Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich, Soviet armored vehicle designer: brief biography

Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich - Chief Designer of the Kirov Tank Plant. He made a huge contribution to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. The fruits of the works of Dukhov were of great importance for the defense of the USSR. Thanks to him, the American monopoly on nuclear weapons was eliminated.

A family

Dukhov NL was born October 26, 1904 in the Poltava region, the village of Veprik. Maria Mikhailovna, his mother, was the daughter of a poor landowner. Leonid Viktorovich, father, served as a paramedic. Then he moved to the sugar factory in the village, where the future wife lived. A year after the marriage of Leonid and Mary, Nicholas was born.

Education

At the age of 7 Nikolai went to the elementary school in Veprik. After graduation, in 1914, he continued his studies at the Gadyachsky Classical Gymnasium. It had an excellent teaching of foreign languages, thanks to which Spirits perfectly mastered English, German and French. In 1919, the gymnasium was transformed into a second-grade labor school. Nikolai graduated in 1920.

The possibility to continue education for Nikolai appeared only at the age of 22. At the factory Komsomol meeting it was decided to hand over to Dukhov a permit for the working faculty of the Kharkov land survey and geodesic institute. After his graduation, he was able to do without exams at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute of Mechanical Engineering, where he studied to design and produce tractors and cars. Graduated from the institute in 1932.

Work experience

Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich, whose biography is described in this article, began to work from the age of 14. At first he was secretary of the committee of the poor in his native village. In 1921 he became an agent of the food order detachment. Conducted a census for the assessment of taxes. I was in charge of the district reading room. He was the secretary of the regional land and the head of the registry office. In 1925 he settled down to work as a beet cutter at the Chupakhovsky Plant. Later he was transferred to the technical and normalization department.

Immediately after the institute, Dukhov got a job at the Leningrad plant "Krasny Putilovets". At first he was an ordinary rank-and-file employee. But a few years later he began to replace the chief designer.

Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich: the designer since childhood

Interest in something to construct and build in Nicholas began to manifest itself from childhood. When he was only 7 years old, he was approached by neighbor boys, for whom he made wooden weapons for street fighting. In adolescence, Nicholas could easily repair the mechanical clock, tools, seeder. And after the gymnasium, I designed a radio set. So the first radio appeared in the village.

Work in tank and tractor construction

In the first years of work at the Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ), Nikolai Leonidovich Dukhov was engaged in the construction of various attachments for the Universal tractor. He worked on the creation of the first Soviet "passenger car" "Leningrad-1". Participated in the construction of a crane.

In 1936, Mr .. was involved in the work on improving armored vehicles. He was transferred to SKB-2, where he began to create a technique for the strength and traction calculations of the tank. Several years later his colleagues used these data. Then he was appointed the head of the group of designers who was engaged in the modernization of T-28 tanks. The work was completed in 1938. The onboard transmission of the new design was carried out personally by Dukhov.

At the end of 1938, he showed a new project for a heavy military tank KV-1, which later became a nightmare for the Germans. In 1939, LKZ began serial production of new equipment from the drawings of Dukhov. In 1940 he was appointed to the post of deputy head of SKB-2. He became the leading designer of KV-1 and made a big contribution to the creation of KV-2.

In 1941 the plant had to be evacuated to Chelyabinsk. The enterprise was renamed and began to be called abbreviated as ChTZ. On the basis of a local tractor plant, the production of tanks of the KV series began. In July of the same year, Dukhov was appointed the leading designer of the third department and went to Chelyabinsk. The work was organized quickly. And in October 1941, Nikolai Leonidovich became the deputy chief designer of the plant. In 1943, Mr .. was appointed to the post of chief designer of ChTZ. He worked until 1948.

During this time, Dukhov established the conveyor production of new tanks KV. He headed the development of their modifications and artillery installations. The average T-34 tanks were radically modernized. Under the guidance of Dukhov, a new series of IS was being developed (1, 2, 3, 4). In the postwar period, they created a new tractor S-80 with a closed cabin.

Work in the nuclear industry

In 1948, Nikolai Leonidovich Dukhov was involved in the work on the atomic project KB-11. He began to replace the chief designer Yu Kharitonov. Under the leadership of Nikolai Leonidovich was the sector responsible for creating the first Soviet plutonium charge and atomic bomb. In 1949, Dukhov took part in her trial at the Semipalatinsk test site. And in 1953 - a hydrogen bomb.

Since 1954, Dukhov was simultaneously the director, lead designer and scientific supervisor of the first branch of KB-11. Nikolai Leonidovich determined the main directions of the institute's activity - the creation of ammunition for nuclear weapons, systems for initiating its charges, automation devices and instrumentation.

Soviet designer Dukhov NL is considered the founder of the design school of nuclear ammunition. For 10 years of work under the guidance of Dukhov, 3 generations of automatic blocks were developed. And also created ammunition for ballistic missiles, torpedoes, the first cruise missiles for the Navy, Air Force and Air Defense. For them an additional set of various electrical appliances was created. Under the leadership of Dukhov, 3 generations of measuring equipment were developed:

• Oscillographic;
• Non-oscillographic;
• Automated, digitally registered.

Constructor-teacher

Nikolay Leonidovich combined engineering and engineering work with teaching activities. From 1935 to 1940. He was engaged in teaching students in the Leningrad road and polytechnic institutes. In 1944, a mechanical engineering machine-building institute was opened with a tank and mechanico-technological department. The head of the department was appointed Dukhov. He also supervised the examination committee of this institute.

Nikolai Leonidovich, a Soviet designer, always attached great importance to the training of highly qualified specialists. It was Dukhov who was assigned to the Ministry the question of awarding scientific degrees to candidates of technical sciences. And the first 3 defenses took place in 1962.

Personal life

Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich married Maria Alexandrovna, with whom he lived until the end of his days. Work for Spirit was always in the first place. But the family for him was a great value. His wife was very sensitive and understanding. Often, when they went to theaters, she saw that in the middle of the action Nikolai suddenly withdrew into himself and concentrated. She quietly, trying not to frighten off his thoughts, took him home. And on the way, as soon as they got into the car, Dukhov began to write the next calculations.

The couple had a daughter, Zoya, who subsequently successfully married and gave her parents grandchildren - Svetlana and Igor. Nikolai Leonidovich always found time for them in rare periods of rest.

Death of Spirit

Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich died on May 1, 1964 because of a serious illness, although not very long. The designer's health was undermined by the hard work on the nuclear project and the war, when all worked to the limit of their strength. Nikolai Leonidovich is buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Awards and titles

In 1954, Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich (1904-1964 gg.) Was promoted to lieutenant-general. He was a doctor of technical sciences. He was a laureate of the Lenin, State and four Stalin Prizes. Three times he received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1953 he was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was awarded several medals and four Orders of Lenin, one - Suvorov of the second degree and one each - the Red Star and the Labor Banner.