillfully led a large team of intelligent and dedicated people, the cause of his life. And he always said: "we do it together."
Koshkin did not live to see the start of the war and therefore did not witness the enormous popularity of his tank. The only award he received during his lifetime was the Order of the Red Star, a military order back in peacetime for his personal contribution to the country's defense capability.
As you know, the T-34 became a real legend of the Second World War, and not one of the warring countries managed to create a more advanced tank in five years.
“Thirty-four went through the whole war, from beginning to end, and there was no better combat vehicle in any army. Not a single tank could compare with it - neither American, nor English, nor German ... Until the very end of the war, the T-34 remained unsurpassed. (I. S. Konev)
Of all the types of military equipment that German troops encountered in World War II, none caused them such a shock as the Russian T-34 tank in the summer of 1941.
During the war years, the T-34 tank became a favorite of tankers.
The whole country helped the production of “thirty-fours”, another five factories launched the production of “miracle machines”, and the production of T-34s continued at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant even in an enemy environment. In total, over 66,000 of these tanks were produced during the Great Patriotic War.
Specifications T-34-76
From the many armored vehicles during the Great Patriotic War, the medium tank was distinguished by the fact that, having gone through its entirety from the very first day to the Victory, it did not become obsolete morally. One of its most important qualities was its near-fantastic maintainability and recoverability from combat damage. These high rates were largely laid down during the deep study of the T-34 project by designers and technologists under the guidance of the chief designer of the Koshkin machine to simplify systems, assemblies, assemblies and parts as much as possible, as well as reduce the labor intensity of their manufacture. This allowed engineers and technicians from the repair battalions, constantly following the battle formations of the troops, in the field to carry out a complete list of repair and restoration work on the T-34, including overhaul.
The T-34 became a classic example of a medium tank, and its design determined the development of modern tank building. Until now, his technical solutions serve as an example to follow.
Specifications T-34-76
| tank type | average |
| Crew, pers. | 4 |
| Combat weight, t | 30,9 |
| Length, m | 6,62 |
| Width, m | 3 |
| Height, m | 2,52 |
| Number of guns / caliber, mm | 1/76 |
| Number of machine guns / caliber, mm | 2/7.62mm |
| Frontal armor, mm | 45 |
| Side armor, mm | 45 |
| Engine | V-2-34, diesel, 450 hp. with. |
| Max speed | 51 km/h |
| Power reserve, km | 300 |
Memory of descendants
He never knew about his glory! M. I. Koshkin deserved all the honors only later, when his tank became famous in the battles for the Motherland, the mass production of which he achieved in a difficult and stubborn struggle at that difficult, difficult time for the country. His name was included in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary: “Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin (1898-1940), Soviet designer. Member of the CPSU since 1919. Under the leadership of Koshkin, the medium tank T-34 was created - the best tank of the period of the 2nd World War 1939-45. State Prize of the USSR (1942, posthumously). In the book "100 Great Russians" there is an article dedicated to my great-grandfather. A street in Kharkov was named after him. Previously, it was called Chervonny Shlyakh - the Red Way, short and beautiful, green alley - how beautiful and short his life was.
Elizaveta Mikhailovna described her father's life as follows:
“A bright flash of lightning is a zigzag that cut through all the difficulties on the way to the glory of the Motherland” 2.
Koshkin Street leads the way from the main entrance of the plant, where the T-34 tank was created, to which he gave his dream, his thoughts, talent, strength of mind, willpower, his life without a trace. Here, a monument was erected to him in the form of a tank barrel, and around - a trace from the T-34.
The former Shirokaya street in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky near the Slavich stadium was named after M.I. Koshkin. A T-34 tank is installed on an artificial hill near the walls of the ancient Goritsky monastery. From here, annually for many years, athletes of the Yaroslavl region have been holding a traditional auto-motocross dedicated to the famous fellow countryman. Stands on a pedestal "thirty-four" and in the city of Yaroslavl. And at the crossroads Moscow - Pereslavl-Zalessky - Arkhangelsk, it rises above the whole memorial architectural complex.
