Joseph Kotin biography. Joseph Kotin as a communist tank leader

The biography of a talented tank builder is typical for designers and inventors of those years. Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin was born on March 10, 1908 in Pavlograd, Yekaterinoslav province (Dnepropetrovsk region), into a working class family.

And THIS WAS said not about tanks, the creation of which the designer devoted his whole life, but about self-propelled artillery mounts, which occupied a very insignificant place in his creative biography. There is an extremely short phrase in the history of the Great Patriotic War: "On the instructions of the State Defense Committee, a prototype of the SU-152 installation was designed and manufactured at the Kirov plant in Chelyabinsk within 25 days, which went into mass production in February."

Joseph Yakovlevich said: "In twenty-five days we managed to complete everything. From the first line on the drawing to the first shot. If I had not participated in the work myself, I would never have believed it."

Visibly agitated, Kotin began to recall the details of those distant days, which, it was felt, were still close to him.

Several factories that formed the famous mighty Tankograd in Chelyabinsk operated at the limit of their own and human capabilities. Deputy People's Commissar of the tank industry Kotin, who forgot about rest and sleep, literally wandered around the shops, solving not so much design as organizational issues. Every morning it was required to report to Moscow the exact number of tanks produced. The delay of even one car was considered an emergency, no references to equipment suppliers or subcontractors were taken into account.

And when Kotin was suddenly summoned to the direct telephone, he had little doubt that it would be about a new increase in the plan. However, the People's Commissar for Armaments Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov said:

You should urgently fly to Leningrad - to interrogate the prisoner.

What interrogation? I'm not good at languages.

This prisoner is your part. It is necessary to speak with him in a special language.

Only in Leningrad did the true meaning of Ustinov's order become clear. The prisoner was the newest enemy heavy tank "Tiger" T-VI. And not even one, but two, although the Germans themselves managed to bomb the second tank from the air. Having climbed the car from the bottom to the tower, Kotin got out with a lot of numbers, notes, drawings.

A little later, Joseph Yakovlevich reported his opinion to the members of the GKO. He immediately realized that the point of view of the Nazis, who had previously relied on maneuverable medium tanks, had changed dramatically. Now they had to think not about a blitzkrieg, not about coverage and a victorious offensive, but about defense. Powerful, heavy, weighing 55 tons, the "Tiger", equipped with an 88-mm cannon and two machine guns, was clearly intended to achieve superiority over a strong, well-armed enemy. The thickness of the armor protection in the frontal part reached 150 millimeters, the maximum speed barely exceeded 40 kilometers per hour.

When asked which Soviet tank could handle an equal duel with the "Tiger", Kotin could not give an answer. Therefore, already on January 4, 1943, the State Defense Committee ordered Plant No. 100 of the NKTP USSR and Plant No. 172 of the NKV USSR within 25 days to develop and manufacture a prototype self-propelled artillery mount equipped with a 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20 sample on the basis of the heavy KV-1S tank. 1937

The entire design team of the Design Bureau of the Kirov Plant moved to the barracks. The labor enthusiasm and patriotic upsurge of designers, workers and engineering and technical workers greatly contributed to the fulfillment of the government task. People took turns sleeping near the drawing boards, eating dry rations more often. There was practically no segregation of duties. The finished drawing of the assembly or assembly was immediately sent to the workshop, where changes, clarifications were made directly on the spot, and the technology was worked out. Sometimes they repeated the same operation several times, but no one complained. People were united by a common desire to give the front a weapon capable of stopping the enemy on the battlefield.

“I didn’t have to convince or ask anyone,” Joseph Yakovlevich later recalled. “On the contrary, when I saw that a person could barely stand on his feet, he drove him to rest. Everyone felt a special sense of responsibility.”

And the miracle happened. On January 25, 4 days earlier than the deadline set by the GKO, the first sample of the self-propelled gun was assembled and passed factory tests.

“The self-propelled gun was carefully examined,” Kotin’s former deputy N. Sinev later returned to those days. “Everything is in order ... But now the most important thing has begun. After all, none of the representatives of the Main Artillery Directorate knew what the trajectory of a heavy high-explosive fragmentation or armor-piercing The fact is that all the verified firing tables for the 152-mm howitzer were compiled only for mounted fire. Our doubts could be resolved only at the training ground. Our SU-152 went there. We arrived. The frost was about minus 30 We started firing blanks at plywood shields with a side of 2 m. Distance 500 m - hit. 800 m - hit. 1000 m - hit! 1200 m - "Hurrah!". This means that our self-propelled guns are capable of suppressing enemy pillboxes and bunkers and shooting him tanks at a considerable distance.

On February 14, 1943, a new model of the KV-14 self-propelled artillery mount was adopted by the Red Army under the designation "SU-152". Before the beginning of March of the same year, the first batch of installations was made in the amount of 35 vehicles, which were sent to form heavy self-propelled artillery regiments.

For the first time, new Soviet combat vehicles were used on the Kursk Bulge. As the designer himself later recalled, on July 9 he opened the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper and instantly saw a catchy headline: "Tigers" are on fire!" Kotin said: "It turned out that, despite the real power of the new heavy tanks, the rumors spread by the Germans about their invulnerability are clearly exaggerated. "Tigers" are beaten, "tigers" are on fire, "tigers" are knocked out by our armor-piercers, our gunners are burning, our tankers are being hit."

Almost immediately they called from Moscow. Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Malyshev, People's Commissar for the Tank Industry, was interested in:

Have you read Starlight? You are probably scratching your head, how do our self-propelled guns work? Congratulations - you did a great job. With a direct hit, the towers are demolished from the "tigers".

The SU-152 proved to be excellent in the fight against "tigers" and "panthers" in the Battle of Kursk, for which the Red Army called them "St. John's wort". Then, after the Battle of Kursk, there were also grateful responses from the front-line soldiers, and enthusiastic articles about how the soldiers set fire to several "tigers" in one battle. The comrades warmly congratulated Joseph Yakovlevich on the high title of laureate of the Stalin Prize.

BIOGRAPHY of a talented tank builder is typical for designers and inventors of those years.

Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin was born on March 10, 1908 in Pavlograd, Yekaterinoslav province (Dnepropetrovsk region), into a working class family. Already in his youth he went through a great school of life. In 1923, he began his career as an apprentice, a fitter's assistant at the Trud boiler-mechanical plant in Kharkov. After graduating from the evening working faculty in 1927, he studied at the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute, from where in 1930 he was sent to the Military Technical Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky.

