The history of the creation of the T-34 tank fell on the period of the "great terror" and was in many ways tragic for its creators. According to canonical Soviet historiography, the creation of the T-34 is associated exclusively with the name of the chief designer Mikhail Koshkin, who replaced the repressed Afanasy Firsov in December 1936. It should be noted that a design genius was needed to develop a breakthrough tank design, and Koshkin was not.
The beginning of the development of the first Soviet tank
For an objective assessment of the contribution of each of them, it is necessary to return to the time when the Soviet tank school was just beginning to form. Until the end of the 20-ies in the Union there were no tanks of its own design, only in 1927 the military issued requirements for the development of the first Soviet "maneuverable tank" with machine-gun and cannon armament. The development of the tank was transferred by the Main Design Bureau of the Arsenal Trust to Kharkiv at the KhPZ im. Comintern (plant number 183), where a specialized design group was created for the development of the tank (transformed in 1929 into the T2K tank design bureau), headed by a young talented designer Ivan Aleksenko (1904), who led the design bureau until 1931. The same young designers worked in the group, including the future chief designer Alexander Morozov.
In a short time, the designers developed the documentation for the tank, and in 1929 a prototype of the T-12 tank was manufactured. According to the test results, the tank was redesigned into the T-24 tank, a pilot batch of 25 vehicles was manufactured, according to the test results, the finalization of their design began, but in June 1931, work was ordered to stop and start designing the BT wheeled-tracked tank.
This was due to the fact that the military leadership decided not to develop domestic tanks from scratch, but to borrow the experience of Western designers and produce foreign tanks under license: the American Christie M1931, which became the prototype of the high-speed BT-2, and the English Vickers six-ton ", which became the prototype of the light T-26. Production of BT-2 was placed at KhPZ, and T-26 - at the Leningrad plant "Bolshevik". So in the Union, two schools of tank building began to take shape.
In Kharkov, the KhPZ management and designers resisted this turn of events, were in no hurry to introduce BT-2 into production and tried to complete the development of the T-24. Moscow insisted on its decision, and work on the BT-2 slowly began to gain momentum. The head of the T2K design bureau Aleksenko believed that it was unpatriotic to copy foreign equipment, it was necessary to create our own tank school, and, as a sign of disagreement, submitted an application and resigned.
Only young people worked in the design bureau, mostly without higher technical education, who supported Aleksenko's aspirations to bring his T-24 tank. To strengthen the design bureau by the decision of the OGPU collegium in December 1931, the talented and experienced engineer Afanasy Firsov was appointed head of the design bureau, who was sitting in one of the Moscow "sharashki", sentenced to five years in prison for "sabotage activities." The appointment of Firsov played a crucial role for the design bureau and Soviet tank building.
Who is Firsov
Firsov was born in 1883 in the family of a Berdyansk merchant, after graduating from a railway school, he received his higher education at the Higher Technical School in Mietweid (Germany) and the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich (by the way, Albert Einstein also graduated from it), specialized in the design of diesel engines. After receiving higher education, he worked as a designer at the Sulzer plant.
In 1914 he returned to Russia, at the Kolomna machine-building plant began to work on the creation of diesel engines for submarines, then the chief mechanic of the Krasnaya Etna plant in Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1927 at the Nikolaev plants named after Andre Marty - the chief engineer for diesel construction.
In 1929, as a representative of the "old-regime estates", he was involved in the case of a counter-revolutionary sabotage group at the plant, he did not admit his guilt, and it was not proved, but due to such suspicions, he quit his job in 1929 and moved to Leningrad, where he was invited as a specialist to the plant "Russian Diesel".
It was 1930, the trial of members of the Industrial Party began, among the accused was a close acquaintance of Firsov, he was reminded of the "Nikolaev case", was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. A qualified specialist, he worked in one of the Moscow "sharashkas" under the direct supervision of Ordzhonikidze, here he began to deal with the problems of tank building, and in 1931, under guard, was sent to Kharkov to head the "recalcitrant" tank design bureau.
At first, the team of the T-24 creators did not welcome the appointee "from above" very cordially, but the gifted and versatile Firsov, an engineer with encyclopedic knowledge, quickly gained authority and respect. According to contemporaries, being under the round-the-clock control of the OGPU and living at the plant, since the family remained in Leningrad, he plunged headlong into work. Firsov knew how to organize the work of his subordinates well and clearly, self-restrained, balanced in communication, he tried to pass on his experience to subordinates. Together with them he studied technical innovations of foreign firms, encouraged the study of foreign languages.
Development of a family of BT tanks and a B2 diesel engine
Firsov was tasked with organizing high-quality production of BT-2 tanks at the plant, which had many flaws and defects in the main units, the power plant and undercarriage assemblies. The Liberty engine, bought in the USA, was capricious, often overheated, and there were cases of fire during start-up. Mastering the serial production of these tanks was also difficult due to the lack of a base at the plant capable of mastering the production of a new tank in such quantities; the army often received complaints about the failure of gearboxes.
