Mikhail Ilyich. Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was born on November 21 (December 3), 1898, in the village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Province (Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Oblast). His father overworked himself from the weight of logging and died in 1905, leaving a wife and three young children. A widowed mother had to become a laborer in order to earn a piece of bread.

Misha tried his best to contribute - and at the age of 14 (according to another source, at the age of 10) he went to Zlatoglavaya to work. In the capital, Koshkin found a place at a confectionery factory (now Red October) as an apprentice. A few years later, Mikhail was entrusted with the maintenance of caramel machines.

Before the February Revolution, Koshkin ended up on the Western Front, where he fought as part of the 58th Infantry Regiment of the Russian Imperial Army. After the defense of Tsaritsyn (Tsaritsyn) and participation in the capture of Arkhangelsk (Arkhangelsk), Mikhail, who had been ill with typhus, joined the RCP (b). In 1921, he graduated with honors from military-political courses in Kharkov (Kharkiv).

Koshkin was sent for further studies to Moscow (Moscow), where in 1924 he graduated from the Communist University. Sverdlov and became the head of the Vyatka confectionery factory. Mikhail remained in Vyatka for four years. At the age of 30, he tied the knot with Kataeva Vera Nikolaevna. Three children were born in the family - Elizabeth, Tamara and Tatyana.

In 1929, Koshkin, who had experience in a design bureau, was enrolled in the Leningrad Technological Institute, from where, due to loss of interest, he moved to the mechanical engineering department of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.

The owner of the specialty "mechanical engineer for the design of cars and tractors", Mikhail directly followed the decree "On the state of defense of the USSR" and began to develop modern types of tanks. He participated in the creation of the T-29 wheeled-tracked tank and the top-secret experimental medium tank T-111, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Considering all the impressive achievements of Koshkin, he was entrusted to head a special tank design bureau in Kharkov. Vera Nikolaevna liked living in Leningrad, but the new appointment of the head of the family was not discussed. On December 28, 1936, People's Commissar for Heavy Industry G.K. Ordzhonikidze (G.K. Ordzhonikidze) signed an order to transfer Mikhail to the KhPZ named after the Comintern (No. 183).

Under the leadership of the new leader, work was underway to modernize the unfinished tank model. Less than a year later, Koshkin released the BT-7M armored vehicle with a tank diesel engine. In the autumn of 1937, designer Adolf Dick began the development of a new wheeled-tracked tank BT-20 (factory index A-20) at plant number 183. He did not meet the deadlines, for which he was accused of disrupting a government assignment and received 10 years of camps.

Koshkin managed not only to move "overtaking, not chasing", so as not to become an "enemy of the people", and to make numerous modifications to the A-20 project, but also received permission from I.V. Stalin (Joseph Stalin) to develop a purely tracked tank A-32. The new model with increased 45 mm armor and a 76 mm cannon impressed in tests with its "extraordinarily beautiful shape", maneuverability and level of armor protection. On November 19, 1939, the Defense Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 443 adopted the A-32 model, called the T-34 tank, into service with the Red Army.

Before mass production, it was necessary to gain the required mileage. The Kharkiv-Moscow-Kharkov run, unprecedented in the history of tank building, was led by Koshkin himself. On March 17, 1940, two T-34 tanks were the first to reach the Kremlin, where they were met by Stalin.

On the way to Kharkov, one of the military vehicles drove into the lake, and Mikhail helped rescue the tank from the icy water. Cold and exhausted, the designer finally passed under Orel (Oryol) and fell ill with pneumonia. Kharkiv doctors shrugged their shoulders, so they had to call a surgeon from the capital.

It was decided to remove one of Koshkin's lungs, and after the operation the patient was sent for rehabilitation to the factory sanatorium "Zanki". Mikhail died at the age of 41 on September 26, 1940, nine months before the start of World War II. His wife, as if repeating the fate of his mother, was left early a widow with three children.

His daughter Elizaveta became a geography teacher, Tatyana a teacher at Kharkov University, and Tamara a geologist.

Mikhail was buried at the First City Cemetery in Kharkov, but the grave has not survived to this day. According to one version, it was destroyed as a result of fascist bombing.

