In a poor family of Koshkins living in the Yaroslavl province, in 1898, on December 3, son Mikhail was born. The boy was left without a father early and from the age of eleven he began working at the Moscow confectionery factory. During the Civil War of 1917 he went to the front. After being wounded in the same year, in August, he was demobilized. After undergoing a course of rehabilitation treatment, he returned to military service as a volunteer. He took part in the battles near Tsaritsyn (1919), in battles with Wrangel. Mikhail Koshkin managed to get sick with typhus during this period of time. The biography of a design engineer will be discussed in this article.
First steps towards a dream
The 20th century was famous for the mass enthusiasm of people for various techniques. People have learned to operate the equipment constructed from iron and working by means of the motor. Man was captivated by the power of these machines and was delighted with the possibilities of his own brain. Almost every Soviet engineer of that time dreamed of conquering the earth and sky. The zeal of the engineers was of great benefit to the stoppingempire. The growing strength of the Land of the Soviets set itself tasks in which the machines had to work in the fields, transport goods and people, and protect the borders. Everyone invested in the technical development of that time: money, labor, ideas, people's lives. Those who designed equipment (tanks, cars, planes) were bowed down and idolized.
Koshkin was sent to study at the Moscow Communist University immediately after completing his military service in 1921. In 1924, after graduating, he was appointed director of the confectionery factory in the city of Vyatka. In 1927, Mikhail Koshkin joined the Vyatka Provincial Party Committee, where he became the head of the agitation and propaganda department. In 1929, he was among the workers who were recruited to universities to prepare replacements (by party cadres) for old specialists (intelligentsia).
At the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, Mikhail Koshkin studied at the Department of Automobiles and Tractors. In 1934, having become a certified specialist, he went to work as a designer at the experimental engineering plant No. 185 in the city of Leningrad. In the Security Committee, he was one of the designers of the T-29-5, T-46-5. It took him only a year to become deputy general designer. And in 1936 Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin received the Order of the Red Star.
The difficult path of a leader
In 1936, December 18, People's Commissar Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze issues an order to appoint Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin to the post of head of the TKB plant No. 183. At that timethere was a difficult personnel situation in the security committee. His predecessor, Afanasy Osipovich Firsov, was taken into custody marked "for wrecking", and the designers were interrogated.
The summer of 1937 brought changes in the security committee, the employees had to divide duties among themselves and split into two camps: the employees of the first carried out development work, the second - were engaged in serial production of equipment.
The project of the BT-9 tank was the first project that Koshkin was involved in, but due to the presence of errors in the design and non-compliance with the requirements of the tasks, it was rejected. The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the Armored Directorate placed an order for Plant No. 183 to create a new BT-20 tank.
At the plant, due to the weakness of the enterprise security committee, a separate design bureau was created, headed by Adolf Dik, adjutant of the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. It included some engineers from the design bureau of the plant and graduates of this academy. Work on the development took place in difficult conditions: the arrests taking place at the plant did not stop.
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, whose biography is presented to your attention in the article, despite the chaos around him, together with the engineers who worked under Firsov, worked on the drawings that were to become the basis for the development of a new tank.
With a delay of almost two months, the design bureau under Dick developed the BT-20 project. Due to work not completed on timeAn anonymous letter was written to the head of the security committee, which led to the arrest of Dick, followed by his conviction for a period of twenty years. Although Adolf Dick spent little time on the issue of vehicle mobility, his contribution to the development of the T-34 was considerable (installation of the undercarriage, another road wheel).
Make or break
A pair of T-34 tanks were created for experiments, and on February 10, 1940, they were sent for testing. In 1940, in the month of March, Mikhail Ilyich travels from Kharkov to Moscow, the tanks get on their own, despite the weather conditions and the state of the equipment (very worn out after testing). Government representatives got acquainted with the tanks on March 17 of the same year. After testing in the Moscow region, it was decided to immediately begin their production.
