Alexander Alexandrovich Morozov

Picture of Morozov on envelope of USSR

Alexandr Aleksandrovich Morozov (Russian: Александр Александрович Морозов, October 16, 1904, Bezhitsa (now part of Bryansk), Oryol Governorate – June 14, 1979) was a Soviet engineer and tank designer. He was in charge of the Soviet tank design bureau for thirty-six of the most critical years in Soviet tank development (1940–76). Among Morozov's achievements were leading the design team for the T-54/55 tank series, the tank with the largest production in history, and designing the drive train and later overall refinements for the T-34 tank series, the tank with the second largest production in history.

A graduate from the Moscow Mechanical Institute,^[1] in 1928 Morozov started work at a new design bureau headed by I. Aleksiyenko, at the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory of Kharkiv (then part of the USSR, now of Ukraine).^[2] Here he contributed to the lacklustre T-12 and T-24 tanks, and the highly successful BT fast tanks. Under Mikhail Koshkin he was responsible for the drive-train design of the famous T-34 medium tank in 1937–40,^[3] and led the design bureau from Koshkin's death in 1940.

As chief designer of the bureau, Morozov presided over its temporary relocation to Nizhniy Tagil during the war years of 1941–44, and his bureau redesigned components of the T-34 to make production as efficient as possible.^[4] He led the development of the T-44 medium tank and the T-54 and T-64 main battle tanks, receiving the Lenin Prize for the latter. Morozov retired due to ill health in 1976 and died soon after. In 1979, the bureau where he worked for over fifty years was renamed Morozov Design Bureau in his honour.

Notes

1. “Preparation of Engineers at KMDB.
2. Zaloga 1984, p 46.
3. Zaloga 1984, p 110–11.
4. Zaloga 1984, p 130–31.

References

Zaloga, Steven J., James Grandsen (1984). Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two, London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 0-85368-606-8.