On April 10, 1942, Koshkin was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1990, the inventor of the T-34 was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

In May 1985, a monument was erected to Mikhail in Kharkov, next to the entrance of the Malyshev Plant. Another memorial, to the T-34 tank, appeared in the native village of the designer, in Brynchagi, Yaroslavl region.

In the city of Kirov (Kirov), at the house at st. Spasskaya, 31, where Koshkin lived, a memorial plaque was installed. Memorial plaques also appeared in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg), on the Main building of the St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, and in Kharkov, on the house at st. Pushkinskaya, 54/2, where Mikhail lived.

In 1980, a Soviet two-part film by Vladimir Semakov (Vladimir Semakov) "Chief Designer" was released, telling about the creation of the legendary T-34 at a secret Kharkov plant. The role of Koshkin in the film was played by the famous actor Boris Nevzorov.

Glory to the hero.
Balamutick 2006-08-30 14:17:18

Glory to the hero. Great tank, the best tank of World War II. T-34 best defeated the enemy, skeptics and will.

Amazing human destiny. Providence gave him only forty-two years, but how they were lived! Even his main and well-deserved awards - the State (Stalin) Prize and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor - Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was awarded only after his death. And more than four years of military service M.I. Koshkin immediately attracted my attention.

One can only imagine how important it was for a native of a poor peasant family, who received a three-class education, who early learned the price of labor, precisely his army period of life.

Another circumstance did not escape my attention. Despite the wide popularity of the name of the designer, in which the foundations of the "thirty-four" were laid, little is known about his life path and even about the history of the creation of this legendary car. So by the time I met my first interlocutor, the number of questions that I wanted to get answered had grown significantly.

Acquaintance with the candidate of technical sciences, reserve colonel Yuri Pavlovich Mukhin, who painstakingly collected material for the very publication with which my business trip began, became the starting point of the search.

We met with Yuri Pavlovich in Kubinka near Moscow. It houses the Military Historical Museum of Armored Vehicles, where he works as a researcher.

Having learned about the purpose of my arrival, Mukhin provided for review all the materials about M. Koshkin that were available at that time. According to Yuri Pavlovich Mukhin, the search for documents and materials about Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin intensified sharply only during the preparations for the celebration of the centenary of the designer.

The initiative of the museum staff in this search was also supported by the Main Armored Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Mukhin personally searched for documents, traveled to the homeland of Mikhail Ilyich in the village of Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Region. Yuri Pavlovich also visited Kharkov, where he worked in the archives of the famous design bureau, which Koshkin led in the last years of his life. He met with the youngest daughter of the designer, Tatyana Mikhailovna, and people who knew Mikhail Ilyich closely.

It should be noted that the search for documentary materials about the constructor was not easy, and this is not an accident or someone's malicious intent. Mikhail Ilyich died nine months before the war. The design bureau was evacuated to the Urals, to Nizhny Tagil. Kharkov was occupied by the Germans. Even proceeding from this, it was not difficult to assume that some of the documents could simply disappear forever.

In addition, relatives of the designer claim that Mikhail Ilyich did not keep diaries, and, it seems to me, he simply did not have time to do this.

“But here, one might say, we were very lucky,” says Yuri Pavlovich, “at the request of the museum to St. Petersburg, to the Polytechnic Institute, which graduated from Koshkin, a copy of an interesting document was received, which turned out to be a questionnaire for new applicants to higher educational institutions dated 1930.

Studying this particular document, Mukhin drew attention to the mention of the service of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin in the Railway Troops and used this little-known fact in his article about the designer. He simply could not have failed to mention this, because he himself is the son of a hereditary railway worker, the famous Pavel Petrovich Mukhin, who was awarded the Honorary Railway Worker badge three times, which in itself is a rare fact.

The feeling that I experienced when I read the questionnaire lines filled in by the hand of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin is difficult to convey in words.

“... Since February 1917, he served in the army of Kerensky as a private,” wrote Koshkin. Let's make a little explanation for this period. It is known from the autobiography of M. Koshkin that in the spring of the same year, as part of the 58th Infantry Regiment, he was sent to the Western Front. In August 1917 he was wounded and was treated in Moscow. Then he received leave and at the end of 1917 was demobilized.