A street in his homeland in Brynchagi also bears his name. In the house where Koshkin was born, the local administration plans to open his museum
In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, a monument-bust of M.I. Koshkin was opened in Kharkov.
Memorial plaques were erected where Mikhail Ilyich lived and worked: in the city of Kirov (Vyatka), in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), in Kharkov.
Everything was when it was gone. And a lot of good things were said about him in newspapers, magazines, then on television and in newspapers.
And no matter how perfect modern tanks are, no matter how powerful their armor is, and no matter what power reserve they have, all the participants in the war have not lost their love and appreciation for the legendary “thirty-four”. This gratitude is in the grateful memory of front-line soldiers, labor veterans, and designers. It is in numerous pedestals in our country and abroad, where the T-34 tank stands on eternal guard. As, for example, in Volgograd on the front line in September-November 1942.
The picture is based on a real event: Stalin really examined the new tanks and was pleased with them. Frame from the film "Tanks". 2018
On the eve of the 73rd anniversary of the Victory, the full-length feature film "Tanks" was released on the screens of the country - from the director of "28 Panfilov's Men" Kim Druzhinin. Three weeks before the official premiere, some members of the film crew had a chance to visit the Russian Khmeimim airbase in Syria and scroll the tape to military personnel performing combat missions far from their native borders. The Zvezda TV channel cited an enthusiastic review of the musician of the military band, Sergeant Alexei Zinoviev: “I liked the acting very much. Andrey Merzlikin, of course, well done, as always ... Of course, I advise everyone to watch this film. Andrey Nazarov, scriptwriter for "Tanks", immediately posted this video on his Twitter resource, accompanied by the following entry: "How will the moviegoer meet "Tanks"? We are worried. But the opinion of Sergeant Zinoviev from our air base in Syria will always remain the most important.”
With all due respect to all four persons mentioned above, we cannot agree with both the extremely non-self-critical assessment of the screenwriter and individual private praises of the film. For if the performance of the actors as a whole can really be assessed with a solid "four" (or even with a plus), then the one depicted by them "on the white sheet of the screen" - with a "one" with a minus. Not in terms of entertainment (this is somewhat impressive), but in terms of handling historical material and a specific person. Namely, with the creator of the legendary T-34 tank, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin.
CROSSED UZHA WITH HEDGEHOG
The Russian audience has long been forced to come to terms with the fact that domestic figures of the “most massive of the arts” periodically confuse the public with other historical and military “movie masterpieces”. But "Tanks", obviously, raised the bar of extreme bewilderment even higher. The director and producers, intending to tell about the episode that really took place in the pre-front 1940 episode in the creation of the T-34 and its chief designer Mikhail Koshkin, as they say, crossed the grass snake with a hedgehog. They did not just frivolously beat the topic, but stunningly treacherously distorted the history of the appearance of the “Victory Tank”. More than an hour and a half tape, in fact, does not talk about tanks as such, nor about their creator. They only loom in the film in the background, while in the first place the “exciting” action movie rumbles. Designer Koshkin is presented not as a generator of innovative engineering ideas and the embodiment of advanced technical ideas that he personally verified in practice, but as an adventurous cowboy on an armored horse.
Nazarov and Druzhinin were not at all touched by the fact that Koshkin, while working on his combat model, which was destined to become one of the best tanks of the Second World War, mortally undermined his health, lost one lung, and died on September 26, 1940 - only 41- summer. And so to distort the memory of him is beyond the understanding of the audience, who “slightly differently” relate to domestic true stories and outstanding personalities of past eras.
It turns out, however, that this is by no means a "miscalculation" of the creators of "Tanks". "Cowboy" was laid into the picture even before the start of work on the script. And during the filming, they didn’t just go along with what was fantasized, but did everything to make it a reckless western with an almost complete absence of at least elementary logic in it. According to one of the producers, Dmitry Shcherbanov, the film was conceived "not as a military drama, not as a historical film, and by no means jingoistic." But as a family adventure thriller in the spirit of the famous Soviet "Elusive Avengers" of 1966 - in order to please the modern audience, especially the young one. Who, "raised on Hollywood blockbusters and film comics," allegedly "is unlikely to be interested in historical drama."