Firsov and a team of young designers put a lot of work into finalizing the design of the tank and improving the technology of its production. Gradually, the problems went away, under his leadership, the BT-5 and BT-7 tanks were developed, which continued the line of vehicles of this family. In 1935, for the development of the BT-7 tank, Firsov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Since 1932, the plant has been developing a 400-horsepower BD-2 tank diesel engine (high-speed diesel), the future B2, under the leadership of the head of the diesel dress Konstantin Chelpan. Chelpan has repeatedly testified that a qualified specialist in diesel engines Firsov made a great contribution to the creation of this engine. The military and Stalin personally closely followed the progress of work on the diesel engine. The first sample of the BD-2 was demonstrated to the country's leadership in 1934. For this development, the plant, director Bondarenko and Chelpan were awarded the Orders of Lenin.
The concept of a new tank and repression
While improving the wheeled-tracked tanks of the BT family, the experienced engineer Firsov saw that this was a dead-end direction, there could be no breakthrough. He began to look for ways to create a fundamentally new tank, under his leadership, a small group consisting of Alexander Morozov, Mikhail Tarshinov and Vasily Vasilyev during 1935 led the development of such a tank.
Firsov laid the primary technical appearance of the future T-34 and its main technical characteristics. Vasiliev recalled:
Already at the end of 1935on the chief designer's desk lay elaborated sketches of a fundamentally new tank: anti-cannon armor with large tilt angles, a 76 long-barreled, 2-mm cannon, a V-2 diesel engine, weighing up to 30 tons …
The new tank inherited from the BT family a fully welded hull and Christie's suspension, while the wheeled-tracked propulsion unit was abandoned in favor of a purely tracked one.
In 1936, KhPZ im. The Comintern was renamed to Plant No. 183, and KB T2K was assigned the KB-190 index, the design bureau was working on the components and assemblies of the new tank, but in the summer of 1936, repressions began at the plant. The reason was the massive reclamations from the troops due to the failure of the gearboxes of the BT-7 tanks. There were indeed design flaws in the design of the tank, moreover, the troops were carried away by spectacular jumps on this tank from a springboard, which, of course, affected the BT-7's performance. The car began to be called a "sabotage tank", Firsov was removed from office, but left to work in the design bureau.
Instead of Firsov, in December 1936, Ordzhonikidze, who knew Mikhail Koshkin well, transferred him from Leningrad to Kharkov and appointed him chief of KB-190. The new chief designer was personally met by Firsov, who continued to work in the design bureau until his arrest and painstakingly brought him up to date.
In a short time, under the leadership of Firsov, Morozov developed a new gearbox, put it into production, and the issue was closed, but 1937 and the "Great Terror" were approaching. Firsov did not forget his "sabotage activities" in Nikolaev and Leningrad. In March 1937, he was arrested again and sent to prison in Moscow. For some time he was kept there together with another "pest" - aircraft designer Tupolev.
The repressions affected not only Firsov, who was soon shot, but many managers and engineers of the plant and the design bureau. In 1937, a commission was sent to the plant from Moscow to find out the reasons for the poor quality of the BD-2 engines, which revealed flaws in the engine design and non-compliance with its production technology.
Based on the results of the commission's work, the engine was finalized, making up to two thousand changes to it, but organizational conclusions were made. Chelpan was suspended from work and in December 1937 he was arrested along with the designers: diesel engineers Trashutin, Aptekman, Levitan and Gurtov, everyone except Trashutin was shot for "sabotage", the latter was released in 1939. The chief engineer of the Lyashch plant, the chief metallurgist Metantsev and many other engineers and military representatives are arrested. In May 1938, the director of the plant, Bondarenko, was arrested and soon shot.
According to Vasiliev's recollections, the repression caused a real phobia in KB-190. He recalled:
"I must say, I personally suffered this phobia very hard, slept and listened to the sounds of the approach of a black crow with a couple of people in civilian clothes inviting you to follow them in a polite manner."
In such conditions of fear and expectation of arrest, the development of a new tank continued.
Who is Koshkin
After Firsov, KB-190 was taken over by Koshkin. Who was he before? Koshkin was a party functionary and proved himself to be a good organizer. He was personally acquainted with Ordzhonikidze and Kirov. Two years before his appointment to Kharkov, he graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and then worked as a designer in the tank design bureau of the Leningrad plant named after V. I. Kirov. This was where his experience in the development of tanks ended. Ordzhonikidze sent him to KB-190 as an experienced organizer to resolve the difficult situation at the tank factory.
Koshkin really turned out to be a talented leader, he adequately appreciated the young team of designers and the uniqueness of the concept of the new tank proposed by Firsov. Prior to that, he worked in fairly high administrative and party positions and was a member of higher authorities, where he managed to prove the prospects of working on a new tank and convinced him not to continue repressions against the KB employees. Under the leadership of Koshkin, work on the tank continued in that difficult situation.
