Who created the "Katyusha"? Andrey Kostikov: the life and fate of the inventor of "Katyusha" Who is the designer of Katyusha

Kostikov's legend

Before the newest year, 1963, luck fell on me, a young journalist of Komsomolskaya Pravda: friendly female voice on the phone offered to get acquainted with new documents and materials related to the creation of "Katyusha" - the famous rocket launcher of the times of the Great Patriotic War.

- Who am I talking to? I asked vigilantly.
- With the widow of designer Andrei Grigoryevich Kostikov, author of the Katyusha. I live in the Government House, come, I'll show you everything...

I heard about Kostikov. It was a semi-legendary figure. On the one hand - a strictly classified designer of defense equipment, on the other - a man with a solid reputation as the creator of the most formidable weapon of the Second World War. And new materials are floating right into my hands, as they say! I went to the Government House, as Muscovites still call the house on the embankment, about which Yury Trifonov later spoke.

Ida Anisimovna Gorina-Kostikova greeted me very cordially in a large, somewhat gloomy apartment, lined with furniture of that special style that can be called Stalinist: everything is very massive - tables, sofas, armchairs; everything is very solid, durable, heavy and very state-of-the-art, soulless. She seated me in her office at Kostikov's huge table by the marble slab of an expensive writing instrument with heavy faceted inkwells under bronze lids, similar to the helmets of Russian knights. Faceted knights were guarded by tall candlesticks in the shape of the Alexandrian pillar, also bronze, without candles. Nearby stood a bronze dog. And there was also someone's, I don't remember whose, bronze head. Kostikov was called a student of Tsiolkovsky. Tsiolkovsky had a bottle of ink all his life, so here the student certainly surpassed the teacher.
While I was looking back. Ida Anisimovna took out folders with documents, clippings and photographs, and I went deep into my work.
Could I have thought then that it would last 25 years?!

I started with photographs. When you see a person, you know his face, all the papers are already read a little differently. And besides, in my youth, I then trusted the “first impression”. Looking at me from the photographs was a handsome, perhaps even more handsome than a man needs, a man in a full dress general's uniform, with a golden star of the Hero on the left on his chest and a considerable array of orders and medals in the middle, as they wore in the late 40s and early 50s. x on dress uniforms.
Open, good face. Direct look. High forehead.
Here he is already without a uniform in the forest. The face is tired. He pressed his cheek against the white trunk of a birch. In a leather flight jacket, he bent over a slide rule.

I liked Kostikov. And when I began to read the papers, I liked him even more, because in these papers he was just like the hero of an essay in a Komsomol newspaper should be, a man worthy of emulation. Ask me then: "Make life with whom?", would not answer in rhyme, but with conviction: "From Comrade Kostikov!"
Born in Kazatin. Father - a railway worker, wanders with his family in Russia and Ukraine. Andrei dreams of becoming a machinist. But it turned out differently: at the age of 13 he was already a plumber's apprentice, studying locksmithing.
Since 1917 - in the army. Fought in the West and Southwestern fronts... 17th Rifle Division
...
- He fought with Nikolai Ostrovsky- says Ida Anisimovna. She then leaves the office, then returns, trying to help me sort out the papers.
- One of Ostrovsky's letters from Sochi, dated May 1935, ends like this: "Greetings to Andrei, Nikolai." Andrey is Kostikov...

It is impossible to imagine the best for Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Kostikov is a fighting friend of Nikolai Ostrovsky!”

He was taken prisoner by the White Poles. This, of course, is not very cool ... But no, everything is in order: he ran along with four comrades. Fighting again - 55th rifle regiment 7th division, - I write down the numbers of connections: maybe my brother-soldiers will read my essay, they will respond ...
In 1922, Kostikov was sent to the 3rd Kyiv military engineering school. He joins the party. A 25-year-old communist is elected secretary of the party organization of the school, a member of the district committee, and a deputy of the district council.
Clipping from one of Kostikov's articles: “I must admit, I wanted to go into aviation,” he recalls, “after the car, the plane became my cherished dream ...”

I wanted to and I got it. The cherished dream came true: in 1930, Andrey Kostikov, a cadet of the air-technical faculty of the Air Force engineering academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky. Line from autobiography: “At the academy, he was one of the organizers of the group for the study of jet propulsion, which later became the first group in rocket technology”.

This is what happens? He stood at the origins of GIRD - the famous group led by S.P. Korolev, in which such classics of rocket technology as F.A. Zander, Yu.A. Pobedonostsev, M.K. Tikhonravov?! Together with GIRD, after graduating from the academy, he joins the RNII - the world's first Reactive Research Institute, where he goes from an ordinary employee to the head of the institute, there he goes from an ordinary employee to the head of the institute, there, within the walls of the RNII, the legendary " Katyusha."

A little more than a month after the start of the war, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR is published in the newspapers:
"For outstanding services in the invention and design of one of the types of weapons that raise the combat power of the Red Army, to assign Andrey Grigoryevich Kostikov the title of Hero of Socialist Labor".
The Decree also spoke of a cash bonus of 25,000.
- He brought money, poured it out on the table, asked me for an old newspaper,- recalls Ida Anisimovna.
- He wrapped money in it and said: "Let's go!" Together they handed over this money to the Defense Fund on Kuibyshev Street ...

“Together with the team led by him A.G. Kostikov solved such a problem in the field of special weapons, on which the most prominent representatives of world science have been unsuccessfully working for a number of years, ”wrote the outstanding Soviet metallurgist Bardin.
Kostikov disagrees with the academician: “People believe,” he says, “that I have made some kind of discovery or invention. This is not true. This is a simple matter: not an invention, but design work. After all, there were ideas ... They are not new. There was the experience of past wars. It was only necessary to take into account new advances in technology and design the new kind weapons..."
Is it possible not to admire the modesty of the hero of my future essay: you just need to "take into account" and "design". And that's it!

And in the personal sheet on personnel records of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in the column "main specialty" he wrote:
"locksmith". A little lower where "academic title", - "corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR".
Well, isn't it adorable?!

Kostikov's modesty, it turns out, not only me, a yellow-mouthed journalist, admired. The wise 60-year-old writer, a real "engineer of human souls" Fyodor Gladkov, after meeting with Kostikov, noted: “He is stingy with words and speaks least of all about himself, about his work. I think that this is not from the obligation to keep the secrets of his labors, but simply from his inherent modesty and shyness.

Having built the Katyusha, Kostikov is already carried away by new plans: to create and give the front a reliable aircraft with a liquid-propellant rocket engine (LPRE), to do what Korolev with his RP-318, Isaev and Bereznyak with their BI failed to do, over which specialists of the vaunted firm "Messerschmitt".
On one photograph I found a commemorative inscription made by Kostikov's hand: “Today at 8:51 am S.N. Anokhin (bird-man) on the SB tug, piloted by Rastorguev, took off from the ground. Landing in 27 minutes. 9.10.43. A. Kostikov.

He did not make an airplane: Stalin put him in prison. Also an important touch of the biography: during the period of the cult of personality, he was repressed, like thousands of honest workers of our country, he suffered innocently.
- Andrei Grigoryevich was in prison for almost a year,- adds Ida Anisimovna.
- Well, a year is still good!- I say, immediately I understand that I blurted out a faux pas, and I bury myself in the papers.