Service in the Red Army begins with Mikhail Ilyich on April 15, 1918 in the railway detachment formed in Moscow, in which he volunteers. In the summer and autumn of the same year, the Red Army soldier Koshkin took part in the battles near Tsaritsyn. Then, in 1919, he was transferred to Petrograd and served in the 3rd railway battalion. In addition, it is reliably known that the future head of the Railway Troops, Hero of Socialist Labor, Colonel General P. A. Kabanov, served in the 1st separate railway company, formed in Petrograd in 1918, so we can assume that the military biographies of these people are quite could intersect.

From Petrograd, the battalion was transferred to the Northern Front, where by that time the British invaders had landed, and took part in the capture of Arkhangelsk.

Many studied sources say that it was near Arkhangelsk that the future designer and his colleagues first encountered English Ricardo tanks. Maybe then the Red Army soldier Koshkin came to realize the power and prospects of armored vehicles, the creation of which became the meaning of his short but bright life. So it's safe to say that the steel of his future tanks was tempered precisely in the railway troops.

After the liquidation of the Arkhangelsk Front, the 3rd Railway Battalion was urgently transferred to the Polish Front. On the way, Koshkin fell down with typhus, he was removed from the train, but thanks, rather, not to a miracle, but to his strong young health, he still survived.

After recovering, Mikhail Koshkin was sent to the 3rd Railway Brigade, in whose ranks he participated in the battles against Baron Wrangel on the Southern Front. The 3rd railway brigade in 1920 was commanded by P. A. Pinsky.

This unit took an active part in the battles on the Southwestern Front, along with other railway units. The military railroad workers of the 3rd brigade were restoring bridges and other objects in the offensive zone of the front. For example, documents have been preserved that tell about the military affairs of the 22nd railway division of the 3rd railway brigade. The division was commanded by N. A. Sergievsky, the military commissar was F. I. Vishnevsky. This unit distinguished itself in the defense of the Korosten - Malin sector, delaying the enemy's advance.

If we follow the biography of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, then after the disbandment of the 3rd railway brigade in the summer of 1921, he was sent to Kharkov for military-political courses.

Here, I think, it is quite appropriate to quote the words of the writer V. Chalmaev: “M. Koshkin belonged to a generation whose terrible years of revolution and civil war coincided with the time of formation and choice, the time of bold decisions and great hopes.

This time coincided with Mikhail Ilyich and with his military service, most of which took place in the railway troops.

Contemporaries, close people, comrades noted in him the highest efficiency, the ability to value time, see the future, get along with people and infect others with their creative energy. And we will not be mistaken in asserting that all these qualities were laid down, formed during the years of his military youth.

Briefly outlining the front line of the military railway worker Mikhail Koshkin, I deliberately omitted the most interesting fact so far, which, perhaps, in many respects gives the key to understanding this amazing Russian phenomenon - the creator of the best tank of the Second World War. And sometimes in an incredible way, service in the Railway Troops can give impetus to the birth of original technical ideas, the crowning achievement of which is the creation of unique weapons. But more about this story ahead.

In the meantime, having completed all the affairs in Moscow, I went to Kharkov. This city has already occupied all my thoughts. Outside the window of the car, the fields gave way to forests, sometimes one could see rural churches dear to the Russian heart, causing a contemplative mood. And memory suddenly inadvertently suggested that in those pre-war years in Kharkov, where Mikhail Koshkin headed the design bureau, a modest lad, Viktor Miroshnichenko, later a legendary military railwayman, who was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously), worked at the locomotive repair plant. Their paths in life hardly ever crossed. But both of them, each in their own way, gave their whole lives without a trace in the name of protecting their native Fatherland ...

Museum workers are collectors of memory. To them, modest and inconspicuous workers of culture, we owe much to the preservation of the national memory, and hence the national spirit. And we must bow low to them from the waist for the fact that in a series of historical changes and frequent opportunistic "forgetfulness" they save for us not just things and documents, but also the very spirit of an era, distant or near.

With excitement, I crossed the threshold of the National Museum of the History of the Production Association “Plant named after Malyshev”. Enterprises are legendary in their own way. More than a hundred years ago, steam locomotives began to be produced here, and already in the twenties of this century, the first tractor in the country was produced. In the 30s, the production of tanks was mastered at the Kharkov Locomotive Plant, the development of which was carried out by the design bureau of the plant.

