Higher rank - gunsmith
7 November 2017 was the birthday of academician of RAS Arkady Shipunov on 90. It is symbolic that on the eve of a significant date in the Tula State Museum weapons The presentation of two books took place at once. The first one - “Selected Works of Academician A.G. Shipunov” (a three-volume book) was prepared by a creative team under the leadership of the managing director of JSC “KBP” Dmitry Konoplev. The second - “My father is the general designer” was written by the eldest daughter of Arkady Georgievich - Tatiana Saklakova.
Arkady Shipunov - an outstanding designer and scientist, the founder of a unique school of system design of high-precision rocket and small arms and guns. The talent of a researcher, innovator, organizer allowed him at the turn of 60 – 70-s to significantly expand the scope of research and development work, to launch the production of high-precision near-range weapons in six directions. And the main thing is to rally around him the best cadres of specialists, thanks to which KBP has managed to withstand difficult 90, and to launch the release of the famous ZRPK Pantsir.
Today, the KBP team recalls with great gratitude its General Designer, a monument to the 90 anniversary of the birth of which was opened in Tula, and at the presentation of books very many associates, colleagues, students, feeling a sense of pride from working under Shipunov, expressed their gratitude to the head and confidence that the case of Arkady Georgievich continues.
Oleg Falichev
Memory watch
The wise say: years are moments, memory is immortal. Arkady Shipunova is remembered by his comrades, friends, relatives, everyone who helped him bring great design ideas to life. The enterprise team has already done a lot to perpetuate the memory of this amazing person. Since January, 2014 has been named after Academician Shipunov. The streets in Tula and Livny are named in his honor. The city in the Oryol region is the birthplace of Arkady Shipunov. A memorial plaque is installed on the house where the future designer was born. The same - in Orel on the building of the gymnasium, where he studied. Another one - in Klimovsk, where Arkady Georgievich began his career. In Tula on the Walk of Fame of the Tula Museum of Weapons - bust. On the house where Arkady Shipunov and Vasily Gryazev (designer, friend and associate) lived for many years in the neighborhood are also memorable boards.
At Tula University, the best students receive a personal Shipunov scholarship. In 2014, books about the designer were published, authors - T. Golovina, T. Saklakova, V. Korovin.
A conference dedicated to Arkady Shipunov has been held in Livny for several years. In 2016, on the basis of the Tula Lyceum No. 2, the Physics and Mathematics School named after Academician Shipunov was opened. Here, the most talented schoolchildren of the city and region get the knowledge they need to enter leading universities of the country and find employment in the KBP. Who will continue the glorious traditions of the enterprise.
The Center for the Training of Specialists of AO KBP now also has a bust of Shipunov, donated by the designer’s daughter. Arkady Georgievich himself, as is well known, won many awards and honors, but he always considered the title of a gunsmith to be the main one.
We will continue this memory watch. Today’s presentation of books is a clear confirmation of this.
Victor Razdoburdin, advisor to the managing director of KBP
Devotional relay
How can you compare the scale of today's event? To answer this question, I will give an example. Once, the rector of the RUDN University gathered students from his university and asked those from abroad: why did they come to our country to get knowledge? The answers were different, but most young people said that Russia possesses unique technologies. To create their own aircraft industry can not afford more than 15 countries in the world. Implement space projects - even less. And to produce the best weapons systems in the field of air defense and missile defense - units. And the Russian Federation among them.
But maybe the most important thing is that the Russian land gave birth to such nuggets as Arkady Shipunov? It is they who, with their creative breakthroughs and technical achievements, set the course for world progress. Figuratively speaking, the Tula left-hander even today can shoe a flea, create an Armor and put the Cornet ATGM on a stream. But without a strong state that would be impossible.
But the issue of statehood and independence of our country has repeatedly stood up in the years of hard times. The Great Patriotic War left a deep imprint in the soul of the then teenager Arkady Shipunov, who had been with the other refugees under the Nazi bombing. It was then that the idea was born in him for the first time to create an unsurpassed weapon to fight the enemy aces.