Kotin himself recalled the beginning of his working biography in this way: “There was such a time - the twenties. Stormy years. My path can be called typical for that time. I got a job at the Trud plant in Kharkov. entered the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute.In 1930, they announced a special recruitment to higher military educational institutions, and I became a student of the Military Technical Academy named after F.E. strange sounds such a name: wheel-tracked. It is clear to everyone, young and old, what a tank can and should be. And then there was a search, there were disputes. They made tanks with three and even five towers, stuffed them with a huge number of weapons. Clumsiness, large the crew of the vehicles did not bother their creators, who believed that the main thing for a tank was armor and fire. There was another opinion. They made the so-called "cavalry" tanks, which had high speeds. awn qualities, but with thin armor and weak weapons. The third designers tried to find a middle ground, to achieve such a position that the tank had good weapons, and sufficient speed, and reliable armor protection.

These views were reflected in my thesis project to some extent. I proposed to take our AMO-3 vehicle as the basis of a wheeled-tracked tank, which would move fairly quickly both on roads and off-road, and would be distinguished by good maneuverability. A sufficiently strong engine made it possible to equip the tank with armor and weapons. I successfully defended my thesis. A few days later, the head of the faculty, Ivan Petrovich Tyagunov, suddenly announced that M.N. Tukhachevsky had come to the academy, selected the works that interested him, including mine, and wanted to personally listen to how we would defend our projects.

This secondary defense proved to be a happy one for me. Here, in the research department of the academy where I studied, my design activity began. Based on the materials of the graduation project, the MS-1 tank was made. In front - wheels, behind - caterpillars. And one more successful solution of the chassis - two drive axles. MS-1, however, in small numbers, participated in maneuvers near Vinnitsa.

After graduating from the academy, I was assigned to the same place, to the design sector, instructed to make a machine gun mount based on a motorcycle. Then for the first time I got acquainted with the machine gun designed by Degtyarev. We received the installation quickly, it was demonstrated on Red Square during the parade ... "

Since 1932 Zh.Ya. Kotin served in the research department of the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army. For more than five years he has been engaged in research in the field of improving armored vehicles. The scope of his activities included the development of designs for super-heavy tanks, experiments on airborne landing and splashdown of T-37 amphibious tanks by dropping them from aircraft from a low altitude without the use of parachutes. But this was only the beginning of the creative activity of the designer of combat vehicles.

In May 1937, Kotin was appointed chief designer of SKB-2 at the Leningrad Kirov Plant. Military engineer Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin, as will later be said in various documents, arrived at the Kirov Plant, "young, energetic, exceptionally enterprising, possessing colossal capacity for work, enormous organizational skills."

Only 25 people worked at SKB-2 at that time. It was located on the territory of the plant, in a small building with a wooden superstructure on the second floor. Having headed the SKB-2, Kotin understood that the designers had to solve two tasks in parallel: to modernize the mass-produced T-28 tanks and develop a new heavy tank.

The life path of this designer was not strewn with roses. And it is difficult to count what happened more on this road - joy or sorrow, success or failure. Enough of both.

The FIRST-born for Kotin was the heavy double-turreted tank SMK (Sergey Mironovich Kirov). The designer himself spoke about this period of his design activity as follows: “The two-tower was my first-born. And I suffered with him, and mastered the complex science of the designer, learned to make machines with powerful striking power on the battlefield. I remember how at the end of 1938 in the most high authorities discussed the draft QMS.

Our Kirovets turned out to be very bulky: it had three gun turrets and was armed with several machine guns. Therefore, with a huge weight, its speed and patency turned out to be low. We thought it was right. The tank is designed to escort infantry. However, many of the participants in the discussion, primarily the military, managed to convince us that the troops needed not an iron bastion, but a well-protected, armed and at the same time very maneuverable tank, which allows them to bypass and envelop the enemy, and build up forces in the right place if necessary. ".

In addition, by the mid-1930s, anti-tank artillery made the development of multi-turreted tanks unpromising. To protect all the towers and numerous crew from anti-tank guns, thick armor was needed, and its mass made the tank unacceptably heavy. Therefore, the number of turrets on tanks began to decrease rapidly, first to three, then to two.

In February 1939, a group of designers led by Kotin began to develop a single-turret heavy tank KV ("Klim Voroshilov") with a Kharkov V-2 diesel engine. In September, its prototype was submitted for state tests, which it successfully passed. Shortly after the start of the Soviet-Finnish war, the Kirovites sent two experienced KVs and one experienced heavy SMK to the front. The KV tanks showed themselves well in battle and were immediately put into production.

This tank had a long life and a glorious combat biography. It successfully embodied ideas that were ahead of time. One tower. Powerful tool. High speed. Reliable armor protection. And many promising constructive finds. For the first time, for example, a torsion bar suspension was used: each track roller, instead of conventional springs, springs, balancers, transmitted vibrations during shocks to an elastic torsion shaft through a crank. Twisting, it provided the tank with a smooth ride on an uneven path. The suspension acted more reliably, easier, did not need heavy armor for protection. Along with the increase in power, the weight of the HF has significantly decreased compared to the QMS. The tank fully complied with the principle: "Smite the enemy, but don't be hit yourself." Its stealth helped the crew to hide in the folds of the terrain, the steel provided reliable protection, any enemy targets were destroyed from the weapon. The KV, equal in size and weight to a medium tank, surpassed the heaviest vehicles of that time in terms of armor and armament. One of the main advantages of the KV was its 600 horsepower diesel engine. The war confirmed the correctness of such a decision - the V-2 diesel engine had no equal in the world in terms of compactness, efficiency, and performance. And he worked on diesel fuel, reducing the risk of fire.

When the KV tank appeared on the Karelian Isthmus in the winter of 1939, it aroused the admiration of Soviet soldiers. Knocking down trees, overcoming anti-tank ditches and gouges, he moved forward, not paying attention to the strong artillery fire of the enemy. The shells bounced off the armor, leaving only dents on it. "The tank ... passed through the Finnish fortified area," recalled Marshal K. Meretskov, "but the Finnish artillery failed to knock it out, although there were hits on it. In practice, we got a car that was invulnerable at that time ... Since then, I fell in love with the KV and whenever he could, he tried to have these tanks at his disposal."

