Mikhail Koshkin (1898-1940) was a Soviet design engineer, a designer and the first Chief Designer of the T-34 tank, a Hero of Socialist Labor (1990).
In late December of 1936, he was assigned to the Kharkov Plant to design a fast medium tank suitable for large-scale production. Mikhail Koshkin took the lead of new design department KB-24, which in less than a year designed a wheeled caterpillar tank indexed BT-20.
Early in 1939, all tank design bureaus of the plant (KB-24, KB-190 and KB-35) were merged into KB-520, and at the same time, the experimental shops were merged into a single shop. M. Koshkin was appointed the Chief Designer. In the middle of the same year, he presented in Kharkov the A-20 and A-32 prototypes. From September 1939 to February 1940, proceeding from the decision of the Army Tank-Automation Command, Mikhail Koshkin headed designing and production of two prototype caterpillar tanks A-32 with reinforced armor.
On December 19, 1939, the A-32 caterpillar tank with 45-mm thick armor, named tank T-34, was adopted by the Red Army. On February 10 of 1940, the first two T-34 tanks were manufactured and their trials began. In March of 1940, Koshkin personally took part in the army trials of two prototype T-34 (A-34) tanks with a run from Kharkov to Moscow and back.
The commemorative stamp features a portrait of Mikhail Koshkin against the background of drawings of the A-32 tank; the main illustration is a collage of photos of various modifications of the T-34 tank.
| Denomination |
Paper |
Printing method |
Format of the postal card |
Edition |
| Letter “B” |
Chalk surfaced |
Offset |
105 × 148 mm |
7 thousand postcards |