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 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 commander Semyon Budyonny in it 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 on 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 on truly "unknown paths" of 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, led 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 Navy 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 himself 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...

The essence of a tank is firepower, protection and maneuverability. In the 1930s, there was still no theory in world tank building which of these three qualities should be preferred.

Constructor Koshkin

Koshkin's merit, as it turned out later, was that he found their perfect combination. What was it? Strong common sense, according to the English specialist Orgill, or the courage of engineering, a flash of talent and energy caused by a grand shake-up of the revolution? But not only that.

The great merit of Koshkin is that he was able to convince the top leadership in the person of Stalin of the need to create a prototype.

Inspired, Koshkin returned to the factory. The air already smelled of thunder. Two prototypes of the "T-34" did not have time to test when in March 1940 the question arose of showing them in the Kremlin. The solution was not immediately found, it was decided to send the tanks on their own, and of course the chief designer took a place inside the tank.

Was it really necessary? It is known that he was already unwell and the director of the plant Yu. Maksarev dissuaded him. But can you dissuade Koshkin? He wanted to see the tanks at the crossing, to show them to the members of the Military Council himself, especially since the fate of the vehicle had not yet been decided.

Of course, he could ride in the accompanying van, but he wanted to personally check everything and bring the tank to perfection. The project was approved by the Supreme Headquarters.

Six months remained before his death and a little more than a year before the start of the war. When the fascist bombs howled, the country's factories had already begun production of the T-34.

So is it a coincidence that he died so early?

No, he ruined himself with his obsession, burned out from his own energy, - says Maloshtanov, - He sacrificed his life to prove the superiority of the T-34.

Constructor Morozov

After the funeral of Koshkin, the Design Bureau was headed by Alexander Alexandrovich Morozov. A technician by education, whom, noticing among others, immediately upon arrival appointed Koshkin as his deputy.

Like Koshkin, we know him little, no films were made about him, he did not have time to write his memoirs, although several large notebooks with notes have been preserved.

Meanwhile, the government highly appreciated Morozov's creative thought, twice conferring on him the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

If Koshkin is a strategist, then he did not know higher mathematics, a talented nugget from Bezhitsa. Morozov was, as they say, a designer from God. He caught ideas on the fly, in the scheme he saw the design, in the drawing - the operating mechanism.

Possessing exceptional design intuition, Morozov, according to Matyukhin's memoirs, quickly oriented himself and returned sketches, demanding simplicity, manufacturability and cost-effectiveness of parts.

Not without reason, during the war years, the T-34 (it cost 100 thousand rubles in 1943) could be bought and presented to the front even by a collective farmer.

Morozov's talent manifested itself especially clearly in the dramatic months of 1941, when the scales swung in both directions. A German bomb had already demolished one of the rooms of his apartment, the Nazis were near Kharkov, when he flew by plane to Moscow, and then to the Urals, where the plant was evacuated.

Huge spans of buildings were intended for the manufacture of wagons. They had not yet had time to print the drawings, but from memory, according to the records, they began to produce tanks.

Constructor Kucherenko

The third of those awarded in 1942 with the State Prize for the creation of the T-34 after Koshkin (posthumously) and Morozov was named N. Kucherenko. He was Morozov's deputy, connected the design bureau with production, organized the mass production of new cars.

It was this communicative, broad, good-natured person who provided a creative environment, uninterrupted work of designers when the trains arrived at the Ural plant. Later he worked in the central bodies. His daughter, the poetess Larisa Vasilyeva, dedicated her "Book of the Father" to him.

Marshals G. Zhukov, I. Konev and our other commanders highly appreciated the reliable and easy-to-handle "soldier's tank", as it was called at the front. It is impossible not to say about the gloomy recognition of his qualities by German generals, including the theorist of tank wars.

For the first time he saw Russian tanks with a silhouette unfamiliar to him in the first days of the war at the crossing over the Berezina, where the “thirty-fours” knocked out several fascist tanks and forced the theorist himself to rush to the ground.

And in October, fierce tank battles unfolded near Mtsensk, where his armored hordes, rushing to Tula and Moscow, were stopped by M. Katukov's brigade.

Confrontation between the design bureaus of the USSR and Germany

Fierce battles were fought not only on the fronts. Far in the rear, an invisible duel continued, which began so dramatically in the prewar years between the tank design bureaus of the USSR and Germany.

It is known that with hysterical persistence he demanded to achieve an advantage in tank armament. Old cars were feverishly modernized, the Daimler and Man firms hastily designed the Panthers.

Hitler's favorite, Professor F. Porsche, created his own monster at the Krupp factories with a frightening name - the tiger. At the same time, famous professors did not hesitate to borrow forms from the "thirty-four".

It is interesting to note that American designers, in turn, came from German ones, and thus Russian technical thought had a decisive influence on world tank building, which even now considers the medium tank to be the main combat vehicle.