Since the summer of 1940, the production of the KV-1 model 1940 began. At the beginning of 1941, an improved 76.2 mm ZIS-5 gun was installed on the KV-1, increasing the thickness of the frontal parts of the hull to 95 mm by shielding, while the armor of the welded turret had a thickness of 75 mm.

The KV-1 was superior to the T-34 medium tank in terms of armor, but had the same armament and was inferior to it in speed and mobility. The superiority of the KV over German tanks at the beginning of the war was striking: not a single tank or anti-tank gun of the Wehrmacht could penetrate its armor.

Along with the KV-1, in January 1940, another heavy tank, the Kotin KV-2, appeared on the Karelian Isthmus, which differed from the KV-1 in its high bulky turret with a 152-mm howitzer. Coming close to the concrete fortifications of the Mannerheim Line, these "artillery tanks" destroyed pillboxes, broke into the enemy's defenses, remaining invulnerable to his fire. At the beginning of World War II, there was no need for KV-2 tanks, so their production was discontinued. But in the critical days of the Leningrad defense, the KV-2, firing concrete-piercing shells, dealt well with fascist tanks.

The KV tanks proved to be a formidable weapon in capable hands. On them, Soviet tankers accomplished many feats. Already in the first major tank battle in the Lutsk - Brody - Dubna region in June 1941, ten KVs met in a frontal attack with German tanks. All attempts by the enemy to break through the armor of Soviet tanks were unsuccessful. The shells struck sparks from the armor, burst on the sides of the towers, ricocheted, but could not stop the movement of armored vehicles. In dozens of other battles, KVs have confirmed their high fighting qualities. So, a company of five KV-1 tanks under the command of Senior Lieutenant Zinovy ​​Kolobanov destroyed 43 enemy tanks in only one battle near Gatchina in August 1941, while losing only one of his own.

WITH THE BEGINNING of the Great Patriotic War, the life of Joseph Yakovlevich also changed dramatically. With the formation of the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry, Kotin was appointed Deputy People's Commissar, and after the evacuation of the Kirov Plant to Chelyabinsk, he simultaneously headed the design team of the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ). Kotin had to solve organizational issues, he kept in touch with the army, factories, institutes, carried out work to improve the KV tank and create new vehicles that the war required.

Kotin recalled: “Now, perhaps, you can’t say who first named the Chelyabinsk giant with the utmost accuracy - Tankograd. Under one roof in the first months of the war, the Leningrad Kirov Plant, the Kharkov Diesel Plant, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant were united. I was instructed to head the design bureau of this giant. We completed the tasks the most diverse: they modernized old tanks, created new ones, built self-propelled guns... Just as the battles with the Nazis continued at the front, so our daily, hourly struggle with the Nazi designers did not stop."

During the war years, 18 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as more than 50 thousand engines for them, came out of the gates of Tankograd. 13 tanks and self-propelled guns were mastered in mass production. In these figures - and sleepless nights of designers, and the true heroism of the workers ...

During the hostilities, the need to increase the mobility of the KV and improve some structural elements was revealed. Taking into account the experience of the first months of the war, tank builders led by Kotin in the second half of 1942 created a modernized tank - KV-1S (S - high-speed), in which the differences in armor and speed compared to the T-34 were smoothed out. The mass of the upgraded vehicle was reduced to 42.5 tons, armor thickness from 75 to 60 mm. The dimensions of the tank were reduced, the cooling and lubrication systems were improved, more advanced clutches and gearboxes were installed, a commander's cupola with five glass blocks, which improved visibility. Due to all these innovations, the speed of the KV-1S was increased from 35 to 42 km/h.

The need of the Red Army for a tank more powerful than the KV was caused by the increased effectiveness of the German anti-tank defense. Work on a new model of a heavy tank from the spring of 1942 was carried out under the leadership of Kotin by a special group of designers, which included Ermolaev, Sychev and others.

Already in the autumn of 1943, three prototypes of new heavy tanks were made. After the tests, the GKO commission proposed to accept the tank into service, and in December 1943 its mass production began under the designation IS-1 or IS-85 (IS - Joseph Stalin). The tank had an 85-mm D-5T semi-automatic gun designed by F. Petrov and weighed a little more than the KV-1S (44 tons), but had thicker armor (90 mm), differentially distributed over the hull and turret.

But the main and most unpleasant surprise that Soviet tank builders prepared for the Germans this year was the heavy breakthrough tank IS-2.

The new well-armored tank IS-1 needed more powerful weapons. Therefore, almost simultaneously with its manufacture, mass production of the IS-2 with a 122-mm D-25T tank gun was launched. The main distinguishing feature of the new IS-2 tank was an unusually powerful artillery armament. Artillery designers under the leadership of Petrov took the barrel of a 122-mm corps gun of the 1931 model as the basis for the design. Having equipped it with a muzzle brake, developed a new wedge gate and a number of components, they, in collaboration with tank builders who designed a cast tower of perfect shape, created the most powerful heavy tanks of the Great Patriotic War. Such a powerful gun was first installed on a tank. It was one and a half times superior in muzzle energy to the 88-mm gun of the German "Tiger" T-VI. Its armor-piercing projectile weighed 25 kg, had an initial velocity of 790 m/s and pierced armor up to 140 mm thick at a distance of 500 meters. The new IS-2 heavy tanks received their baptism of fire in February of 1944. Taking into account combat experience, already in the second quarter of 1944, some changes were made to the design of the IS-2 tank: instead of an inspection hatch, the driver received a viewing slot with a triplex; sighting devices have been improved. From the middle of 1944, the IS-2 tanks began to be produced with a modified hull - now its frontal part has become the same with an increased slope, like that of the T-34. In addition, a DShK heavy machine gun was mounted on the turret. It was used in street fighting to fight the "faustniks" who ambushed the upper floors of buildings. The upgraded tank received the index "IS-2M".

Destroying enemy tanks and anti-tank guns long before he himself fell into the sphere of effective action of their fire, the IS-2 proved to be more tenacious than the approximately equivalent Tiger in terms of armor. It is no coincidence that the Wehrmacht command forbade its tankers to engage in open fights with the IS-2, they were instructed to "avoid oncoming battles with the IS tank and shoot at it only because of ambushes and shelters."

