Vyacheslav Ivanovich Silin (; 22 February 1907 – 20 November 1975) was a leading

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 ...

Biography

Silin was born in Tula. In 1919, he began working at the

Tula Arms Plant Imperial Tula Arms Plant () is a Russian weapons manufacturer founded by Tsar Peter I of Russia in 1712 in Tula, Tula Oblast as Tula Arsenal. Throughout its history, it has produced weapons for the Russian state. Its name was changed from Tula ...

. His work was halted while he served in 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 ...

from 1931-1932, but throughout the rest of his life, he was a leading figure in the engineering and construction of military technology for the Soviet Union. He died on November 20, 1975.

Technology produced

Silin produced several important weapons for the USSR, both through his own engineering work and under his direction. Most notably, whilst working at the Central Bureau for the Construction and Research of Recreational and Hunting Weapons during the 1960s, he was directly involved in the creation of the main armament for the

BMP-1 The BMP-1 is a Soviet Union, Soviet Amphibious vehicle, amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle that has been in service from 1966 to the present. BMP stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1'' (), meaning "infantry fighting vehicle, 1st ...

and

BMD-1 The BMD-1 is a Soviet airborne amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), which was introduced in 1969 and first seen by the West in 1970. BMD stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Desanta'' (Боевая Машина Десанта, which ...

infantry fighting vehicles - the 73mm

2A28 Grom The 2A28 Grom also known as KBP 2A28 Grom, is the main armament of the Soviet-designed BMP-1 and BMD-1 infantry fighting vehicles. It is a 73 mm low pressure smoothbore semi-automatic gun with a wedge breech block. Development of the 2A28 G ...

. In 1935, his involvement with a project to develop a new machine-gun for the

Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...

led to the development of the 7.62mm Sibemas aircraft machine gun (VI Silin, M. E. Berezin, P. Morozenko) with a rate of fire of 6,000 rounds/min. Work on the design of such weapons was halted in the late 1940s, due to shortcomings in the design. In 1939 Silin participated in a competition to create a 7.62mm machine gun. He developed the TCB-67 machine gun, which successfully passed field testing. Silin participated in the design of the VYa-23 and B-20 aircraft automatic cannons. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Silin developed the TKB-440 and TKB-458M 7.62mm machine-guns, as well as the 23mm TKB-505 and 30mm TKB-515 revolving automatic cannons. As chief designer at the Central Bureau in Tula from 1960 until his death, Silin spearheaded the development of anti-tank grenade launchers. From 1960 to 1963, he worked with AT Alekseev to develop the

SPG-9 The SPG-9 Kopyo (, transliterated: ''Stankovyi Protivotankovyi Granatomet "Kopyo"'' - Easel Anti-tank Grenade Launcher "Spear") is a tripod-mounted man-portable, 73mm caliber recoilless gun developed by the Soviet Union. It fires fin-stabilized, ...

73mm Smoothbore Recoilless Gun, which was significantly lighter and more effective than other foreign Recoilless weapons of the period. In 1961-1966, Silin, together with VI Zaitsev, NS Pasenko, and VI Volkov, developed the smoothbore 73mm semi-automatic

, which was used as the primary armament for the

and

Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

Awards and honors

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1939) *

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

(1967) * Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour *

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

, 2nd class

External links

Silin gun

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silin, Vyacheslav 1907 births 1975 deaths People from Tula, Russia Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Firearm designers Soviet military personnel of World War II Weapon designers from the Soviet Union