Many generations of our compatriots have given up the most precious thing - their lives for the freedom and independence of the motherland. There are statistics that only three out of 100 called to the 1920 – 1922 front of birth were returned. What other countries have similar examples ?!
Arkady Georgievich experienced all the hard times of the war years on himself. It is in this that are the sources of his boundless devotion to his work, to which he dedicated his life. And today’s event we are developing this. We re-read his books, analyze, draw conclusions. Thanks to the management of "High-precision complexes", to everyone who participated in the publication of the book, its discussion. Who will continue to carry the lessons of Arkady Georgievich Shipunov in life, pass them, as a baton, to the younger generation of Russian gunsmiths.
Rustam Khametov, Deputy General Director of High-Precision Complexes JSC
Movers and Successors
Arkady Georgievich gained knowledge at the Tula Mechanical Institute (now a university), in a remarkable group where Gryazev, Usov, and other future designers and his associates studied the post-war generation. They came from all over the country, but they were very strong guys: from 24, 18 people are excellent students.
Not everyone knows that Shipunov had to solve another major problem of the work of the PCP, when Nikita Khrushchev was at the helm of the state. With the further release of the IWT nomenclature, then serious questions arose. The party leader proclaimed the cult of rocket technology in the Armed Forces, and the PCU, and with it Tula began to literally die, because the factories produced primarily small arms and artillery weapons.
Shipunov’s bold decision to move to the development and production of anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and air defense missile systems has become truly revolutionary. At the same time in Tula State University were established department for management systems. All this, plus Shipunov’s organizational talent, his experience as a production worker, allowed the company and the region to break the deadlock.
In recent years, we often gathered at Arkady Georgievich’s house, discussed current affairs, made plans, and talked about the future. These were frank meetings, confidential conversations. Thanks to the daughters of Arkady Georgievich, who gave us tea, welcomed them, treated us. Then the idea was born to create in the city Alley Tula gunsmiths.
I wish KBP prosperity and success not only in the arms business, but also in the development of the heritage of Arkady Georgievich.
Nikolay Makarovets, Scientific Director of NPO Splav JSC
Roses and thorns of talent
I happened to work more than 20 years with Arkady Georgievich in the councils for awards, doctoral councils. Therefore, I know all his works well. The school of doctors of sciences in many respects has grown up and is built under its auspices.
He has repeatedly said that without science, a modern army cannot be built. Like no one else, he combined in himself an outstanding designer and scientist, in fact he was at the origin of many developments. He thoroughly knew any direction of work, was able to solve the most complex issues. Could in the language of the military prove why his weapon is better.
His colleague and colleague Vasily Petrovich Gryazev said more than once: “I believe in Shipunova. Whatever he takes, there will always be victory. ” So it was.
He created a unique team that worked and worked like a clock, and could translate any of his ideas into what was called iron.
Arkady Georgievich's credo is not to repeat, not to copy. He always went his own way, created samples of weapons and military equipment that were unique in design ideas and original in execution.
Somehow the journalists asked: “Arkady Georgievich, have you all worked out well in a life that is covered with glory, covered with roses, full of achievements?”. To which Shipunov smiled and replied: “Yes, it is covered with roses, but each of them has spiky thorns, and we walk barefoot in them.” This suggests that the work of the designer - a painful creative process, accompanied by a mass of failures and defeats. It is necessary to have great willpower to go through this path to the end, to separate the wheat from the chaff and get a result.
I really wanted our young people to equal this outstanding person, to take an example from the great gunsmith. It is necessary to continue the tradition of holding scientific and technical conferences that it has laid.
Alexander Rakhmanov, Vice President of RARAN
Weapons of life
Thanks to the sophisticated weapons systems developed by the general designer, tens of thousands of soldiers and officers returned home alive from wars and various local conflicts. And this is the main merit of Arkady Georgievich Shipunov.
The books accumulate the amount of knowledge for several decades. They show how difficult it is to justify and create a product in a project on paper and quite another to provide it technologically. These are very different, hard-to-match things. But Shipunov solved such problems on a daily basis and always successfully.