The IS-2s were especially distinguished in the last months of the war. They were part of the assault groups fighting on the streets of cities. With their powerful shells, they destroyed any obstacles, at the same time a tactical technique was born that stunned the enemy: meeting a blockage on a narrow city street, a Soviet heavy tank did not storm, but bypassed it, making its way through the walls of nearby houses ...

The design team of Kotin based on the IS tanks in 1944 created heavy self-propelled artillery mounts ISU-122 and ISU-152. These self-propelled guns also proved to be excellent during street fighting in Berlin and during the assault on the powerful fortifications of Koenigsberg and Budapest.

Heavy fighting was still going on in Poland, Hungary and Germany, and already at the beginning of 1945, the Kotin Design Bureau began work on a project for a new heavy tank. Many engineers with extensive experience in creating new tanks were involved in the development of the new vehicle, and already on September 9, 1945, Kotin signed the working drawings of the general view of the tank, which received the IS-7 index. Its armored hull had large angles of inclination of the armor plates and a trihedral frontal part. However, since there was no power plant for such heavy tanks at that time, it had to be developed almost from scratch.

For the first time in domestic practice, the IS-7 used tracks with a rubber-metal hinge, beam torsion bars, double-acting hydraulic shock absorbers and road wheels with internal shock absorption.

Already in 1947, work began on the creation of an improved version of the IS-7. A 130-mm S-70 cannon was installed on it. For the first time for that time, the tank received a stabilized fire control system. The auxiliary armament of the tank consisted of two heavy-caliber 14.5-mm machine guns KPV and six RP-46 caliber 7.62 mm, which had a remote control. The IS-7 tank was equipped with a marine 12-cylinder M-50T diesel engine, which allowed it to reach speeds of up to 60 km/h.

Undoubtedly, the IS-7 can be considered the best Soviet heavy tank and one of the best heavy tanks in the world. It had the highest speed among vehicles of this type and the most powerful armor among domestic tanks. And in terms of the totality of the main combat indicators, he had no equal in the world. However, this tank was destined to remain only in prototypes.

ONE of the works of the Kotin design bureau, known for its heavy KV and IS tanks, is the creation of the PT-76 amphibious tank. In 1951, the PT-76 entered service with the Soviet Army. It differed from similar amphibious tanks in that it did not require any preparation to overcome water obstacles. The PT-76 was the first tank in the world to be equipped with a water jet. The new Soviet amphibious tank could enter the water at an angle of 38 degrees and was able not only to cross rivers, but also had the ability to leave landing craft far from the coast if the sea did not exceed 4 points. The design of the tank made it possible to fire from a 76-mm cannon afloat.

The PT-76 amphibious tank was distinguished not only by good seaworthiness, but also by high mobility on land. This was due to the successful combination of a diesel engine and a jet propulsion, as well as a large hull volume with light bulletproof armor. Sufficiently powerful armament, consisting of a 76-mm cannon and a machine gun, ensured the fulfillment of all fire missions in reconnaissance and landing operations.

In 1962, a modernized version of the PT-76B was developed, equipped with a 76 mm D-56TS tank gun with a two-plane stabilizer and additional fuel tanks. The height of the hull of the new vehicle has been increased by 130 mm, the bow of the tank has been lengthened, and the back of the roof of the hull has been given a slight reverse slope. On the basis of the PT-76, a floating tracked armored personnel carrier BTR-50P, as well as launchers for tactical missiles "Mars" and "Luna" were created.

However, the most famous post-war design of Kotin was the last Soviet serial heavy tank T-10, which was the most advanced in its class and the most massive heavy tank in the history of world tank building. The new tank was intended to replace the IS-2, IS-3 and IS-4 vehicles. The prototypes of the tank at first bore the designation "object 730", but at the end of 1953 it was put into production under the name "T-10". The complex hull of the tank with inclined upper and bent lower side plates had a frontal configuration of the IS-3 type ("pike nose") with an armor thickness of 120 mm. Cast streamlined tower with different wall angles had a variable thickness of up to 250 mm. A 122-mm D-25TA tank gun with a two-chamber muzzle brake was mounted on the tank. Additional armament consisted of a 12.7-mm DShKM machine gun coaxial with a cannon and a second DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun equipped with a collimator sight. The T-10 tank was equipped with a V-12-5 diesel engine with an HP 700 power. with centrifugal blower.

At the end of the 1950s, many experimental and small-scale vehicles were created on the basis of the T-10, including self-propelled guns with a 152-mm gun, as well as launchers for medium-range ballistic missiles.

Another area of ​​creative activity of Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin was the creation of rocket tanks. The appearance of rocket weapons in the 1930s in the USSR immediately attracted the attention of designers of armored combat vehicles. At the same time, the first attempts were made to install missiles on tanks. Back in 1941-1942, SKB-2 of the Leningrad Kirov Plant under the leadership of Kotin developed a variant of the KV-1K heavy tank with an additional placement of four M-13 rockets. Prototypes of such a combat vehicle were made, it passed factory and field tests, but further work was stopped.

The first post-war work on the placement of missile weapons on armored vehicles began in the late 1940s. In 1956-1960, the designers of the Leningrad Kirov Plant based on the PT-76 amphibious tank created an experimental amphibious tank "object 280", equipped with two eight-barreled independent 140-mm launchers for M-140F turbojet projectiles. In 1957, in the same design bureau, a draft design of the "object 281" tank with rocket armament based on the chassis of the T-10A heavy tank was completed. The launch of turbojet projectiles was supposed to be carried out from a special short-barreled gun - a launcher with a piston breech.

In connection with the creation of domestic missile systems for various purposes, work abroad on promising models of armored weapons and a change in the views of the military and political leadership on the role of missile weapons in ground combat operations, from the beginning of the 1950s, work began in the Soviet Union on the creation of anti-tank guided missiles. complexes, and since 1957, research and development work has been launched on the use of guided missile weapons in armored vehicles. Work was carried out in three main areas. These are: the use of infantry ATGMs as additional weapons for tanks and other armored vehicles (Kotin developed and tested missile versions of the T-10M and PT-76B tanks with the placement of the Malyutka ATGM complex with several launchers on the turret as additional weapons); the creation of specialized tanks - tank destroyers using guided and unguided missiles as the main armament; creation of specialized guided weapon systems for tanks and other armored combat vehicles.

To rearm rocket tanks, not only were systems of guided missile weapons developed, but also unguided rocket munitions were created. Using only missile ammunition, according to the designers, it was possible to significantly simplify the use of tank weapons, reduce its crew and minimize weight and size characteristics.

