The career of the outstanding designer Nikolai Leonidovich Dukhov is brilliant. Since childhood, fond of technology, he walked the path of life, not giving himself any indulgences. Both in peacetime and during war, he is a victorious designer. Fate gave him only 60 years to live, but his memory will never fade.
Childhood and adolescence
Nikolai Leonidovich Dukhov was born in 1904 in the village of Veprik, near Poltava, in the family of a medical assistant. As a child, the boy closely watched his grandfather, who often made something. Grandfather Mikhail was surprised that the grandson, unlike other children who played, was always preoccupied with something and was thinking about something. Kolya told his grandfather that he wanted to do something special, because he was no longer interested in making wooden rifles for the guys.
Nikolai inherited his creative streak and organizational skills from his grandfather and father. After graduating from the village school, he entered the men's gymnasium. The initial working biography of N. Dukhov was varied.
The birth of engineering talent
The young man was attracted to agricultural and electrical equipment. For the club N. Dukhov made a tube receiver with a loudspeaker. Engineering creativity was gradually born. When he studied at the Kharkov Institute of Land Management, deputy. People's Commissar of Education A. A. Polotsky, a fellow countryman of Dukhov, saw how he looked with interest at a foreign tube radio, and said that he should not be a land surveyor, but an engineer.
Krasnoputilovsky "tanker"
In 1932, after graduating from the Leningrad Machine-Building Institute, N. Dukhov worked as a designer at the Krasny Putilovets plant. After completing many difficult tasks, it became clear that he could do a lot. He developed accessories for a universal tractor, worked on the creation of a passenger car. Features of tank building N. Spirits comprehended within a few months. Before the start of the war, under his leadership, the tracks and armor were improved in the KV tank. He himself, in a tank overalls, drove cars around the area, participated in their repair.
One of the main participants in the "design war"
During the war, the tractor plant in Chelyabinsk was converted for the production of tanks. The "battle of designers" began, where our country and Germany fought. N. Dukhov was in those years at the forefront of the creation and modernization of combat vehicles. These were tanks T-28, KV-1, KV-2, T-45, etc.
Nuclear gunsmith
After the war, N. Dukhov was involved in the atomic project. Under his leadership, the first domestic plutonium charge and an atomic bomb were developed. In this matter of special state importance, his talent and extraordinary ability to find simple ways to solve complex problems were manifested with renewed vigor. Nikolai Leonidovich is considered the founder of the design school for nuclear weapons.
A person with an infinitely rich outlook
The outlook of this man was limitless. He was passionate about books, including biology, chemistry, medicine, and philosophy. He liked technical innovations. Once he brought a spinning rod. When LPs began to be released, he acquired them. He loved classical music, played the piano, became interested in filmmaking and acquired a camera. He could talk a lot and with enthusiasm about bees, about their mysterious life.
Personal life
Nikolai Leonidovich's wife worked in a design bureau. Once the Dukhov family went to the Black Sea. A neighbor in the compartment, having read the newspaper, handed it over to his fellow travelers. Maria Alexandrovna opened the newspaper and joyfully exclaimed that her husband had been given the Order of Lenin.
N. Dukhov's wife recalled how they once went to the theater. It seemed that the husband was watching the ballet attentively, but this lasted for several minutes. Then she realized that he had switched to his calculations. Then his wife touched his hand and called him home. In the car, right on the theater programs, he began to write something down quickly, as if he was afraid that he would not be in time.
Daughter of the Dukhovs Zoya graduated from Moscow State University, became a candidate of biological sciences. Nikolai Leonidovich loved to relax with his grandchildren Igor and Svetlana.
Inexhaustible memory
The life path of N. L. Dukhov ended in the prime of life in 1964 due to leukemia. The designer with numerous and highly respected awards lives on in the memory of the country. The All-Russian Research Institute of Automation, a street in Chelyabinsk, was named after him. In honor of the famous scientist, busts and memorial plaques were installed, a stamp and a commemorative medal were issued. A man with a rich research streak, N. I. Dukhov devoted his activities to the Motherland. The most durable and immortal monument to him is his creative contribution to the development of industry.