Andrei Grigoryevich Kostikov died on December 5, 1950 from a heart attack. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, and Sergei Konenkov himself made an inspirational monument on his grave...

Letter from Korolev and Glushko about Kostikov

Only a journalist can understand, probably, how I flew from the embankment to my native editorial office. The essay was written in one breath, and it was called very beautifully: “Fire Arrow”. A day later he was recruited, made up. I remember; how he stood in the spare lane with a portrait of Andrei Grigorievich and a snapshot of a night volley of rocket launchers. Joyful and excited, I went to work the next morning. My boss at that time was a wonderful scientific journalist and even more talented teacher Mikhail Vasilyevich Khvastunov - Mihvas, as all newspaper Moscow called him. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the science department, I heard:
- Old man, I removed your material from the room. Mihwas handed me a piece of paper:
- Read. In the morning the courier brought...

It was a copy of a letter to the Bolshoy publishing house. Soviet Encyclopedia, where at that time the Biographical Dictionary of Figures of Natural Science and Technology was being prepared. I read, the lines jumped before my eyes:
“In the 23rd volume of the TSB (2nd edition), on page 126, there is an article about Andrey Grigorievich Kostikov, who was awarded high awards “for his great merit in the creation of a new type of weapon.”
In 1937-1938, when our Motherland was going through difficult days of mass arrests of Soviet personnel, Kostikov, who worked at the institute as an ordinary engineer, made great efforts to achieve arrest and conviction as enemies of the main people management team of this institute, including the main author of a new type of weaponry, a talented scientist-designer, deputy director of the institute for science G.E. Langemak. Thus, Kostikov turned out to be the head of the institute and the "author" of this new type of weapon, for which he was immediately generously awarded at the beginning of the war.
Having received a task for another development, Kostikov turned out to be unable to complete it, and therefore, even during the war, he was removed from work and dismissed from the institute ... "

Date: January 15, 1957. And two signatures with the same titles: Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Heroes of Socialist Labor S.P. Korolev, V.P. Glushko.
...
Then I often thought: who sent the courier with this letter? Who knew that Komsomolskaya Pravda was preparing my essay for publication?
I still don't know the answers to these questions. But then I thought of something else.
It's hard to say what I experienced. Annoyance? Resentment for aimlessly done work? (Now I do not consider it aimless!) An unpleasant feeling that every deceived person experiences?
But now I understand well that I should have felt only the most sincere gratitude to Mihvas: he saved my journalistic name.

The modest beginning of Kostikov's career

Just as restorers, working on an old canvas, are convinced that there is another face under a famous portrait, so I, studying the history of rocket technology for many years, discovered another face under the portrait of a handsome general - the face of a terrible freak, of course, not in the physical sense.

Eight graduates of the Zhukovsky Academy joined the Moscow Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD) at the time of its merger with the Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL). On the initiative of Marshal Tukhachevsky, with the support of Ordzhonikidze, these two teams formed the RNII - the Reactive Research Institute. Young specialists began to work independently in different departments: each chose a topic to his liking. Kostikov did not think about any "Katyushas". He came to the group of M.K. Tikhonravov, where they were engaged in liquid rocket engines. The Tikhonravov 09 rocket was our first rocket to fly, perhaps these developments seemed to Kostikov the most promising, there is nothing reprehensible in his choice.
However, it didn't work out for him. As stated in one document, Kostikov “worked on an oxygen engine. But this engine did not receive practical implementation.
And this happens, all the more so - it's a new thing, again, there is nothing reprehensible in this either.
One can also imagine Kostikov's resentment towards Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, perhaps the most energetic employee of the RNII. Korolev lost faith in oxygen engines and began to cooperate with Valentin Petrovich Glushko, who designed obviously more advanced nitric acid engines. And although Korolev justified his "treason" by the interests of the case, here one can understand and forgive Andrei Grigorievich his insults.
But the main thing is not this. There were signs of stagnation in Kostikov's career, which was categorically not included in his plans.

Designers Artemiev, Petropavlovsky and Langemak are the real authors of "Katyusha"

To understand the further course of events, it must be said that the main topic of the RNII was, after all, not rocket engines, but solid fuel rockets - the ancestors of the Katyushas. Vladimir Andreevich Artemiev began to work on them back in Petrograd. As soon as he graduated from high school, he volunteered for Russo-Japanese War for which he was cursed by his father. Artemiev's courage made him a junior non-commissioned officer. After graduating from Alekseevskoe military school, since 1915 he began to improve various rockets. On March 3, 1928, he launched our first rocket on smokeless powder and can rightly be considered one of the co-authors of the Katyusha projectile.
Silent, modest, Vladimir Andreevich never aspired to be a leader, and, to be honest, he could not aspire in those years, given his noble origin and several years of Solovki.

The ideas of the combat use of missiles received a new development in the works of another remarkable enthusiast - Boris Sergeevich Petropavlovsky. At the very beginning of the 30s, he invented something that can be called the ancestor of the faustpatron, bazooka and other rocket-propelled grenade launchers. He did a lot of rocket projectiles. Also a career soldier: Suvorovsky cadet corps in Warsaw, Konstantinovsky art school in St. Petersburg. An intelligent, energetic engineer, he led the GDL for two years. Just before arriving in Moscow, this big man - jokingly twisting the "sun" on the horizontal bar - caught a cold and quickly "burned out" in transient consumption. Petropavlovsky is also - no doubt - one of the most active co-authors of "Katyusha".

Finally, Georgy Erichovich Langemak is also an interesting personality. Father - German, mother - Swiss, a purely civilian family of teachers foreign languages who took Russian citizenship. And their son Georgy also seems to have entered the parental path: he began to study Japanese philology. But the war forced to change the university auditorium to the class of the midshipman school. Langemak was talented in general, and therefore became a good naval gunner. He volunteered for the Red Army, almost died during the Kronstadt rebellion. Then he graduated from the Military Technical Academy in Leningrad, being already the head of the artillery of the entire Black Sea, he became interested in rockets, and the commander of the Leningrad Military District, August Kork, helped him transfer to the GDL. At the RNII, he quickly replaced the ruffy Korolev as deputy head of the institute.
Langemak was convinced that solid-fuel rockets "can find combat use primarily as artillery shells of various types," and he probably did the most to implement this "combat use."
In early November 1937, Langemak and the head of the RNII I.T. Kleimenov is arrested and two months later he is sentenced to death.
Perhaps, for a small magazine essay, I write too much about these people, but each of them deserves a separate essay, or even a book. It is they and their closest associates who are the true fathers of the Katyusha, they saved the lives of thousands of our soldiers, the concrete of the monument in honor of the liberation of mankind from fascism is mixed with their sweat and blood.

Denunciations by activist Kostikov

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev and Valentin Petrovich Glushko, as is clear from their letter, are convinced that Kostikov is guilty of Langemak's arrest. The most intelligent man, known for his peacefulness, the remarkable scientist Yevgeny Sergeevich Shchetinkov, who worked at the RNII with Korolev, looked down at my question in March 1970:
- I have the impression that Kostikov was involved in the arrests ...