In 1968-1972, J. Kotin worked as Deputy Minister of Defense Industry. Motherland highly appreciated the work of the designer. Joseph Yakovlevich - Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of four State Prizes, holder of four Orders of Lenin, Orders of Suvorov I and II degrees, two Orders of the October Revolution, Order of the Red Banner, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, World War I degree, Red Star, Order of the Sign Honor" and many medals.

Joseph Yakovlevich died in 1979. In Chelyabinsk and St. Petersburg, streets are named after him. The name of the talented designer-tank builder was given to the Leningrad Engineering College, and a marble bust of Joseph Yakovlevich was installed on the territory of the Kirov Plant.

Sergei Monetchikov, "Brother" magazine, 2005

Colonel-General of the Engineering and Technical Service, Hero of Socialist Labor Joseph Kotin (March 10 (February 27), 1908 - October 21, 1979) worked in Chelyabinsk during the Great Patriotic War - he worked at the famous tractor (tank) plant. And he didn’t just work - Kotin was one of the creators of that Chelyabinsk infrastructure during the war, the very one that we call Tankograd.

Kotina Street with its name reminds Chelyabinsk residents of the contribution of Zh.Ya. Kotin and the legendary Tankograd during the Great Patriotic War.

J.Ya. Kotin was born on March 10, 1908 (February 27, old style) in the city of Pavlograd, Yekaterinoslav province (Dnepropetrovsk region), in a working class family. In 1923, he began his career as an apprentice fitter at the Trud boiler-mechanical plant in Kharkov.

After graduating from the evening working faculty (workers' faculty) in 1927, he studied at the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute.

In August 1929, he, a third-year student, an excellent student, was sent to continue his studies at the Leningrad Military Technical Academy. Dzerzhinsky.

Since 1932 Zh.Ya. Kotin is serving in the research department of the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army. In 1932, the production of tanks was organized at the Leningrad Kirov Plant.

In May 1937, Kotin was appointed chief designer of SKB-2 at the Kirov Plant.

Here began to take shape a special - "Kotinsky" style of work.

In February 1939, SKB-2 began to develop a single-turret heavy tank KV ("Klim Voroshilov"). The first sample of the KB tank was made in September 1939.

On December 19, 1939, the KB heavy tank, like the new T-34 tank, was accepted by the government into service with the Red Army.

From the first days of the war there was a need for mass production of tanks. The military situation in Leningrad became more and more tense. The Germans bombed the city constantly and methodically. During one of these bombings, Kotin received a slight wound and concussion.

In 1940-1941, SKB-2 developed a version of a light tank with anti-cannon armor T-50 ("Object 211").

On October 6, 1941, an order was issued to evacuate the Kirov Plant to Chelyabinsk, where on the basis of ChTZ and other plants partially or completely evacuated there, Tankograd, a giant tank plant, was created.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry (NKTP) was formed and Kotin was appointed Deputy People's Commissar and Chief Designer of the NKTP. People's Commissariat was evacuated to Chelyabinsk.

On October 9, 1941, for outstanding services in organizing the mass production of KV tanks at ChKZ, Zh.Ya. Kotin together with the director of the plant I.M. Zaltsman M.I. Kalinin presented the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle Gold Medal.

On March 28, 1942, a special Pilot Plant No. 100 was created on the basis of the ChTZ Pilot Plant and the Kharkov Machine-Tool Plant named after. Molotov. In 1943, Zh.Ya. Kotin is appointed its director.

On September 18, 1943, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences for the creation of a fundamentally new machine.

With the help of Tankograd, repair factories and brigades were created along the entire front line. Kotin tanks were adapted for repair in the field.

In 1942, Kotin was awarded the military rank of Major General of the Technical Troops, and in 1944, the title of Lieutenant General of the Tank Engineering Service.

On August 5, 1944, Experimental Plant No. 100 was awarded the Order of Lenin for special merits in the creation of new types of heavy tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts.

Under the leadership of Zh. Ya. Kotin, work was carried out to create heavy tanks KV-2, KV-1, KV-85, IS-1, IS-2.

During the period 1943-1944. on the basis of the KV-1S and IS tanks, self-propelled artillery mounts SU-152, ISU-152, ISU-122 were created. During the war years, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant produced 18,000 tanks and self-propelled guns.

In the spring of 1946, Joseph Yakovlevich returned to Leningrad to his native plant. At the same time, he is the director of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute (VNII-100), created on the basis of Pilot Plant No. 100.

Since 1948, Joseph Yakovlevich has been a professor at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Kalinin.

March 19, 1949 J.Ya. Kotin was appointed director of the newly formed All-Union Research Institute of Transport Engineering (VNII-100, VNIITM).

Since 1961, Kotin began to develop a new wheeled tractor - a universal tractor, on which it would be possible to transport goods, plow, and sow. It was named "Kirovets" (K-700).

In 1968, Kotin became Deputy Minister of Defense Industry and moved to Moscow. Here he lived and worked for eleven years.

Joseph Yakovlevich devoted his entire life to the creation and production of armored vehicles, successfully combining design, production, organizational work with scientific activities.

He was a born designer and could not completely leave practical work.

Joseph Yakovlevich had an energetic and sociable character, enjoyed great respect and authority from his subordinates.

A distinctive feature of the activity of Zh.Ya. Kotin was a constant creative search, the desire to see the new, promising, even where it is not yet visible in an explicit form.

In the memory of everyone who came into contact with Zh.Ya. Kotin, he left a deep mark as a talented engineer, a major organizer of industry.

Awards and titles

1. Hero of Socialist Labor (1941)
2. Stalin Prize (1941, 1943, 1946, 1948)
3. Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR (1968)
4. 4 Orders of Lenin (04/17/1940; 09/19/1941; 12/30/1956; 03/09/1978)
5. 2 orders of the October Revolution (10/25/1971; 10/08/1975)
6. Order of the Red Banner (05/17/1951)
7. Order of Suvorov 1st degree (09/16/1945)
8. Order of Suvorov, 2nd class (04/19/1945)
9. Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (08/05/1944)
10. 3 orders of the Red Banner of Labor (04/02/1951; 03/12/1958; 07/28/1966)
11. 3 Orders of the Red Star (06/05/1942; 01/20/1943; 11/06/1945)
12. Order of the Badge of Honor (21.06.1957)
13. medal "For Military Merit" (03.11.1944)
14. and other medals.

