
Vasily Degtyaryov

Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov (; 2 January 1880, Tula – 16 January 1949, Moscow) was a Russian engineer who specialised in weapons design.
Biography.
Degtyaryov was the Major General of the Engineering and Artillery Service, Doctor of Technical Sciences (1940), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1940; he received the second such award in its history just two weeks after Joseph Stalin himself). He became a CPSU member in 1941.
Vasily Degtyaryov headed the first Soviet firearms design bureau. He created several types of machine guns, submachine guns and anti-tank guns.
Vasily Degtyaryov was awarded the USSR's State Stalin Prize in 1941, 1942, 1944, and 1949 (posthumously). He was also awarded three Orders of Lenin, four other orders and different medals.
Commemoration.
On the day of the designer’s death, by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, monthly scholarships were established in his name :
On October 17, 1954, a monument was erected in Kovrov for Degtyaryov, and a bust and several plaques were installed on the territory of the weapons factory bearing his name. At the memorial of gunsmiths and designers, a bas-relief with his image was made. In the house, where the designer lived, on January 6, 1978, a museum was opened. In addition, a technical school, a secondary school, a kindergarten, a recreation park, the House of Culture of Metal Workers and the former Komsomolskaya Street were named after him in Kovrov . A pioneer camp near the village of Sukhanikha was named after Degtyaryov. In many cities of the former USSR (Kharkiv, Novosibirsk, Lomonosov, Saint Petersburg) there are streets that perpetuate the memory of the gunsmith Degtyaryov in his name. 
November 6, 1979, as it was the 100th anniversary of the designer, the USSR Ministry of Communication issued a postal envelope with his image. January 2, 1980 in Kovrov held a special cancellation of these envelopes. On August 18, 2004, the Russian Post also issued an envelope depicting Degtyaryov.