Andrey Grigorievich Kostikov is unusually active at this time. He does not wait until he is given power in the institute, he takes it himself: he holds meetings at which he stigmatizes “enemies of the people”, puts forward programs for “eliminating the consequences of sabotage”. Very soon he is the chief engineer of the institute.
Now, his “rival” in the LRE Glushko, the “traitor” Korolev, Ivan Gvai, Yuri Pobedonostsev are already under his command - these are their rocket launchers on planes that became famous near Khalkhin Gol. Leonid Schwartz is now, after the death of Langemak, the largest expert in the country on rockets.
And when I met these people in absentia (Gwai, Schwartz) or personally (Korolev, Glushko, Pobedonostsev), I realized that it was not even a matter of what kind of specialists they were. They became specialists because they are personalities, characters, outstanding people.

Of course, Korolev is dangerous for Andrei Grigorievich, because Korolev is incomparable with Kostikov: neither as an organizer nor as an engineer. Of course, next to Glushko, Kostikov is a zero specialist in rocket engines. Yes, and others, too, if they do not interfere with him, then, as they say, "shine". Kostikov is a pseudo-scientist, pseudo-constructor, pseudo-engineer, he is very similar to a scientist, designer, engineer, just as the office he invented with bronze gizmos is similar to the office of a thinker. If you look, in his entire life he himself did not create anything worthwhile. Yes, and someone else did not appropriate openly. He simply helped the “hedgehogs” clear their way, and then everything was automatically appropriated.
At the beginning of March 1938 Glushko was arrested, at the end of June - the Queen. They do not write about themselves to the TSB publishing house. But they could. It is not known how Kostikov's statement, addressed to the institute's party committee, ended up in the Glushko case. I don't know how it migrated from the party committee to the NKVD.
But it turned out! Migrated! And the statement directly says what supposedly bad things Valentin Petrovich and Sergey Pavlovich were doing.

And another curious document was discovered, more precisely, a draft without an address and date. Epic start: “I am not an artilleryman and, moreover, not a gunpowder specialist, but a detailed acquaintance with rocket shells and bombs from the moment I was appointed VRID deputy. director of NII-3 * (11/15/37) gives me reason to draw certain conclusions regarding some people who have been involved in this branch of technology for a long time ".
So, the conclusions are not a specialist, but an administrator. What are the conclusions?
* In 1938, the RNII was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Ammunition and became known as NII-3 (after the death of G.K. Ordzhonikidze).

Kostikov writes: “The main role in this (ballistic. - Ya.G.) laboratory is occupied by engineer. Yu.A. Pobedonostsev ... In the second half of 1937, after the RS and RAB (we will continue to call rocket shells and rocket air bombs for short) went on an experimental gross production, as if by chance, abnormal behavior was discovered under certain conditions of gunpowder during its combustion ..."

But if you are "not a gunpowder specialist", why are you climbing into special questions?! And this paper was addressed, one must think, also to “non-specialists”, since the explanations in brackets made by Andrei Grigorievich were not needed by real specialists, they knew without explanation what RS and RAB are: these abbreviations were widely used in scientific papers.
The whole highlight, of course, is in this wonderful "as if by chance". An innocent-looking slip of the tongue is like a small mold, helpfully provided for casting a bullet to Yuri Alexandrovich. Pobedonostsev was not arrested. To explain this is as impossible as to explain why, say, the Queen was arrested.

According to the then routine, after the arrest, it was required to conduct a “technical examination”. No one asked the Institute if the enemy was the same Korolev. The fact that the enemy is clear. It was required to give specific facts of sabotage. First, this work was entrusted to three engineers: M.S. Kisenko, E.S. Shchetinkov and F.N. Go, who composed a very vague act of examination, where the imperfections and failures of Korolev were noted, but it was possible to understand that there was no malicious intent in the works of Korolev, that all these flaws do not go beyond the usual imperfections that are mandatory in any experimental work. Shchetinkov even wrote down in this act on two points a "dissenting opinion", from which it was clear that Korolyov was no pest. Many years later, Korolev told Yevgeny Sergeevich Shchetinkov how this impotent and proud "dissenting opinion" had touched him in prison. It could not affect the verdict, but it strengthened the belief that in the free world he left behind, there are still people for whom honor is higher than fear.

Such an examination act did not guarantee a reliable burial of rivals and could not satisfy Andrei Grigorievich. He himself headed the new commission and conducted a new examination. And the conclusions have changed.
The official investigation conducted in June 1965 by the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office states:
"On June 20, 1938, Kostikov headed an expert commission, which gave an opinion to the NKVD authorities on the wrecking nature of the activities of engineers Glushko and Korolev".
...
A few months before his death, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev stopped by to visit the widow of the executed head of the RNII I.T. Kleymenov. They remembered the past, the common - in Moscow, and each his own: Sergei Pavlovich - the Kolyma mine, Margarita Konstantinovna - the Pechora logging site. They also remembered Kostikov:
- Sergey Pavlovich immediately grew gloomy,- said Margarita Konstantinovna.
- You know, he is a stern man, but not evil, he has never been evil, and then he says:
“People like Kostikov need to be finished off! His happiness is that he died ... "

The real developers of "Katyusha"

So, before us - a new version of a long-standing theme "genius and villainy"? How to combine "Katyusha" and denunciations?
But no way! It turns out that there is no need to combine.

Dozens of people have been hard at work on the missile combat vehicle for many years. Shells for it were made, I repeat, back in the 1920s, but it was necessary to teach them to fly - to stabilize them in flight, to organize slow, uniform and steady burning of powder cartridges, to standardize their production so that one shell did not differ from another.
What plumage to make? Shells with small plumage began to tumble in the air, with large ones they became heavy and reduced their range. What should be the starting machine? How to make sure that the projectile does not jam in it? How long should the guide be? Short - reduced aiming, long - made the rocket gun heavier.

All this had to be thought over, substantiated, calculated, designed, manufactured, tested. It took years.
But what does Kostikov have to do with it? What is his personal contribution to common work? Obviously, the contribution should be considerable, if Kostikov is the only one who was awarded a gold star for "Katyusha".

For a very long time I tried to find traces of this contribution in the documents, talked with dozens of people and ... did not find it!

The finalization of rockets was carried out by a group of engineers led by L.E. Schwartz; it included: V.A. Artemiev, Yu.A. Pobedonostsev, D.A. Shitov, A.S. Ponomarenko, V. Luzhin. In addition to the named engineers, M.S. took part in the development of shells. Kisenko, I.V. Vodnev, M.K. Tikhonravov, F.N. Poida, M.F. Fokin, V.G. Bessonov, M.P. Gorshkov and others.
But there is no Kostikov in the “others” either. However, he himself wrote, as you remember, that "he is not a specialist in gunpowder."

Rocket launcher in K.K. Glukharev was made by the group of I.I. Guaya: A.P. Pavlenko, A.S. Popov, V.N. Galkovsky, V.A. Andreev, N.M. Davydov, S.A. Pivovarov, S.S. Smirnov, I.V. Yaropolov, N.G. Belov.
But Kostikov is not here either.

