People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity(set)
Any Political and party leadership 32 Government and administration 9 Military command 10 Security, intelligence and policing 11 Diplomacy and international organization 10 Economy, finance and planning 3 Industry and production 2 Agriculture and land policy 1 Social movements and organizing 27 Scholarship and theory 5 Science and technology 3 Literature and arts 5 Religion 2 Law and justice 3
Affiliation

Most people

Any Poland state institutions 1 Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 1 Soviet Union state institutions 1

All 3 affiliations

Poland

Poland state institutions 1

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 1 Soviet Union state institutions 1
Position
Any Marxism and communism 2
Citizenship
Any Poland 1 Soviet Union 1
Background(set)
Any Russia 84 Ukraine 5 Belarus 4 Germany 4 Armenia 3 Azerbaijan 3 Poland 2 Bulgaria 1 Finland 1 France 1 Georgia 1 United Kingdom 1
Era
Any

People of the Soviet Union

People of the Stalin era1929–1953 1

People of the wider world

The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 1
Industry and production Background: Poland Clear all

Zhozef Yakovlevich Kotin

Жозеф Яковлевич Котин
Soviet Union state institutions Soviet communism Soviet Union Poland 1908–1979 ○ Natural causes

Chief designer of the KV and IS heavy tanks, builder of Tankograd

A fellow designer said of him: 'Kotin won't sleep at night if he hasn't hooked someone.' His tanks bore the names Kirov, Voroshilov, and Stalin.

A giant of Soviet heavy-tank design: the engineer-administrator who gave the Red Army the KV series, the IS (Iosif Stalin) heavy tanks, and the SU-152 and ISU-152 self-propelled guns. Appointed chief designer at the Kirov Plant in 1937 at just 29, he began by upgrading the T-28, then, drawing lessons from Spain, turned to developing heavily armoured breakthrough tanks. After the German invasion he served as Deputy People's Commissar for the Tank Industry while personally directing the evacuation of factories from Leningrad to Chelyabinsk, forging the vast 'Tankograd' complex that produced 18,000 tanks and SPGs during the war. After 1945 he designed the PT-76 amphibious tank, the T-10 heavy tank, and the K-700 tractor, before capping his career as Deputy Minister of Defence Industry in 1968.

Career timeline
  • 1932–1937Engineer and design bureau chief, Research Dept., Military Academy of Mechanisation and Motorisation
  • 1937–1968Chief Designer of SKB-2, Kirov Plant (Leningrad / Chelyabinsk)
  • 1941–1943Deputy People's Commissar for the Tank Industry and Chief Designer
  • 1943–1945Director and Chief Designer, Experimental Tank Plant No. 100 (Chelyabinsk)
  • 1949–1968Director and Chief Designer, VNII-100 Tank Research Institute
  • 1968–1972Deputy Minister of Defence Industry, USSR

Roman Fidelski

Roman Fidelski
Poland state institutions Communism Poland Poland 1912–1988 ○ Died

The minister whose broken promise sparked the Poznań Uprising

On 27 June 1956, before the gathered ZISPO workforce, he withdrew the promises he had made to their delegation in Warsaw only the day before.

A Polish communist technocrat with a mechanical-engineering background who became Minister of Machine Industry in 1955. On 26 June 1956 he promised the ZISPO workers' delegation in Warsaw wage increases and refunds of withheld taxes, only to withdraw these promises in Poznań the next day, a reversal that lit the fuse of the 28 June uprising. He then continued in the planning apparatus, serving as an industrial bureaucrat of the Polish People's Republic until retirement.

Career timeline
  • 1938Graduated Warsaw Polytechnic as a mechanical engineer
  • 1942–1944Engineer at Magnitogorsk metallurgical works
  • 1949Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Heavy Industry
  • 1952Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Machine Industry
  • 1955–1956Minister of Machine Industry
  • 1958Undersecretary of State, Council of Ministers; deputy chair of the Foreign Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation Committee
  • –1968Deputy chair of the Planning Commission at the Council of Ministers