We not only worked closely together because of official duties. But they also found time for informal communication with Arkady Georgievich, and such meetings sometimes did more good than dozens of official meetings. Therefore, the lesson is that closer relations between people of the Ministry of Defense and the defense industry should be established, human relations, and you cannot achieve much by directives and dispatches.
Nikolai Svertilov, ex-chief of the Main Missile-Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General
Timeless lessons
I want to express my gratitude to the daughters of Shipunov, since in the book Arkady Georgievich is shown the way he was in life.
In the film about Shipunov there are his words, like he, the boy, was surprised that there are universities in the country where they are taught to create air defense weapons. The country prepared people who worked for its greatness. There was a school of designers that eventually made our state a power. And today this school is beginning to revive. But the distance between Shipunov and many of today's specialists is considerable. Cut it - the responsibility of young developers and followers of Arkady Georgievich. It is necessary to remove the abyss that has arisen between the front-line soldiers, the post-war generation and today's youth in relation to their civil and professional duty.
The first lesson Shipunova - the ability to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar environment. If we analyze the three volumes of his scientific papers presented today, you will understand: not everyone can do it. In the 50-ies in the development of automatic weapons, he started from scratch. In 60-e with the same positions had to deal with the rocket theme. At the end of 80-x - a new breakthrough, the creation of ZRPK "shell".
I witnessed a meeting at the commander-in-chief of the air defense of Army General Ivan Tretyak, when the concept of the Pantsir was just being considered. Then such luminaries as Boris Bunkin, General Designer of NPO Almaz, and Chief Designer - Head of the Fakel Design Bureau Pyotr Grushin, General Designer of NIEMI Veniamin Efremov gathered. Shipunov was told that it was simply impossible to create an air defense missile with declared TTH. But he convinced everyone that he would make such a complex. And did.
His second unique feature is the use of the most varied information in the interests of his work. He was a comprehensively developed person who possessed knowledge in various areas of culture, literature, philosophy, even economics. When at the end of 90 the financing of the Pantsir was suspended and the state actually abandoned the plant to the mercy of fate, Shipunov found a way out - he persuaded foreign customers to invest in completing the development of the new complex. Thus, he resolved an issue that the Ministries of Economy and Finance failed to cope with.
Shipunov said that one should always look ahead, see the perspective. We, the gunmen, know: if you see a perspective, then you can formulate a target task that is clearly understood by any audience. And this is half the battle. Shipunov possessed a sense of foresight, could systemically formulate such a task. The need to create the same "shell", he justified in 1987 year, and today it turned out what then no one imagined.
However, he was an ordinary person, as was correctly noted here. Sometimes he really wanted to speak, to share his painful, to entrust the hidden. His work has inherent victories, awards, serious achievements, but not defeats. They were not there.
Shipunov’s name, which the enterprise now bears, is not just a symbol, it’s his perspective.
Alexey Moskovsky, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation - Chief of Armaments of the Armed Forces of Russia (2001 – 2007), Army General
Contemporary, facing the future
There were two main motivations for writing the book “My father is the general designer”.
First, I pushed away from the previous book “I was a free man”, which is addressed not only to the personality of Arkady Georgievich Shipunov, but also to questions of morality in such a closed area as “defense”. This gave strength, showed that it is possible and necessary to speak honestly and directly about many things.
Secondly, some of the work about the departed managers of the company, outstanding personalities, written boringly. A book was needed that would allow preserving the whole image of a man and a designer, the scale of the work he had done in such a complex area as the creation of precision weapons.
The task turned out to be extremely difficult, since such a person as Shipunov, with his character and even stubbornness, is difficult to squeeze into the usual framework. The work took three and a half years - with the study of documents, conversations with eyewitnesses of events, memories of veterans.
Many people have a biography and only a few manage to create it with their own hands, according to their own taste. Now, after working on a book, I can say with complete justification: Arkady Georgievich folded his biography himself — an extraordinary, complete overcoming, consisting of difficulties and the achievement of goals.