Fedor Nikolaevich Poida said:
- Five months before the start of the war, Kostikov said at the board of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition that rocket launchers exist only in the imagination of the director of the institute.
By the way, this director, suffering from a “disorder of the imagination”, was soon removed, and Andrei Grigorievich was appointed in his place.

Zitz constructors

How so? Surely Kostikov did not take any part in the creation of a new weapon? Accepted.
At the training ground on June 17, 1941, when the military vehicle was inspected by the highest ranks of the army; June 21, 1941, when it was examined by the leaders of the party and government. He gave explanations and answered questions. So who, one wonders, should give a gold star, if not to him?! Moreover, obviously realizing the delicacy of his position, our hero made sure that the award was legally justified.

The Katyusha was a completely original design, and every original design must have an officially registered author. He was also at the Katyusha. And not one, but three:
- firstly, A.G. Kostikov;
- secondly, V.V. Aborenkov, Deputy head of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army, direct supervisor Andrei Grigorievich.
Vasily Vasilievich did not take any part, except for the presence at the trials, in the creation of new weapons.
- Finally, the 3rd author, who was introduced, as I understand it, for "decency", - Ivan Isidorovich Gvai.

In 1944, another expert commission worked. Now it was no longer Kostikov who was evaluating, but he was being evaluated, and the experts were really very respected: Academician S.A. Khristianovich, Professor A.V. Chesalov and K.A. Ushakov, Deputy head of the armaments department of TsAGI L.M. Levin.
The question of the investigative unit for particularly important cases of the People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR:
“Are Kostikov, Gvai and Aborenkov the authors of the M-8 and M-13 (Katyusha shells - Ya.G.) and launchers for them?”
Expert answer: “Kostikov, Gvai and Aborenkov cannot be considered the authors of the M-8 and M-13 and launchers for them. The M-8 projectile differs in minor modifications from the RS-82 projectile developed at NII-3 in 1934-1937. The M-13 projectile is a development of the RS-132 projectile, developed in 1937-1938. Kostikov, Gvai and Aborenkov had nothing to do with the development of the RS-82 and RS-132 ... "

In 1955, Valentin Petrovich Glushko wrote: “The author of these shells is, in essence, Langemak. By the time Langemak was arrested, perhaps the documentation on the design of these shells had not yet been drawn up, but the main work had been completed..
But back to the experts. They approve:
"The idea of creating a machine installation for conducting massive fire cannot be attributed to Kostikov, Gvay and Aborenkov". Scientists cite the book of the executed Langemak and Glushko sentenced to 8 years in labor camp (however, in 1944, experts did not specify the fate of the authors) “Rockets, their design and use”:
"The main field of application of powder rockets is the armament of light combat vehicles, like airplanes, small ships, vehicles ...". It was written in 1935!

Strishok: Kostikov's desertion in 1941

In October 1941, the defense institute headed by the Hero of Socialist Labor Kostikov was evacuated to Sverdlovsk. Yuri Alexandrovich Pobedonostsev said:
- Around October 19, Kostikov, leaving all the property and all the documents of the institute to the mercy of fate, fled. I was the senior in the institute. I went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Timiryazevsky district committee of the party to get instructions on the destruction of the institute: there was a panic in Moscow. And I received this order. When I was preparing the institute for destruction, naturally, I took the documents from the desk of the head of the institute and found a note written by Kostikov's hand. It said that I was a close associate of Kleimenov, Langemak and Korolev, and hints were made that I was also a "saboteur" ...

Kostikov's scam: jet fighter

But one seemingly bright spot remains: after all, they planted him in 1944! After all, he became an innocent victim of Stalinist repressions! However, why "innocent"? Isn't a prison supposed for everything that Andrei Grigorievich has done? It is naive to look for logic in Stalin's commands, but still, why is the designer of an interceptor fighter, whose plane has already taken off, put behind bars at the very height of the war? Began to deal with the rocket fighter.

Shortly after the evacuation of the institute in Sverdlovsk, fortunately not blown up in Moscow, Kostikov announced that he undertook to create a missile fighter-interceptor with characteristics that world aviation did not know then. Despite the fact that during the war years, Stalin was extremely disapproving of any experimental design, believing that all forces should be focused on the deployment of mass production of already tested aircraft, Kostikov was allowed to do this work, and the institute switched to creating a miracle interceptor.

Since Kostikov did not understand anything in the design of aircraft proper, and there were no such specialists at the institute, he attracted aircraft designer Matus Ruvimovich Bisnovat, who had been in charge of a small independent design bureau since 1938, to this work. Bisnovat designed fighters, even built two, but he could not stand the competition with Mikoyan, Lavochkin and Yakovlev, these machines were not accepted into service. Bisnovat made a plane for Kostikov, but it was only a glider, not a fighter. On it, and flew, as recorded by Kostikov, the "bird-man" - our wonderful tester Sergei Nikolaevich Anokhin. Test pilot Viktor Leonidovich Rastorguev on a Tupolev SB high-speed bomber "took out" Bisnovat's glider, after which the experienced glider pilot Anokhin flew for 27 minutes.

But again, what does all this have to do with Kostikov, what is his contribution to this flight?! After Anokhin's tests, in order to turn Bisnovat's glider into an interceptor, Kostikov's engine was needed, but there was just no engine. Kostikov did not manage to make the promised liquid rocket engine, he overdue all the deadlines, which greatly angered Stalin.

A special commission was appointed, headed by the Deputy People's Commissar aviation industry A.S. Yakovlev, who admitted that the deadline set by Kostikov for the creation of a missile interceptor was unjustified and unrealistic. The conclusion between the lines is a pure adventure. By a decree of the State Defense Committee of February 18, 1944, Major General Kostikov was removed from the post of director of the institute, and the USSR Prosecutor's Office was instructed to investigate Kostikov's failure of "a particularly important task for the design and construction of a jet interceptor." On March 15, Kostikov was arrested. I do not presume to judge how justified such a cool decision is even in wartime. During the investigation, Kostikov admitted that he misled the government, thereby harming the country, but explained that he acted without malicious intent, and guided only "the desire to add fame to oneself, to win the position of a monopoly designer in the field of rocket technology in the country". In the actions of Kostikov, the NKVD did not establish the corpus delicti, and his case, initiated by the USSR Prosecutor's Office, was terminated. Kostikov spent 11 and a half months in prison.
Just for comparison, I want to remind you that Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev, who did not deceive anyone, was crystal honest and absolutely innocent - even then one of the leading aircraft designers in the world - was sentenced to 15 years in labor camps.

A living myth: Kostikov is the father of Katyusha

As I now understand, in the essay I wrote, but, fortunately, unpublished, "The Fire Arrow", there was not a word of truth except for the numbers of the regiments of the civil war and the tombstone by Konenkov. Why did I return to this topic after a quarter of a century? Redeem the "sin of youth"? But Mihwas died, no one knows about the “sin”. Expose an impostor? I think, yes.

