Hello, Klim!

I received the letter.

1) As for tanks and aviation, evidently industry has not yet managed to properly retool itself in line with the new (our) assignments. Never mind! We will keep pressing and helping it -- it will adapt. The whole point is to keep certain branches of industry (mainly military) under constant supervision. They will adapt and will fulfill the program, if not to the full 100%, then to 80-90%. Is that not enough?

2) The most alarming thing is the crashes and the loss of our pilots. The loss of aircraft is not so terrible (the devil with them!), but the loss of living people, of pilots, is. Living people are the most precious and most important thing in all our work, especially in aviation. Should there not be created -- among other things -- at the headquarters of each military district commander a special position of deputy commander for aviation, placing on these deputies the direct responsibility for the state of aviation affairs in the district? This should in no way, of course -- not in the slightest degree! -- relieve the district commander of responsibility for aviation in the district. I think this should be done.

3) How do things stand with Makhanov's gun? A very important matter, and it is being delayed for some reason.

4) For God's sake, pay attention to Comrade Agranov's memorandum about Kurchevsky. The matter is very important.

5) Shcheko is managing in Mongolia not badly. Well, God willing.

6) I would be very glad if your time allows you to drop in at Sochi.

Greetings! Yours, I. Stalin.

June 24, 1932

Source: Sovetskoye rukovodstvo. Perepiska. 1928-1941 [Soviet Leadership. Correspondence. 1928-1941], pp. 180-181.

RGASPI, f. 74, op. 2, d. 38, ll. 68-71.

NOTE

On June 16, 1932, L.M. Kaganovich wrote: "... I am sending you Agranov's memorandum on Kurchevsky's experimental work; this memorandum reveals the inattentive attitude of the military department and the trust. Since I am insufficiently familiar with this matter, I cannot judge how correct this memorandum is in everything, but it deserves that this question be specially discussed in the Defense Commission, despite the fact that not everyone will like this..."

In his suppositions Kaganovich proved to be right. On June 23 he reported: "... The fighters, the tanks, Kurchevsky, and the guns were discussed at the last meeting of the Defense Commission. We had to curse, especially over the tanks and Kurchevsky. We must expect a turn for the better in July."

I.A. Makhanov -- in 1932, head of the design bureau of the Kirov Plant in Leningrad. He worked on the development of 76 mm universal and semi-universal divisional anti-aircraft guns. See also: Letter to K.E. Voroshilov, July 30, 1932.

Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky (1890-1937) -- from 1911 to 1914 studied in the natural sciences section of the physics and mathematics faculty of Moscow University. In 1915 he worked as a laboratory assistant at the P.G. Shelaputin Pedagogical Institute.

From January 1916 to December 1918 he headed the design bureau of the Moscow Military-Industrial Committee. In 1918-1920 he was head of the laboratory of the Committee for Inventions of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, and at the same time, from 1919, worked in the automobile section of the transport department of that same committee.

From May 1921 to May 1922 he was in the Commission for Special Experiments in Sound Reconnaissance (KOMZVUK). In 1924 he created the first prototype of a dynamo-reactive weapon; in the same year he was arrested on a charge of embezzling state money. In 1925 he was convicted by the judicial collegium of the OGPU and exiled to Solovki.

Thanks to the petition of G.K. Ordzhonikidze and M.N. Tukhachevsky, in 1930 L.V. Kurchevsky was released from imprisonment and appointed chief designer of OKB 1 of the GAU, which was located at Plant No. 8 (Podlipki). Here he was assigned the creation of a recoilless cannon for arming aircraft, an anti-tank rifle, and a battalion gun for rifle units. The first experimental models of the guns underwent tests in 1932.

For creating new types of artillery armament, Kurchevsky was awarded the Order of the Red Star in 1933.