It is, to put it mildly, categorically incorrect to assess “the current audience” in such a one-sided and purely unambiguous way. For this is a clear disrespect for those numerous film lovers who expect from our directors and producers not screen crafts “under” “Hollywood blockbusters and film comics”, but high-quality, meaningful, watchable and at the same time instructive cinema. After all, the same “Elusive Avengers” became a classic of the film genre for this very reason, which convincingly combined the historical truth about the Civil War in Russia with the participation of the real army commander Semyon Budyonny and the exciting combat adventures of a handful of fictional teenagers (who, however, had certain prototypes) . And it is completely incomprehensible why even long before the first command “Attention! Motor! Started!” Is it “shameful” to deprive the film being created of even a small fraction of “cheers-patriotism”, especially when a specific historical person appears in it throughout the development of the whole action, who made an enduring contribution to the Victory?!
At the same time, it is especially depressing that, according to the official press release, this became possible with the personal filing of the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, who is also the chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO). Andrey Nazarov, scriptwriter of Tanks, is his adviser in this organization, and he is not as young as the 33-year-old Kim Druzhinin, but deeply "comes from the Soviet Union." But the RVIO, according to a presidential decree, is designed to "promote the study of national military history and counteract attempts to distort it, ensure the popularization of the achievements of military history, instill patriotism and raise the prestige of military service." In "Tanks", everything is done exactly the opposite, in fact, the entire presidential installation has been trampled.
They would shoot an ordinary remake of "The Elusive Avengers" - what's stopping ?! But no, without Koshkin in any way. Explanation: it was in the language of a tough militant that the goal was to "tell about the feat of the chief designer Mikhail Koshkin, whose name is undeservedly forgotten today." Strange vision. Usually, with such an "irrepressible fantasy", the name of a real-life historical figure is changed. Even - in a tightly knit patriotic movie. In the film Taming the Fire (1972), based on the biography of the creator of space technology, Sergei Korolev, the latter is depicted under the name Andrey Bashkirtsev. Even if the authors of "Tanks" Koshkin were named, say, Kashkin (as Boris Polevoy in his time in "The Tale of a Real Man" turned the real hero-pilot Maresyev into a literary Meresyev), and "principled questions" would disappear.
By the way, the statement about the "undeserved oblivion" of Mikhail Koshkin also does not hold water. The creator of the T-34 in the USSR and Russia was more or less always remembered. In the 1970s and 1980s, several books were published about him, one of which was used to make a two-part feature film "Chief Designer" with Boris Nevzorov in the title role; a monument was unveiled to him in Kharkov (the designer was buried in Kharkov, but his resting place was lost during the bombing and occupation of the city by the Nazis). For the 100th anniversary of Koshkin, a postage stamp was issued; and in his small homeland, in the village of Brynchagi (Yaroslavl region), a monument (a modest bust) to the Hero of Socialist Labor M.I. Koshkin, in the opening of which, with a large congestion of the military, two (out of three) daughters of Mikhail Ilyich also took part. At the same time, at the turn to Brynchagy from the federal highway M8 Moscow-Yaroslavl, a memorial dedicated to the designer was erected - his brainchild T-34 on a high pedestal. By the 110th anniversary, a collection of documents and memoirs about the creator of the “Victory Tank” was published ... It’s only a pity that so far not a single historian has bothered to write a biography of Koshkin (and the current domestic tank builders have not ordered one) - in the popular book series ZhZL. And it is a pity that in vast Moscow there is not even a small street named after him; but already in the years of perestroika, in 1987, a 700-meter street of Koshkin (Semyon Pavlovich) arose - a Bolshevik underground worker who actively harmed the tsarist regime in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917; and many are mistaken that it is dedicated to that Koshkin, who in the 20th century created the best battle tank in the world ...
This year, December 3 is the 120th anniversary of the outstanding designer, for which we now have a "worthy" feature film "about him and his tanks."
