Aleksandr Dmitriyevich Prosvyrnin (November 10, 1914, Saransk — February 27, 2005, Nizhny Novgorod) was an automotive engineer, chief designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant, and a laureate of the Stalin Prize. He worked at GAZ for 49 years, 29 of them as chief designer.[2]
Road to the Plant
He was born into a family of white-collar workers in Saransk. From 1931 he worked as a lathe operator at the Penza Bicycle Plant. In 1933 he enrolled at the Rybinsk Aviation Institute but was expelled from the fourth year as a "family member of an enemy of the people." From 1937 he worked as a lathe operator at the Gorky plant named after V. I. Ulyanov-Lenin. In 1938 he transferred to the Gorky Automobile Plant as a design engineer. While working, he completed correspondence studies at the Gorky Industrial Institute in 1940, qualifying as a mechanical engineer in the specialty of "automobiles."[3]
Work at GAZ
During the Great Patriotic War, Prosvyrnin took part in developing components and systems for trucks as well as military vehicle models. He was appointed lead designer for the development of the GAZ-51 truck and its modifications. After the GAZ-51 family entered mass production in 1947, he was among a group of specialists awarded the State (Stalin) Prize.[2]
From 1952, in the position of deputy chief designer, he led the team creating new trucks: the GAZ-51A, 51R, 51Zh, 62, and 63A.[2] In 1958 he was appointed chief designer of the plant — head of the design and experimental work division — a post he held until 1987.[3]
Under his leadership and with his direct creative involvement, the following vehicles were developed: trucks GAZ-52, GAZ-52-04, GAZ-53, GAZ-53A, GAZ-53-12, GAZ-66, GAZ-66-11, GAZ-4301, GAZ-4509, and GAZ-6008; passenger cars GAZ-24 «Volga»", GAZ-3102 "Volga", GAZ-13 "Chayka", and GAZ-14 "Chayka"; tracked vehicles GAZ-71, GAZ-73, and GAZ-3403. Prosvyrnin also participated in the development of prototype diesel road train GAZ-6008, the GAZ-3301 and GAZ-3307 vehicles, the GAZ-3933 tracked snow-and-swamp vehicle, and the new mid-class passenger car GAZ-3105.[2]
Prosvirnin was an active continuator of the GAZ design school. His students went on to head design divisions at the Volzhsky, Bryansk, Ulyanovsk, and Zaporozhye automobile plants. He held inventor's certificates for inventions and industrial designs, and was repeatedly awarded medals of the USSR Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh).[2] In 1962, under his editorship, a collective monograph entitled "Automobiles of the Gorky Automobile Plant" was published, and in 1968 the work "Reliability and Durability of Manufactured Automobiles and Measures for Further Increasing Durability" was published.[5][4]
Awards and titles
Prosvirnin was awarded the Order of Lenin (1966), two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1971, 1982), and various medals. He was conferred the following titles: laureate of the Stalin Prize (1947), "Honored Worker of the Automobile Plant" (1976), "Veteran of the Automobile Industry," and "Veteran of Labour of the USSR."[2][3]
He is buried at the Staro-Avtozavodskoye Cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod.[3]
Sources
- lib-avt.ru — History of GAZ through its people — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- lib-avt.ru — Prosvirnin Aleksandr Dmitrievich (10.11.1914–27.02.2005) — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- names52.ru — Prosvirnin Aleksandr Dmitrievich (archive)
- search.rsl.ru — Prosvirnin, Aleksandr Dmitrievich. — Reliability and durability of manufactured automobiles and measures for further increasing durability [Text] / A. D. Prosvirnin.
- m.booksee.org — Automobiles of the Gorky Automobile Plant. Collective of authors. Editor-in-chief A. D. Prosvirnin — Prosvirnin Aleksandr Dmitrievich — download book