Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin ( Russian: Михаи́л Ильи́ч Ко́шкин; 3 December 1898, Brynchagi,

Yaroslavl Oblast Yaroslavl Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by the Tver Oblast, Tver, Moscow Oblast, Moscow, Ivanovo Oblast, Ivanovo, Vladimir Oblast, Vlad ...

– 26 September 1940) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

designer, chief designer of the famous

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank from World War II. When introduced, its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than many of its contemporaries, and its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, ...

medium tank. The T-34 was the most produced tank of World War II. He started out in life as a confectioner, but then studied engineering.Panther Vs T-34: Ukraine 1943 By Robert Forczyk, Osprey Publishing, 2007, ,
on Google Books
/ref> In 1937, the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

assigned him to lead design bureau KB-190 to design a replacement for the BT tanks at the Kharkiv Komintern Locomotive Plant (KhPZ) in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. Koshkin imagined the T-34 tank after BT tanks tested during the Spanish Civil War proved to be under-armored and prone to catching fire. Koshkin claimed that he named the tank “T-34” because he began to imagine designs for the tank in 1934. After the Soviet Army rejected his prototype, Koshkin began privately assembling a testable prototype that he would work on in the evenings, after long days designing BT tank improvements. He died from pneumonia he contracted during T-34 winter tests on 26 September 1940. Mikhail Koshkin was posthumously awarded the State Stalin Prize in 1942 and the

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

. In 1990, shortly before the final collapse of the USSR, he was posthumously decorated with the highest civilian honor,

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koshkin, Mikhail 1898 births 1940 deaths People from Yaroslavl Oblast people from Uglichsky Uyezd Soviet military engineers Soviet inventors Tank designers Weapon designers from the Soviet Union Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University alumni Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Soviet military personnel of the Polish–Soviet War Recipients of the Stalin Prize Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Deaths from pneumonia in the Soviet Union

See also

References