'MAD MAX' HAS INTO THE TANKS
The film begins, in general, aptly, from the first frames setting the viewer to a fascinating historical truth (and the stronger the disappointment from what follows). The “Prokhorovka field” of Khalkhin-Gol is shown after the battle for Mount Bain-Tsagan on July 3-5, 1939, where the future Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who commanded the Red Army group there, burned an unmeasured number of tanks thrown by him at the Japanese without infantry support. These even then imperfect "armored kerosene stoves" flared up from hitting them with torches, for which commander Zhukov blames commander 1st rank Grigory Kulik, who arrived here "to take action." And we are imbued with anticipation that in the future we will be shown how the Soviet defense industry and the Red Army from "kerosene" in just a year or two reached the powerful, "ahead of its time" T-34.
The guess seems to be justified. In the following shots - the workshop of the Kharkov plant No. 183 in the summer of 1940, in which a couple of prototypes of the T-34 were made. Tanks cannot participate in the government-scheduled exhibition of new weapons in the Kremlin because they have low mileage. And Koshkin, contrary to the risk he understands and the categorical objections of the plant director and the representative of the NKVD, makes a strong-willed decision to “run” to Moscow on his own in order to gain the mileage established by the test regulations. This aspiration of him is approved by telephone from Moscow, General of the Army Zhukov. And a convoy of two armored vehicles and a truck with fuel sets off on a 750-kilometer journey.
The fact that in reality the march took place not in the summer, but in the early spring, and Zhukov could not unanimously approve such an initiative of the chief designer, as well as the fact that the "Marshal of Victory" in fact did not participate in any way in the fate of the T-34 - these are quite acceptable "shifts" in time and "twisting" of facts in film versions of this kind. Let's explain. In fact, the campaign of two “thirty-fours” from Kharkov to Moscow took place from March 6 to March 12, 1940, and five days later both vehicles were demonstrated to Stalin. And Zhukov at that time had not yet returned from Mongolia; later he commanded the Kyiv Special Military District, and was appointed to the post of Chief of the General Staff in Moscow in mid-January 1941, more than three months after Koshkin's death. And in fact, from the military (in addition to civilian defense workers) from Moscow, the movement of the column was supervised by the head of the Armored Directorate of the Red Army commander Dmitry Pavlov (the future general of the army, commander of the Western Front, who was shot in July 1941).
But these are “little things”. But what “truth” the viewer is shown next cannot but shock.
HEROIC RUN AND CINEMA FANTASIES
However, first, let us briefly highlight that truly unparalleled mileage of two newly-made (in January and February 1940) samples of armored vehicles in Kharkov, which at that time bore the factory index A-34. The route, due to their super secrecy, passed at a decent distance from settlements along truly “unknown paths” of the Kharkov, Belgorod, Tula and Moscow regions. Therefore, all the acuteness of the risk of the enterprise is understandable - technical and in the conditions of the then ubiquitous pressure of the NKVD - and the degree of courage of the initiator of the run. (By the way, the director himself, during filming on location near Moscow, according to him, also experienced "a lot of emergency situations.") its Western component, we are never shown this). The designer, despite the "dampness" of the samples, was nevertheless confident in the predominant reliability of the mechanisms and assemblies embedded in them - and there were no serious breakdowns during the days of the journey to Moscow (and then back on their own) did not happen.
On the way, Mikhail Ilyich caught a cold and coughed heavily at the show on Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin (on the way back, having landed in a swamp on a tank, he further aggravated his ill health). Stalin and other members of the government watched with admiration the running "pirouettes" of a pair of future T-34s, demonstrated on the paving stones between the Troitsky and Borovitsky gates. According to eyewitnesses, the leader allegedly expressed his emotions by saying that these vehicles are the “first signs” of our tank troops (the episode was reflected in the finale of the film). Knowing all this, Kim Druzhinin turned his tongue to say that “there was nothing particularly exciting in the real race, which took place in March, in snow and cold.” And the creators of the tape filled it with this "exciting" in full and beyond the edges ...