Confrontation T-34 and German tanks

However, let's get back to Hitler's decisive headquarters - the well-armored "", "" and "", armed with a cannon that hit the T-34 from a longer distance. How elastic was the design idea of ​​the creators of our tank, if during the war, without stopping production, it was possible to increase the tower and install a long-barreled 85-mm gun instead of a 76-mm one, which returned the T-34 their superiority.

Already in the first period of the war, our still few and scattered “thirty-fours” more than once confused the cards of the Nazis, intoxicated with victories, delaying their advance in oncoming tank battles.

Their strength was especially striking in the battles near Moscow and Stalingrad, in the grandiose battle on the Kursk Bulge, when on July 12, the “thirty-fours” of Rotmistrov’s army rushed towards the tank avalanche of the Nazis in the Prokhorovka area.

One and a half thousand cars, shrouded in clouds of dust and smoke, huddled into a giant tangle, and the T-34s at close range, from a distance of one hundred meters, pierced the armor of the Panthers and Tigers.

Only on this day the Nazis lost four hundred tanks and self-propelled guns. "Thirty-fours" instilled confidence in our soldiers in offensive battles in Ukraine, the Baltic states and East Prussia.

It was these most massive tanks of our army that took part in rapid breakthroughs and raids, overcame water barriers, stormed fortified areas and were the first to break into the liberated cities.

And on final stage war, along with the breakthrough tanks created by the design bureau of Zh. Kotin - heavy "IS" and self-propelled guns - played a decisive role in the Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations, in saving Krakow and Prague.

So our designers and tank commanders completely dispelled the myth of the tank power of the Wehrmacht, shamed the proud elite of the armored forces of Nazi Germany. But the T-34 tank, the main strike force of the ground forces, was not the only weapon that sowed terror and death among the invaders.

The 35,000th T-34, produced by the Ural plant, was put on a pedestal in the spring of 1945. And, imagine, many years later, when it was necessary to move it in connection with engineering work, the memorial T-34 was refueled. The diesel engine roared, the exhaust puffed, and before the eyes of the astonished people, the tank moved to a new place.

The October Revolution abruptly changed the fate of the peasant son. During the Civil War, as part of the Red Army, he participated in the battles near Tsaritsyn and Arkhangelsk (here Koshkin joined the party in 1919), was wounded. In 1921, directly from the troops, he was sent to study in Moscow. Mikhail Koshkin becomes a student of the Sverdlov Communist University. From "Sverdlovka" his path to science will begin. True, in 1924, after graduating from the Komvuz, he again had the opportunity to plunge headlong into the confectionery industry, so familiar from his youth (he was appointed director of a confectionery factory in the city of Vyatka). From 1925 to 1929, Mikhail Koshkin worked in the party bodies of the Vyatka province. In 1929, Koshkin, among the “thousanders”, again sits down for notes and textbooks, and in May 1934 he graduated from the Department of Automobiles and Tractors of the Leningrad Polytechnic (at that time - machine-building) Institute.

While still a student at the Polytechnic, Koshkin began working at OKMO, the experimental design engineering department of the Bolshevik plant, established in 1930. (In 1932, the tank production of the Bolshevik plant and OKMO were transformed into an independent Leningrad State Plant No. 174 named after K.E. Voroshilov. In 1933, on the basis of the Leningrad Experimental Machine Building Plant No. 185 named after S. M. Kirov", which until the second half of 1936 had the name "Experimental Plant of Spetsmashtrest". From such a school of domestic tank building as OKMO, in addition to M. I. Koshkin, famous designers L. S. Troyanov, I. S. Bushnev, G.N. Moskvin, S.A. Ginzburg, I.V. Gavalov.) Having received a diploma of higher education, Mikhail Koshkin is sent to the Pilot Plant, where he works until December 1936, first as a design engineer, then as deputy head of the design bureau.

In the second half of 1936, the Kharkov Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern (KhPZ), which mass-produced BT-7 tanks, was renamed Plant No. 183. Inside the plant, digital indexing of services was also introduced, the T2K tank design bureau was assigned the KB-190 index. This design bureau, despite its youth, already had certain developments (tanks T-12, T-24, BT). However, for the independent design of new modern tanks, the Design Bureau so far lacked experience and design personnel. By order of the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze on December 28, 1936, M.I. was appointed head of KB-190. Koshkin, instead of A.O. Firsov, who was accused of mass breakdowns of gears in gearboxes on BT-7 tanks in military units.

