Efim Alekseevich Levitin

Efim Alekseevich Levitin (1906–1972) was a Soviet radio engineer who made notable contributions to the development of the domestic radio industry in the 1930s and to the development of radio-equipped tanks and aircraft for the Red Army during World War II, for which he received the Order of the Red Star. He also authored a large number of textbooks and reference books on radio reception and amplification tubes and broadcast receivers.

Biography

Levitin was born on April 12, 1906 in the village of Khislavichi in the Smolensk region. In his school years he learned French, German, and English and eventually became interested in radio receivers. After completing high school, he worked as a telegraph line technician, then studied at the University of Smolensk. In 1930, after graduating from the university, he worked at the Central Radio Laboratory in Leningrad [] (CRL), which later became the Institute of Radio Broadcasting and Acoustics (IRPA), where he led the group involved in measuring the characteristics of radio tubes. By the second half of the decade he was named one of the main developers of radio technology. In 1936 and 1938, the first printed works of E.A. Levitin on electron tubes were published. In 1937, when the USSR purchased a license from the American company RCA for the manufacture of household broadcasting receivers and radio tubes in the USSR, Levitin was sent to America to the RCA Victor factory in Camden, New Jersey, where he oversaw the development of 6-tube 6N-1, 9-tube 9N-4, and car radio prototypes according to his technical specifications. He was also in charge of purchasing prototypes of products and materials in the USA for the further production of radio receivers at domestic plants in USSR.

The manufacturing license and the production of radio receivers in the USSR based on the US prototypes (the so-called "Russian Americans") were of exceptional importance for the Soviet radio industry. Firstly, even before the introduction of the licensed line for radio tube production, a part of the purchased radio tubes was immediately used for the development and production of military equipment. The newest models of household radios (with some modifications) were also used for military needs. Secondly, the whole production assembly line was immediately built according to the most advanced cycle in the world at that time. Thirdly, the production of the latest radio tubes made it possible to shift the entire technological manufacturing base of the country to a modern level.

Upon returning to Leningrad, Levitin, under the auspices of IRPA, was involved in the production of a 6N-1 radio receiver at the Elektrosignal plant in Voronezh. Production was based on the prototype of the imported RCA receiver.

At the beginning of the war in 1941, Levitin was drafted into the army in the rank of a private, but during his registration at the military commissariat in Leningrad, he received an order from the People's Commissar of Defense to send him to Voronezh to oversee the urgent evacuation of the plant producing military radio equipment. In the fall of 1941, when the front line began approaching Voronezh, he, together with Konstantin Nazarovich Meshcheryakov, a government representative in charge of the operation, organized the evacuation of all equipment and employees of the Voronezh Electrosignal plant to Novosibirsk.

As a chief designer of the newly formed Novosibirsk plant "Electrosignal", known in those years as plant number 590, Levitin led the development and production of radio stations for tanks, aircraft, and infantry, and led the fast startup of the plant’s production. In 1942, the plant was mentioned as the only plant in the National Commissariat of Electronic Industry (NCEI) system that was able to start production of military equipment within the shortest deadline. The fact that Levitin moved not only all the plant’s equipment, but also all the available raw materials, significantly contributed to this success. Imported licensed receivers and radio tubes also played a significant role. In 1944, both the plant and its director, Meshcheryakov, were awarded the Order of Lenin, and Levitin was awarded the Order of the Red Star as part of a group of workers who made special contributions.

In 1946, Levitin was sent to Moscow to the USSR Ministry of Electrical Industry.

In subsequent years, he taught radio engineering at the Moscow Electromechanical and Moscow Radio Instrument Engineering Schools.

He was married and had two sons, Leonid and Alexander, writing several books in collaboration with Leonid.

In parallel with his main work, with the exception of the war period, Levitin devoted all his free time to creating reference books and textbooks on radio equipment, which gained him wide popularity among amateur radio enthusiasts. Many of these books and reference books are still popular, especially among collectors and repairmen of retro-radio equipment. The fundamental radio circuits of receivers, the operating modes of radio tubes and semiconductors from these publications are invaluable data for the restoration of radio equipment. The particular importance of these reference books was succinctly and figuratively characterized by one radio amateur - a witness of the hungry post-war years - "He put bread in our hands".

Under the influence of Yakov Isidorovich Yakov_Perelman|Perelman, who published more than 40 scientific and educational books, Levitin (in collaboration with L.V. Kubarkin) authored Entertaining Radio Engineering. The book sets out to awaken a taste for the study of science and technology in the reader, to instill the skills of understanding the physical essence of phenomena. The book considers the key aspects of radio engineering, presenting their essence and meaning with examples closely related to everyday life and often describing them from a non-standard point of view. Published for the first time in 1956, the book underwent three editions in a rather large circulation.

Levitin's most popular works are digitized and, with the permission of the descendants of the author, can be obtained for free on Internet sites. Links to electronic copies of these books are given on the memorial site of Efim Levitin on the Publications page.

Creative career in the prewar and war years

The mid-1930s in the USSR were the beginning of industrialization. It was during this time that foreign firms were invited to help with the design and construction of the Magnitogorsk and Dneproges power stations, as well as tractor and tank manufacturing plants. The decision was made to overcome the lack of technological progress delay in the electric vacuum tube industry by purchasing licenses for the manufacture of radio tubes from one of the foreign firms. The Commission of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry was sent to the USA in 1934 to select a US company and reach an agreement for this purpose. Based on the recommendations of this commission, an agreement was made with Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The Central Radio Laboratory book states that in the second half of the 30s, Levitin was one of the main developers of radio equipment. In this regard, he was tasked with preparing technical specifications for the manufacture of RCA prototypes of radio receivers.