Joseph Yakovlevich died in Moscow in 1979.

He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Memory of Zh.Ya. Kotine

1. The name of the outstanding designer is:
2. St. Petersburg Engineering College
3. A marble bust of Joseph Yakovlevich was installed on the territory of the Kirov Plant.
4. The memorial plaque was installed on the house in St. Petersburg, where the designer lived.
5. Mountain peak in the Tien Shan (Peak Kotin, 4820 m).

Memory of Zh.Ya. Kotin is carefully stored in Chelyabinsk:

Joseph Kotin Museum

The museum of Joseph Kotin works in the Chelyabinsk school No. 86 of the Traktorozavodsky district. A memorial plaque hangs on the school, on which the text:

"Since 1980, School No. 86 has been named after the outstanding tank builder Kotin Joseph Yakovlevich."

The museum, despite the fact that it has been going for more than a year, turned out to be good, with a rich exposition. The initiative of its creation belongs to the former worker of ChTZ Anisa Nurmukhametova, a member of the Blockade Brotherhood society. Enthusiasts rallied around her - teachers, parents and students of school No. 86.

Eduard Sobolev, a well-known chronicler at ChTZ (pictured), spent a lot of time at the plant, collecting materials for the Kotin Museum. He owns the book "Design Bureau: the fate of people and machines", in which he spoke about the facts that for a long time were hidden from us behind seven seals.

The ninety-five-year-old Tatyana Shemetova, a friend of the Kotin family, also helped prepare the materials. Fate brought her together several times with Joseph Yakovlevich's wife, Natalya Poklonova. They met together with people from the creative working circle of designer Kotin.

Collecting materials, the creators of the museum got acquainted with rare exhibits and documents. Of great interest to the creators of the museum was a document in which the conversion of some schools into hospitals was scheduled four months before the war. Some of the war veterans agreed to donate their awards to the museum. It is curious that residents of other cities also show great interest in the museum. However, you just need to come here to the museum one day, plunge into history, get acquainted with interesting, rare documents.

Memorial plaques of Zh.Ya. Kotin installed in the Traktorozavodsky district of Chelyabinsk

Memorial plaque installed at the address: Russia, Chelyabinsk region, city of Chelyabinsk, V.I. Lenina, house number 15.

On the board is the inscription: “During the years of the Great Patriotic War, outstanding creators of military equipment lived in this house, chief designers three times Hero of Socialist Labor Nikolai Leonidovich. Dukhov; Hero of Socialist LaborJoseph YakovlevichKotin.

Installation date: in 1985, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Victory.

Material: Bronze 1.5x1.4 m

Memorial plaque installed at the address: Russia, Chelyabinsk region, city of Chelyabinsk, Kotina street, house No. 17 / Geroev Tankograda street, house No. 100

The memorial plaque is installed on a residential building located at the intersection of Kotin and Geroev Tankograd streets.

The inscription on the board: "The street is named after Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin, chief designer of armored vehicles, Hero of Socialist Labor, Laureate of the USSR State Prize."

Memorial plaque installed at the address: Russia, Chelyabinsk region, city of Chelyabinsk, Kotina street, 22, school building No. 86.

The inscription on the board: "Since 1980, School No. 86 has been named after the outstanding tank builder Kotin Joseph Yakovlevich."

Installation date: 1980

The material was provided by G.V. Brechko, library number 11 named after. J. Hasek

Awarded 4 Orders of Lenin (04/17/1940; 09/19/1941; 12/30/1956; 03/09/1978), 2 Orders of the October Revolution (10/25/1971; 10/08/1975), Red Banner (05/17/1951), Orders of Suvorov 1st ( 09/16/1945) and 2nd (04/19/1945) degrees, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree (08/5/1944), 3 orders of the Red Banner of Labor (04/2/1951; 03/12/1958; 07/28/1966), 3 orders of the Red Stars (06/5/1942, 01/20/1943; 11/6/1945), the Order of the Badge of Honor (06/21/1957), medals.

Ranks

colonel general

Positions

Deputy People's Commissar of the tank industry of the USSR

chief designer of the People's Commissariat of Tank Industry of the USSR

chief designer of SKB-2 of the Kirov plant.

Biography

Kotin Joseph Yakovlevich - Deputy People's Commissar of the Tank Industry of the USSR, Chief Designer of the People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry of the USSR, Chief Designer of SKB-2 of the Kirov Plant.

He was born on February 26 (March 10), 1908 in the city of Pavlograd, now the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine.

Since 1923, he was a mechanic at a boiler-mechanical plant in Kharkov, at the same time he studied at the evening workers' faculty. Since 1927 he studied at the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute.

Since 1930 - in the Red Army, according to the special recruitment. In 1932 he graduated from the Military Technical Academy named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky. In 1932 - 1937 he served as an engineer, head of the design sector, head of a department in the research department of the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army named after I.V. Stalin.

In 1937 he was appointed chief designer of the SKB-2 design bureau at the Kirov Plant in Leningrad. His first independent design work was the modernization of the T-28 medium tank. However, studying the experience of military operations in Spain, Kotin came to the conclusion that light and medium tanks with light armor were ineffective, the main advantage of which was considered high speed and good maneuverability. In 1938, he began work on the creation of heavy tanks with anti-cannon armor: the SMK (two-turret, two-gun) and the single-turret KV tank with a 76-mm gun. The tanks were created in the shortest possible time, their prototypes passed combat tests in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. As a result, the heavy and vulnerable SMK was rejected, and the KV ("Klim Voroshilov") tank was put into service. Immediately, Kotin launched work on the creation of its modification, which was put into service in the same 1940 under the name KV-2. Its lead designer was N.L. Dukhov. Yielding to foreign heavy tanks in a number of indicators, nevertheless, the KV-2 was a worthy rival to the Nazi tanks in the first period of the Great Patriotic War. Where the command used them correctly in combat operations, the KV inflicted great damage on the enemy and came out victorious in unequal battles.

Also in the pre-war period, SKB-2, under the leadership of Kotin, developed in 1940 an even more powerful tank - product 220, on which an 85-mm tank gun was installed, a planetary transmission was used. Work on the creation of cast tank turrets, carried out at the Izhora plant, has been launched. Other tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts were being developed: the KV-3 heavy tank, self-propelled guns with a 152-mm Br-2 cannon, and the T-50 light tank with anti-cannon armor. However, this work was not completed before the start of the war.