Museum director Anna Valentinovna Bystrichenko, a passionate and caring person, told a lot about the life and career of the famous designer. A lot of documents and materials about Mikhail Ilyich are the result of many years of painstaking work and good relationships that have developed between employees and relatives and friends of M. I. Koshkin. Some unique documents were given here by the designer's wife, Vera Nikolaevna, and his youngest daughter, Tatiana Mikhailovna. However, it's time. Let's open the personal party file of Mikhail Ilyich and mentally move from Kharkov in the late 90s to Vyatka in the early 20s.

T-34-Mihael_Koshkin

TALENT IS TALENT IN EVERYTHING

Looking into the fate of Mikhail Koshkin, I thought about the incomprehensible logic of Providence. The path to the goal is not always the shortest distance. And the goal itself is the meaning of life, which is not given to everyone to find.

A graduate of the Moscow Communist University arrived in Vyatka for the position of ... assistant director of a confectionery factory. Soon he became its director. This appointment will seem surprising if you do not know about Koshkin's "confectionery" past. From the age of eleven until being drafted into the army, he worked at the famous confectionery factories in Moscow, first as an apprentice confectioner, and then as a master. So, figuratively speaking, subsequently tank "delicacies" for the future enemy were prepared not only by a talented designer, but also by a professional confectioner.

An amazing property of an outstanding person: he is good everywhere. In a short time, the factory under his leadership becomes one of the most prosperous enterprises in Vyatka. There is a curious document in the museum funds - the minutes of the meeting of the factory committee, which contains an urgent request from the staff - to detain Mikhail Ilyich in his current position for some time before being appointed to a higher one. The motive is simple - he must prepare a worthy successor, otherwise the factory will suffer losses with his departure.

In general, in the biography of M. I. Koshkin, one pattern is clearly traced: he is sent to the most difficult areas - and the success of the case is always guaranteed. Our hero was waiting for a brilliant party career, and he dreams of a serious education. We read the memoirs of his wife: “Mikhail Ilyich really wanted to study. How much did you have to prepare to enter the university, but he worked hard. During the day he worked, and at night he sat at the books.

In 1929, at the age of thirty, Mikhail abruptly changes his fate and becomes a student at the Leningrad Technological Institute.

In those years of the rapid rise of industry, the country was in dire need of qualified engineering and technical personnel. Mikhail devoted himself to study without a trace, mastered the sciences selflessly. The future mechanical engineer for the design of cars and tractors passed his industrial practice at the Gorky Automobile Plant. The director of GAZ entrusted the trainee with the responsible position of the foreman of the defective department. Mikhail not only earned the honorary “Drummer's Book”, but also proved himself to be a promising specialist. The leadership of GAZ came out with a petition to the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry to send Koshkin to the enterprise after graduation.

But the line of life went in a different direction. The undergraduate practice of the future engineer took place in the experimental design department of one of the Leningrad plants. The department was engaged in the design of prototypes of tanks. Today, perhaps, you will be surprised at how serious and responsible tasks were entrusted to students in those years. Sergey Mironovich Kirov has been in the design team more than once. It was he who saw in a serious student an extraordinary talent and natural talent. Here is how the Ural writer Y. Reznik writes about this in his documentary story “The Creation of Armor”: “Pointing to Koshkin more than once, Sergei Mironovich advised - load him well, do not be afraid to entrust difficult work. Surprisingly brainy and whole man. This one can do great things, this one will show itself.”

At the end of undergraduate practice, Koshkin, carried away by projects for the creation of new tanks, decides to devote his life to this. But good specialists are needed everywhere. From Gorky to the institute and the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry go paper after paper about sending him to a car factory. Koshkin decides to turn to Kirov with a request to give him the opportunity to design tanks.

They meet. When asked by Kirov why Koshkin decided to go into tank building, he answers quite definitely. Like, he had an interest in armored vehicles during the civil war, when he fought on an armored train as part of the Railway Troops. Finally, he strengthened his decision in practice in Leningrad.

On the same evening, Kirov called Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who led the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry: "Sergo, I found a nugget! .."

We will focus on the fact of Koshkin's service on an armored train, which at least partly explains the mystery of creating the best tank of the Second World War.

