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 the Spirit were of great importance for the defense of the USSR. Thanks to him, the American monopoly on nuclear weapons was eliminated.
A family
Dukhov N. L. was born on 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 medical assistant. Then he moved to a sugar factory in the village where the future wife lived. A year after the wedding of Leonid and Maria, Nikolai was born.
Education
At the age of 7, Nikolai went to an elementary rural school in Veprike. After graduation, in 1914, he continued his studies at the Gadyach Classical Gymnasium. It was an excellent teaching of foreign languages, thanks to which Spirits perfectly mastered English, German and French. In 1919, the gymnasium was transformed into a labor school of the 2nd level. Nikolai graduated in 1920.
The opportunity to continue his education for Nikolai appeared only at 22 years old. The factory Komsomol meeting decided to give Duhov a ticket to the working faculty of the Kharkov Land Management and Geodesy Institute. After his graduation, he was able to enter the Leningrad Polytechnic University at the Faculty of Mechanics without examinations, where he was trained to design and manufacture tractors and cars. He graduated from the institute in 1932.
Labor activity
Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich, whose biography is described in this article, began to work from the age of 14. At first he was the secretary of the committee of the poor in his native village. Since 1921 he became an agent of the food detachment. Conducted a census for the calculation of taxes. He was in charge of the district reading room. He was the secretary of raisemles and the head of the registry office. In 1925, he got a job as a beet carver at the Chupakhovsky plant. A little later he was transferred to the technical standardization department.
Immediately after the Institute of Spirits, he got a job at the Krasniy Putilovets factory in Leningrad. At first he was an ordinary ordinary employee. But after a few years he began to replace the chief designer.
Dukhov Nikolay Leonidovich: designer since childhood
The interest in constructing and constructing something in Nikolai began to manifest since childhood. When he was only 7 years old, the neighboring boys came running to him, for whom he made wooden weapons for street fighting. As a teenager, Nikolai could easily repair mechanical watches, tools, and a seeder. And after the gymnasium, he designed a radio. So the first radio appeared in the village.
Work in tank and tractor engineering
In the first years of his work at the Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) Nikolai Leonidovich Dukhov was engaged in the construction of various devices 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 he was involved in the improvement of armored vehicles. He was transferred to SKB-2, where he began to create a method of strength and traction calculations of the tank. These data were then used by his colleagues for several years. Then he was appointed head of the design team, which was engaged in the modernization of the T-28 tanks. The work was completed in 1938. The onboard transmission of the new design was personally carried out by Dukhovy.
At the end of 1938, he showed a new project for the KV-1 heavy military tank, which later became a nightmare for the Germans. In 1939, LKZ began serial production of new equipment according to the drawings of Dukhov. In 1940, he was appointed deputy head of SKB-2. He became the leading designer of the KV-1 and made a great contribution to the creation of the KV-2.
In 1941, the plant had to be evacuated to Chelyabinsk. The company was renamed and was called abbreviated ChTZ. On the basis of the local tractor plant, the production of KV series tanks began. In July of the same year, Dukhov was appointed lead designer of the third department and left for Chelyabinsk. The work was organized quickly. And in October 1941, Nikolai Leonidovich became deputy chief designer of the plant. In 1943 he was appointed to the post of chief designer of ChTZ. He worked until 1948.
During this time, Spirits established conveyor production of new KV tanks. He led the development of their modifications and artillery mounts. The T-34 medium tanks were radically modernized. Under the guidance of Dukhov, a new series of IPs was developed (1, 2, 3, 4). In the postwar period, he created a new tractor S-80 with a closed cabin.
Work in the nuclear industry
In 1948, Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich 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, Spirits took part in its test at the Semipalatinsk test site. And in 1953, a hydrogen bomb.
Since 1954, Dukhov simultaneously became a director, leading designer and scientific adviser of the first branch of KB-11. Nikolai Leonidovich identified the main activities of the institute - the creation of ammunition for nuclear weapons, systems for initiating their charges, automation devices and instrumentation.
The Soviet designer Dukhov N.L. is considered the founder of the design school of nuclear weapons. Over 10 years of work under the guidance of Dukhov, 3 generations of automatic units have been developed. And also created ammunition for ballistic missiles, torpedoes, the first cruise missiles for the Navy, Air Force and Air Defense. For them, a whole series of various electrical appliances was additionally created. Under the guidance of Dukhov, 3 generations of measuring equipment were developed:
- oscillographic;
- oscilloscopic;
- automated, with digital registration.
Design Teacher
Nikolai Leonidovich combined engineering and design work with teaching. From 1935 to 1940 He taught students at the Leningrad Road and Polytechnic Institute. In 1944, a mechanical engineering university was opened with tank and mechanical-technological departments. The head of the department was appointed Spirits. He also led the examination state commission of this institute.
Nikolai Leonidovich, a Soviet designer, has always attached great importance to the training of highly qualified specialists. It was Dukhovy who raised the question before the ministry about awarding scientific degrees to candidates of technical sciences. And the first 3 defenses passed in 1962.
Personal life
Spirits Nikolai Leonidovich married Maria Alexandrovna, with whom he lived until the end of his days. Work for the Spirit has always been in the first place. But the family was of great value to him. His wife was very sensitive and understanding. Often, when they got to the theaters, she saw that in the middle of the action Nikolai suddenly went into himself and concentrated. She quietly, trying not to frighten away his thoughts, took him home. And along the way, as soon as they got into the car, Spirits began to write the next calculations.
The couple had a daughter, Zoya, who later successfully married and presented her parents with her grandchildren - Svetlana and Igor. Nikolai Leonidovich in rare periods of rest always found time for them.
Death of the Spirit
Spirits Nikolai Leonidovich died on May 1, 1964 due to a serious illness, although not for long. The designer’s health was undermined by the hard work on the nuclear project and the war, when everyone worked to the limit. Nikolai Leonidovich is buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Awards and titles
In 1954, Dukhov Nikolai Leonidovich (1904-1964) received the rank of lieutenant general. He was a doctor of technical sciences. He was a laureate of the Lenin, State and four Stalin Prizes. Three times received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1953 he was a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was awarded several medals and four orders of Lenin, one - Suvorov of the second degree and one at a time - the Red Star and the Labor Banner.