Despite the harsh conclusions of the technical expertise of 1944, Kostikov's "authorship" was not buried.
When a report was being prepared in 1965 in connection with the forthcoming celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, the Kostikov case was again comprehensively studied, and L.I. Brezhnev was sent a detailed certificate signed by the Chief Military Prosecutor Artem Grigorievich Gorny, in which Kostikov was once again documented in appropriating the glory of the inventor of the Katyusha. The surname of Kostikov was deleted, it was not included in the General Secretary's report, but no one found out the truth, and thus the official assessment of Andrei Grigoryevich's "works" was preserved, given in the most authoritative reference publication - in the first volume of "History of the Great Patriotic War".
And there it was categorically stated:
“on the eve of the war with Germany, an outstanding Soviet scientist and designer, one of the followers of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, A.G. Kostikov, a formidable weapon was created - rocket launchers, which soon became very popular among the troops (the famous Katyushas).
So in the minds of millions of people it hardened: Kostikov is the father of the Katyusha.

But by and large, it's not about exposing a particular unscrupulous person, although this is important. It's about the phenomenon.
We are doing a lot today to restore to people a good name, trampled into the mud during the heyday of Stalinism.
But after all, there were 2 processes that grew together with each other and could not exist without each other, like Siamese twins:
- the process of unreasonable overthrow and
- the process of undeserved elevation,
the process of destroying real standards and the process of creating pseudo-standards.

It's not about the Hero of Socialist Labor, Stalin Prize laureate, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Major General Kostikov, but about "Kostikovism" - we will find it everywhere: in politics, economics, science, art, literature.
And the highest justice lies in not only washing off the dirt from some, but also scraping off the gilding from others. The ancient Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus remarked 2,000 years ago: "The face falls, but the essence remains".
By itself, the mask falls off badly. She needs to be torn off.
________________________________________________________________
Ogonyok, No. 50, 1988

The events described will soon celebrate their 75th anniversary. On July 14, 1941, near the small town of Orsha, it was first used, which became a nightmare for the Nazis and their allies and a symbol of success for Soviet soldiers. This, of course, is about the jet guards mortar, nicknamed "Katyusha".

The very appearance of this weapon has so far been covered with a certain veil of secrecy. But as the years go by, documents are declassified, and more and more facts become available.

Next to the "Katyusha" was always the name of its chief developer, Hero of Socialist Labor Andrei Grigorievich Kostikov.

Kostikov's biography could be an example for many. Still, only in Soviet country a native of such bottoms could become not just a Hero, but a legend!

Kostikov was born in 1899 in the village of Kazatin, Berdichevsky district, Kyiv province.

Father - a native of peasants, did not have a specific profession and all his life worked for hire as a laborer, janitor, porter, moving from city to city. Mother was engaged in housekeeping.

In 1918 he joined the Red Army. He took part in the fighting against the Ukrainian rebels, in the Soviet-Polish war. Was wounded in the leg. Some historians, however, write about a short investigation on charges of self-shooting. In August 1920 he was captured by the Poles, in April 1921 he fled and again continued to serve in the Red Army.

In 1922-1926 he studied at the 3rd Kyiv military engineering school, after which he served in Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1930-1933 he studied at the VVIA named after N. E. Zhukovsky "on aircraft engines and rocket specialty", where he became seriously interested in rocket technology. He was sent as an engineer to the Jet Institute (RNII, NII-3), to the department of ballistic missiles.

The finest hour came on February 19, 1940, when the institute's employees A. Kostikov, I. Gvai and the representative of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army V.V.

This invention became the basis for the development of "Katyusha". On June 17, 1941, Kostikov demonstrated to the members of the Politburo, the government of the country and the leadership of the NPO of the USSR the operation of the installation, based on a car.

The day before the start of the war, on June 21, 1941, I.V. Stalin decided to launch the mass production of M-13 rockets and the BM-13 launcher (UZO) and to begin the formation of the corresponding military units.

On July 28, 1941, the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces issued two decrees on rewarding the creators of the Katyusha. The first decree "for outstanding services in the invention and design of one of the types of weapons that raise the combat power of the Red Army" Kostikov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (number 13). By the second decree, orders and medals were awarded to 12 more engineers, designers and technicians, including the Order of Lenin, co-authors of Kostikov on the invention I. Gvai and V. Aborenkov.

Everything seemed natural and simple. A simple Soviet worker guy, gifted by nature, created a weapon that played one of critical roles in that war. And he deserves to stand on a par with the same nuggets of the Russian land as Grabin, Degtyarev, Kalashnikov.

But no. Indeed, the wind often blows debris from the graves of undeservedly forgotten people.

Today we can say with confidence that the only merit and skill of Kostikov was the ability to write denunciations. This is what he really knew how to do. But with work it was much worse.

Nothing else can explain the complete absence of any significant inventions and developments in Kostikov's career. Moreover, in 1944 he was arrested. But not on a denunciation of "espionage" in favor of Germany or the United States. Kostikov was arrested, charged with forgery and deception of the government, coupled with sabotage. Work on the project "302" jet aircraft being developed by Kostikov was ordered to be stopped.

However, they were not imprisoned or shot. They released him a year later, at the end of February 1945, naturally, dismissing him from his post. But they were allowed to work in one of the institutes (NII-24) for the improvement of rockets as the head of bureau No. 5.

And on April 19, 1944, when Kostikov was already under investigation, the military prosecutor's commission issued a verdict that Kostikov, Gvai and Aborenkov could not be considered the authors of the M-8 and M-13 rocket launchers and RS-82 and RS- 132.

However, the case was not taken to court. Either intercessors were found, or they were forgiven. Not finding "hostile intentions" in the composition, the case was dismissed and Kostikov was released. And they were even allowed to continue working, even if not in the position of head of the research institute.

Those were tough times...

Meanwhile, Kostikov could well have been accused of murder. But since in those days many people were killed like that, then ... Then we will simply move on to the next hero of our story. The real author of "Katyusha".

Meet Georgy Erichovich Langemak.

Personality, in many respects contradictory and complex. His life path not as straightforward as Kostikov's.

Langemak's father and mother are Swiss. Erich Frantsevich - German origin, Maria Konstantinovna - French. But all his life, in all the vicissitudes, Georgy Langemak wrote only "Russian" in the questionnaires.

Education is excellent (with parents-teachers, this is not difficult). Gymnasium, St. Petersburg University, Admiralty Ensign School in St. Petersburg, officer artillery school in Reval (Tallinn). He served, fought with the Germans in the Baltic.

There is evidence that during the turmoil civil war served in the divisions of Hetman Skoropadsky and Petlyura.
In June 1919, he joined the Red Army and, as a naval officer, was appointed battery commander of the 4th artillery battalion of the Kronstadt fortress, and then commandant of the Totleben fort of the 4th artillery battalion.

During Kronstadt uprising Georgy Langemak did not support the rebels and was arrested and sentenced to death. He was held in custody on March 2 - April 18, 1921 and was released only after the suppression of the uprising. Didn't get to shoot. And the content in the punishment cell of the fort saved Langemak's life, for Tukhachevsky did not stand on ceremony with the rebels.

In 1922 he was expelled from the ranks of the CPSU (b) ... for getting married in a church.

In 1923, Langemak entered the Military Technical Academy of the Red Army (Leningrad) and graduated in 1928. During his studies, together with other students of the academy under the guidance of a teacher of the academy S. A. Serikov, he carried out orders from the Laboratory of N. I. Tikhomirov (Hero of Socialist Labor, posthumously, 1991). Subsequently, the Tikhomirov Laboratory, dealing with smokeless propellant rockets, was renamed GDL - Gas Dynamic Laboratory.