Ideas are not born in a vacuum, they are the fruit of observation, reflection and creative search. In fact, you can find a lot in common in an armored train and a tank: armor protection, firepower, mobility and maneuverability, crew autonomy, and much more. At the beginning of this century, military-technical thought was often developed by analogies and comparisons. It is not surprising that in the experimental design department, Mikhail Ilyich more than once recalled the years of his military youth, combat episodes. I am far from going into primitive arguments about some direct transfer of the merits of one type of weapon to another. But prompting, directing the vector of engineering thought in the right direction, giving birth to an original idea is a logical consequence in science.

In his book M. I. Koshkin and his "thirty-four" P. Kozlov, who used the materials of the Center for Documentation of the Contemporary History of the Kirov Region, writes: "After Lenin's call to the communists to diligently study armor business, Mikhail Ilyich was sent to an armored train."

Armored trains for their time were an excellent combat and mobile strike force. The first of them in the Russian army were created in the workshops of the 6th and 9th railway battalions. During the Civil War, they were widely used as part of the Railway Troops.

The fact of service M.I. Koshkin on the armored train is also confirmed by the designer Vadim Nikolaevich Beloshenko, whom I met in Kharkov. Vadim Nikolaevich worked together with the Hero of Socialist Labor Alexander Alexandrovich Morozov, Koshkin's ally, who headed the Design Bureau after his death. For more than 30 years, Beloshenko has been studying the life and work of Mikhail Ilyich. He spent many of his holidays in Leningrad, Kirov, Moscow, where Koshkin worked and studied, in search of little-known facts of his biography, he was also well acquainted with Vera Nikolaevna Koshkina.

The search and study of documents from the time of the Civil War give Beloshenko grounds to assert that armored trains were used especially intensively on the fronts where Koshkin once fought: in the battles for Tsaritsyn, during the counteroffensive near Petrograd in October 1919, while repelling the Wrangel troops. In general, the Red Army had 17 armored trains.

By the way, they have proven themselves very well on the Polish front, which is confirmed by the enemy himself. “In the last battles on the entire front,” the order for the 3rd Polish Army read, “the enemy’s armored trains are the most serious and terrible enemy, against which our infantry is powerless.” An interesting fact: already during the Great Patriotic War, towers with guns from the T-34 were installed on armored trains.

FAMILY WAS HIM SUPPORT

I was lucky to meet the designer's two daughters, Tamara Mikhailovna and Tatyana Mikhailovna. They keep in their memory wonderful memories of walks with their father around Kharkov, visits to the circus, and many other things from their distant childhood. They talk with great warmth about their mother Vera Nikolaevna, who has always been a reliable support for her husband, did a lot to preserve the memory of him after death. Until her last days, she corresponded with museums, collected newspaper clippings and other materials about him.

Three daughters of the designer did not drop the family honor. The eldest, Elizaveta Mikhailovna, taught geography to children for almost half a century, and lives today in Novosibirsk. Tamara Mikhailovna became a geologist, traveled all over the Urals with expeditions, and defended her PhD thesis. Tatyana Mikhailovna - PhD, Associate Professor, teaches at Kharkov University. Fate scattered them in different cities, they live modestly and hardly any of their neighbors realize that one of the daughters of the creator of the legendary “thirty-four” lives next to them.

They recall with excitement the day when, in 1990, by decree of the President of the USSR M.I. Koshkin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. This was the first time such a title was awarded posthumously. And a few years later, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine unexpectedly came to the wife of the designer and presented a luxurious shawl on behalf of the President.

Official recognition of the merits of the designer came decades later. But his civil feat is not diminished by this. The gratitude of a simple tanker soldier for saving his life, for winning fights with "tigers" and "panthers" - what could be a better memory ?!

The very same history of the creation of the T-34 is as attractive as the fate of the designer. But that's about the next story.

The fate of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin contains one of the moral mysteries of the Russian character. Much was against him: a lack of understanding of the designer's ideas by specialists, ill-wishers in the highest echelons of power, unthinkable terms and conditions for creating a tank. But Providence, the eternal savior of Russia, invested in him that extraordinary power of talent and spirit, which will overcome everything. Years later, military historians in many countries admit: the T-34 owed its birth to people who managed to see the battlefield of the mid-twentieth century better than anyone in the West could do. In the meantime, the young engineer began a thorny path to his goal ...