M.I. Koshkin was not chosen by chance. Firstly, he showed himself well in the former design bureau, where he received the Order of the Red Star for participating in the creation of the first domestic "thick-armored" medium tank T-46-5, and secondly, he was a member of the party, which in those years was among the technical specialists not so common occurrence. So, on July 1, 1937, in the design bureau, which was headed by Koshkin, out of 48 people, only 7 had tickets for members of the CPSU (b). At the same time, the deputy head of the design bureau N.A. Kucherenko, and all six heads of sections (P.N. Goryun, A.A. Morozov, V.M. Doroshenko, M.I. Tarshinov, V.Ya. Kurasov, A.S. Bondarenko), i.e. those who could be appointed at the end of 1936 to the post of chief of the design bureau were non-party. And if we consider that at the plant at that time an investigation was underway regarding the supply of 687 BT-7 tanks with structurally non-reinforced gearboxes to the Red Army, then the decision of the manager of Spetsmashtrest (an organization directly involved in tank building in the structure of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry) K.A. becomes clear. Neumann to strengthen the KB with party members.

Koshkin, little known to the plant staff, nevertheless quickly and without any friction entered his life. He sensitively perceived the situation of that time, attracted many designers, production workers and the military to work, sharing their painful problems, difficulties and experiences. He was principled, hardworking and honest. Thanks to these qualities, he very quickly gained prestige at the plant. According to the memoirs of a tank building veteran A. Zabaikin, “Mikhail Ilyich was easy to use and businesslike. Didn't like verbosity. As a designer, he quickly entered into the essence of the design, estimating its reliability, manufacturability, and the possibility of mass production. He listened attentively to us, technologists, and, if our comments were justified, he immediately used them. The team loved him."

In less than a year, under the leadership of M.I. Koshkin, with the participation of his closest assistants A.A. Morozov and N.A. Kucherenko, other designers, the BT-7 tank was modernized with the installation of the BD-2 (V-2) high-speed tank diesel engine created by that time at the plant. BT-7M was the first tank in the world to have a diesel engine. The Kharkov plant transferred 790 BT-7M tanks to the Red Army in 1939-1940.

In mid-October 1937, plant No. 183 received from the Armored Directorate (ABTU) of the Red Army the task of developing a new maneuverable wheeled-tracked tank, designated BT-20 (A-20) (tactical and technical requirements (TTT) were developed by the head of the 2nd Department of ABTU Ya.L. Skvirsky). To fulfill this serious task, M.I. Koshkin organized a new division - KB-24. He personally selected designers for this design bureau, on a voluntary basis from among the employees of KB-190 and KB-35. (KB-35, headed by I.S. Ber, was engaged at plant No. 183 in servicing serial production and improving the design of the heavy five-turreted T-35 tank, designed by the design bureau of the Leningrad Experimental Plant named after S.M. Kirov.) 24 led by Koshkin amounted to 21 people. Design Bureau KB-190, led from November 1, 1937 by N.A. Kucherenko, continued work on the modernization of the BT-7 tank and the finalization of the design documentation for the BT-7M and BT-7A tanks.

In February 1938, tests of an experimental tank BT-SV-2 "Turtle", designed under the guidance of a military technician of the 2nd rank Nikolai Fedorovich Tsyganov, were completed. In the design of the hull and turret of the tank, the armor plates were located at large angles to the vertical. It is believed that it was the geometry of the hull and turret of the BT-SV-2 tank that was used by the designers of KB-24 when designing the A-20 tank. Subsequently, such a principle of building armor protection, as the arrangement of armor plates at an angle, became a classic, widely used in tanks of all countries. A-20, according to TTT, was also distinguished by a new drive to the drive wheels, three of the four rollers (on board) were leading. A project of an "initiative" tank was also created, the essential difference of which was the replacement of the wheel-tracked mover with a simpler, purely tracked one. The abolition of the wheel travel made it possible not only to significantly simplify the design of the tank, but also to strengthen the armor protection due to the saved weight. The initiative version was distinguished not only by the absence of a wheel drive, but also by the presence of a fifth track roller, which increased the support of the track on the ground.

Even at the design stage of the A-20 tank, in the process of consideration by the commission of the ABTU of the Red Army, chaired by military engineer 1st rank Ya.L. Skvirsky drawings and layout of this tank (September 6, 1938), factory No. 183 was instructed to produce one wheeled-tracked tank with a 45-mm cannon and two tracked tanks with a 76.2-mm cannon, as well as one armored hull - for shelling. On December 9-10, 1938, the Main Military Council of the Red Army considered the drawings and mock-ups of two variants of the A-20 tank (wheeled-tracked and tracked) developed according to the proposals of the ABTU commission, presented by the plant No. 183.