After graduating from the academy, he was assigned to the position of chief of artillery. Black Sea Fleet, but at the request of N. I. Tikhomirov to the Commander of the Leningrad Military District A. I. Kork, he was left to work in the Gas Dynamics Laboratory.

In the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, Georgy Langemak was engaged in the development of RS-82 mm and RS-132 mm rockets. After the death of N.I. Tikhomirov in 1930, B.S. Petropavlovsky was appointed head of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, and Langemak was appointed head of the powder rocket sector. And he continued the developments started by Tikhomirov.

At the end of 1933, in Moscow, on the basis of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory and MosGIRD (Jet Propulsion Study Group), the world's first Jet Research Institute (RNII), also known as NII-3, was created.

I. T. Kleimenov, head of the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, was appointed director of the Institute, and S. P. Korolev, head of the GIRD, was appointed his deputy, who was replaced in this post by G. E. Langemak in April 1934.

During his work at the institute, Langemak practically completed the refinement of the RS-82 and RS-132 rockets, which later became the basis of the Katyusha rocket launcher. In 1933, in the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, official field tests were carried out from the ground, ships and aircraft of 9 types of rocket projectiles of various calibers on smokeless powder designed by B. S. Petropavlovsky, G. E. Langemak and V. A. Artemyev. 4 of them were adopted.

A total of 82 types of rockets were developed with a caliber of 82, 132 and 240 mm.

During this period, Langemak corresponded with K. E. Tsiolkovsky, thinking about the non-military use of rockets, about the possibility of their use in astronautics. By the way, it was Langemak who introduced the term "cosmonautics".

In 1937, as the "brainchild" of Tukhachevsky, the Jet Research Institute underwent a "cleansing". The leadership of the institute was arrested. On November 2, 1937, Langemak was arrested (order No. A 810) by the NKVD authorities of Moscow as a German spy on the basis of information previously available to the NKVD (investigation file of the FSB archive No. R3284 (14654)). The indictment, dated December 31, 1937, is based on a single protocol of interrogation, the second copy of which is dated December 15, 1937 (the first copy has no date), compiled on the basis of materials provided from the institute, with the active participation of A. G. Kostikov, who took the place of Langemak after his arrest.

Together with Langemak, I. T. Kleymenov, S. P. Korolev, V. P. Glushko were arrested.

On January 11, 1938, at a closed court session of the visiting session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by V. V. Ulrikh and two members of the court, I. T. Golyakov and A. G. Suslin, the case of Georgy Erichovich Langemak was considered.

For "wrecking in the field of preventing new types of weapons" and participation in an "anti-Soviet terrorist organization", crimes under Art. Art. 58-7, 58-8 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, Georgy Erichovich Langemak was sentenced to death with the confiscation of all his personal property. On the same day, the sentence was carried out.

The day before, on January 10, 1938, the director of the institute, Ivan Terentyevich Kleymenov, was sentenced and shot.

But the Katyusha developed by the team was nevertheless built and smashed the enemies. The triumph of truth came later.

On November 19, 1955, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Colonel of Justice Lebedkov and members, Lieutenant Colonels of Justice Romanov and Shalaginov, determined: the basis of paragraph 5 of Art. 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR to terminate in criminal procedure due to the absence of corpus delicti in his actions ... "

G. E. Langemak and his colleagues were completely rehabilitated.

Unfortunately, the Military Collegium did not officially assign them the status of the authors of "Katyusha".

Only in 1991, by the Decree of the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev dated June 21, 1991, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor was posthumously awarded for work on the creation of a jet mortar:

Ivan Terentyevich Kleimenov (shot in 1938)

Andrei Grigorievich Kostikov(October 30, 1899, Kazatin, Berdichevsky district, Kyiv province - December 5, 1950, Moscow) - mathematician, specialist in the field of mechanics.

Major General, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Sciences (Mechanics) since September 29, 1943. Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree. Member of the CPSU (b).

Andrei Grigoryevich was born on October 30, 1899 in Ukraine, in the city of Kazatin, Kyiv province. However, it was registered in the homeland of the parents in the village. Fast Mosalsky district of the Kaluga province, now - with. Borovensk, baptized there. His father (died in 1920), a native of peasants, did not have a specific profession and all his life worked for hire as a laborer, janitor, porter, wandering around Russia (Kazatin, Kyiv, Moscow, Petrograd). Mother took care of the house and agriculture(died 1922). In addition to Andrei, the family had two more children: a sister and a brother.

After graduating from the 4th grade of the Bystrovskaya rural school, from 1913 Kostikov studied in Moscow, in the technical office of the engineer Mezheritsky, as a plumber. Then, in 1914-1919, he worked as a locksmith's assistant, a locksmith at factories in Moscow, Petrograd, Kyiv. From the age of 19 - a volunteer of the Red Army. He took part in the fighting against the Ukrainian rebels, in the war with Poland. Was wounded in the leg. In August 1920 he was captured by the Poles, in April 1921 he fled and again continued to serve in the Red Army.

In 1922-1926, he studied at the 3rd Kyiv Military Engineering School, where he graduated "first in terms of academic performance", after which he served in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1930-1933 he studied at the Air Force Academy. N. E. Zhukovsky "on aircraft engines and rocket specialty", where he became seriously interested in rocket technology. He was sent as an engineer to the Reactive Research Institute (RNII, NII-3), worked in the department of ballistic missiles. According to some evidence, Kostikov met with K. E. Tsiolkovsky several times in Kaluga. Since 1936 - head of the department for the development of liquid rocket engines. In November 1937, Kostikov was appointed acting, and from September 1938, after the arrest of a number of leading employees, he became the chief engineer of the institute, which at that time was developing and testing rockets and installations for launching them from the ground and from aircraft.

In 1939, the staff of the institute under the leadership of Kostikov created and tested the first ever reliable ground-based multiple rocket launcher system. On February 19, 1940, employees of the Institute A. Kostikov, I. Gvai and a representative of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army V. Aborenkov received a copyright certificate for her invention, which became the basis for the development of the future famous "Katyusha". On June 17, 1941, Kostikov demonstrated to members of the Politburo, the government of the country and the leadership of the USSR Ministry of Defense the operation of a multiple launch rocket launcher (RCD), based on a car. The day before the start of the war, on June 21, 1941, I. Stalin decided to launch the mass production of M-13 rockets and the BM-13 launcher (UZO) and to begin the formation of the corresponding military units. Already on July 14, 1941, the secret Soviet weapon (UZO) received a baptism of fire near Orsha under the command of Captain I. Flerov. The results were stunning. Two series of volleys "Katyusha" was completely destroyed railroad station Orsha and the crossing over the river. Orshitsa. From this sector of the front, the Nazis took out three echelons of the dead and wounded. No less important was the tremendous demoralizing psychological impact of rocket weapons on the enemy.