To see this future battlefield, Mikhail Koshkin, a graduate of the institute, still had a lot to realize and think ahead. In Leningrad, in the department where he did his undergraduate practice, the young designer was directly involved in the creation of the T-29 high-speed wheeled-tracked tank and the T-111 (T-46-5) medium tank with anti-cannon armor. The work went well, and soon he was appointed to the position of deputy chief designer of the department. Koshkin's organizational talent is especially manifested in the ability to rally the creative team, to ignite with an idea. In 1936, a group of designers received awards, including Koshkin, who was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

The key to understanding the idea of ​​creating the T-34 should probably be sought in that period of Koshkin's work, when the design team was working on the T-111 tank. It is noteworthy that the experimental model of the "one hundred and eleventh" became the first tank in the world with anti-shell armor. Until then, progress in world tank building was expressed in the growing speeds of tanks, an increase in their strength, power reserve, and some simplification of the appearance. The armor protected the crew only from rifle and machine-gun fire and did not undergo any changes. And this is not surprising, since anti-tank artillery did not exist at that time, and any, even the smallest, thickening of the armor entailed a long chain of troubles for the designers. And although the T-111 had many shortcomings and was not accepted for service, it already embodied a far-sighted foresight of the role of tanks in a future war.

Plunging into the specific problems of tank building, Mikhail Ilyich came to the firm conviction that it was impossible to follow the beaten path. “To work not after, but to overtake. In the design, use not an analogue, but a trend. To create a tank that would be promising and would not require significant changes, ”he told the employees more than once, and these words became a creed in his work.

At the end of 1936, M. Koshkin was appointed head of the design bureau of the Kharkov Locomotive Plant. The Kharkov period of activity will become the brightest and, alas, the most dramatic period of his life.

At the design bureau, Koshkin was greeted with caution: an unknown person arrived, endowed with Ordzhonikidze with great rights. But the ice of alertness quickly melted when Mikhail Ilyich introduced himself to the team simply: “Let's get acquainted. I am Koshkin. And his highest professionalism, design talent earned him great respect. In less than a year, Koshkin, with his closest assistants A. A. Morozov, N. A. Kucherenko, and other designers, will develop a modernization of the BT-7 tank with the installation of a diesel engine on it, which had no analogues in world tank building.

Meanwhile, a package with photographs of tanks supplied by the USSR to the Republicans arrives in Moscow from Republican Spain, engulfed in fire. Burnt, mangled, shell-torn combat vehicles, among which were the BT and T-26, which were developed and produced in Kharkov. No, these tanks were not bad for their time. But the anti-tank artillery and heavy machine guns that appeared in the Germans nullified the possibilities of anti-bullet protection for the BT and T-26.

In 1937, the team was given the task of designing a new wheeled-tracked tank, which was assigned the A-20 index. The customer - the Armored Directorate of the Red Army - saw in it a car with better characteristics than the BT, but did not propose any fundamental changes. Mikhail Ilyich was clearly aware of the futility of the future model. At his own peril and risk, he selects an initiative group of the best designers, who, along with working on a given model, designs a purely tracked tank. It is slower than its predecessor, but has more powerful armor and a cannon. Later, the initiative model received the official name - A-32, and in the design bureau itself it was called "Foundling", "Own" or "Counter".

"YOUR CATERPILLARS ARE GALOSHS ON BOOTS"

The essence of a tank is its firepower, protection and mobility. In the 30s, civilian tank building had not yet decided on the concept of which of the three properties to give preference to. Koshkin solved this problem surprisingly simply: the new tracked tank was based on parameters that did not infringe on any of these properties, and they were considered by the designer as extremely necessary and equally important. The designers set themselves an exceptionally daring and difficult task: to preserve the vehicle's maneuverability inherent in a medium tank, provide the crew with armor protection, and give the tank the most powerful weapon.

But creative thought went even further. “Guys, fewer complications,” Koshkin told his young colleagues. “Do everything so that the car is accessible to anyone.” This ingenious design principle would be appreciated later, during the war, when it was necessary to establish mass production of tanks at the evacuated factories and, making up for losses, train tankers as soon as possible.

But then, in the 38th, Koshkin and his "Foundling" had many high-ranking ill-wishers. From the height of today, one is amazed not only by the engineering talent, but also by the human courage of the Russian designer, who defended his ideas to the end, risking a lot. And this, perhaps, is an even greater feat!