At a meeting in the Kremlin, after reviewing the mock-ups of the 100 and SMK heavy tanks, they discussed the drawings and mock-ups of the A-20 tank in wheeled-tracked and tracked versions, presented by the lead tank engineer A.A. Morozov and the head of KB-24 of plant No. 183 M.I. Koshkin. Most of the military leaders present, including Deputy People's Commissar of Defense G.I. Kulik, they preferred the wheeled-tracked version of the A-20 tank, which had greater operational mobility. And at the moment when the scales finally tipped in favor of the wheeled-tracked version, M.I. Koshkin, accustomed to firmly and to the end to defend his views, in the presence of I.V. Stalin expressed his opinion that it was necessary to manufacture and submit for state tests both vehicles designed by plant No. 183 in wheeled-tracked and tracked versions. I.V. Stalin offered not to hamper the initiative of the plant and allowed the production of prototypes for both submitted projects. By the Decree of the Defense Committee (KO) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 45 of February 27, 1939, the drawings and models of the A-20 tank were finally approved for production. The wheeled-tracked tank remained under the name A-20, the tracked tank was given the name A-32 (T-32).

By the middle of 1939, prototypes of the A-20 and T-32 tanks were manufactured and presented State Commission for testing. The commission noted that both tanks "are superior in strength and reliability to all prototypes produced earlier ...", but did not give preference to any of the options, noting that both of them were well made and suitable for use by the troops. The secondary tests of experimental tanks A-20 and T-32 in the autumn of 1939, and most importantly, the hostilities taking place at that time in Finland, clearly confirmed that tactical mobility in rough terrain, especially in the autumn-winter period, can only be provided by tracked cars. At the same time, the need was determined to further increase the combat parameters of the T-32 tank, and especially to strengthen its protection. The resolutions of the Defense Committee ordered the production of two tracked tanks based on the A-32, taking into account the armor thickened to 45 mm and the installation of a 76 mm gun. In an extremely short time, the design bureau finalized the T-32 tank by further strengthening armor protection, armament, and implementing a number of other design changes. Decree of the CO under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 443 of December 19, 1939 "On the adoption of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery tractors into service with the Red Army and on their production in 1940" the T-32 tank with armor increased to 45 mm and a 76-mm cannon F -32 was put into service with the assignment of the name T-34.

In connection with the sharply increased volume of design work to finalize the T-32 tank and the release of drawing and technical documentation for prototypes of the T-34, as well as in connection with the cessation of production of T-35 tanks, at the end of 1939, the three tank design bureaus (KB-24, KB-190, KB-35) into one tank design bureau, which was assigned the code - department 520 (KB-520). M.I. became the chief designer of the joint design bureau. Koshkin. In the conclusion of the attestation commission, signed by the director of plant No. 183 Yu.E. Maksarev (who arrived in October from the Leningrad Kirov Plant) and the chief engineer of the plant, S.N. Makhonin, said: “Working as the head of the design bureau, comrade. Koshkin did a great job in terms of improvements in the design of the machine.

A qualified design engineer, fully prepared for the position of chief designer of the plant. Initiative, energetic and persistent. A good organizer and leader, enjoys prestige among the commanding staff of the plant. He works on himself in the sense of improving his technical knowledge. A.A. was appointed Head of Design Bureau and Deputy Chief Designer. Morozov, deputy head of the design bureau - N.A. Kucherenko.

Two experimental T-34 tanks were manufactured and transferred to military trials on February 10, 1940. These tests, which took place in February-March, fully confirmed the high technical and combat qualities of the new tank. And on March 5, 1940, two T-34 tanks left the factory for a test run along the Kharkov-Moscow route. Chief Designer Mikhail Koshkin led this run. On March 17, 1940, T-34 tanks, as well as combat vehicles manufactured by other factories, were demonstrated to members of the government on Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. At the request of I.V. Stalin, the drivers N. Nosik and O. Dyukalov drove through the square. After examining the "thirty-fours", Stalin spoke approvingly of them, calling the new tank "the first sign." After the Kremlin review, T-34 tanks were tested at a training ground near Moscow and on the Karelian Isthmus. In April 1940, returning under its own power to Kharkov, near Orel, one of the tanks capsized into the water. Helping to pull him out, Koshkin, already with a cold, got very wet. Upon his return to Kharkov, he was hospitalized at the insistence of doctors.

The display of tanks in the Kremlin was a turning point in the annals of the creation of the T-34. The tank was recommended for immediate production. At the 183rd plant, work began on the preparation of the serial production of the "thirty-four". Mikhail Koshkin, despite his illness, continued to actively manage the refinement of the tank. The chief designer worked hard. His illness suddenly worsened. A specialist surgeon was urgently called from Moscow. The patient was operated on: the lung had to be removed. But it did not help. Mikhail Ilyich died on September 26, 1940 in the Zanki sanatorium near Kharkov, where he underwent a rehabilitation course of treatment. The entire plant followed the coffin of the chief designer.

