ACCUSED OF INVENTING: PERSONALITY AND CREATIVE LEGACY OF TANK DESIGNER NIKOLAI IVANOVICH DYRENKOV

The phenomenon of mass invention that struck the Soviet Union in the pre-war years left behind many names both covered with eternal glory and stained with indelible shame. One of them is Nikolai Ivanovich Dyrenkov. Known primarily as the inventor of extremely unsuccessful tank projects, he is condemned in the literature as a burner of millions of rubles for unrealizable projects, then deserves attempts to justify. This article examines a large volume of historical material, on the basis of which the life path of this outstanding and not quite deservedly forgotten person is largely reconstructed.