For outstanding services in the creation and development of the production of heavy tanks in difficult wartime conditions, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 19, 1941, Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, in June 1941, Kotin was appointed Deputy People's Commissar of the Tank Industry (until 1943), Chief Designer of the People's Commissariat for the Tank Industry and Chief Designer of a tank factory in Chelyabinsk (Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant). In the first months of the war, Kotin was directly involved in the evacuation of the Kirov plant to the Urals, a number of other plants and the creation in Chelyabinsk of the largest center of the tank industry, known throughout the world as "Tankograd".

He took part in the development of heavy tanks KV-1S, KV-16, KV-85, a heavy tank with the installation of several guns in a non-rotating KV-7 turret, a flamethrower tank KV-8, a heavy tank armed with a 122 mm KV-9 howitzer. The serial KB tank was constantly improved: a more powerful 76-mm ZIS-5 gun, a cast turret were installed, additional armor was welded onto the front hull plates. In the spring of 1942, the development of a new KB-13 tank began, which, being made in a medium weight (about 30 tons), was supposed to have the properties of a heavy one.

Realizing that the reserve for improving the KV tanks was limited, in the summer of 1942 Kotin organized work on the creation of a promising heavy tank IS-1. Its development was the appearance of the most powerful tank of the 2nd World War - the IS-2 with a 122-mm gun. In the period 1943-44, under the leadership of Kotin, on the basis of the KV, T-34 and IS tanks, the designer F.F. Petrov created self-propelled artillery mounts SU-152, ISU-152, ISU-122. Their production was rapidly established at the factories of "Tankograd". During the war years, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant produced 18,000 tanks and self-propelled guns.

In August 1943, the tank factories of the USSR switched to a stable discharge of products for the front, in connection with which it was decided to release Kotin from the duties of Deputy People's Commissar of the Tank Industry of the USSR. To concentrate efforts on design activities, Zh.Ya. Kotin was appointed chief designer and head of experimental tank plant No. 100 in Chelyabinsk. At the end of 1943, he developed and put into production at ChKZ the ISU-152 self-propelled gun mount (replacing the SU-152) and the IS-2 tank with a powerful 122-mm D-25 gun designed by F.F. Petrov. Continuous improvement of production vehicles was carried out, for which the experience of fighting at the front was quickly taken into account, new models of enemy and allied equipment were studied. Major General of Technical Troops (01/06/1942). Lieutenant General of the Tank Engineering Service (07/31/1944).

In 1945, Kotin returned to Leningrad as the chief designer of SKB-2. On March 19, 1949, the All-Union Research Institute (VNII-100) was created at the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building, the main task of which was to design new tanks and tractor equipment. Zh.Ya.Kotin is appointed director and chief designer of the institute. In 1951, a separate Experimental Design Bureau (OKBT) was separated from the VNII-100 on the basis of the Leningrad Kirov Plant, and Kotin was again appointed head and chief designer.

In the postwar years, Kotin developed the IS-4 heavy tank (1947), the PT-76 amphibious tank (1951), the T-10 heavy tank (1953), the BTR-501 amphibious armored personnel carrier based on the PT-76 tank, and the KT- 12 (1948) and wheeled tractor K-700 "Kirovets" (1963), a number of chassis for rocket and artillery installations. At the same time he was the head of the department at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.

Since 1968 - Deputy Minister of Defense Industry of the USSR. Since 1972 - Member of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Ministry of Defense Industry of the USSR.

J.Ya. Kostin died on October 21, 1979 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow (plot 7).

Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1946-1950 and in 1966-1970.

Doctor of Technical Sciences (1943).

Laureate of four Stalin Prizes of the USSR (1941, 1943, 1946, 1948). Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR (1968).

Colonel-General of the Engineering and Technical Service (11/13/1965, in 1971 the military rank was renamed "Colonel-General-Engineer"). Awarded 4 Orders of Lenin (04/17/1940; 09/19/1941; 12/30/1956; 03/09/1978), 2 Orders of the October Revolution (10/25/1971; 10/08/1975), Red Banner (05/17/1951), Orders of Suvorov 1st ( 09/16/1945) and 2nd (04/19/1945) degrees, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree (08/5/1944), 3 orders of the Red Banner of Labor (04/2/1951; 03/12/1958; 07/28/1966), 3 orders of the Red Stars (06/5/1942, 01/20/1943; 11/6/1945), the Order of the Badge of Honor (06/21/1957), medals.

In the homeland of the Hero, in the city of Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk region, a monument was erected, in St. Petersburg, on the territory of the Kirov Plant - a bust. Streets in Chelyabinsk and St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg Engineering College, a mountain peak in the Tien Shan (Peak Kotin, 4820 m) are named after the outstanding designer. Memorial plaques are installed on houses in Chelyabinsk and St. Petersburg, where the designer lived.

Biography provided by Anton Bocharov

Sources

Zalessky K.A. Empire of Stalin. Biographical Enc. Dictionary.-M, Veche, 2000

- (1908 79) Russian designer, Colonel General of the Engineering and Technical Service (1965), Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Russia (1968), Hero of Socialist Labor (1941). Under the leadership of Kotin, heavy tanks KV and IS, self-propelled ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1908 1979), tank designer, colonel general of engineering and technical service (1965), doctor of technical sciences (1943), Hero of Socialist Labor (1941). Member of the CPSU since 1931. He graduated from the Military Technical Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Kotin, Joseph Yakovlevich- KOTIN Joseph Yakovlevich (1908 79), designer. Under the leadership of Kotin, the first heavy tanks SMK and KV (1939), IS (1943), heavy self-propelled artillery mounts, tractors: skidder KT 12 (1948), wheeled K 700 (1963) were created in the USSR. … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Kotin Joseph Yakovlevich- (19081979), tank designer, colonel general of the engineering service (1965), doctor of technical sciences (1943), Hero of Socialist Labor (1941). Member of the CPSU since 1931. He graduated from the Military Technical Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1908 1979), designer, colonel general engineer service technologist (1965), honored worker of science and technology of the RSFSR (1968), Hero of Socialist Labor (1941). Under the leadership of Kotin, heavy tanks KV and IS, self-propelled artillery ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Genus. 1908, mind. 1979. Designer, creator of heavy military equipment (KV, IS, PT 76 tanks, KT 12 and K 700 tractors, self-propelled guns, etc.). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1941, 1943, 1946, 1948), Hero of Socialist Labor (1941). Honored Worker ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

