A.I.Savin - Great Patriotic War
At the age of 22, N. Bauman headed the design bureau in the well-known design bureau of artillery weapons, led by Colonel-General V. G. Grabin. Already here the talent of A.I. Savin was revealed. He perfected the famous ZIS-3 cannon and created the 85-mm gun for the legendary T-34 tank.
In July 1941, A.I. Savin joined the people's militia, but even before being sent to the front he was recalled and evacuated to Nizhny Novgorod, where he was appointed senior control master of the recoil device at the artillery factory No. 92, the country's largest enterprise for the production of field and tank artillery. He quickly learned how to make artillery pieces and proposed a number of improvements to the tank design. F-34 guns, and then developed a fundamentally new and more technological recoil device - one of the most important components of the gun.
Since 1942, A.I. Savin - head of the design department, and since 1943 - chief designer of the artillery plant number 92. In this post, he made a significant contribution to the creation of the ZIS-S-53 cannon and anti-tank ZIS-2 cannon. On January 26, 1946, he was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for the fundamental improvement of technology and the organization of a high-performance production method for producing guns, which ensured a significant increase in their output while reducing metal consumption and reducing the need for labor.
Plant Director A.S. Elyan was able to see and evaluate the engineering and organizational skills of Anatoly Savin, who, working as a foreman in the workshop of anti-recoil devices, made a number of proposals to improve the design of the F-34 tank gun of the famous V.G. Grabin - chief designer of plant number 92. Grabin was cold to these proposals, but the faith and perseverance of Elyan and Savina confirmed the correctness of the young designer.
From the memoirs of Anatoly Ivanovich Savin: “To win the war against Hitler’s fascism, and it became clear from its very first days, it was only possible with powerful field, anti-tank, tank, self-propelled artillery. The main task of the People's Commissariat of Weapons and the People's Commissariat of Defense was to maximize the rate of production of such artillery systems. At that time, plant number 92 was the only operating plant where they were produced. Control over the work of the plant directly provided Commissar D.F. Ustinov and Chairman of the State Defense Committee I.V. Stalin. So we were on the cutting edge of events.
"In the fall of 1941, the People's Commissar of Weapons D.F. Ustinov arrived at the factory. Plant No. 92 was built during the first five-year plans and equipped for the production of artillery systems for the full technological cycle - from its own metallurgy to assembly and testing. At that time, the plant was in the process of mastering the production of an F-34 tank gun and a F-22-SVV divisional design by V.G. Grabina, whose design office was located on the territory of the plant. The director of the plant was Amo Sergeevich Elyan, appointed a year before the start of the war, before that - the director of the cartridge plant in Ulyanovsk. In fact, these leaders later along with the People's Commissar had to bear all the burden and responsibility for the task, which played an indisputable role in the turn of the Great Patriotic War: the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, the victory in the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk.
"Dmitry Fedorovich got acquainted in detail with the state of affairs at the plant. Here at this time produced 5-6 thousand guns per year. It was necessary to increase the output of field, tank and anti-tank guns by 15–20 times.
"The People's Commissar together with the managers of the enterprise developed specific action plans for all lines: organization of production, reconstruction of the plant and reduction of labor costs, reduction of the cost of products by improving the design and technology of their manufacture.
"By that time, on the basis of an analysis of the F-34 tank guns used for the production of anti-recoil devices installed on T-34 tanks and later on KV tanks, I had developed and proposed a new design of anti-recoil devices. It allowed to significantly reduce labor costs for production, improve quality while reducing weight, size and save the consumption of expensive materials. As it turned out later, the total effect of the introduction of this structure in monetary terms amounted to more than 5 million pre-war rubles per year. In the process of discussing the planned measures to increase the release of guns, I was presented by D.F. Ustinov as the inventor of the new anti-recoil devices, which showed a useful initiative in the current difficult situation.
"Before that, the director warned me that I would be telling the Commissar about my invention. Since I have already experienced a rather indifferent attitude to my proposal from the design bureau of V.G. Grabin, then did not attach much importance to this event. I imagined the People's Commissar as a very solid person, burdened by complicated state affairs, who find it difficult, as they say, “on the go” to penetrate into the essence of the proposed new proposal and make a decision.
"I did not know anything about Ustinov, because the level of people's commissars was not very interesting for me, since I was an ordinary soldier in the industrial army, and he was the commander-in-chief. The distance is huge. As a result, the impression of him as a person turned out to be overwhelming. I saw a physically strong, courageous, young man with thick blond hair rybivski chubom, with a smart keen eye and a very quick response to everything that happens. He described in detail how a good design engineer, versed in anti-recoil devices, their manufacturing techniques and production organization. It was noticeable that he was primarily interested in everything that allowed reducing the production time, the number of scarce and expensive materials and the possibility of reconstruction of production in order to increase production.
"He endorsed my report and supported the need for the fastest introduction of this design into tank guns launched into production, despite the opinion of opponents of this decision among designers and production workers who feared that this would cause a violation of production plans. The decision was carried out, and, as time showed, it turned out to be correct and played a significant role in the general measures to increase the release of guns. In a short time, the production of artillery systems increased from 3–4 to 150 units per day. ”
New recoil devices designed by A.I. Savina were made, passed all kinds of tests, and ultimately the F-34 Grabin’s gun with A.I. Savina was adopted by the Red Army. This gun was serially manufactured at the factory to equip the T-34 tank and, together with the tank, went down in history of the Great Patriotic War as one of the most effective guns of those years, like the ZIS-3 field gun of the Grabin design, which was also produced at plant No. 92.
In 1942 V.G. Grabin, together with the main staff of the design bureau, was transferred to Podlipki near Moscow, where he headed the newly created Central Artillery Design Bureau (TsAKB). At the factory number 92 there was a group of designers, united in the design department, headed by A.I. Savin.
In 1943, the USSR People's Commissar of Arms DF. Ustinov appointed A.I. Savina chief designer of plant number 92, who was tasked with creating an 85-mm cannon to re-equip the T-34 tank. At the same time, the ZIS-S-53 cannon and the ZIS-2 anti-tank cannon, which played an important role in the victory at the Kursk Bulge, were created in the plant's design bureau with the participation of the TsAKKB.
In total, during the war years, more than 100 thousand different tools were manufactured at plant No. 92 with a continuous increase in production rates and a decrease in production costs due to improved design and manufacturing technology - largely due to the efforts of the design team led by A.I. Savina. In 1946, the chief designer A.I. Savin was awarded the Stalin Prize I degree. In the same year, without a break from production, he graduated from MVTU im. N.E. Bauman. The next stage in the biography of A.I. Savina was connected with the atomic project.
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