Surprisingly, even Colonel General D. Pavlov, commander of the tankers in Spain, supported the decision to adopt the unpromising A-20 tank. At the Main Military Council of the Red Army, Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR G. Kulik forbids Koshkin to even mention his project, and he not only carries in an unknown way the layout of the "Foundling", but it is with him that he begins his speech. G. Kulik, who did not expect such a turn, abruptly cuts off the designer:

- Your caterpillars are galoshes on boots. We will do A-20.

If only the marshal, demoted to major general in 1942, had known in advance that in a few years these "galoshes" would crush the myth of the invincibility of fascist tanks. But then, at the council, Koshkin's opponents voted for a tank with a mixed undercarriage, arguing this with combat experience gained in Spain. Indeed, high-speed BTs showed themselves well there: when the tracks were knocked down, they walked on wheels. “But this is on the rocky Spanish soils, and not on the arable lands and swamps of Russia, and even in the mud,” the designer stood his ground.

Unexpectedly for many, Koshkin was supported by Stalin. He gave the designer a free hand, saying that the truth would be determined after comparative tests.

Marshal Kulik's opposition to designer Koshkin will not end there. Apparently, the very fate of Russia was largely decided on the line of confrontation between these two people. But in such a moral historical battle, it is not the individual who wins, but what we call providence. A person only carries in himself the gift and power of conduct received from above.

In the summer of 1939, the A-20 and A-32 were presented to the state commission for comparative tests. The amazing timing of the creation of the T-34! The genius of the designer and the dedication of engineers and workers, the truly Russian ability to give everything to the end and the understanding of a lofty goal, creative audacity and self-confidence - all this became a harbinger of that historic moment when a decision was made on the mass production of tanks. But that moment has not yet come.

The tank makes a greater impression on the people's commissars for defense and engineering Voroshilov and Malyshev. This impression is further enhanced when the T-34 brilliantly passes military tests, even causing applause after overcoming, one day, a water barrier. A long-barreled 76-millimeter cannon with an hitherto unprecedented initial projectile velocity is installed on the tank, and frontal armor is increased. On December 19, 1939, that is, almost 60 years ago, the tank, created under the leadership of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, received its name T-34 and was adopted by the Red Army.

In March 1940, another demonstration of the latest tanks for members of the government was to take place in Moscow. The directorate requested permission to send two “thirty-fours” to the review. Kulik sent an urgent telegram: "I forbid loading tanks and leaving for Moscow." The reason is that the tanks did not have a set mileage. And then Koshkin, in order to "get" the missing kilometers, he decides to lead the tanks to Moscow. On snow-covered roads and fields, the designer was driving military vehicles, sitting at the levers. Having a bad cold, with a temperature, he, together with the mechanics, fixed the breakdowns. He drove and drove the "thirty-four", driven by his star, which shone high in the sky of Russia. The show in the Kremlin was a key moment in the history of the creation of the T-34 and its finest hour as a designer.

“Well guys, we won! We will make a caterpillar tank,” he says to his comrades-in-arms, choking with a cough. Refuses to travel by train and returns to Kharkiv with his own cars. Soon, on September 26, 1940, nine months before the start of the war, he dies.

By June 22, 1941, 1225 T-34 tanks were produced, and during the entire war - several tens of thousands. Taking revenge on the already dead Russian designer, in October 1941, German planes went berserk, bombed the city crematorium in Kharkov, where the urn with the ashes of Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin rested. The Nazis seemed to foresee their future defeats, deliberately bombing an object that had no military significance.

Reference:

Medium tank T-34 model 1940

Curb weight: 26000 kg
Crew: 4 people
Armor thickness: 45 mm
Armament: 76.2 mm L-11 cannon model 1940, two 7.62 mm DT machine guns
Turret complete rotation speed: approximately 10–12 sec
Elevation angles: -5°; +29°
Ammunition: 77 rounds, 3906 rounds
Highway speed: 54 km/h
Cross-country speed: 38 km/h

November 21, 1898 - September 26, 1940
The first chief designer of the T-34 tank, head of the tank building design bureau of the Kharkov Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern. Hero of Socialist Labor.