Zh. Ya. Kotin Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin (March 10, 1908, Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk region October 21, 1979, Leningrad) Soviet designer of tanks and tractors, colonel general of the engineering service, doctor of technical sciences. Contents 1 ... Wikipedia

Zh. Ya. Kotin Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin (March 10, 1908, Pavlograd, Dnepropetrovsk region October 21, 1979, Leningrad) Soviet designer of tanks and tractors, colonel general of the engineering service, doctor of technical sciences. Contents 1 ... Wikipedia

Surname. Famous carriers: Kotin, Vladimir Grigorievich Kotin, Joseph Yakovlevich See also Kotin Street (St. Petersburg) Kotin Kotin ... Wikipedia

Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin

Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin is the exact opposite of A. A. Morozov. He was a talented organizer and an outstanding politician. Further, the names of the heavy tanks created by the Design Bureau had a political connotation: SMK (Sergei Mironovich Kirov), KV (Klim Voroshilov), IS (Joseph Stalin). This had a psychological effect, first of all, on customers, and on other officials as well.

He never spoke negatively about the actions and proposals of statesmen. I immediately took on the implementation of their ideas. Examples of this may be the wish of N.S. Khrushchev to design an air cushion tank, as well as V. A. Malyshev’s proposal to create a tank with a gas turbine engine.

When I was called to some meetings in Leningrad, at the tank institute, I always, in order of interest, visited the Kirov plant. Kotin always received me cordially, told me what they were doing. During one such visit on the way to the Design Bureau, I went to the military representatives, where my comrades from the Academy worked. We had such a conversation with the district engineer, Colonel A.P. Pavlov.

- Alexander Petrovich, what is Kotin doing now?

- The American wheeled tractor is ripping off.

“I don’t understand what the tractor has to do with it?” After all, Kotin is a tanker ...

- Kotin, if they say: “Make a satellite”, he will take it, he will not do it, and his deputy Ermolaev will prove that the satellite flies.

In this case, we got a tractor called K-700. For its creation, the Lenin Prize was received. Kotin tried many times to offer the K-700 tractor to the Ministry of Defense, but for some reason it did not work out. And so, when the show of tanks to Khrushchev ended on September 14, 1964, everyone saw that the K-700 tractor blocked the road from the observation deck. All government vehicles had to go around it.

At one of the shows to Khrushchev, Kotin presented a tank with wonderfully made wooden models of two gas turbines. Everyone understood from Kotin's report that this was a finished tank. I thought then: “Now Nikita Sergeevich will ask him to start ...”

I have never seen Morozov in military uniform, and Kotin in civilian uniform. Morozov, in my memory, has never been to the field and military tests of prototypes, Kotin - always. He cared a lot about the life of the designers, but he also demanded a lot from them. He did not interfere in the routine design drawing work. This was done by his deputies. It seems to me that after the heavy tanks were discontinued, Kotin was a little confused, which cannot be said about his rival in Chelyabinsk, P.P. Isakov, who immediately switched to the creation of an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), in which he achieved great success.

The Kirovites (a team of SKB-2 of the Kirov Plant in Leningrad) decided to wedge into the development of medium tanks, where there were three design bureaus, their own traditions, where the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Ministry of Defense relied on A. A. Morozov. They started with the creation of a rocket tank, "object 287", which could not be massive. I once said jokingly: “Joseph Yakovlevich, you are trying in vain, anyway, this car will not see the light, it is drunk ...” (at that time, half a liter of Moscow vodka cost 2 rubles 87 kopecks).

After the failure with the “object 287”, Kotin began to deal with a tank with a gas turbine engine, and then in June 1968 he became deputy minister of the defense industry. In the rank of Deputy Minister, he came to us with a large retinue of representatives of the ministry and institutions. At that time, we were working on the "object 172", in which the foundations of the future tank were laid. A prototype has already been made.

One episode comes to mind. As we walked through the hull shop, Kotin asked a boring worker about something, and he answered him: “Why don’t you say hello?” The colonel-general apologized and then, as we walked through the shop, he bowed to everyone.

After a while, I realized that Kotin made a bet on Nizhny Tagil, although we never talked about this topic. This really interfered with my work, as some people from the institutes and the Ministry constantly stuck around. So, for example, he demanded that I report to him daily by HF telephone on how the work on "object 172" was going. I answered him: “Joseph Yakovlevich, I can’t do this, since the apparatus is far away, in the factory management. In the best case, the report should take at least an hour. He didn't react to it at all.

After this conversation, I recalled an incident when, during my graduation project, designer Sergeev said: “Kotin will not sleep at night if he hasn’t hooked someone.” This time he sent the daily speaker S.Yu. Vygodsky. I have known him for a long time. Until his retirement, he worked as the head of the engine department at the Kubinka training ground. Researchers, assemblers and drivers began to complain to me that he distracted them from their work with various questions and advice. I recommended to ignore it.

In the spring of 1969, during the tests of the "object 172" along the factory ring, the driver's emergency hatch was pressed inward with mud. Fortunately, the fact that V.M. was the driver saved him from human sacrifice. Nazarenko is the absolute champion of the region in lifting the barbell. With incredible physical effort, Valentin Msfodievich, sandwiched between the seat and the hatch cover, stopped the tank, reaching for the handle of the fuel supply sector to the engine, after which he opened the hatch and climbed out.

In order not to stop the tests of the tank in especially difficult conditions of mud, we welded the hatch, and I gave the task to develop a new constipation instead of the Kharkov one. In the evening of the same day, Vygodsky came to me and said that I had made such a decision incorrectly. My patience has run out. I told the shop manager not to let him in for the assembly, which everyone was happy about. After that, Vygodsky left, and no one else from the spies appeared to us.

Kotin did not agree for five months with my application for dismissal from his position, but I insisted on my own. After that, having become the deputy chairman of the NTK UNTV, I spoke with him as a customer with a contractor.

Ninth book SAINT JOSEPH

Chapter Three "JOSEPH, MY DOUBLE GUN!" Dumas was never distinguished by constancy in love. And although Melanie Valdor remained "his angel", Dumas was surrounded by a whole host of angels of secondary importance. He was fond of not only Virginie Bourbier from the Comédie Francaise, but,