Koshkin and his tank t 34. Hero of Socialist Labor Mikhail Koshkin. Biography, achievements, main events and interesting facts. Homeland needs tanks

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Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Brynchagi village, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province
Date of death:
A place of death:	Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR

	Vera Nikolaevna
	Daughters? Elizabeth, Tamara, Tatiana

early years

(December 3, 1898, the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, Russian empire- September 26, 1940, Zanka 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, new style), 1898 in the village of Brynchagi, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, now Pereslavsky district, Yaroslavl region. The family lived in poverty, the family had little land and the father was forced to engage in side-trades. In 1905, while working in logging, he broke down and died, leaving his wife, forced to go to work as a laborer, and three small children. Mikhail graduated from a parish 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 Western front, was wounded in August. He was treated in Moscow, received leave and at the end of 1917 was demobilized. On April 15, 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army railway detachment formed in Moscow. He took part in the battles at Tsaritsyn. In 1919 he was transferred to Petrograd to the 3rd railway battalion, which was transferred to the Northern Front against the British interventionists, and took part in the capture of Arkhangelsk. On the way to the Polish front, he fell ill with typhus and was removed from the train. After his recovery, he was sent to the 3rd Railway Brigade, took part in the battles against Wrangel on the Southern Front.

From 1919 to 1920 he was a political worker. After graduation Civil war from 1921 to 1924 he studied at the YM Sverdlov Communist University. After graduation, he was appointed to Vyatka, where from 1924 to 1925 he worked as the head of a confectionery factory, from 1925 to 1926 - the head of the agitation and propaganda department of the 2nd district committee of the CPSU (b), from 1926 to 1928 - the head of the Gubsovpartskola, in 1928 year - deputy head, from July 1928 to August 1929 - head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Gubkom of the CPSU (b).

In 1929, on the personal order of S. M. Kirov, he was enrolled in the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute(department "Cars and tractors"); industrial practice passed at the Gorky Automobile Plant, and the pre-diploma - in the development 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 I. S. M. Kirov. From the position of an ordinary designer, he quickly rose to the deputy chief of the design bureau. For participation in the creation of a medium tank with anti-cannon armor T-46-5 (T-111) received the Order of the Red Star. He also took part in the creation of the T-29 tank.

Kharkov

Since December 1936, Koshkin headed the Design Bureau of the Tank Department "T2", plant number 183, Kharkov steam 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 directions: since the summer of 1937, one part of the employees has been engaged in development work (14 topics), the other provides current batch 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 factory number 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 the design bureau of Koshkin. 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 the adjunct of the WAMM Adolf Dick. Development is going on in difficult conditions: arrests continue at the plant.

In this chaos, Koshkin 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. Dick 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 labor camps. The contribution of A. Dick, who was briefly engaged in the design bureau on the issues of tank mobility, in the creation of the future T-34 tank was in the idea of installing another road roller on board and an inclined arrangement of the suspension springs, important for the chassis.

The design bureau was reorganized, and Koshkin became its head. In March 1938, the tank project was approved. However, by this time, the military leadership of the country had doubts about the correctness of the chosen type of propulsion for the tank. April 28, 1938 Koshkin in Moscow at a meeting People's Commissariat Defense (NKO) is seeking permission to manufacture and test two new tanks - wheeled-tracked (as expected by the original assignment) and purely tracked. They differ somewhat from the sides of the BT-IS tank by N.F. Tsyganov. In the middle - late summer of 1939, new models of tanks were tested in Kharkov. The commission concluded that "in terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are higher than all previously produced ... well made and suitable for operation in the army," 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, its revision was carried out: the armor was thickened to 45 mm and a 76 mm cannon was installed, and more - this is how the T-34 appeared.

Two experienced T-34s were manufactured and transferred 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 "on his own". 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 began several times was on the verge of failure. On March 17, 1940, the tanks were shown to government officials on the Ivanovskaya Square of the Kremlin. The tests in the Moscow region and on the Karelian Isthmus were completed successfully. The T-34 was recommended for immediate production.