First, someone knocks off the threads of an oxygen tank that is being transported in a truck, and the explosion deprives the tanks of fuel. In turn, German intelligence, as if looking several years ahead, from the reports of an agent from the Kharkov defense plant and the T-34 schemes stolen by him, immediately realized that "this new development of the Russians could bring Germany great trouble in future campaigns." By order from Berlin, a well-equipped and heavily armed sabotage group is sent to intercept the departed experimental armored vehicles in order to carry out their "disappearance". She had been based near Kharkov for a long time and was only waiting for the “green whistle” from the Reich. They follow not on foot, but on horseback. How did they not yet guess to put at the head of it the Nazi "saboteur of all times and peoples" Otto Skorzeny? And as soon as these "mishandled Cossack women" prepared to carry out the order, a certain kulak-Makhnovo-White Guard gang attacked the column led by Koshkin from nowhere.
That is, the NKVD, headed by Beria, are either asleep or so carried away by the "enemies of the people of the 37th year" that they missed a dozen fascist thugs a thousand kilometers from the state border, and a huge illegal armed formation freely living in a forest near a certain village. Again, horse. By the way, Kim Druzhinin was asked about this at a meeting with journalists after the press screening of "Tanks", but the director could not explain the logic of such a decision of the script and its implementation. But let's keep looking. A la Pugachev manages to capture Koshkin and his entire team. However, the leader of the gang is indignant: what should he do with these tanks now? But then a profitable option turns up: the commander of the Nazi special forces comes to him and offers to sell the tanks to him. Yes, little fuss. "Old Man Makhno" sends him away slurping for more banknotes.
The Germans, apparently overspent in the pursuit of the T-34, "have no choice" how to crumble the intractable Russian robbers "in okroshka." From a machine gun. Under the guise of battle, when bullets crush the lair of the "forest brothers" to pieces and everyone falls dead, the chief designer and his comrades, deftly maneuvering between the horizontal jets of a lead shower, run to the tanks. In one of them there is a shell, which the mechanic grabbed at the factory just in case (“The salute would have been given somewhere,” he explains to the taken aback chief designer). Immediately transforming into a dashing loader and gunner, he crushes the entire German attack with this single shot. And after the leader of the gang, who involuntarily already wants to immediately get rid of the troublesome acquisition, there is his “piano in the bushes” - a whole tank with diesel fuel, which he hid in the shed since the Civil War. The fuel, to the delight of Koshkin, exactly approached, the fuel barrels punched on the tanks were tightly plugged with sticks, and the column continued to move with acceleration.
Hitler's intelligence tears and mosques. In the picture, she is represented by a colonel with the face of Chikatilo and a blond "true Aryan" trembling with fear under his anger. It never occurs to this “sweet” couple to report anything to someone, she herself manages things for the glory of the Reich. Such a reduction of the Germans to the level of fools has not been shown to us since the first post-war years, even in The Feat of a Scout (1947) they look like geniuses compared to what we are shown now.
An order is given to immediately activate the second group of deeply conspiratorial "otto skorzeny". And in the next second they, as if from under the ground, appear at night on motorcycles behind the tanks driving at full steam. It’s as if they turned onto the sandy Russian highway from the African desert of the Western fantasy thriller-chase “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) - Druzhinin clearly borrowed them from there (as earlier for his “28 Panfilov’s” he partly projected individual frames from the Norwegian comedy horror film about Nazi zombies "Operation Dead Snow"). The impression is that all the saboteurs are deaf and dumb, but they perfectly understand their commander only by the movement of the hand with the gaiter pulled over it. One of them deftly jumps on the tank and ... cuts through its armor with a gas burner (a gas cylinder ends up in one of the cradles). In this way, the Nazis want to poison the crew - by launching a certain gas into the tank through a burnt hole from a hose (a cylinder with which is in the same cradle). The film was shot in the summer of 2017, but all the same, the British intelligence services, which, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, poisoned the father and daughter of the Skripals in March 2018, are resting so clumsily, in contrast to the German jewelry squads, they performed a provocation.