In October 1940, serial production of T-34 tanks began. At the end of the fortieth year, A.A. was appointed head of the design bureau - chief designer. Morozov. He continued the work of his predecessor, fine-tuning the T-34 put into serial production. Sam A.A. Morozov immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War in 1945 he wrote: “The fundamentals 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 are always a lot when solving complex problems. First of all, we owe this wonderful designer the appearance of such a perfect type of tank as the T-34.

April 10, 1942 designer Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin "for the development of the design of a new type of medium tank" was awarded (posthumously) Stalin Prize 1st degree. A.A. Morozov and N.A. Kucherenko. (Nikolai Alekseevich Kucherenko was awarded the Stalin Prize twice more - in 1946 and 1948. Being the head of the design bureau KB-520, in which the birth, formation and improvement of the legendary machine took place, he made a huge contribution to the creation and modernization of the T-34. From November 1, 1939 to August 23, 1947, N.A. Kucherenko was also the deputy chief designer of plant No. 183 A.A. Morozov, then he headed the department of the chief designer of the Glavtank in the Ministry of Transport Engineering until August 1949. In the fall of 1949, he returned to his native plant in Nizhny Tagil and until April 1952 he worked as chief engineer of this country's largest tank and car building enterprise.In 1952-1969, Colonel-engineer N.A. Kucherenko - head of the Main Directorate and member of the collegium of the USSR Ministry of Defense Industry. Died September 13, 1976 G.)

For a long time, the name of the creator of the legendary T-34, Mikhail Koshkin, was practically unknown. And the plant where this most advanced combat vehicle of the Second World War was born (now the Kharkov plant named after Malyshev) was called Yuzhny in the literature. Not far from his entrance, in May 1985, a monument to the creator of the "thirty-four" was opened, and in 1990, 50 years after his death, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Every year on December 3, flowers are laid at the foot of the monument - a tribute of grateful memory to the genius of tank building, a true patriot and a wonderful person. And on the house where he lived (the corner of Pushkinskaya and Krasin streets), a memorial plaque was installed.

The biography of Koshkin, the designer of the T-34 tank, is full of amazing stories, incredible accidents, amazing achievements and true heroism. This man, with his legendary invention, was able to change the course of military history. The T-34 tank is not just a combat vehicle that gave our army an advantage during World War II, it is a symbol that embodies faith in victory and the heroism of an entire nation.

Biography

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was born in the Yaroslavl region, in a village called Brynchagi, on November 21, 1898. His family was very poor, his father worked hard in logging, when Mikhail turned 7, his father died - he overworked and died. The widow was left with three small children in her arms. Mikhail and his brother helped their mother as much as they could, tending pigs after school, but this was still not enough. After graduating from only 3 classes of a parochial school, ten-year-old Mikhail, like another Mikhail, Lomonosov, sets off on foot to Moscow in the hope of earning money for his family. In the capital, he had maternal relatives, and he went to them. His mother provided him with a note with an address, but this important piece of paper was lost by Mikhail before he reached his destination. And this happened because on the way he came across a fight: several adult boys beat one younger boy, the hero of our article could not pass by, he stood up for the weak. In the heat of the fight, the cherished note disappeared. And it is not known how it could have turned out further fate Michael, if not for a random passerby. It turned out to be a worker of the Moscow confectionery factory. He not only went out to our hero, but also helped to get a job at the factory.

At the beginning of the revolutionary year of 1917, Mikhail was drafted into the army. He fought on the Western Front, was wounded and sent to Moscow to a hospital, from where he was demobilized. But already in 1918 he returned to the army voluntarily, joining the ranks of the railway detachment of the Red Army. He took part in the fighting near Tsaritsyn.

In 1919 he received a transfer to the Northern Front, where he fought in the battles for Arkhangelsk. On the way to Poland, Mikhail Ilyich fell ill with typhus. After recovery, he returns to the army, this time he fights on the Southern Front.

When the Civil War ended, he was sent to study at the Communist University. Ya. V. Sverdlov. After graduating from university in 1924, he was sent to a confectionery factory in Vyatka. Here, as director, he proved himself to be a competent, sensitive and responsible leader.

A family

Mikhail Koshkin met his future wife while working in Vyatka. Vera Nikolaevna Kataeva was an employee of the Gubpotrebsoyuz. Here, in Vyatka, the eldest daughter Elizabeth is born. The family of Mikhail Koshkin lived on the territory of the Trifonov Monastery. About this time, Lisa will later tell many interesting details. For example, how my father was involved in the organization of educational program courses, where he himself studied and taught others. Or about how he gave salaries to his employees: on the day of pay, Mikhail Ilyich invited the wives and children of his employees to his office, the children received sweets, and the wives were given a salary. This was done to ensure that the workers did not have the opportunity to drink the money the family needed.

In total, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin had three children in the marriage - these are daughters Elizabeth, Tamara and Tatyana. The eldest became a geography teacher, Tamara chose the profession of a geologist, and Tatyana taught at Kharkov University.