Koshkin himself paid dearly for this demonstration success - a cold and overwork led to pneumonia, but Mikhail Ilyich continued to actively supervise the completion of the tank until an exacerbation of the disease occurred and one lung had to be removed. The designer died on September 26, 1940 at 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 with a targeted bombing in order to eliminate the designer's grave (Hitler declared Koshkin his personal enemy after his death).

A family

The wife is Vera Nikolaevna.
Daughters:

Elizaveta is a geography teacher,
Tamara is a geologist
Tatiana is a lecturer at Kharkov University.

Awards

Order of the Red Star for the development of an experimental model of the T-111 medium tank
Stalin Prize (posthumously, April 10, 1942) "for the development of the design of a new type of medium tank" (T-34)
Hero Socialist Labor(posthumously, by Decree of the President of the USSR No. 824 of October 4, 1990)

Memory

Monuments

In Kharkov, near the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985 a monument to Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin was solemnly unveiled.
The monument to the T-34 tank, in fact to MI Koshkin, was erected by the road, near his native village of Brynchagi in the Yaroslavl region.
Monument to M.I.Koshkin, installed 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 there is a memorial plaque.
In Kirov (Vyatka) on the house where M.I.

Reznik Ya.L. Cast Armor... - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1987.
Vishnyakov V.A. The tank ahead of time. - For the sake of 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 with his portrait was issued. The picture on the left shows a 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.

For several generations of citizens of our country, the T-34 tank is one of the symbols of Victory, a symbol of the power of domestic weapons.

The man who created the "thirty-four" did not live to see the triumph of his brainchild. He sacrificed his life in order to Soviet Union received a new tank as soon as possible.

"Sweet life" of a peasant son

Nothing said that Mikhail Koshkin could become an armored vehicle designer. He was born on December 3, 1898 into a peasant family in the village of Brynchagi in the Uglich district of the Yaroslavl province. The boy was not even seven when his father died, having strained at logging. The mother was left with three young children in her arms, and Mikhail had to think not about studying, but earning a piece of bread.

At the age of 14, he went to work in Moscow. Koshkin was accepted as an apprentice in the caramel shop of the confectionery factory, which would later be called "Red October".

In 1917 he was drafted into the army. As part of the 58th Infantry Regiment, Koshkin fought at the front, was wounded. By the time his health was restored, the demobilization of the old tsarist army began, and Mikhail took off his military uniform.

True, not for long - in April 1918 he volunteered for the Red Army. In its ranks, Koshkin fought at Tsaritsyn, at Arkhangelsk, fought with Wrangel's army.

After several wounds and typhoid, he military career ended. But in Koshkin they saw the potential of a leader, so he was sent to Moscow, to the Sverdlov Communist University.

After graduating from university in 1924, Mikhail Koshkin became director of a confectionery factory in Vyatka. There, he began to move along the party line, by 1929 becoming the head of the agitation and propaganda department of the Gubkom of the CPSU (b).

The country needs tanks, and tanks need designers

He is 30 years old, he has a wife, a child, he is a pastry chef in the past, but now he is a party worker - what kind of tanks can there be?

But the country has a problem - the tank industry is practically absent. The situation needs to be changed dramatically. An educated workforce is urgently needed.

The call "Communists, go ahead!" sounded very serious then. And, among other party workers, Koshkin went to receive a technical education, enrolling in the engineering faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.

But those who knew Mikhail said that he gnawed the "granite of science" fiercely, his stubbornness and determination would have been enough for two.

While still a student, Koshkin works in the design bureau of the Leningrad Kirov Plant, studying models of foreign tanks purchased abroad. Together with his colleagues, he is not only looking for ways to improve the existing technology, but also nurture ideas for a fundamentally new tank.

In 1934, Mikhail Koshkin defended his diploma in the specialty "mechanical engineer for the design of cars and tractors", the topic thesis"Variable gearbox of a medium tank."

Firsov and Dick

After graduating from the university, the "young specialist", who is already 36, works in Leningrad, and his abilities begin to unfold. He is rapidly progressing from an ordinary designer to a deputy chief of a design bureau. Koshkin participated in the creation of the T-29 tank and an experimental model of the T-111 medium tank, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

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In December 1936, Mikhail Koshkin was sent to Kharkov as the head of the tank design bureau of plant number 183.