On July 28, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued two decrees on rewarding the creators of the Katyusha. The first decree "for outstanding services in the invention and design of one of the types of weapons that raise the combat power of the Red Army" Kostikov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (number 13). By the second decree, 12 more engineers, designers and technicians were awarded orders and medals, including the Order of Lenin - Kostikov's co-authors on the invention - I. Gvai and V. Aborenkov. On April 11, 1942, Kostikov received the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree in the amount of 25 thousand rubles, which he handed over to the defense fund. The designer was awarded the rank of Major General of the Aviation Engineering Service. In March 1943, Kostikov was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

(1950-12-05 ) (51 years old)

Andrei Grigorievich Kostikov(-) - Soviet scientist, specialist in the field of mechanics. Major General, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Technical Sciences (Mechanics) since September 29, Candidate of Technical Sciences (1939). Hero of Socialist Labor (July 28, 1941). Member of the CPSU (b).

Biography

In 1922-1926 he studied at the 3rd Kyiv military engineering school, which he graduated first in terms of academic performance, after which he served in Nizhny Novgorod.

Since 1936 - head of the department for the development of rocket engines.

At the beginning of 1937, the head of the RNII department, A. G. Kostikov, wrote a letter addressed to the State Security Commissioner Nikolai Yezhov, in which he accused Kleimenov, Langemak, Glushko and several other employees of the Reactive Institute of wrecking. And this will not be his only signal about the discovery of "enemies of the people." Here is an excerpt from a statement to the party committee of the CPSU (b) Research Institute No. 3 from a member of the CPSU (b) since 1922 No. 0050652 A. G. Kostikov:

« Basically, it seems to me that the methods of work management and our whole system are aimed at slowing down the pace of work and at the wrong orientation.<...>Thus, due to the fault of production, all work during 1936 was disrupted.<...>This happened from year to year. I affirm that in production a system was clearly adopted that was absolutely useless, hindering development. This is also not a random fact. Give me all the materials and I will clearly prove with the facts that someone's hand, perhaps due to inexperience, slowed down the work and introduced the state into colossal losses. In this, of course, KLEIMENOV, LAGNEMAK, AND NADEZHIN are primarily to blame. I repeat, these facts can be multiplied indefinitely, but now I am not in a position, but I will try to state in my next statement. Member of the CPSU (b) - p / p (A. Kostikov)».

In November 1937, Kostikov was appointed acting, and from September 15, 1938, after the arrest of V. P. Glushko, S. P. Korolev, G. E. Langemak, he became the chief engineer of the institute, which at that time was engaged in the development and testing rockets and installations for their launch from the ground and from aircraft.

On February 19, 1940, employees of the institute A. Kostikov, I. I. Gvai and a representative of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army V. V. Aborenkov received a copyright certificate for the invention of a “mechanized installation for firing rockets of various calibers” No. 3338, which became the basis for the development of a future the famous Katyusha. On June 17, 1941, at the Sofrinsky artillery range, Kostikov demonstrated to the members of the Politburo, the government of the country and the leadership of the NPO USSR the operation of a multiple rocket launcher (RCD) placed on a car.

Arrest

After the urgent evacuation of the institute at the end of 1941 to Sverdlovsk, Kostikov (he was director from 1942 to February 18, 1944) was engaged in the development of a rocket fighter aircraft. For this, OKB-55 was organized. M. R. Bisnovat was appointed chief, and Kostikov was appointed chief designer. Initially, a composite power point with an upper stage rocket engine designed by Dushkin and two ramjet engines (pulsating air-jet engine) designed by Zuev. The ramjet was never debugged, and the plane was in flight only as a towed glider.

At the beginning of 1943, Kostikov decided to equip the prototype aircraft only with a liquid-propellant rocket engine. The rate of creation of the aircraft accelerated, but its characteristics (speed, rate of climb, range) dropped sharply. In addition, Kostikov, making this decision, made a serious organizational mistake by not submitting the fundamental changes in the performance data and design of the aircraft to be formalized by a government decree. In January-February 1944, a government commission headed by Deputy People's Commissar for the Aviation Industry A.S. Yakovlev came to the conclusion that it was necessary to stop work. A. G. Kostikov was accused of deceiving the government, removed from his post as director of NII-3, and on March 15, 1944, was arrested.

For almost a year, the recent hero was in prison (from March 1944 to February 28, 1945). However, the accusations of espionage and sabotage against him were not confirmed. The conclusions of the investigation read: “The author's explanations ... are correct. It is advisable to involve the author in a more in-depth development. ... Enemy intention in the actions of A. Kostikov, who was a great specialist in his field, was not established.

Later career

According to some historians and workers in the rocket and space industry, Kostikov advanced his career with false denunciations of his colleagues and appropriated the authorship of the development of the Katyusha rocket launcher.

There is also an opposite point of view.

For some reason, several aviation design bureaus were evacuated to Bilimbay at once. In addition to us, helicopter design bureaus Mil and Kamov arrived here. In the neighborhood, in Sverdlovsk, NII-3 worked - since the beginning of 1937 it was called RNII - Reactive Research Institute, the head missile institution of the prewar years. In those years, it was led by A. G. Kostikov - as it turned out later, the man who directly had a hand in the arrest of Korolev, Glushko, in the death of the first Soviet missile practitioners Kleimenov, Artemiev, Langemak ...

According to the memoirs of a former employee of NII-3, Doctor of Technical Sciences L. B. Kizner, in 1939, when both Langemak and Kleimenov were already shot, Kostikov achieved the inclusion in the work plan of NII No. 3 of a special item on the destruction of the circulation of the book by Langemak and Glushko. It should be noted that this book (Georgy Langemak, Valentin Glushko. "Rockets: their design and use." M., 1935) was translated into German published in Germany in 1941.,

Andrei Grigorievich Kostikov(October 30, 1899, Kazatin, Berdichevsky district, Kyiv province - December 5, 1950, Moscow) - mathematician, specialist in the field of mechanics.

Biography

Born Kazatin, in Ukraine, but was registered in the homeland of his parents in the village of Bystroye, Mosalsky district, Kaluga province, now the village of Borovensk, baptized there.

Father (died in 1920), a native of peasants, did not have a specific profession and all his life worked for hire as a laborer, janitor, porter, wandering around Russia (Kazatin, Kyiv, Moscow, Petrograd). Mother was engaged in housework and agriculture (died in 1922). There were also a sister and a brother.

From the age of 19 - a volunteer of the Red Army. He took part in the fighting against the Ukrainian rebels, in the Soviet-Polish war. Was wounded in the leg. In August 1920 he was captured by the Poles, in April 1921 he fled and again continued to serve in the Red Army.

In 1922-1926 he studied at the 3rd Kyiv Military Engineering School, which he graduated first in terms of academic performance, after which he served in Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1930-1933 he studied at the Air Force Academy. N. E. Zhukovsky "on aircraft engines and rocket specialty", where he became seriously interested in rocket technology. He was sent as an engineer to the Jet Institute (RNII, NII-3), worked in the department of ballistic missiles. According to some evidence, Kostikov met several times with K. E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga .

Since 1936 - head of the department for the development of liquid rocket engines.

In November 1937, Kostikov was appointed acting, and from September 15, 1938, after the arrest of the leading employees (V.P. Glushko and S.P. Korolev), he became the chief engineer of the institute, which at that time was engaged in the development and testing of rockets and installations for their launch from the ground and from aircraft.

