Nowadays Mykola Dukhov is said to be the Man of the century and a born constructor. According to the number of the highest awards of the USSR which he received, Mykola Dukhov was one of the top ten recipients. M.L Dukhov received three awards of Hero of Socialist Labor, Order of Lenin and five State Prizes, numerous orders and medals. M.L Dukhov is Doctor of Engineering, a corresponding member of the Academy of sciences of the USSR, one of the few lieutenants-general of engineering service in Ukraine.
So, who was Mykola Dukhov? In fact, besides being a hero, he was isolated from the society since 1948.
Studying and a large-scale production of tanks.
Mykola Leonidovich Dukhov was a descendant of a noble family. He was born on 26 October,1904 in the village Veprik, Gadyach district of the Poltava province. His father was a medical assistant. M. L. Dukhov’s cousin Alla Kuznec said that he kept his eye on his grandfather Viktor Polievktovich, while he was contriving something and was really excited by that. After a while Mykola Dukhov possessed his own workroom, where he made many things such as toys, toy cars and different devices. His grandfather Mykhajlo found the behavior of his grandson really confusing, while in comparison to his peers, who were running, playing games, Mykola was always preoccupied. Since his childhood, Mykola wanted to create something remarkable; he wasn’t interested in making wooden riffles for his friends.
Mykola Dukhov graduated from masculine gymnasium of Gadyach and since 1918 year he began to work. His relatives and friends noticed his interest in technics and persistence on pursuit of success. Moreover, he had a gift for music and writing. It was obvious that he should study. In 1926 Mykola went to study on rabfak at the Kharkiv geodesic institute, after graduating, he was obliged to continue studying on specialty of land-surveyor. Despite of this, he was still eager to study technics. Oleksandr Arkadiyovich Polockiy, deputy of Minister of folk education, was the one, who helped him to enter the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. In 1932 he graduated from it. His specialty was tanks and cars construction. Then he worked in legendary Kirovskiy factory in Leningrad. Here he was constructing technological devices for making details of mass production for a tractor “Universal”, took part in developing the first soviet passenger car L-1 and a heavy lifting crane. In 1936 began to work in SDB, where his occupation was constructing tanks. In 1938 appointed as the head of DB of batch-produced tank T-28. He made a significant contribution in developing the new in the USSR heavy tank of KV – Kliment Voroshilov. In 1940 appeared a new KV-2 with152-millimetric cannon. At this time M.L. Dukhov was engaged in creation the system of organizing and correction documentation and studying laws of mass production of military equipment. At the beginning of Great Patriotic War he was appointed the chief designer of tank production in Chelyabinskiy tractor factory, where developing and production of tanks of CB was launched. From 1942 the Chelyabinskiy factory started to produce tanks T-34 under the guidance of M.L. Dukhov. In 1943 M.L. Dukhov was appointed the main designer of tank production of Kirovskiy factory in Ural. The same year a factory began to produce new heavy tank “IS” (Joseph Stalin). It was named the tank of break-through. Under guidance of Dukhov a factory was put on the mass production of modified tank of KV – KV-8, KV-8c, the self-propelled armour artillery SU-152, KV-85, tanks IS, IS-1, IS-2. In 1944 a new heavy tank IS-3 was created, which was named the tank of victory. This year M.L.Dukhov was selected the head of the department of tanks in Chelyabinskiy mechanic-machine-building institute, which later became South Ural state university.
In 1945 for great merits in creation of tanks and self-propelled artillery M.L. Dukhov was assigned a rank of Hero of Socialistic Labour and military rank of major-general engineer-tank services. On a military register he was registered as a private.
During years of war of M.L. Dukhov was known mainly in Chelyabinsk, but from that time he was known almost everywhere in USSR. Moreover central newspapers, magazines “Ogonek”, “Tekhnika of molodezh" wrote about him . Although he was already forty two years old, as a designer he was sufficiently young, despite his 13 year engineering experience.
1947 was the last year of his occupation in tank industry – having a position of chief engineer of Kirovskiy factory in Ural.
Participating in creatinig the first a-bomb
On 6 August, 1945 the USA shown their military force by conducting the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. for superiors of atomic project.
On 20 August , 1945 in the USSR the special committee with extraordinary plenary powers was established for the superiors of an atomic project. The head of which was L. Beria. An executive branch was First main administration (PGU) which controlled numerous enterprises and whole departments. The directive of Stalin obligated PGU to provide the USSR with a-bomb.