Afanasy Firsov

Koshkin's appointment to the post took place under rather tragic circumstances - former head of KB Afanasy Firsov and a number of other designers fell under the sabotage case after the BT-7 tanks produced by the plant began to fail en masse.

Firsov, who managed to transfer the affairs to Koshkin before his arrest, was shot in 1937. Conspiracy theorists will later call him the real "father" of the T-34.

Under the leadership of Koshkin, the BT-7 tank was modernized, which was equipped with a new engine. And in the fall of 1937, the Armored Directorate of the Red Army issued a task to the Kharkov plant to develop a new wheeled-tracked tank.

At the plant in Kharkov, simultaneously with Koshkin, he works constructor Adolph Dick... According to one version, it was he who developed the project of the tank called the A-20, which met the requirements of the technical specifications. But the project was ready later than planned, after which Dick received the same charge as Firsov and ended up in prison. But Dick was lucky - unlike Firsov, he escaped execution, spent many years in exile, then returned to work as a designer. Adolf Yakovlevich lived to the end of the 1970s.

Model А-32

Let's go back to Koshkin. Of course, he relied on the work of Firsov and on the work of Dick. As, in fact, and for the entire world experience of tank building. However, he had his own vision of the tank of the future.

Koshkin wanted to create a high-speed vehicle with high maneuverability, withstanding artillery fire and having significant striking power.

Along with the A-20 wheeled-tracked model, the designer is developing the A-32 tracked model. Together with Koshkin, his associates work, who will subsequently continue his work - Alexander Morozov, Nikolai Kucherenko and engine designer Yuri Maksarev.

At the Supreme Military Council in Moscow, where projects of both the wheeled-tracked A-20 and the tracked A-32 were presented, the military is frankly not enthusiastic about the "amateur performance" of the designers. But in the midst of the controversy, Stalin intervened - let the Kharkov plant build and test both models. Koshkin's ideas got the right to life.

Pre-war tanks produced by plant number 183. From left to right: A-8 (BT-7M), A-20, T-34 model 1940 with an L-11 cannon, T-34 model 1941 with an F-34 cannon

The designer was in a hurry. He understood that a great war was on the threshold. The first samples of tanks were ready and entered for testing in the fall of 1939, when the Second World War had already begun. Experts admitted that both A-20 and A-32 are better than all models previously produced in the USSR. But no final decision was made.

Kharkiv - Moscow - Kharkiv

Taking into account the comments, the tank was finalized - the armor was increased to 45 mm, and a 76-mm cannon was installed.

Two prototypes of the tracked tank were ready in early February 1940. Koshkin strove to launch the vehicle into mass production as soon as possible, but for this, among other tests, the tanks must travel a certain number of kilometers.

On March 17, 1940, a show of vehicles, which received the official name T-34, was scheduled in Moscow. Koshkin decides - his tanks will go from Kharkov to the capital on their own, gaining the required mileage along the way.

On March 17, 1940, the tanks were displayed in the Kremlin. Delighted Stalin called the T-34 "the first swallow of our armored forces."

Koshkin earned recognition, he was invited to the Bolshoi Theater for a performance attended by the country's top officials. But the illness intensified, the designer's cough became frightening, and he was urged to take care of his health.

Where there ... Tanks lacked another 3000 km of run for mass production. The designer ordered - we will also go back to Kharkov on our own.

Highest price

How many careerists do you know who, for the sake of someone else's, appropriated project, are capable of such self-denial? The answer is simple - the T-34 tank was the brainchild of Mikhail Koshkin himself. And not for the sake of vanity, he fought for him, but for the sake of the country, which needed a new car.

In Kharkov, he was hospitalized with a diagnosis of pneumonia. But as soon as it became easier, Koshkin ran to the plant to continue revising the project and follow the start of mass production.

These shoots were not in vain. The designer's health deteriorated so much that a medical team was sent from Moscow to help local specialists. Koshkin had to remove a lung, after which he was sent for rehabilitation. And he kept thinking about his tank, and colleagues who came to visit him were forced to discuss not the well-being of the designer, but the progress of work at the plant.

