New Materials for The Biography of Dmitry Ilyich Kozlov – an Outstanding Designer of Rocket and Space Technology

The article is devoted to the initial period in the life of the outstanding Soviet designer Dmitry Ilyich Kozlov (1919 ‒ 2009), who became one of the developers of the «Vostok» ‒ «Soyuz» family launch vehicles, deputy to Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, and then General Designer of Rocket and Space Technology, head of the largest organization, TSSKB «Progress» in Kuibyshev (now ‒ Samara). Based on the analysis of new documentary sources (archival materials and memoirs), it talks about D. I. Kozlov's admission in 1937 and subsequent studies at Leningrad Military Mechanical Institute (now Baltic State Technical University «VOENMEH» named after D.F. Ustinov). With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, D.I. Kozlov, not using the reservation that VOENMEH students were entitled to, joined the Red Army in June 1941 as a volunteer, participated in the defense of Leningrad, in the fighting on the Oranienbaum Patch, and in the breakthrough of the Finnish defense. After being seriously injured and losing his right arm, D.I. Kozlov managed to be reinstated as a student of VOENMEH, which since 1942 had been conducting classes in evacuation conditions in the Molotov City (now ‒ Perm). After returning to Leningrad and defending his thesis project, D.I. Kozlov was enrolled in special courses on rocket technology organized at VOENMEH on the initiative of D.F. Ustinov. After successfully completing these courses, he was sent to Plant No. 88 in Podlipki, Moscow Region, and from there to Germany to study German rocket technology as part of a group of Soviet specialists. The analysis of references made it possible to clarify some dates and events of D.I. Kozlov's life and showed that the initial period of his biography fully determined his achievements both as a designer and as the head of a big enterprise