OKMO (''Opytniy Konstruktorsko-Mekhanicheskiy Otdel'', 'Experimental Design Mechanical Department') was the tank design team in the Soviet Union during the early 1930s. Located in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, it produced the design of the
T-26
The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light ...
infantry tank, of which about 12,000 would be produced. Most other designs from the bureau never saw the light of day, but it was here that
Mikhail Koshkin
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin (Russian language, Russian: Михаи́л Ильи́ч Ко́шкин; 3 December 1898, Pereslavsky District, Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Oblast – 26 September 1940) was a Soviet Union, Soviet tank designer, chief designer of t ...
, designer of the famous
T-34
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...
medium tank gained his early experience. The bureau was gutted in the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
and broken up by the beginning of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
History
Organizational
In 1930 the
Bolshevik Factory No. 232 became home to the AVO-5 tank design bureau, soon renamed OKMO.
In 1932, the tank department of the Bolshevik factory, became the new
Factory No. 174 (K.E. Voroshilov).
[ This new, independent enterprise was dedicated to the mass production of ]T-26 tank
The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light ...
.
Janusz Magnuski says that in 1932 one of the former departments of the Bolshevik factory became a base for the new independent entity, named in 1935 as Factory No. 185 (S.M. Kirov),[Official website, History of Obukhov Plant]
under the direction of N. Barykov and Semyon Alexandrovich Ginzburg
Semyon Alexandrovich Ginzburg () (1900–1943) was a Soviet tank designer. He enrolled in business school in 1918, but then volunteered for the Red Army in 1919 and served in the light artillery squadron of the 3rd Rifle Division. After the divisi ...
. The OKMO, for a few months a part of Factory No. 174, moved at the same time to Factory No. 185.[ The new enterprise was also dedicated to the production of tanks, while the main part of Bolshevik Factory remained focused on production of heavy artillery.][ Because of the same honorific and the same city of location, the Factory No. 185 is often mistaken in Western sources with ]Kirov Plant
The Kirov Plant, Kirov Factory or Leningrad Kirov Plant (LKZ) ( rus, Кировский завод, Kirovskiy zavod) is a major Russian mechanical engineering and agricultural machinery manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was establ ...
(or Factory No. 100), notably in Sewell's "''Why Three Tanks?''"[Sewell, Stephen 'Cookie' (1998)]
“Why Three Tanks?”
(PDF) in ''Armor'' vol. 108, no. 4, p. 21. Fort Knox, KY: US Army Armor Center. ISSN 0004-2420. and works of Steven Zaloga.[Zaloga says that in 1935, after the assassination of ]Sergey Kirov
Sergei Mironovich Kirov (né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge.
Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and membe ...
, the whole Bolshevik Factory No. 232 was renamed "Factory No. 185 (S.M. Kirov)", yet Leningrad inhabitants continued to refer to it as the Bolshevik Factory: Zaloga, Steven J., James Grandsen (1984). ''Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two'', p. 53, London: Arms and Armour Press. . They were independent factories; the Factory No. 185 was a home of OKMO bureau (Ginzburg), while the larger Factory No. 100 was a home of SKB-2 ( Kotin, known for KV line of heavy tanks). In 1941, because of German threat, parts of both factories were moved to Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...
, where the large complex was given the name '' Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant No. 100'' (unofficially named "Tankograd"), and continued the production of Kotin's design line.
Design
In 1930, bureau oversaw design changes to the British Vickers E
The Vickers 6-ton tank or Vickers Mark E, also known as the "Six-tonner" was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers. It was not adopted by the British Army, but was picked up by many foreign armed forces. It was license ...
tank for construction as the T-26 light infantry tank, and later improvements to the T-26.
In 1930 OKMO also began design studies for heavy tanks. A team led by German engineer Eduard Grote worked on a 100-ton design with 107 mm gun, four sub-turrets, and pneumatic suspension and servo-controls, called the T-41 or . A slightly more practical "land battleship" was the T-35 heavy tank
The T-35 was a Soviet multi- turreted heavy tank of the interwar period and early Second World War that saw limited production and service with the Red Army. Often called a land battleship, it was the only five-turreted heavy tank in the worl ...