In years German occupation Even the grave of the designer who sacrificed his life for the T-34 will disappear in Kharkov.

Winner

But this sacrifice will not be in vain, and his name will not be forgotten. Professor at Oxford University Norman Davis, author of the book “Europe at War. 1939-1945. Without a simple victory, "he wrote:" Who in 1939 would have thought that the best tank of the Second World War would be produced in the USSR? The T-34 was the best tank not because it was the most powerful or the heaviest; German tanks were ahead of it in this sense. But it was very effective for that war and made it possible to solve tactical problems. Maneuverable Soviet T-34s “hunted in packs” like wolves, which gave no chance to the clumsy German “Tigers”. American and British tanks were not so successful in confronting German technology. "

On April 10, 1942, designer Mikhail Koshkin was posthumously awarded the Stalin Prize for the development of the T-34 tank.

The like-minded designer continued to improve the tank, which will pass all the roads of the war, and will enter Berlin as a winner.

Designer Koshkin did everything he could for this victory.

Fifty years after his death, in October 1990, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin will be awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

November 21, 1898 - September 26, 1940
First chief designer tank T-34, head of the tank building design bureau of the Kharkov steam locomotive plant named after the Comintern. Hero of Socialist Labor.

On February 10, 1940, the first two T-34s were manufactured and tested. A demonstration of tanks to members of the government is scheduled for March 17 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.
The Kharkov - Moscow - Kharkov run 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
The whole plant followed the coffin of the chief designer. Mikhail Ilyich was buried at the then central Kharkov cemetery - the First City, located on Pushkinskaya Street behind the Gigant student town. But the grave was not destined to exist for long. In 1941, during the bombing of Kharkov by German aircraft, it was destroyed.

The path of immortality

"To work not in pursuit, but to overtake" - this motto of Koshkin, combined with his method of working in jerks, jumping, as they say, "into the last carriage", was typical for the entire Soviet period XX century. An emergency style of production life was developed.
And there was a result. March 5, 1940 early in the morning from the gates of the Kharkov plant in the direction of Moscow, another dash began: two A-34 tanks left. Much romantic has been written about this tank campaign. The film was shot in the 1960s by "Chief Designer" with a handsome poster - an 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,they believed everything good about her. And then, at the beginning of the forties, after the tank-kam leaving for Moscow, a spiteful whisper crawled:

The damp cars started. More than a thousand kilometers - the transition is serious. Do not reach. Disgrace KB.

Koshkin is naming him. Orlen wants. He's no longer young, I must understand - it smells like a failure. I was going to put the tanks on platforms, and in one night they would have reached Moscow. Why change your mind? The order of the party was to go along with the tanks.

There was also a rumor that Stalin himself was waiting in the Kremlin for two tanks, which should come on their own.
Among the legends about the "thirty-four" there is the absolute truth: Koshkin himself decided to go his own way in order to test the possibilities of a new modification of the tank along the way. He was unhealthy, had a cold, but Mikhail Ilyich never paid attention to "such trifles."
For the run, a car escort with a repair team was provided. It was not without incident. On the way, near the village of Yakovlevo, where in three years the "thirty-four" will fight in the blood with new German tanks, there was a serious breakdown. From Moscow to the place of breakdown came the deputy. Commissar Goreglyad. Repaired, reached the capital. And two tank travelers passed unforgettable tests in the Moscow region. There is also a legend about them, how a tank took a ford on the Nara River.
There is another legend: after testing at midnight, one of the tanks arrived at the Kremlin and stood on Ivanovskaya Square. Stalin came out. They helped him to climb the tank. He disappeared into the hatch, soon appeared and said:

It will be a swallow in the tank troops.

