Josef (also Jozef, sometimes Zhozef) Yakovlevich Kotin (Russian: Жозеф Яковлевич Котин; 10 March 1908, Pavlohrad – 21 October 1979, Leningrad) was a Soviet armored vehicle design engineer, Head of all three Leningrad armor design bureaux (1937–39), Chief Designer of the Narkomat for Tank Industry (1939-1941), Deputy Narkom for the tank industry of the Soviet Union (1941-1943), Director of the VNII-100 Research Institute at Kirov Plant, Deputy Defense Industry Minister of the Soviet Union 1968–1972.[1][2] He is best known for leading the design of some of the Kliment Voroshilov tanks, IS tank family, T-10 tank, SU-152 self-propelled heavy howitzer, Kirovets K-700 tractor and many other armored vehicles and heavy machinery.[1]
He received the title of Hero of Socialist Labour (1941) and four Stalin Prizes (1941, 1943, 1946 and 1948).[1] He was married to Nataliya Poklonova, who was an engineer with the RKKA UMM (Soviet army office of motorization and Mechanization).[3]
