Mikhail Koshkin

Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin (Russian: Михаи́л Ильи́ч Ко́шкин; 3 December 1898, Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Oblast – 26 September 1940) was a Soviet tank designer, chief designer of the famous T-34 medium tank.

[1] In 1937, the Red Army 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.

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.

Mikhail Koshkin was posthumously awarded the State Stalin Prize in 1942 and the Order of the Red Star.

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