The phrase about the swallow went around all the media.
Somebody. already in our days. I do not know from whose words, he described how Stalin that night on Ivanovskaya Square frowned, hearing the incessant cough of the sick Koshkin. Whether it was or not is unknown, but there is one historical detail discovered in the archives by Zheltov and giving reason to think that Stalin remembered Koshkin himself well, which helped restore historical justice. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Returning from Moscow, Koshkin literally collapsed into illness. He was diligently treated, raised to his feet, sent to the sanatorium "Zanki", where the design trail did not overgrow. Colleagues brought him only positive information, he wanted the truth, was angry, he was sure. that will get up and return to the KB.
Before his death, Mikhail Ilyich felt well. Everyone is waiting for his return, so the bitter news was received with special pain.
The factory multi-circulation, dedicated to the memory of Mikhail Ilyich, printed, among others, the lines of Nikolai Alekseevich separately. Here they are.
“... From the first days of his arrival at the design bureau, Mikhail Ilyich showed himself as an experienced designer and an excellent organizer.
The topic was immediately identified, and we got down to business. Comrade Koshkin, managing the work of the bureau, was simultaneously engaged in the creation of an experimental workshop and the introduction of new products into serial production.
With his energy and decision he kindled. Comrade Koshkin always gave us the right direction in our work and was very demanding. If you don’t complete the task on time, don’t get poured into anything. Friendship and good relationships will not save you. Demanding to himself, he also demanded from his comrades the exact fulfillment of the task entrusted to him.
A knowledgeable designer, Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin never refused to learn from experienced experts. He listened to their voice, studied himself and taught others. Such comrades as Vishnevsky, Zakharov and Perelstein. met at Comrade Koshkin's support, sensitive and attentive attitude.
I remember now, an urgent task was received to install an important mechanism. Mikhail Ilyich himself promoted this issue and in a month and a half (the record time at that time) he did a great job together with Comrades. Moloshtanov and Tarshinov.

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

Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich - former chief designer of the tank design bureau (KB) of the Kharkov plant named after the Comintern of the People's Commissariat of Armament of the USSR, Ukrainian SSR.
Born on November 21 (December 3), 1898 in the village of Brynchagi in the Uglich district of the Yaroslavl province, now the Pereslavl-Zalessky district of the Yaroslavl region, into a peasant family. Russian. He graduated from a parish school and at the age of 11 went to work in Moscow, where he acquired the profession of a pastry chef.
In Pervy world war was mobilized into the Russian army. He was wounded at the front.
In April 1918 he volunteered for the Red Army. Member of the Civil War. Member of the RCP (b) / VKP (b) since 1919. He served in the army as a political worker.
In 1924, after graduating from the YM Sverdlov Communist University, he worked at a confectionery factory in the city of Vyatka (now the city of Kirov). Then he switched to party work - head of the agitprop department of the 2nd district party committee, head of the provincial Soviet party school, head of the agitprop department of the Vyatka provincial party committee.
In 1929, Mikhail Koshkin, as an initiative worker, among the "party thousanders", was sent to study at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (department "Cars and tractors"), which he successfully graduated in 1934 and, together with a diploma, was assigned to the position of a designer of the plant named after S.M. Kirov in Leningrad, and then worked as deputy chief of the design bureau of this enterprise.
Since 1937, Mikhail Koshkin is the chief designer of the tank design bureau at the Kharkov plant named after the Comintern of the People's Commissariat of the Defense Industry (since 1939 - weapons) of the USSR. By this time, it became obvious that the tanks in service with the Red Army were not able to withstand the enemy's artillery, and first of all, Hitler's Germany. And the international situation, testifying to the impending war, demanded from the designers to create a combat vehicle, technically superior to all samples of potential adversaries.