On February 10, 1940, the first two T-34s were manufactured and their testing began. On March 17, a demonstration of tanks to members of the government is scheduled in Moscow, for this purpose a tank rally Kharkov - Moscow is organized. Considering the importance of the event, Mikhail Koshkin himself sets off on new machines as a responsible representative of the plant.
Mile Kharkov - Moscow - Kharkov undermined the health of Mikhail Koshkin, a cold and overwork led to pneumonia.
September 26, 1940 in the sanatorium "Zanki", undergoing a rehabilitation course of treatment, the legendary designer died
Behind the coffin of the chief designer was the whole plant. Mikhail Ilyich was buried at the then central Kharkov cemetery - the First City Cemetery, located on Pushkinskaya Street behind the Giant campus. But the grave was not destined to exist for long. In 1941, during the bombing of Kharkov by German aircraft, it was destroyed.

Path of immortality

“To work not after, but to overtake” - this motto of Koshkin, combined with his method of working in jerks, jumping up, as they say, "into the last car", was a typical for the entire Soviet period XX century. An emergency style of industrial life was developed.
And there was a result. March 5, 1940 In the early morning of the year, another spurt began from the gates of the Kharkov plant towards Moscow: two A-34 tanks left. A lot of romantic writing has been written about this tank campaign. The film was shot in the 1960s by "Chief Designer" with a poster handsome actor in the role of Koshkin. The whole country "with a bang" accepted the film about the first adventures of the "thirty-four". She became a national heroine during the war, she was admired,all the good things about her were believed. And then, at the beginning of the fortieth, a spiteful whisper crawled after the tanks leaving for Moscow:

• Raw cars went. More than a thousand kilometers is a serious transition. He will come-dut. KB will be disgraced.


• Itching for Koshkin. Orlen wants. Already not young, he must understand - it smells of failure. I was going to put the tanks on the platforms, and in one night they would have reached Moscow. Why rethink? The party's order was to go along with the tanks.

• It will be a swallow in the tank forces.

An excerpt from the book Nikolai Kucherenko. Fifty years in the battle for tanks of the USSR

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. Neiman, 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 was created at the Kharkov Steam Locomotive Plant named after the Comintern, and Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was 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 the tracked 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 on the second there 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-34-85s, 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 .

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 your dream

The twentieth century was famous for the massive 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 stalling empire. 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. Before those who designed equipment (tanks, cars, planes), they bowed, they were idolized.

Koshkin was sent to study at the Moscow Communist University immediately after the end of 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 (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. He was one of the designers in the Security Committee. It took him only a year to become deputy general designer. And in 1936 Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich received

The difficult path of a leader

In 1936, on December 18, People's Commissar Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze publishes Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, head of the TKB plant No. 183. At that time, there was a difficult personnel situation in the security committee. His predecessor, Afanasy Osipovich Firsov, was taken into custody with a note "for sabotage", 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 mass 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 inconsistency with the requirements of the tasks, it was rejected. The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the Armored Directorate placed an order with 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.

Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich, 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 time, an anonymous letter was written to the head of the security committee, which led to Dick's arrest, 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).

hit or miss

For experiments, a pair of T-34 tanks were created, 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.

A magnificent designer without a higher education Morozov Alexander in technical matters became the right hand of M. Koshkin. Also involved in the process was the designer Nikolay Kucherenko, a former deputy. Firsov. Together with their families, they could take a walk in Gorky Park on the weekend, went to the football game 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 a 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 began to create the tank of his dreams, 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.

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. It was this that made it possible to produce 1225 T-34 tanks by June 22, 1945, which helped to reduce human losses in battles.

The inhabitants of Pereslavl did not suspect that their countryman M.I. Koshkin was the same creator of the T-34 victory tank. In 1982, a petition was written for conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union M.I. Koshkin, which did not receive approval (since it was not timed to a round date). Pereslavl people concluded that the name of the creator of the T-34 was not accidentally deleted from the historical pages.

An award that found a hero

The refusal did not stop 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. Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich, the main dates from whose life you already know, by the presidential decree of the USSR on May 9, 1990, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Awards received

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

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

Koshkin through the eyes of his children

Koshkin was married. His wife Vera Koshkina (nee Shibykina) 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. They say about their father that he was cheerful, was 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 Kharkov 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 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 made 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, the father of the T-34 tank, is one example of that selfless and somewhat unique generation. Blessed memory of this wonderful man.