Confrontation between Koshkin and Dick
To strengthen KB-190, in June 1937, an associate of the Moscow Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization, a military engineer of the 3rd rank Dick, was sent with not entirely clear goals. Some of the designers were subordinated to him, and a diarchy reigned in the bureau, which could not end well. During this period, the design bureau worked on the modernization of the BT-7 tank and the development of a new BT-9 tank, which was distinguished by the presence of six driving wheels, a diesel engine, a conical turret with a 45-mm or 76-mm cannon and sloped armor. The joint work of Koshkin and Dick did not work out, they accused each other of incorrect design decisions, disrupting and sometimes sabotaging work. The number of mutual claims grew, but the work did not move.
The Moscow leadership was tired of conflicts, and in September 1937, the tank KB-190 was divided into two. A separate design bureau headed by Dick was subordinated directly to the chief engineer of the plant, Doroshenko, Tarshinov, Gorbenko, Morozov and Vasiliev became the heads of sections in the design bureau. The design bureau was supposed to replenish 50 graduates of the military academy, and as a consultant they attracted the famous tank tester Captain Kulchitsky.
Koshkin remained the head of KB-190, which was supposed to deal exclusively with the development of modernized versions of the BT-7, and the OKB was to develop a new BT-9 (BT-20) tank, the serial production at the plant was supported by KB-35.
In October 1937, a TTT was issued for a new wheeled-tracked tank with three pairs of driving wheels, a frontal armor thickness of 25 mm, 45 mm or 76, a 2 mm cannon and a diesel engine.
The development of the new tank was based on the concept of Firsov, which was further developed by Morozov and Tarshinov. The wave of arrests at the plant that swept in November-December 1937 disorganized the work on the new tank, Dick was accused of disrupting the work, who was arrested in April 1938 and sentenced to ten years, and his career ended there.
Koshkin completes the development of the tank
Further, it is not entirely clear how Koshkin, in those conditions, creates the KB-24 and continues work on the new tank. At least in mid-March 1938, at a meeting of the board of the Armored Directorate and at the end of March at a meeting of the Defense Committee, the project of a wheeled-tracked tank was presented by Koshkin and Morozov. The preliminary design of the tank was approved with comments to increase the booking to 30 mm and install a 76, 2-mm cannon. At the same time, under the leadership of Koshkin at the end of 1938, the BT-7M tank with the B2 engine was developed and put into mass production, which confirmed the possibility of using a new diesel engine on the tank.
Koshkin continued to fight for the tracked version of the tank, and in September 1938 the plant was assigned the task of developing two versions of the tank: the wheeled-tracked A20 and the tracked A-20G (A32).
To combine efforts, all three design bureaus of the plant are combined into one KB-520 headed by Koshkin, Morozov became the deputy chief designer, and Kucherenko became the deputy chief of the design bureau. In the shortest possible time, the samples of the tanks were made, and in June-August 1939 they were tested at the proving ground in Kharkov. Both tanks passed the tests, but the design of the A-32 was much simpler due to the absence of complex wheeled propellers and had a margin of weight.
In September, when showing armored vehicles to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, A-20 and A32 participated, where the latter performed very effectively. Based on the results of tests and demonstrations, it was decided to stop at the tracked version of the A-32 tank, increasing its armor protection to 45 mm.
The plant began urgent production of two A-32 tanks. Units and parts of the tank were carefully manufactured and meticulously assembled, threaded connections were soaked in hot oil, the outer surfaces of the hull and turret were carefully finished. Experienced apparatchik Koshkin understood perfectly well that there are no trifles when showing tanks to top management.
Then there was the well-known run of tanks from Kharkov to Moscow, the successful demonstration of tanks to Stalin in the Kremlin, the run back to Kharkov, the illness and tragic death of Koshkin. After being shown at the highest level, the tanks were tested at Kubinka and on the Karelian Isthmus, the tank was highly appreciated by Stalin himself, he was given a start in life.
So the design genius of Firsov and the organizational talents of Koshkin were able to create a machine, which became a symbol of Victory in that terrible war, under the conditions of unfolding repressions and a lack of understanding by the military about the prospects for the development of tanks. Both of them undoubtedly made an enormous contribution to the creation of this machine, but it is unfair to attribute all the laurels to Koshkin alone.
The concept of the tank and its layout were conceived by Firsov, under his leadership, the main components of the tank were worked out in the design bureau units, and the development of the tank was completed by specialists who began to design it under the leadership of Firsov. The backbone of the leading designers was retained, and Koshkin, in that tragic situation, organized work to complete the development of the tank and made it into service. The names of Firsov and Koshkin, as the chief designers of the T-34, can stand side by side with dignity.
