Nikolai Ivanovich Maksimov, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the State Prize, what can you find on the ubiquitous Internet about this person? It turns out almost nothing. AiF Kazan presents nine facts from the life of a plant director.
Collective farm chairman
This line of the biography is one of the most difficult in the life of Nikolai Maksimov. An active Komsomol member, immediately after school in 1928, he was sent to the village to organize collective farms. There he held out for several months. He tried never to remember this page of his life.
Railroad worker
To enter the institute, Nikolai Maksimov went to work in railway workshops as a simple locksmith. And working hardening (three years) helped him a lot in the future. In this, his biography is very similar to the life of another aircraft manufacturer - Vladimir Petlyakov. The future designer also worked on the railway in his youth. And both of them came to aviation. They met in Kazan, their fate was the Pe-2 bomber.
Maksimov (center) is a railway locksmith. Photo: From personal archive
Dream of the sky
Nikolai entered the KAI in 1931, graduated one of the first in 1937 and remained at the Institute's Experimental Design Bureau. But the OKB was disbanded in 1939, and Maksimov ended up at the Kazan 124th aircraft plant. Together with him, his friend Nikolai Arzhanov went to work there. Together they realized their place to become pilots, having entered the institute branch of the Central Kazan Aero Club, and received pilot diplomas. Only Arzhanov at the plant immediately went to work at the LIS (Flight Test Station) and flew for a long time as a flight engineer, and then switched to test pilots. And Maksimov, having started working as a foreman on the LIS, remained on the ground, becoming an aircraft manufacturer.
Nikolai Maksimov (second from left) - pilot. Photo: From personal archive
Paint bucket
In 1941, Maksimov became the master of the shop control at the LIS, and in 1943 - the chief controller of the plant. At the age of 30, in such a responsible position, when they were put on trial for breaking the schedule. The young controller started very harshly - with a sledgehammer. He could break a defective unit so that it could not be reused. Later he softened a little and walked around the factory with a bucket of paint and a brush. At marriage, he boldly put crosses.
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Piano tuner.
As you know, talented people are talented in everything. Nikolai Maksimov was no exception. He loved and knew how to sing, play music, dance, paint, read poetry, and attend theaters. One day, while traveling on a steamer, he found a faulty piano in the cabin. All the way he worked on this instrument and was able to fix it.
Eternal Maximov
In 1949 he was appointed chief engineer of the plant. The construction of the latest aircraft, the introduction of revolutionary technologies, and this all happened against the backdrop of an incessant change of directors. The plant was constantly required to fulfill the plan, which was often impossible. The directors turn out to be extreme, and what kind! All directors were removed at the plant, and only Maximov, who became director in 1961, left in 1967 himself. And from office, and from life.
Facsimile of Maximov. Photo: From personal archive
170 aircraft per year
In 1957, during the most intense period of the plant's activity, when Maksimov was the chief engineer, a record was set in Kazan that will never be broken.170 heavy (takeoff weight up to 80 tons) long-range jet aircraft Tu-16 of various modifications were produced by the factory workers for the 40th anniversary of Soviet power.
Industrial espionage
In 1963, Vladimir Ivanovich was sent on a business trip to England. As part of a large aviation delegation (there were A. Mikoyan, S. Ilyushin and others), he visited aviation firms and factories, got acquainted with industrial production and the achievements of the British aviation industry. Maximov always had his camera on his shoulder, and he never hesitated to shoot everything that was interesting to him. Some of what he had spied on, he tried to implement in his production.
Maximov, Mikoyan and Ilyushin in England. 1963 year. Photo: From personal archive
The end of the monopoly
The Il-62 aircraft, which became the # 1 board for the top officials of the Soviet state, became the highest achievement of Maksimov in his work at the plant. He immediately fell in love with Ilyushin's project and was able to achieve that the post-war monopoly of the Tupolev Design Bureau at his plant (Tu-4, Tu-16, Tu-104, Tu-22) ended for a while. And it is no secret that with this he made himself a lot of ill-wishers. His heart stopped on May 5, 1967. Maximov lived for only 55 years.