Design career

In 1929, at the personal request of S. M. Kirov, Mikhail Ilyich was sent to the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where he studied at the Department of Automobiles and Tractors. Having successfully graduated from the institution in 1934, Koshkin goes to work in the tank design bureau of the Leningrad plant named after. S. M. Kirov. This is where the story of the legendary invention of the Soviet design engineer begins. At this plant, under the leadership of Koshkin, the T-29 and T-46-5 tanks were created.

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was sent to Kharkov in 1936, he took the post of head of the design bureau of plant No. 183. The first achievement of our hero was the modernization of the BT-7 tank, which consisted in installing the V-2 engine. This is how the world's first diesel tank appeared.

The first fully tracked tank was also developed by the Design Bureau, led by Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin. Despite the skepticism of many respected colleagues, Koshkin was able to prove the advantage of caterpillar over wheeled and mixed. The new tracked tank was called the A-32. He showed excellent maneuverability in combat in rough terrain.

Birth of a legend

The use of a diesel engine, as well as a five-bearing caterpillar, opened up new opportunities for improving tanks. To prove this, in late 1939 - early 1940 Koshkin built two prototypes of the tank, which was assigned the A-34 index. Compared to previous models, this tank had several significant advantages, including a significant increase in combat weight (by 10 tons) and a double increase in armor thickness. A-34 became the prototype for the T-34.

While working on the drawings of the "thirty-four", Mikhail Ilyich devoted himself entirely to this process, practically settling at the plant. In relation to work, he was always very demanding of himself and others, assertive, purposeful and principled. It was this ability to work to complete self-forgetfulness that made him a top-class specialist.

The first prototypes of the T-34 tank were created by Mikhail Koshkin in the spring of 1940. By March, two copies had been released. Despite the fact that the tanks were already on the move, their total mileage did not yet allow them to proceed to public trials. On the speedometer of each tank, according to the regulations, there should have been indicators over 2000 km. Meanwhile, already on March 17, a demonstration of new technology was to take place in the Kremlin.

The entire biography of the designer of the T-34 Koshkin testifies that this man was not afraid to take complex decisions and never ran away from responsibility. The current acute situation with a public demonstration for the highest echelons of power was no exception. Mikhail Ilyich found the only possible, but extremely risky, way out - he decides to overtake the tanks to Moscow on his own. This simultaneously allowed both to conduct field tests and gain the required mileage.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that at that time the T-34 was a classified product, it was impossible to openly demonstrate it, which means that the route was built around roads and settlements in order to prevent the disclosure of state secrets. Besides, there was still snow. And in Moscow, at the appointed hour, Stalin was waiting. The conditions are truly extreme.

Now, it is probably difficult to imagine what a monstrous responsibility lay on Koshkin, not only as a designer, but also as a person who decided to make a run. Without exaggeration, he risked not only his freedom, but, possibly, his life. In the event that something went wrong, he would have to answer to Stalin.

On the night of March 6, a column with two camouflaged tanks set off. Mikhail Koshkin himself often sat down on the levers of the T-34 tanks on the way. All design flaws, which manifested themselves in multiple minor breakdowns, were eliminated in the field.

Almost a week later, on March 12, the tanks were in Moscow, and on the 17th a triumphant demonstration took place in the Kremlin. Iosif Vissarionovich was pleased.

Death

Unfortunately, the nightmarish conditions for the transfer of tanks from Kharkov to the capital did not leave Mikhail Ilyich without a trace. Koshkin caught a bad cold. The situation worsened during the return run, when one of the tanks fell into the water and he participated in the extraction of the vehicle. The disease worsened, turning into pneumonia, which caused the death of Mikhail Koshkin.

He did not stop working, despite the acute course of the disease and hospitalization. Soon it was necessary to remove the lung, which ceased to function, but this could no longer save the life of Mikhail Ilyich.

Koshkin died on September 26, 1940 in a sanatorium near Kharkov. He was buried at the Kharkov First City Cemetery.

Awards

Mikhail Koshkin was awarded the Order of Lenin, for the T-111 tank he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize for the T-34. In 1990, he was also posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Memory

In Kharkov in 1985 a monument to Mikhail Koshkin was erected. Also one of the streets of the city bears his name.

There is a monument to the designer in the Yaroslavl region, in the center of the village of Brynchagi, where he was born.

In Kirov (formerly Vyatka), at house number 31 on Spasskaya Street, there is a memorial plaque. Mikhail Ilyich lived and worked in this house. A memorial plaque was also installed on the building of the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, since he studied here. And another memorial plaque is located in Kharkov, it is installed on the house where the designer lived with his family, at the address: Pushkinskaya street, 54/2.