It was necessary to uncover the issues of the formation and formation of this extraordinary personality, to explore childhood, adolescence, youth, passed through the war. I understood that the nature of the father is the result of constant mental and spiritual work. The book pays special attention to the life of Arkady Georgievich, how his views, preferences, principles were shaped, how the process of becoming the chief designer, the generation of high scientific ideas went.
He was never distant from the conditions and events of real life. Therefore, the book tells about the periods of success and failure, searches and doubts. We study how we managed to create a great variety of different weapon systems, how difficult decisions were born. How to remain loyal to the profession, a lot to change in the life and fate of the enterprise. It was Shipunov who gave the design bureau the power of diversity of creativity, raised its scientific and technical level, and turned a powerful structure on the production and development of new weapons and military equipment.
This is a man, thanks to the will and talent of which the KBP was preserved and developed in the dashing 90. He did not give anyone reason to doubt the correctness of their technical solutions, ensured the superiority of Tula complexes in the global arms markets.
His father often said that his greatest achievement was the creation of a world-class force. These are not walls, not a territory, but people - professional developers who grew up and took place next to it. And the memories of these people today confirm my words.
The book recreates diverse pictures of communication between the general designer and his staff. In fact, it is the fate of man. It means that great people are the same as all of us - from flesh, blood, with problems and experiences, weaknesses and emotions. On pages - stories from the life of the father, which is usually not written in official biographies.
I am grateful to Alexander Vladimirovich Denisov, Head of High-Precision Complexes Holding, Dmitry Vladimirovich Konoplev, Head of KBP, for his systematic work on preserving the memory of Arkady Georgievich, for publishing the book, and organizing this event. All this eloquently indicates that the case of Arkady Georgievich continues.
Thanks to everyone who helped me and supported me in my work.
Tatyana Saklakova, daughter of the general designer
Much left overs
Arkady G. Shipunov worked from morning to evening, from 8.00 to 8.00. And mainly he was engaged not in writing articles, but in the development of technology. But far from everything got into his three-volume book, much remains, as they say, behind the scenes. Therefore, it is necessary to continue the popularization of its activities and works.
Vladimir Morozov, Deputy Head of Department
Commonwealth and kinship
My father, Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, knew and respected Arkady G. Shipunov well. Being engaged in the creation of reliable and trouble-free defense equipment and equipment for our army for several decades, they were not rivals, but colleagues in creative activity. Despite the almost ten-year difference in age, they were bound by friendships. I remember well how Mikhail Timofeevich could not go on the anniversary of Arkady Georgievich for health reasons and was very worried about this.
Shipunov is a man of unusual fate. His whole life was the creation of such weapons, which for decades to come would ensure the superiority of our army over the likely adversary. This man is really capable of genius, which was the general designer of KBP.
In 2012, I was lucky enough to come to Tula with a film crew to record an interview with Shipunov. We met in his office at KBP. Arkady Georgievich told us in detail about his life, about the days past and present. We were very grateful to him for such a kind and frank conversation. In parting, he gave me a book about him with a unique inscription. His words became for me, as it were, an advance for many years to come, inspiring creativity.
Tatiana Saklakova’s book contains a lot of illustrative material, family photos, Arkady Georgievich’s personal letters to her daughters. All this makes it even more interesting and truthful. Only a close, dear person has the right to such a complete supply of material. The book “My father is the general designer” is not only about the great worker, but also about his beloved and loving son, husband, father, grandfather, faithful friend and ally.
Tatyana Saklakova fulfilled her daughter debt and left her descendants a wonderful memory of this great man.
Elena Kalashnikova, daughter of the designer of small arms Mikhail Kalashnikov
The book about the winner
Tatyana Saklakova is well known in the engineering community. She worked in the KBP, became a candidate of technical sciences, has many copyright certificates. But in the book it was revealed to us from the other side - as an intelligent, talented writer. I wrote a book in a very short time and accomplished, in my opinion, a civil feat - the image of Arkady Georgievich so brightly and convincingly throughout his life.