Soon great number of difficulties arose up in PGU. The main issue was the necessity of regulating the work in different departments. In addition to this, the USSR didn’t have an universal normative base of sketch implementation.
So they the man who could solve this problem. In leaders of the atomic project opinion such man must be M.L.Dukhov, who created a normative base of large tank industry of the country, which considerably facilitated developing and production of tanks in different factories of the country.
Julius Kharyton – head of DB-11, considered M.L.Dukhov as the best assistant ever.To his mind M.L. was a well-rounded personality, who could be, for example, a great musician or painter. However, he was a born constructor, that was his true soul.
In 1948 year M.L. Dukhov was appointed the deputy of the chief constructor, the head of the department in one of the most secret research institutes in the country, which was engaged in creation of a-bomb. Mykola Leonidovich became isolated even from those, with whom closely co-operated till recently. The new set of tasks and other surrounding were waiting for him: physicists of Kurchatov, Zeldovich, Khariton, and afterwards Korolev, Yangel and others.
Now his experience may be useful in new indusrtry – creation of atomic weapon. With the inherent persistence M.L. Dukhov began to study new industry and became a leading specialist in it. Under his supervision the construction of nuclear charge, source of neutron initiator of chain reaction (neutron primers are for an explosion), and stand apparatus for testing the functions of both component parts and a whole bomb were developed.
On 21 August, 1949 a special train delivered a plutonium charge and four neutron primers on the Semipalatinskiy ground. A test was appointed on 29 August. At night before a test constuctors together with M.L. conducted the final preparation of charge and to till 6 a.m it was lifted on a proof-of-concept tower and connected to the blasting chart. At 7a.m morning on 29 August, 1949 locality Semipalatinska was covered with briht light. Tests of the first a-bomb in the USSR were successfully finished.
For participating in developing an a-bomb M.L. Dukhov was appropriated rank of Hero of Socialistic Labour (second Gold Star “Sickle and Hammer”).
Creation of undermining the nuclear and hydrogen weapons
After a successful test of the first atomic bomb in the USSR large-scale operations such as development of more advanced designs of nuclear weapons, and construction sector, directed by ML Dukhov were commenced. Soon he directed the DB-25, designed for the new tasks at the aircraft factory
DB-25 was engaged in the development a new system of initiation neutron nuclear charge - external neutron initiation, in other words the creation of a special neutron generator, which must send a pulse of neutrons in a critical mass of active substance of the charge at the set point, thus began the process of chain reaction, which led to nuclear explosion.
DB-25 developed a new design of a special warhead, which included a charge of external neutron generator initiation and produced the bench test equipment for bomb and its components.
In 1954 M.L Dukhov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (third Gold Star "Hammer and Sickle") with the rank of lieutenant general engineering services for the development of new systems and automation undermine.
It is worth mentioning that the US didn’t have such system. The whole bomb - a charge generator and layout bombs was under M.L Dukhov control. M.L Dukhov became the central figure in the creation of nuclear and then hydrogen weapons. At that time there was the task to provide all military forces of the country with nuclear charge and subsequently M.L Dukhov was engaged in developing nuclear weapons for all the armed forces of the Soviet Union.
Public acknowledgement
In 1957 M.L Dukhov was awarded the title of corresponding member of the USSR.
In 1963 Council of Ministers expressed gratitude to three times Hero of Socialist Labor, holder of many awards for engineering achievement.
Number of high ranks and awards did not cause "star disease". M.L Dukhov remained a humble man in the daily life .
The disease broke M.L Dukhov down in the prime of his life. From the memories of O.I.Byelonosova, one of his colleagues :"... He easily recognized the diagnosis and, apparently, tried to figure out the cause of the disease. So, one day being in the hospital , he called me directly to the lab (I was head of the laboratory), and asked whether the disease could be caused by working with the neutron generator in the laboratory. I replied that it is absolutely impossible because the distance from the generator to his office so large that he could be reached up only by neutrons, which did not exceed the level of natural background radiation. He listened attentively, said goodbye and hung up. It was my last conversation with M.L.Dukhov ... ".
M.L Dukhov died on 1 May, 1964. He was buried on Novodyevichevom Cemetery in Moscow.
A street was called in his honor. Also there is his monument in his homeland in the village Veprik in Poltava region. Bust monument of Mykola Leonidovichwas set by Russian Research Institute of Automatics, based on DB-25, which was directed by Mykola L. and also in South-Ural State University.
Remembrances of this remarkable still inspires young constructors.