And there is also a monument to the legendary T-34 tank, it is located on the federal highway M-8, not far from the direction indicator to the village of Brynchaghi.

In addition to architectural structures, the achievements of design engineer M.I. Koshkin are captured on the pages of books - this is the “Creation of Armor” by Y.L. Reznik, the brochure “Mikhail Koshkin: unique documents, photographs, facts, memories” issued for the 110th anniversary of our hero, “ Tank ahead of time "and" Constructors "authored by V. A. Vishnyakov.

Also in 1998, a postage stamp was issued depicting Koshkin himself and his main invention.

War and tanks

M. I. Koshkin died nine months before the start of the war, he never had a chance to witness the triumph of his most perfect development.

By the time the war began, the Soviet Union had 1225 T-34 units. The tank, although it was in the middle class, was equipped with excellent armor and a powerful gun, which allowed it to confront heavy class vehicles such as the German Tigers and Panthers. The latter were many times longer-range, but could not penetrate the armor of the "thirty-four", and he, in turn, although from a shorter distance, but confidently hit enemy equipment. At that time, the Germans did not have a tank in service that could withstand a direct hit from the T-34.

And that was not its only advantage. Unprecedented maneuverability made it possible to fight in any, even the most difficult, conditions. The T-34 passed where, according to the enemy, it was simply impossible to pass.

Our machine was not only superior to German tanks, it was the best in the world. Even having captured the T-34 model that survived the battle, the Germans could not create a copy of it, although many ideas were adopted in further developments. We can say that the German "Panthers" and "Tigers" were created precisely as a response to the Russian T-34.

This tank on the battlefield terrified the enemy tank crews and delighted their designers. Müller-Hillebrandt, a German major general, even talked about the development of “tank fear” in the ranks of the German troops.

Some structural elements remained a mystery to them with seven seals, for example, a special method of hardening steel for the manufacture of tanks - submerged arc welding, developed by the Soviet academician E. O. Paton.

Until the end of the war, the T-34 did not give up its leadership position in the global tank building market. Technological features and mass production capabilities led to the fact that he went down in history as the most massive tank of the Great Patriotic War.

"Chief Designer"

The biography of the designer of the T-34 tank Koshkin M. I. was the basis of the book "The Creation of Armor" by Y. Reznik. The film "Chief Designer" is based on this work.

At the core of the story - real story the transfer of the first prototypes of the T-34 from Kharkov to Moscow for demonstration in the Kremlin and back to the plant in Kharkov.

The role of Koshkin in the film was played by Boris Nevzorov. The film was released in October 1980.

"Tanks" and "T-34"

There are many stories about the legendary Soviet car that went through the entire war. They are preserved in archives and memoirs, embodied in literature and cinema.

In April 2018, the film "Tanks" was released. It was directed by Kim druzhizhin. The role of Koshkin was played by Andrey Merzlikin. The film offers the viewer an alternative, far from real historical facts a story in the adventure genre about how Mikhail Koshkin made a secret forced march to Moscow on prototypes of the T-34. The biography of the designer of the T-34 tank Koshkin M.I. is interpreted in this work of cinematic art very freely. According to the plot of the film, its goal is to obtain permission for the mass production of new types of tanks. Those "thirty-fours" that helped win the Great Patriotic War.

The picture was accepted by Russian critics rather coolly. Among the audience there are conflicting reviews, but most of those who spoke are in solidarity with the fact that this is an entertainment movie.

In December 2018, another Russian film about a tank awaits us. It is called, like the combat vehicle itself, "T-34". The plot is based on the story of cadet Ivushkin, who is captured by the Germans. The hero plans to escape with the help of a T-34 tank captured by the Nazis. He manages to collect the crew of the car among other prisoners of war. He challenges the German Ass tankers, among them Jaeger himself. The main male role in the film is played by Alexander Petrov.

You can have different attitudes towards the films about the “victory tank” that are released on wide screens, but their undoubted advantage is that after watching every viewer will know that Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was the chief designer of the victorious T-34 tank. The man who always smiled, never raised his voice, was as unpretentious in everyday life as he was demanding in work. A man who gave his life to give his homeland the T-34, the importance of which for the Soviet army cannot be overestimated.

When the second World War ended, W. Churchill called the Soviet "wonder tank" T-34 one of the three decisive weapons of the war that had died down.

early years

(December 3, 1898, the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, Russian empire- September 26, 1940, Zanki rest house, Kharkov region, Ukrainian SSR) - Soviet designer, head of the tank building design bureau of the Kharkov plant, which created the famous T-34 tank.

