Boris Shavyrin

Shavyrin became one of the Soviet Union’s leading specialists in indirect-fire weapons during the interwar and wartime periods. He studied engineering in Moscow and joined the Soviet defense industry, where he worked on designs intended for rapid manufacture and use by formations close to the front. His professional base became the special design bureau at Kolomna, later associated with the Design Bureau of Machine-Building, or KB Mashinostroeniya.¹ Unlike a weapon designer concerned only with a single mechanism, Shavyrin directed teams responsible for complete weapon systems, ammunition compatibility, transport, and field maintenance. His importance therefore lay both in particular models and in establishing a durable school of Soviet artillery engineering.

Shavyrin’s best-known contribution was a family of Soviet smooth-bore mortars that increased the firepower available to infantry and regimental units. The 82 mm BM-37 and 120 mm PM-38 combined relatively light construction with steep-angle fire, allowing crews to engage targets hidden behind hills, buildings, or field fortifications.² During World War II, the 120 mm class became especially significant because it offered a powerful projectile without the weight and logistical burden of conventional howitzers. Shavyrin’s later wartime 160 mm MT-13 pushed the same concept toward heavy artillery, while retaining mortar characteristics such as a simple firing mechanism and high-angle trajectory. These weapons served the Soviet Army and influenced postwar mortar development abroad.

After 1945, Shavyrin’s design work broadened from conventional mortars to rocket and guided weapons. His bureau participated in the Soviet effort to create compact anti-tank guided missiles, including the Shmel system, whose development reflected the growing importance of shaped-charge warheads and remote engagement of armored vehicles. The same institutional transition connected the Kolomna design tradition with later systems such as the Malyutka, although attributing every subsequent missile directly to Shavyrin would blur the contributions of later designers.³ His career thus illustrates a broader change in Soviet military technology: the mortar bureau became a center for both ballistic weapons and guided missiles, linking wartime artillery experience with postwar missile engineering.

Shavyrin’s legacy is especially visible in the survival of very heavy mortars, a category often overshadowed by field guns and rockets. The 240 mm M-240, adopted after the war, was designed for destruction of fortified positions and other targets requiring an exceptionally large explosive charge. Its successor, the 2S4 Tyulpan, placed a related 240 mm mortar on a tracked self-propelled chassis, preserving the high-angle fire concept while improving operational mobility. This lineage shows why Shavyrin is remembered not simply as the designer of a famous mortar, but as an engineer whose work connected man-portable infantry weapons, heavy siege-style mortars, and the institutional development of Soviet rocket systems at Kolomna.

Indirect fire

Fire delivered at a target the weapon crew does not normally see directly, using a high-angle trajectory and observation or fire-control data.

Smooth-bore mortar

A short-barrelled weapon without rifling that launches explosive bombs on steep trajectories.

Anti-tank guided missile

A missile whose flight can be controlled after launch to engage armored vehicles.

Kolomna design bureau

The Soviet and later Russian engineering organization associated with Shavyrin and the development of artillery and missile systems.