However, the Nazis-"bikers" failed again, because the Red Army artillery was set up towards the "unidentified moving objects". Their own beat on their own, but "the armor is strong, and our tanks are fast." One of them, having successfully escaped from the artillery strike, later falls off the wooden bridge onto the steep bank of the river. There is no way to release him. Koshkin drives to Moscow on one tank. The same saboteurs-poisoners roll up to the victim of the crash and - here the fantasy of the authors of "Tanks" has surpassed all conceivable and unimaginable realities! - literally with the help of the "most powerful" clotheslines, motorcycles pull the combat vehicle out of the trap. (Why?! And what were they going to do with him next?!! - another question.) Being inside the T-34 and at first lurking "Koshkins" start the engine, the tank begins to "toss and turn" and crush the taken aback Germans and flatten their motorcycles. In a minute, the entire enemy special group perishes with the death of crushed frogs - one boot from its commander remains.
Meanwhile, the driver of the tank Koshkin is driving turns out to be a traitor and offers the designer to turn from Moscow to the West in order to receive a “non-beggarly” salary for his intelligence and talent there. Of course, Koshkin will angrily retort: “I do not work for the authorities, but for my people!” (nevertheless, a piece of "cheers-patriotism" is still included in the film). He manages to disable his mechanical offspring. The scoundrel wants to smash the engineer’s head with a sledgehammer, but at the last second he himself gets a shovel in the skull from a 20-year-old female team member who arrived in time earlier, who had arbitrarily joined her back in Kharkov as a major specialist in the smelting of armor and in an unquenchable desire to see “Comrade Stalin ".
In the finale, Koshkin and his savior appear at the Kremlin before the eyes of the leader. Without the T-34, they escaped ("elusive" ones!) Not only from bandits and enemy scouts-thugs, but also from their own offspring. "Where are your tanks?" – the celestial is interested. The chief designer has already collapsed from shame and, not finding any explanation for the absence of machines, coughs (that is, from extreme embarrassment, and by no means from a cold, as it really was). And then both tanks one after another, like devils from a snuffbox, suddenly appear and take their places at the exhibition ... they did it! Everyone is delighted, Stalin calls the armored cars "swallows" ...
WAITING FOR A WESTERN ABOUT… GAGARIN?!
Everything was filmed, but I don’t remember anything like that. We repeat, it is unthinkable to understand why, for the sake of "greater popularization" of the name of the one who created the "Victory Tank", it was necessary to pile up such nonsense. What will a young viewer take out about Mikhail Koshkin, besides the fact that the creator of the T-34 almost got hit on the head with a sledgehammer and left his own tanks on the way, while others famously coped with the task of driving them?
In general, the film "Tanks" sets a precedent. In the sense that now anyone can consider it possible to exploit someone's famous name on the screen for some "good" purposes. Imagine in an adventure reading, say, a film about the first manned flight into space. And what, after all, the fact is that not all Russian schoolchildren know who Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin is. So let's popularize his name through "the most massive of the arts"! Armed American "fur seals" (or commandos with the faces of all the "undaunted" - Stallone, Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Jason Statham ...) are climbing to the Vostok rocket to disrupt its launch. And Korolev cannot give the command “Key to start”, because the terminator Schwarzenegger captured him, stunned him and tied him up. A Yankee special forces officer throws a "cat" through the ship's porthole, which pierces Gagarin's shoulder. The pilot-cosmonaut at the last second pulls out the "claw", by an effort of will he turns on the ignition of the rocket and, as it soars into space, pronounces his famous "Let's go!". Stallone and others like him burn in flames from the nozzles of a Soviet spacecraft...
If you think, you can twist it even more abruptly: for example, in the cockpit of the Vostok, a space pioneer who has taken off suddenly discovers a certain girl in love with him (in Tanks, a similar storyline is visibly written through the entire film, although in reality there is no “woman on the ship” in that there was no unprecedented march on caterpillars from Kharkov to Moscow) ...
We ask you not to consider the above-described "synopsis" of the script for the future film. And God forbid that such a movie "Tanks" no longer appear! However, it is encouraging that at a meeting with journalists after the press screening of the tape on April 14, actor Andrei Merzlikin, who played the role of Koshkin, listening to critical reviews, expressed his participation in this film in a certain way, not without regret. It was clear that the director and producers did not like this very veiled self-criticism in their presence...
For several generations of citizens of our country, the T-34 tank is one of the symbols of 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 so that the Soviet Union would receive 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 his health was restored, the demobilization of the old tsarist army began, and Mikhail 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 typhus, his 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 a big war was 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.