In the middle - late summer of 1939, new models of tanks were tested in Kharkov. The conclusion of the commission was adopted that "in terms of strength and reliability, the experimental A-20 and A-32 tanks are higher than all previously produced ..." exploitation in the army ".
The practical use of experimental products put everything in its place: a tracked tank proved its great tactical mobility in rough terrain during the battles of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.
Kharkiv residents in record time carried out the revision of the tank according to the commission's comments: armor protection, armament, and more were strengthened. So, in the A-32, in addition to the idea of a caterpillar track, MI Koshkin embodied a harmonious combination of high combat qualities in fire, armor protection and maneuverability.
By the resolutions of the Defense Committee, it was ordered: to make two tracked tanks based on the A-32, taking into account the armor thickened to 45 mm and the installation of a 76-mm cannon, and also henceforth to call the tank "T-34".
Two experienced T-34s were urgently manufactured and transferred for military trials on February 10, 1940. These tests, which took place in February - March 1940, fully confirmed the high technical and combat qualities of the new tank.
On March 5, 1940, two T-34 tanks left the Kharkov plant on a test run along the Kharkov - Moscow route. This race was headed by the chief designer M.I.Koshkin.
On March 17, 1940, on the Ivanovskaya Square of the Moscow Kremlin, T-34 tanks, as well as combat vehicles manufactured by other factories, were shown to members of the Soviet government.
At the request of J.V. Stalin, the driver-mechanics N. Nosik and O. Dyukalov drove across the square. Having examined both T-34s, JV Stalin commended them, calling the new tank "the first sign".
After the review in the Kremlin, T-34s were tested at the Moscow Region test site and on the Karelian Isthmus.
In April 1940, returning under its own power to Kharkov, near Orel one of the "thirty-fours" capsized into the water. Helping to pull out the tank, already with a cold, M.I. Koshkin, he got very wet. Upon returning to Kharkov, he was urgently hospitalized.
"Kremlin bride" became a turning point in the annals of the creation of the T-34 tank, which was recommended for immediate production. At plant No. 183, work on the preparation of the serial production of this combat vehicle was in full swing.
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin, despite his illness, continued to actively supervise the completion of the tank and worked for wear and tear. And his illness suddenly escalated. A specialist surgeon was urgently called from Moscow. The patient had to remove the lung. But this, unfortunately, did not help ...
The general designer of the best tank during the Second World War of 1939-1945, never knowing what a heroic and legendary fate was in store for his brainchild, died on September 26, 1940 at the Zanki sanatorium near Kharkov, where he underwent a rehabilitation course of treatment.
Buried in the city of Kharkov. During the funeral of M.I. Koshkin, the whole plant was walking behind the coffin of the chief designer.
By the decree of the President of the USSR of October 4, 1990 for outstanding services in strengthening the defense power of the Soviet state and a great personal contribution to the creation of the T-34 tank Koshkin Mikhail Ilyich posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin (10/04/1990; posthumously), the Order of the Red Star (1936). Laureate of the Stalin Prize (1942; posthumously).
In Kharkov, not far from the entrance of the Malyshev plant, in May 1985, a monument to the creator of the legendary "thirty-four" MI Koshkin was solemnly opened. In Kharkov, a memorial plaque was installed on the house in which he lived. The monument to the T-34 tank, and in fact to M.I.Koshkin, was erected by the road, near his native village of Brynchagi in the Yaroslavl region. A bust was unveiled in the village of Brynchagi. In the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky, a street is named after him.