, designed by N. Tseits's team and inspired by the British Vickers Independent
The Independent A1E1 is a multi-turreted tank that was designed by the British armaments manufacturer Vickers between the First and Second World Wars. Although it only ever reached the prototype stage and only a single example was built, it influ ...
.
In 1934, OKMO designed the T-43-2, a design for an amphibious tank with convertible drive—being able to run on tracks or wheels—as a possible replacement for the T-37 amphibious scout tank
The T-37A was a Soviet amphibious light tank. The tank is often referred to as the T-37, although that designation was used by a different tank which never left the prototype stage. The T-37A was the first series of mass-produced fully amphi ...
. It, and Moscow Factory no. 37's competing T-43-1 were both rejected in favour of continuing T-37 production.
Also in 1934, N. Barykov and N. Tseits worked with graduate students from the Leningrad Technical Institute to modernize the multi-turreted T-28 medium tank
The T-28 was a Soviet multi-turreted medium tank. The prototype was completed in 1931, and production began in late 1932. It was an infantry support tank intended to break through fortified defences. The T-28 was designed to complement the hea ...
by adding a Christie suspension
The Christie suspension is a suspension system developed by American engineer J. Walter Christie for his tank designs. It allowed considerably longer movement than conventional leaf spring systems then in common use, which allowed his tanks to h ...
. The resulting T-29-5 adopted the wheel-and-track running gear from the BT fast tank
The BT tanks (russian: Быстроходный танк/БТ, translit=Bystrokhodnyy tank, lit. "fast moving tank" or "high-speed tank") were a series of Soviet light tanks produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. They were lightly ar ...
. Further T-29-4 and T-29-1 prototypes were built in 1935, but in testing at the NIIBT in Kubinka
Kubinka (russian: Ку́бинка) is a town in Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Setun River, west of Moscow. Population:
__TOC__
History
Kubinka, founded in the 15th century, may have been named after Prince , a ...
none of these were found satisfactory. Following Soviet armoured experience in Spain, another version was built with thicker armour and a better gun—it was considered for the A-20/T-32 competition which led to the famous T-34 medium tank
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The C ...
, but by this time was obviously outdated. (One of the Leningrad engineering students had been Mikhail Koshkin
Mikhail Ilyich Koshkin (Russian language, Russian: Михаи́л Ильи́ч Ко́шкин; 3 December 1898, Pereslavsky District, Brynchagi, Yaroslavl Oblast – 26 September 1940) was a Soviet Union, Soviet tank designer, chief designer of t ...
, the T-34's chief designer)
In the 1930s, OKMO also designed a number of self-propelled artillery and antiaircraft guns, and tracked infantry, ammunition and fuel transporters, but only prototypes or trial batches of any were ever built, except for the T-26-T artillery tractor.
In 1936–37 OKMO designed the T-111 (or T-46-5), the first attempt at a Soviet tank with "shell-proof" armour, effective against more than just small arms. The engine and gun were inadequate, and only a prototype was built.
The T-100 'Sotka' was a two-turreted heavy tank prototype. It became rejected in favour of the KV-1 heavy tank
The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pr ...
. A second prototype was made as a single self-propelled gun T-100Y, later designated SU-100Y, presently displayed in Kubinka Tank Museum. The bureau started work on the T-50 infantry tank in 1939, but was gutted during the Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
. The T-50 was handed over to the Factory No. 174.
See also
* Soviet tank factories This is a list of the former Soviet tank factories. Today most of them are located in the Russian Federation, while only the Malyshev Factory is located in Ukraine.
This list includes the heavy steel manufacturing plants where main production and a ...
References
{{Reflist
Tanks of the Soviet Union
Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union
Design bureaus
Transport in the Soviet Union
Military equipment of the Soviet Union
Defence companies of the Soviet Union