Such penetration is expensive. We see Shipunova as a creator and winner, whom the Motherland has commissioned to develop semi-automatic weapon systems. I'm talking about "Bassoon", "Competition", "Metis."
Such controlled complexes were made for the first time. Abroad could not create missiles that would fly with overloads in 5 – 10 g. "Bastion", "Sheksna", "Arkan", "Reflex" - all these are complexes with breakthrough solutions. And the “Tunguska” air defense system Shipunova was even forbidden to create for a subjective reason, but we continued to do it.
The book is so valuable that without embellishment tells about all the difficulties, problems, contradictions and accomplishments. There was a time when Arkady Georgievich fought against disease and injustice and won.
This printed work, I think, will become a real book of life for the young generation, a textbook in the Center for the training of specialists, where the school of the young engineer continues to work with new forces.
Yury Shvytin, veteran of the enterprise
Inheritance in three volumes
Since 1927, KBP successfully solves the problem of creating highly effective weapons models. After Shipunov headed it in 1962, the KBP works in such an important area as anti-aircraft missile and gun air defense systems, anti-tank systems, fire weapons for lightly armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, multipurpose missiles, small arms and grenade launchers and flamethrowers.
As for the published works of Shipunov, the first volume contains publications on the creation of small arms and guns, as well as the text of the dissertation for the degree of candidate of technical sciences. The second is articles devoted to the creation of high-precision weapons in areas organized by the KBP by Arkady Georgievich. In particular, light armored vehicles, tanks, anti-tank missile systems, air defense and others. In the third volume - publications on systems engineering, conceptual scientific, technical and economic development of the WTO.
In connection with the publication of these works under the auspices of RARAN, I express my gratitude to the leadership of the KBP, the RARAN presidency in the person of President Vasily Burenka for supporting the works on perpetuating the memory of Arkadiy G. Shipunov, Alexander Rakhmanov and Igor Artamonov, many others who took feasible part in the composing work.
I thank Lev Shvets, Viktor Babichev, Vladimir Morozov, Nikolai Davydov, Yuri Shvykin, Evgeny Semashkov, Valery Slogin, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Nina Kuzmich, Andrei Morozov, Yaroslav Pyatnitsky, Evgeny Vlasov.
Special thanks to Tatyana Saklakova for valuable advice in preparing a book and photographs from the family archive, to the publishing house “Border” in the person of the general director Yulia Nizovtseva for the operational publication.
Alexander Ignatov, director for development of promising areas of scientific and technical activities, corresponding member of RARAN
Best school
Today, relatives, colleagues, colleagues, students of Arkady Georgievich, the leadership of the Tula region, representatives of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, defense enterprises, scientific research institutes, students of the Tula State University, guests came to honor the memory of Shipunov.
For more than 40 years, Arkady Shipunov was at the head of the Instrument Engineering Design Bureau, which only an outstanding person could cope with every challenge of our difficult times. In his archive - the fundamental work in the field of machine strength, automatic control, thermodynamics, systems analysis, design theory. He is the author of over 500 publications, the owner of 300 and more patents, more than 400 copyright certificates.
During the work of Arkady Georgievich, the KBP created an order of 200 of various systems, many of which in their performance characteristics significantly exceed their foreign counterparts. Under his tireless leadership in the enterprise many strategic directions were opened. Created the Department of design of automated systems, graduate school, dissertation and scientific and technical advice, training center for training.
A thorough study of the nature of military conflicts gave him the opportunity to analyze and create modern weapon systems. Today, the company continues to work and implement the ideas of Academician Shipunov, is heading for the high efficiency of the manufactured weapons and military equipment.
The legacy of Arkady Georgievich is a scientific and technical reserve carefully preserved and used at the enterprise, the school created by him, a well-developed research, technological and production base. All this is a pledge of the realization of his covenant: "To be the best in the world."
Vyacheslav Kovalev, First Deputy Managing Director, KBP
Information