Russia. Nikolay Dukhov – Soviet designer of tanks and nuclear weapons. Illustrated Envelop with original stamp and FDC cancellation

Title

Soviet designer of tanks and nuclear weapons

Illustrated Envelop with original stamp and FDC cancellation

N.L.Dukhovu was working in a tractor factory. In 1926, the factory Komsomol assembly sent him to study in an institute in Kharkov, followed by a transfer without test to mechanical faculty in the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute to study engineer-design for tractors and cars. He was responsible for designing the Soviet tractors and heavy tanks in the 1930s.

In World War II he was co-designer (with Zhozef Kotin) of the Stalin heavy tank.

In 1948, he was nominated as the assistant to Yulii Khariton, the chief designer of the Soviet atomic bomb. He continued his work on nuclear projects until his death in 1964.

He taught in the Leningrad Road Institute and at mechanical faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute. He became a corresponding member of the Academy of sciences of the USSR (1953).

Awards

Nikolay Dukhov received three awards of Hero of Socialist Labor (1945 – for tank designs, 1949 — for the first Soviet atomic bomb, and 1954 — for the first hydrogen bomb). He was also the winner of the Order of Lenin (1960) and five Stalin Prize (1943, 1946, 1949, 1951 and 1953), Lenin’s four awards (1940), Suvorov’s Awards of second degree, the Labour Red Banner, the Red Star.

In 2004, Ukraine celebrated the 100 anniversary of his birth.