Nikolay Iosifovich Kvasha
Nikolay Iosifovich, General Director and General Designer of OJSC Central Design Bureau Lazurit, became the first "rocketman" to install missiles on submarines. Nikolai Iosifovich Kvasha, despite the fact that he was a civilian man, was the first in the Nizhny Novgorod region to receive the title of Hero of Russia, for his courage and heroism in performing a special mission. This outstanding designer of nuclear submarines took an active part in naval operations, was engaged in the preparation and conduct of tests.
He supervised construction maintenance, documentation development and delivery of submarines of projects P613, 644, 665, 666, 613E, 633, 690, 940, deep-water vehicles of projects 1837, 1837K, 1839, 1839K, 1855, 18270 and nuclear submarines of projects 670, 670M, 945, 945A, 945AB. Supervised the development of the Amethyst missile system on the Project 670 atam submarine. Chief designer of the Barracuda order. Under his leadership, a complex of research and experimental work was determined and carried out, design, construction, and testing.
Born on December 8, 1929 in the city of Zinovievsk (now - Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine) in the family of a railway worker, a hereditary Zaporozhye Cossack Ukrainian. As a teenager, he survived the famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s and the German occupation during the Great Patriotic War. After graduating from school with a gold medal, he entered the Kharkov Aviation Institute, but soon found out that all graduates who were in the occupied territory during the war years were subject to distribution to the aluminum tableware factory.
Therefore, he transferred to the power engineering faculty of the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute, which he graduated with honors in 1953, specializing in "Internal Combustion Engines" with a marine bias. Having received his diploma, the young specialist came to Gorky. First, he was assigned to the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) to the Krasnoye Sormovo machine-building plant, one of the country's largest defense enterprises. He worked in the bureau of automation and mechanization of production: designer, since 1954 - senior engineer, since 1955 - head of the design bureau for automation of production of the plant. In 1956, that is, after three years of work, the Komsomol members of Krasny Sormov elected Nikolai as the first secretary of the plant's Komsomol committee.
In 1957, a special design bureau SKB-112 was formed as part of the plant, which had the task of designing submarines. He was one of the first to be enrolled in SKB, first as an engineer, but very quickly became a leading weapons designer, then head of the automation and electronics department, and deputy chief designer of a submarine.
The newly organized special design bureau SKB-112, which was created to design and support the construction of submarines. In the future it will be called CDB "Lazurit". New job, new position - chief designer of the weapons department. And downright epoch-making work: working out technical documentation, and then participating in tests of a new type of weaponry on a submarine - cruise missiles. The plant began modernization work on the P613 project. The submarine was equipped with one experimental container with a cruise missile developed by V.N. Chelomey's Central Design Bureau.
An experienced submarine successfully tested, the work ended with a Resolution of the Government and the Central Committee of the CPSU on the installation of cruise missiles on submarines. Among those awarded for this work was the 30-year-old engineer NI Kvasha, who was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.
Here is such a far from ordinary professional growth, and after all, only 10 years have passed since he started working at the plant and seven years at the Central Design Bureau. At the age of 33, he became the chief engineer of a large design office and worked in this position for no less than 22 years.
Since 1962 he was Chief Engineer of SKB. Since 1971 he was Chief Engineer and Chief Designer of Project 945 titanium nuclear submarine. Since 1984, he simultaneously became General Designer of the Lazurit Central Design Bureau, created on the basis of SKB-112. Over the years, he participated in the design and creation, and then led the work on the creation of numerous underwater vehicles, including a diesel submarine of project 633, a nuclear submarine of project 670 (armed with a cruise missile complex), a target submarine of project 690, a rescue submarine boats of project 640 "Lenok", deep-sea rescue apparatus of project 1855 "Prize", experimental submarines of projects 613E and 651E.
The pinnacle of creativity of the Central Design Bureau and its chief designer was the nuclear submarine of project 945 "Barracuda", the first boat in the country with a completely titanium hull. The shape and swift smooth contours of the body resemble the shape of one of the best ocean swimmers - tuna, which ensured high speed at any depth. The nuclear submarine is armed with the latest military missiles, which give it a strike potential. The main trump card of the boat is low physical fields, low magnetic and electrical characteristics (previously inaccessible to domestic nuclear-powered ships and even less appropriate characteristics of nuclear submarines of Russia's main opponent - the United States). For the first time in the USSR, the acoustic data of the Barracuda were equal to their American counterparts, which made it possible to eliminate one of the main drawbacks of Soviet nuclear-powered ships - high noise (for which the Americans gave them the offensive nickname “roaring cows”).
To test the design solutions in practice and find ways to improve the Barracuda, the general designer went on the lead boat into a distant autonomous passage lasting over 100 days. The boat in practice showed its unique technical data, unnoticed by passing a number of US anti-submarine lines in the Atlantic. When in the 1990s N.I. Kvasha told about this campaign, a big scandal thundered in the United States - after all, they never registered this nuclear submarine, which had been cruising off their coast for three months with thousands of Hiroshimas on board. Probably, this was one of the reasons why the fifth boat in the very beginning of the 1990s was hastily cut into metal on stocks, being built by over 30%.
The creator of the legendary "Barracuda" spoke about his main brainchild with such tenderness as if it were a living being: "Barracuda" is the main achievement of my life. At the age of 59, he took part in a 100-day autonomous underwater trip. "Every day I walked through the compartments, talked with the submariners, wrote down their remarks, down to the smallest detail."
There were other periods of creative life associated withfor example, with the development of a scheme for setting up a hydroacoustic stationdetection of submarines "Amur" in the Kamchatka region or developmentprojects and the development of underwater rescue, workers, scientificresearch, search and diving vehicles.
By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation ("closed") of December 6, 1993 for the courage and heroism shown during the performance of a special assignment, Nikolai Iosifovich Kvasha was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the presentation of the Gold Star medal.
In 1993, CDB "Lazurit" was privatized with the distribution of shares in the labor collective of the enterprise, and reorganized into JSC "CDB" Lazurit ", N.I. Kvasha was appointed General Director - General Designer of JSC" CDB "Lazurit", remaining them until the end life. In the conditions of the crisis of the early 1990s, the enterprise dramatically increased the civilian component of its activities: ships of a technical fleet for offshore oil and gas production, fishing vessels, offshore oil production units, gas turbine power plants, and medical pressure chambers were created. After 2000, the defense order increased again, amounting to over 70% of the enterprise's capacity.
NI Kvasha was engaged in teaching at the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University, where he also headed the State Examination Commission of the Shipbuilding Faculty. Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor.
He lived in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Died on November 4, 2007. He was buried at the Novo-Sormovsky cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod.
He was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd degree (09/10/1999), Lenin (1970), 2 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1963, 1981), the Order of the Badge of Honor (1959), medals. Laureate of the RF Government Prize (1998). Honorary Citizen of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (11/19/1996).
