engineering

Leonid Kurchevsky

Leonid Kurchevsky is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Leonid Kurchevsky rather than just read about it. In short: Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky (Russian: Леонид Васильевич Курчевский) (September 22, 1890, Pereslavl-Zalessky – November 26, 1937 (January 12, 1939?)) was a Russian/Soviet weapons designer. Kurchevsky was born into a family of a drawing teacher in Pereslavl-Zalessky.

Key takeaways

Leonid Kurchevsky belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Leonid Kurchevsky to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Leonid Kurchevsky from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky (Russian: Леонид Васильевич Курчевский) (September 22, 1890, Pereslavl-Zalessky – November 26, 1937 (January 12, 1939?)) was a Russian/Soviet weapons designer. Kurchevsky was born into a family of a drawing teacher in Pereslavl-Zalessky. He was a student at the Department of Physics and Mathematics of the Moscow State University for two years. In 1916–1918, Kurchevsky headed the design bureau of the Moscow Defense Industry Committee (Конструкторское бюро Московского военно-промышленного комитета, (Konstruktorskoye byuro Moskovskogo voyenno-promyshlennogo komiteta). In 1918–20, he was put in charge of a laboratory of the VSNKh Inventions Committee. In 1921–22, Kurchevsky served at the Acoustical Intelligence Commission. In 1922–24, he headed the workshop/motor vehicle lab of the same Inventions Committee. Kurchevsky is known for his work in the field of recoilless guns, which he began in 1923. In 1924, he was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for an alleged embezzlement of state property and funds, used to construct a helicopter. Kurchevsky served half of his term at the Solovki prison camp. While imprisoned, Leonid Kurchevsky continued his inventive work and designed a development model of his recoilless gun. He was released from prison in the early 1929. In January 1930, Kurchevsky was appointed chief designer at the Experimental Design Bureau #1 of the Chief Directorate of Artillery (Опытно-конструкторское бюро - 1 Главного Артиллерийского Управления, ОКБ-1 ГАУ, Opytno-konstruktorskoye byuro - 1 Glavnogo Artilleriyskogo Upravleniya, OKB-1-GAU). In early 1934, they organized Special Projects Commissary Directorate (Управление уполномоченного по специальным работам, Upravleniye upolnomochennogo po spetsial'nym rabotam) especially for Kurchevsky. Leonid Kurchevsky and his team designed a score of recoilless guns (динамореактивная пушка, ДPП, dinamoreaktivnaya pushka, DRP) with calibers ranging from 37mm to 420mm, including the so-called 76mm battalion gun (батальонная пушка, БПК, batalyónnaya pushka, BPK), aircraft recoilless gun (авиационная пушка, АПК, aviatsionnaya pushka, APK), etc. The 76.2 mm APK was fitted to the Grigorovich I-Z fighter. In his experiments with recoilless guns, Leonid Kurchevsky strived to cover a wide range of artillery weapons. Besides their work on field artillery, his team also mounted DRPs on a Grigorovich I-Z fighter armed with 2x 76 mm (2.99 in) APK recoilless guns (1935), mounted a 305mm howitzer on an automobile, a 305mm recoilless gun on a destroyer, a 152mm recoilless gun on a torpedo boat, etc. Kurchevsky enjoyed the support of Mikhail Tukhachevsky and Sergo Ordzhonikidze in promoting his projects. Among his other inventions were a prototype of a grenade launcher, an all-terrain motor boat for polar conditions, a three-axis all-terrain wheeled and tracked vehicle, a winged torpedo, and a special hydroplane. Most of Kurchevsky's experimental guns had too many irreparable defects and their technical specifications did not correspond to those declared. In 1937, Kurchevsky was arrested, charged with designing poor weapons systems at the Tukhachevsky Case, and sentenced to death on November 25, 1937. The exact date of his execution is still uncertain: various sources claim it to be either November 26, 1937 or January 12, 1939. In the late 1930s, Kurchevsky's recoilless guns were removed from operational status and almost all were destroyed. His gun systems were never used in the Great Patriotic War and all work on recoilless artillery in the USSR was stalled for a long time to come. Leonid Kurchevsky was rehabilitated posthumously in 1956.

Gallery

External links 305mm recoilless gun on a destroyer

References

Illustrations

Leonid Kurchevsky: Twin-turreted T-26 light tank armed with the 76.2 mm recoilless gun designed by Kurchevsky in the right turret. 1934. — Twin-turreted T-26 light tank armed with the 76.2 mm recoilless gun designed by Kurchevsky in the right turret. 1934.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Leonid Kurchevsky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Leonid Kurchevsky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Leonid Kurchevsky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Leonid Kurchevsky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Leonid Kurchevsky

In research: Leonid Kurchevsky appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Leonid Kurchevsky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Leonid Kurchevsky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890 births, 1930s deaths, 20th-century Russian engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Leonid Kurchevsky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Leonid Kurchevsky in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Leonid Kurchevsky means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Leonid Kurchevsky out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Leonid Kurchevsky in simple terms?

Why does Leonid Kurchevsky matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Leonid Kurchevsky?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Leonid Kurchevsky.