Resting place Unknown Name Konstantin Chelpan Nationality USSR Role Engineer | Significant design V-2 engine | |
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Children Lenimir Konstantinovich Chelpan Parent(s) Fyodor Myhailovich Chelpan, Elizaveta Khalangot Education Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute | ||
Institution memberships Malyshev Factory | ||
Konstantin Fyodorovich Chelpan (Russian: Челпан, Константин Фёдорович) (27 May 1899 – 10 March 1938) was a prominent Soviet engineer of Greek background. Head of the Engineering Design Bureau of the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory, chief designer of the T-34 tank engine. Awarded the Order of Lenin. Politically repressed and executed under a mass persecution ordered by Joseph Stalin. Politically rehabilitated after death.
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Early life and education
Born on May 27, 1899 in Cherdakly, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kremenivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine), to Fyodor Myhailovich Chelpan and Elizaveta Khalangot. Both parents were Greeks.
After graduating from Mariupol Realschule in 1919, took part in the Russian Civil War. In 1924 graduated with honors from Kharkiv Technological Institute with a Major in Internal Combustion Engines.
Career
From 1924 to 1937 worked at the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory as a Designer, Head of the Diesel Department, Lead Designer, and Head of the Engineering Design Bureau. In 1928-1929 had practical training in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK.
Konstantin Chelpan was the head designer of the famous T-34 tank diesel engine V-2, for which he was awarded the Order of Lenin. The engine consisted of lightweight aluminum alloy,.
From 1927 was a senior lecturer at Kharkiv Technological Institute.
Arrest and Death
Konstantin Chelpan was arrested on December 15, 1937 during the first days of Greek Operation of NKVD. He was charged with leading a Greek nationalist counter-revolutionary organization, as well as consipring to sabotage the Kharkiv Locomotive Factory. After being interrogated and tortured he confessed to being a spy. On February 4, 1938 he was sentenced to execution by shooting. The sentence was carried out in Kharkiv prison on March 10, 1938 and covered up. In a few years his wife received a death certificate, indicating that Konstantin Chelpan died on May 16, 1942 from congestive heart failure.
On August 6, 1956, Konstantin Chelpan was rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. However only in 1988 his true cause of death was revealed.