Great designer without higher education Alexander Morozov became the right hand of M. Koshkin in technical matters. Also involved in the process was the designer Nikolay Kucherenko, a former deputy. Firsov. They, along with their families, could take a walk in Gorky Park on a weekend, went to football matches with the entire staff of the security committee. But they could work 18 hours without rest. Koshkin came to the plant as an outsider, but managed under his command to unite different people doing a common thing.
He came up with the name for his offspring a long time ago, the main role was played in 1934 by his meeting with Kirov, it was then that the first steps towards creating the tank of his dreams began, therefore the T-34.
Irreparable loss
M. Koshkin had to pay dearly for this success. A combination of a number of reasons provoked pneumonia. Despite this, he continued to direct the work until the disease worsened. This led to the removal of one of the lungs. Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich died in 1940 on September 26 while undergoing a rehabilitation course in a sanatorium near Kharkov.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to save the grave of this great designer. Since in 1941 Hitler declared Koshkin personally his enemy. German pilots were ordered to destroy his grave - they attacked the cemetery.
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, whose brief biography is described in the article, died, but the tanks created according to his idea were indispensable helpers throughout the war.
Oblivion
Voroshilov asked to give the tank the name of the leader, but Koshkin agreed. Perhaps this played one of the important roles in the fate of the tank and its creator.
In 1982, it became known that Mikhail Koshkin had not received a single award for his services. All other participants in the creation of the T-34 bore the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. For 50 years they kept silent about his feat. Mikhail Koshkin was the only one who insisted that the wheeled-tracked tank should be left in the past. He paid with his life for the timely start of the creation of T-34 tanks. This is what made it possible to release 1225 T-34 tanks by June 22, 1945, which helped to reduce human losses in battles.
The residents of Pereslavl did not suspect that their fellow countryman M. I. Koshkin was the same creator of the T-34 victory tank. In 1982, a petition was written for the title of HeroSoviet Union M. I. Koshkin, which did not receive approval (since it was not timed to a round date). Pereslavl residents concluded that the name of the creator of the T-34 was not accidentally deleted from the historical pages.
The reward that found the hero
The refusal did not stop the veterans of war and labor. They expressed their disagreement with the decision and asked, as a gift to the current generation, to award Koshkin the posthumously deserved title of Hero of the Soviet Union twice, coinciding this event with the 45th anniversary of the Great Victory. The letter was addressed to the President of the USSR in 1990. Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, the main dates from whose life you already know, by the presidential decree of the USSR on May 9, 1990, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor.
Awards received
M. I. Koshkin, whose life story can serve as a vivid example for many generations, was awarded the following awards:
- Order of the Red Star.
- Stalin Prize (posthumously).
- Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously).
- Order of Lenin.
Koshkin through the eyes of his children
Koshkin was married. His wife Vera Koshkina (nee Shibykina) bore him three daughters: Elizabeth, Tamara and Tatyana. They managed to survive the Great Patriotic War. After graduation, they remained to live in different cities. Elizabeth in Novosibirsk (after the collapse of the USSR she came there from Kazakhstan), Tamara and Tatyana in Kharkov. About the father they say that he wascheerful, fond of football, cinema. He was not a scandalous person. They do not remember the case when Koshkin spoke in high tones. He had one very bad habit - smoking.
To remember
There has been a monument to Koshkin in Kharkiv since May 1985, but next to the village where Mikhail Ilyich (Brynchagi) was born, a monument was erected to his brainchild, the T-34 tank. In Brynchagy there is a monument to the designer himself. In the city of Kirov, along Spasskaya Street, 31, there is a memorial plaque to M. I. Koshkin, since he lived in this house. The same board was installed at the place of his studies in Kharkov (Pushkina, 54/2).
Director V. Semakov shot the film "Chief Designer" about the life and work of Mikhail Koshkin. The main character in this film was played by Boris Nevzorov.
Hero of Socialist Labor Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, father of the T-34 tank, is one example of that selfless and somewhat unique generation. Blessed memory of this wonderful person.