ABOUT TANK "T-34":
“... Paulus had to be late before leaving for the Russian front. Halder warned him:
You were included in a special commission. The fact is that they managed to capture a Russian T-34 in good working order; they even found a technical form with it. You and the designers have to disassemble the T-34 by screw, and let the metallurgists at the same time figure out what kind of manure the Russians are loading into their blast furnaces? In order not to get dirty, bring your tank overalls too ...
NS The appearance of the T-34 medium tank was a shock shock for the Germans, sensation No. 1, revelation and mystery. “This is a devilish obsession! they said. - No, it's not even a car, but some fairy-tale prince among our plebeian tanks ... "
At the tankodrome, where the captured T-34 was stationed, Paulus argued that one should not despair ahead of time:
The Russians have not yet mastered mass production, and therefore we will knock out all the T-34s one by one, at least from the caliber "eight-eight". Thanks to neutral Switzerland for supplying such wonderful anti-aircraft guns for the Wehrmacht ...
Summoned from the Nibelungwerke laboratories, the famous German tank builder Ferdinand Porsche also arrived.
It is true, ”he said,“ that the enemy still does not have enough T-34s. But you, Paulus, do not forget Bismarck's warnings: the Russians take a long time to harness, but they drive fast. We know from history that Russia is always not ready for war, but in some strange way it turns out to be the winner ...
The German specialists were most impressed by the engine - a 500 horsepower diesel engine made entirely of aluminum: “The Russians are crying that they do not have enough materials for the aircraft, but they found aluminum for the engines for the tanks ...” Paulus (based on Abwehr data) said that the T-34 was subjected to very harsh criticism in Moscow, they did not even want to launch it into mass production. If so, the commission will have to identify weaknesses in the design of the tank.
Alas ... they don't exist! - answered Porsche.
But the Russians criticized their car.
This made the chief constructor laugh:
Dear Paulus, are you living the first day in the world? You should know that genuine talents always have a lot of envious people who want to discredit his attainments. Only this, and nothing else, I explain the criticism of this machine.
Paulus jumped from the armor of the tank to the ground: the German anti-tank gun with a caliber of 76 mm was already being rolled out for direct fire. Everyone hid in a hiding place, watching from afar. The first projectile, recocheting, tore out the brightest sheaf of sparks from the Soviet armor, the second ... The second, hitting the tower, made a "candle", and the illuminated flight path formed an exact geometric vertical - into the sky!
I did not think, - said Porsche, getting out of the dugout, - that Russian metallurgy is capable of doing ours. As a representative of the Krupp firm, I bear witness to its defeat.
T-34 went to the Germans intact, everything was left inside it, as it was under the Russians. The driver had a portrait in front of him, and the turret, sending shells into the cannon, could look at the photo with his snub nose with the inscription: "Remember Lyuska!" Paulus was struck by the wretched simplicity inside the car: there were no chairs upholstered in red leather, nickel did not shine anywhere, but in the deep laconicism of the car there was something concentrated for a single goal - a combat strike. The German T-III and T-IV were built with the expectation that their qualities would be higher than the outdated Soviet tanks. But before the T-34, the Wehrmacht vehicles appeared as pitiful dachshunds in front of a thoroughbred bulldog. The commission found that the T-34 had a specific pressure per square centimeter of 650 grams, which explained its high mobility, while the German T-IV pressed on the soil with a reinforced mass of one kilogram at once, which promised big trouble in the impassable slush of Russian roads).
There are many beautiful women in the world, ”Porsche said. - However, the one and only wins at beauty contests. Same with the tank! The T-34 has no analogues in the world yet: it is unique, and it is impossible to copy it. If we try to do this, we will immediately run into an impenetrable wall of technical problems that will remain insoluble for Germany ... And your opinion, Paulus?
I found the only flaw, - said Paulus. - The crew is too cramped inside the tank, but the Russians are very fond of living in the cramped communal apartments, managing to spend the night in one room with the whole family ...
German designers were openly frightened by a diesel engine made of aluminum, solid steel towers of special hardening (they were not familiar with submerged-arc welding according to the method of our academician). But the obstinate Guderian insisted precisely on getting an exact copy of the Soviet tank. However, both Ferdinand Porsche and the engineers of the Berlin firm "Daimler-Benz" objected to him:
By exact copying of the Russian tank, we will sign our own impotence. Unfortunately, we have already brought the T-IV to its limit parameters, and its newest modifications are impossible. The only way left is to create tanks T-V and T-VI, which will improve the armor and strength of the T-34 ...
This is how the idea of future "tigers" and "panthers" was born.
But the monstrous specter of the "thirty-four" no longer left the imagination of the Germans, and in the creation of new tanks, Germany now only imitated the ideal forms of the Russian tank. Now, as I write these lines, it’s even scary at the thought that the best tank in the world, the T-34, we wanted to reject: the diesel engine, the welded hull, the cast turret and the purely caterpillar track were in doubt, in other words, everything worthy in the design, as brought the tank international fame. And in 1965, the military community of Germany celebrated the 25th anniversary of the birth of the first "thirty-four", and on this memorable date the Germans have laid a dark web of fatal memories. The Zoldat und Tekhnik magazine admitted that the appearance of the T-34 gave a perfect tank design, and therefore the entire world tank building (up to the end of the 20th century) will proceed only from those technical results that were achieved by Soviet science. We, retreating in 1941, could be sure that there would be weapons and that these weapons would be better than the enemy's. "
Pikul V.S. "Square of the Fallen Fighters". - M .: Publishing house "Voice", 1996 (Part one. "Barbarossa". Chapter 18. First crises), p. 158-161)