On February 19, 1940, employees of the institute A. Kostikov, I. I. Gvai and a representative of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army V. V. Aborenkov received a copyright certificate for the invention of a “mechanized installation for firing rockets of various calibers” No. 3338, which became the basis for the development of a future the famous Katyusha. On June 17, 1941, Kostikov demonstrated to members of the Politburo, the government of the country and the leadership of the USSR Ministry of Defense the operation of a multiple launch rocket launcher (RCD), based on a car.

The day before the start of the war, on June 21, 1941, I. Stalin decided to launch the mass production of M-13 rockets and the BM-13 launcher (UZO) and to begin the formation of the corresponding military units.

Already on July 14, 1941, the secret Soviet weapon (UZO) received a baptism of fire near Orsha under the command of Captain I. Flerov. The results were stunning. Two series of Katyusha volleys completely destroyed the Orsha railway station and the crossing over the Orshitsa River. From this sector of the front, the Nazis took out three echelons of the dead and wounded. No less important was the enormous demoralizing effect of rocket weapons on the enemy.

Arrest

After an urgent evacuation at the end of 1941 to Sverdlovsk, the institute under the leadership of Kostikov (he was director of NII-3 from 1942 to 02/18/1944) was developing jet aircraft- liquid-propellant rocket engine (LPRE) fighter. But due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, the extremely tight deadlines for the development of a new type of aircraft were not met.

At the beginning of 1943, Kostikov decided to equip the first two copies of the new jet aircraft only with a liquid-propellant rocket engine, and remove the ramjet engine (ramjet) that was lagging behind in development from the aircraft. The rate of creation of the aircraft accelerated, but its characteristics (speed, rate of climb, range) dropped sharply. In addition, when making this decision, Kostikov made a serious organizational mistake (or forgery) by not submitting the fundamental changes in the performance data and design of the aircraft to be formalized by a government decree. In January-February 1944, a government commission headed by Deputy People's Commissar for the Aviation Industry A.S. Yakovlev came to the conclusion that it was necessary to stop work. A. G. Kostikov was accused of deceiving the government, removed from his post as director of NII-3 and arrested on March 15, 1944.

Later career

From August 1, 1945, until the end of his life, Kostikov (NII-3 had already been closed by that time) worked as the head of a bureau in one of the defense institutes (NII-24), where he continued to develop the latest rockets, highly valued by specialists. In 1947, Kostikov headed the representative office of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Germany for a short time.

At the end of the Great Patriotic War, Kostikov visited his small homeland- in with. Bystry, visited the school, met with fellow countrymen. On September 19, 1950, he made a presentation in Kaluga at a meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the death of K. E. Tsiolkovsky. On December 5, 1950, at the age of 51, Kostikov died suddenly of a myocardial infarction in his apartment in Moscow. Sergei Konenkov created a monument on his grave.

Kostikov's grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Criticism

After the death of Kostikov, especially during the years of Khrushchev's "thaw" (in the late 1950s - the first half of the 1960s), the discussion about the true authors of the Katyusha invention flares up from new force. The already deceased Kostikov is subjected to devastating criticism. He was accused of appropriating the invention of the Katyusha, and also of actively contributing to the repressions that befell the employees of his institute (including designers S. Korolev and V. Glushko, who worked in the late 1930s in the department, which then directed by Kostikov). Journalist Y. Golovanov in the article "The False Father of Katyusha". (“Spark”, 1988, No. 50) claims that the conclusion of the official investigation conducted in June 1965 by the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office states: “On June 20, 1938, Kostikov headed an expert commission that gave an opinion to the NKVD authorities on the sabotage nature of the activities of Glushko engineers and the Queen.

This accusation was indeed checked by the USSR Prosecutor's Office. However, her official document (No. 13/4-1032-89 dated 06/12/1989) says something else: “The Prosecutor’s Office of the USSR has carefully studied the materials related to the arrest in the 30s of prominent scientists of the Scientific Research Institute ... In the materials of the criminal cases against Korolev S.P., Langemak G.E., Glushko V.P., Kleymenov I.T., there are no data indicating that they were arrested on the denunciation of Kostikov A.G.”

The commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1989) also did not find facts confirming these accusations. The main conclusions of this commission were as follows: “The USSR Prosecutor’s Office No. v13 / 4-1032 of 06/12/89 confirms the fact that in criminal cases against Korolev S.P., Glushko V.P. there are no data that confirm that they were arrested on the denunciation of A. G. Kostikov.”

There is also an opposite point of view.

In the 23rd volume of the TSB (second edition), on page 126, there is an article about Andrey Grigorievich Kostikov, who was awarded high awards "for great merit in the creation of a new type of weaponry."
In 1937-1938, when our Motherland was going through the difficult days of mass arrests of Soviet personnel, Kostikov, who worked at the institute as an ordinary engineer, made great efforts to arrest and condemn as enemies of the people the main leadership of this institute, including the main author of the new type of weapons of a talented scientist-designer, deputy director of the institute for science G. E. Langemak. Thus, Kostikov turned out to be the head of the institute and the "author" of this new type of weapon, for which he was immediately generously awarded at the beginning of the war.
Having received a task for another development, Kostikov was unable to complete it, and therefore, even during the war, he was removed from work and dismissed from the institute ...

For some reason, several aviation design bureaus were evacuated to Bilimbay at once. In addition to us, helicopter design bureaus Mil and Kamov arrived here. In the neighborhood, in Sverdlovsk, NII-3 worked - since the beginning of 1937 it was called RNII - Reactive Research Institute, the head missile institution of the prewar years. In those years, it was led by A. G. Kostikov - as it turned out later, the man who directly had a hand in the arrest of Korolev, Glushko, in the death of the first Soviet missile practitioners Kleimenov, Artemiev, Langemak ...

The role of G. E. Langemak and others in the creation of domestic rocket weapons was restored in June 1991 (Decree of the President of the USSR of June 21, 1991 on conferring the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (posthumously) to I. T. Kleymenov, G. E. Langemak, V. N Luzhin, B. S. Petropavlovsky, B. M. Slonimer, N. I. Tikhomirov).

Notes

According to the historian A. V. Glushko, the text of a written denunciation by A. G. Kostikov about the wrecking activities of I. T. Kleimenov, E. G. Langemak, S. P. Korolev, V. P. Glushko and a number of other employees of the institute as well as other documents confirming the involvement of A. G. Kostikov in their arrest. In any case, A. G. Kostikov nevertheless played an unseemly role in the fate of the repressed employees, since in June 1938 he headed an expert commission that gave a certificate to the NKVD about the wrecking activities of V. P. Glushko and S. P. Korolev. As a result, S.P. Korolev was sentenced to 10 years in the camps, and V.P. Glushko - to 8 years in the camps. In the same 1938, A. G. Kostikov was approved as the chief engineer of the institute. Anton Bocharov. Patriotic Internet project "Heroes of the Country"
“So who is who!” Interview with L. S. Dushkin. - "Wings of the Motherland", No. 7 1989. Pp. 28, 29, 30, 31.
Document date: January 15, 1957. Signatures: Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor S. P. Korolev, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor V. P. Glushko. Cit. on: Ya. Golovanov. False father of "Katyusha" // Ogonyok. - 1988. - No. 50.
Selected Works of Academician V.P. Glushko.

Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/