Biography

early years

Born on November 21 (December 3, according to a new style) in 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, now Pereslavl district, Yaroslavl region. The family lived in poverty, the family had little land, and the father was forced to engage in seasonal work. In 1905, while working in logging, he overstrained himself and died, leaving his wife, who was forced to work as a laborer, and three young children. Michael 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, as part of the 58th Infantry Regiment, he was sent to the Western Front, and in August he was wounded. He was treated in Moscow, received leave and at the end of 1917 was demobilized. On April 15, 1918, he volunteered for 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 English invaders, 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, participated in the battles against Wrangel on the Southern Front.

From 1919 to 1920 he was a 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 head of a confectionery factory, from 1925 to 1926 - head of the agitation and propaganda department of the 2nd District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, from 1926 to 1928 - head of the Gubsovpartshkola, in 1928 year - deputy head, from July 1928 to August 1929 - head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

In 1929, on the personal order of S. M. Kirov, as an enterprising worker, among the “members of the thousands”, he was enrolled in the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (Department of Automobiles and Tractors); I took an industrial practice at the Gorky Automobile Plant, and a pre-graduation in the experimental design department of one of the Leningrad plants.

After graduating from high school 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 reached the deputy head of the design bureau. For participation in the creation of a medium tank with anti-shell armor T-46-5 (T-111) he received the Order of the Red Star. He also participated in the creation of the T-29 tank.

Kharkiv

From December 1936, Koshkin headed the Design Bureau of the T2 Tank Department, 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 interrogated, the design bureau was divided into two areas: since the summer of 1937, one part of the employees has been engaged in development work (14 topics), the other provides 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 assignment. On October 13, 1937, the Armored Directorate of the Red Army (ABTU) issued to Plant No. 183 (KhPZ) tactical and technical requirements for a new tank under the BT-20 index.

Due to the weakness of the design bureau of plant No. 183, a separate design bureau was created at the enterprise for work on the new tank, independent of Koshkin's design bureau. 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 WAMM Adjunct Adolf Dick. Development is under difficult conditions: arrests continue at the plant.

Koshkin in this chaos continues to develop his direction - the drawings, on which the backbone of the Firsov design bureau (KB-24) is working, should form the basis of the future tank.

The design bureau under the leadership of A. Dik developed a technical design for the BT-20 tank, but with a delay of one and a half months. 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 dealt with issues of tank mobility in the design bureau, to the creation of the future T-34 tank was the important idea for the undercarriage of installing another road wheel and an inclined arrangement of suspension springs on board.

The design bureau was reorganized, Koshkin became its head. In March 1938, the tank project was approved. However, by this time, the military leadership of the country 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 (NPO) seeks permission to manufacture and test two new tanks - a wheeled-tracked one (as was supposed 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 middle - end of the summer of 1939 in Kharkov, new models of tanks were tested. 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 ... they are well made and suitable for use by the troops,” but she 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 finalized: armor was thickened to 45 mm and a 76-mm gun was installed, and more - this is how the T-34 appeared.

Two experimental T-34s were manufactured and handed over for military trials on February 10, 1940, which confirmed their high technical and combat qualities. In early March 1940, Koshkin went with them from Kharkov to Moscow "under his own power." In the conditions of the beginning of the spring thaw, with a strong deterioration of the tanks by the previous run tests (about 3000 km), the run that had begun 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 manage the refinement 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 city cemetery, which in 1941 was destroyed by Luftwaffe pilots by targeted bombing in order to eliminate the designer's grave (Hitler declared Koshkin his personal enemy after his death).

A family

• Wife - Vera Nikolaevna.
• Daughters:
• Elizabeth is a geography teacher,
• Tamara is a geologist
• Tatyana is a teacher at Kharkov University.

Awards

• Order of the Red Star for the development of an experimental model of the medium tank T-111
• Stalin Prize (posthumously, April 10, 1942) "for the development of 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

monuments

• In Kharkov, not far from the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985, a monument was solemnly unveiled to Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin.
• 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.
• The monument to M.I. Koshkin was erected in the center of his native village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Region, in the same place, on the house in which he was born and lived, a memorial plaque was installed.
• In Kirov (Vyatka), a memorial plaque was installed on the house where M.I. Koshkin lived (Drelevsky St., 31).

• Reznik Ya. L. Armor Creation. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1987.
• Vishnyakov V. A. A tank ahead of time. For life on earth. — M.: DOSAAF, 1986. — 525 p. - 100,000 copies.
• Vishnyakov V. A. Constructors. 1989.
• Brochure "Mikhail Koshkin: unique documents, photographs, facts, memories (to the 110th anniversary of his birth)", 2009

• "Chief Designer" directed by V. Semakov, the role of Koshkin was played by Boris Nevzorov.

• In 1998, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of M.I. Koshkin, a Russian postage stamp was issued with his portrait. The figure on the left shows the T-34 tank mounted on a pedestal. The stamp is printed with the text: "M. I. Koshkin. 1898-1940". The cost of the stamp is 1 ruble. The drawing was made by L. Zaitsev.