Leonid Kurchevsky, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetLeonid Kurchevsky
Russian engineer
Date of Birth: 22-Sep-1890
Place of Birth: Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia
Date of Death: 26-Nov-1937
Profession: engineer
Zodiac Sign: Virgo 
About Leonid Kurchevsky
- Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky (Russian: ?????? ?????????? ??????????) (September 22, 1890, Pereslavl-Zalessky – November 26, 1937 (January 12, 1939?)) was a Russian/Soviet weapons designer. Kurchevsky was born into a family of a drawing teacher in Pereslavl-Zalessky.
- He was a student at the Department of Physics and Mathematics of the Moscow State University for two years.
- In 1916-1918, Kurchevsky headed the design bureau of the Moscow Defense Industry Committee (??????????????? ???? ??????????? ??????-????????????? ???????? (Konstruktórskoye bureau Moskóvskava vóyenna-pramíshlyennava comityéta).
- In 1918-20, he was put in charge of a laboratory of the VSNKh Inventions Committee.
- In 1921-22, Kurchevsky served at the Acoustical Intelligence Commission.
- In 1922-24, he headed the workshop/motor vehicle lab of the same Inventions Committee. Kurchevsky is known for his work in the field of recoilless guns, which he began in 1923.
- In 1924, he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for an alleged embezzlement of state property and funds, used to construct a helicopter.
- Kurchevsky served half of his term at the Solovki prison camp.
- While imprisoned, Leonid Kurchevsky continued his inventive work and designed a development model of his recoilless gun.
- He was released from prison in the early 1929.
- In January 1930, Kurchevsky was appointed chief designer at the Experimental Design Bureau #1 of the Chief Directorate of Artillery (??????-??????????????? ???? - 1 ???????? ??????????????? ??????????, ???-1 ???, Apítna-Konstruktórskoye Bureau-1 Glávnava Artillyerískava Upravlyénniya, OKB-1-GAY).
- In early 1934, they organized Special Projects Commissary Directorate (?????????? ??????????????? ?? ??????????? ???????, Upravlyéniye upolnamachyénnava pa spyestsiyál'nim rabótam) especially for Kurchevsky.
- Leonid Kurchevsky and his team designed a score of recoilless guns (???????????????? ?????, ?P?, dinámoreaktívnaya púshka, DRP) with calibers ranging from 37mm to 420mm, including the so-called 76mm battalion gun (??????????? ?????, ???, batalyónnaya pushka, BLK), aircraft recoilless gun (??????????? ?????, ???, aviatsiyónnaya pushka, APK), etc.
- The 76.2 mm APK was fitted to the Grigorovich I-Z fighter. In his experiments with recoilless guns, Leonid Kurchevsky strived to cover a wide range of artillery weapons.
- Besides their work on field artillery, his team also mounted DRPs on a Grigorovich I-Z fighter armed with 2x 76 mm (2.99 in) APK recoilless guns (1935), mounted a 305mm howitzer on an automobile, a 305mm recoilless gun on a destroyer, a 152mm recoilless gun on a torpedo boat, etc.
- Kurchevsky enjoyed the support of Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Sergo Ordzhonikidze in promoting his projects.
- Among his other inventions were a prototype of a grenade launcher, an all-terrain motor boat for polar conditions, a three-axis all-terrain wheeled and tracked vehicle, a winged torpedo, and a special hydroplane. Most of Kurchevsky’s experimental guns had too many irreparable defects and their technical specifications did not correspond to those declared.
- In 1937, Kurchevsky was arrested, charged with designing poor weapons systems at the Tukhachevsky Case, and sentenced to death on November 25, 1937.
- The exact date of his execution is still uncertain: various sources claim it to be either November 26, 1937 or January 12, 1939.
- In the late 1930s, Kurchevsky’s recoilless guns were removed from operational status and almost all were destroyed.
- His gun systems were never used in the Great Patriotic War and all work on recoilless artillery in the USSR was stalled for a long time to come. Leonid Kurchevsky was rehabilitated posthumously in 1956.
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