Having developed the technical specifications for RCA to create prototypes of 6 and 9 tube car and battery radios for the USSR, Levitin and his group flew to the USA in 1936 to oversee the development of RCA prototypes and to purchase components and materials for further production uner the RCA license. The group included Levitin., Frolov A.D., Vitkovsky V.V., Shorokhov D., Nekrasov D.A., Dubenetsky V.G. and Ioffe V.K.

RCA had many factories in different states. During the cooperation between the USSR and RCA, the president of the company was businessman and Russian native David David_Sarnoff|Sarnov. The RCA factory, to which Soviet specialists were sent, was located in Camden, New Jersey in the Nipper_Building|Nipper building owned by Victor Talking Machines. In the Soviet Union, RCA was known to the masses for its phonograph records with the distinctive emblem of a dog listening to a phonograph, and amateur radio engineers used RCA radio tubes in their equipment. By the beginning of 1937, RCA created the prototypes which were most suited for the production of receivers in the USSR. The broadcasting receivers were called broadcasting superheterodyne receivers 6N-1 and 9N-4. The RCA car radio also became the prototype for Soviet military radio transmitters.

The Elektrosignal plant was in charge of the production of household radios, which began in earnest in 1935 with preparations for receiving, modifying, and implementing new equipment. The reconstruction of the plant began, and in this process, it turned from a part assembly plant into a full-fledged radio factory. The plant was designed to produce one million radios per year. But to carry out such a program, the plant needed help.

For this purpose, Levitin and the young CRL engineers, who had just returned from a business trip to the USA and thoroughly studied the details of RCA’s production, were sent to the radio plant in Voronezh to set up the production of 6N-1 and 9N-4 receivers. In 1938, the Elektrosignal plant released its first 6N-1 superheterodyne radio. But the line for the manufacture of vacuum tubes had not yet been established, so the receivers were produced on premade radio components. This explains why the first batch of radios manufactured in 1938 contained tubes with English markings.

In the fall of the same year, the plant suffered a disaster - a fire destroyed most of the production workshops. Two years were spent on recovery and construction. In 1939 (1940 according to other sources), the plant began producing 6N-1 receivers based on radio tubes from the imported RCA conveyor lines in Leningrad and near Moscow. This event should be considered a turning point in the development of domestic receiving and transmitting equipment for broadcasting purposes.

In January1941, the plant was headed by Konstantin Nazarovich Meshcheryakov, an administrator who later played a huge role in the creation of many enterprises of national importance. In July 1941, per his initiative, Levitin was sent by the People's Commissariat of Defense to the Electrosignal Radio Plant in Voronezh. There, he, A.D. Frolov (who had been on Levitin’s CRL team during the 1936 RCA trip), and D.S. Savrovsky under the leadership of Meshcheryakov retrofitted the factory to manufacture products for the military industry. In the fall of 1941, they also led the evacuation of workers, equipment, and documentation of the products of the plant to Novosibirsk. In extremely difficult conditions, complicated by severe winter frosts, equipment from the Voronezh plant was unloaded and installed on the sites of future workshops. In November 1941, all the main production workshops were launched and the manufacturing of radio stations for aircraft and tanks started. And on December 24, that is, 49 days after the decree on the evacuation of the plant, the first batch of radio stations of the new Novosibirsk plant No. 590 NCEI was sent to the war front. The Novosibirsk Electrosignal plant in 1942 was mentioned as the only plant in the NCEI system that was able to start production of military equipment within the shortest timeline, to a large extent due to the fact that it successfully moved not only all the equipment, but also all available raw materials. The RCA-licensed receivers and radio tubes brought by Levitin played an important role in this fast startup. In recognition of this achievement, the leadership team of the Electrosignal plant was honored by the Soviet government: Meshcheryakov received his first Order of Lenin in 1944, as did the plant itself, and the plant’s main specialists from Voronezh – chief engineer Frolov, chief designer Levitin and chief technician Savrovsky who successfully transplanted the factory to save it from the approaching Germans and quickly produced military radio products – were awarded Orders of the Red Star.

Awards

• Order of the Red Star

Published works

• E.A. Levitin. Reception and amplification tubes. Moscow, Radio Publishing House, 1936, 1938.
• E.A. Levitin. How superheterodyne works. M., Svyazizdat 1939.
• Broadcast receivers (repair and maintenance). Edited by S.I. Hirschhorn. Compiled by: E.A. Levitin, V.P. Pevtsov, V.N. Krakau Moscow - Leningrad: All-Union Cooperative United Publishing House, 1941.
• Reference book on radio receivers, radio tubes. Compiled by: E.A. Levitin and Ya.A. Cat. Moscow: Gostorgizdat, 1946.
• E.A. Levitin. Radio "Neva" (Marshal-M). Moscow, ed. And type. Redistributed by the Central Council of the Union of USSR Osoviahim in Tushino, 1948.
• E.A. Levitin. Radio Record-47. Moscow, ed. And type. The publisher of the Central Union of the USSR Osoviahim in Tushino, 1948.
• E.A. Levitin. Radio "Riga T-755" 40. Moscow, ed. And type. Redistributed by the Central Council of the Union of USSR Osoviahim in Tushino, 1948.
• E.A. Levitin. Radio "Ural-47". Moscow, ed. And type. The publisher of the Central Union of the USSR Osoviahim in Tushino, 1948.
• E.A. Levitin. Establishment of receivers. "Mass Radio Library". Issue 0033 Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1949.
• E.A. Levitin. Broadcast receivers (repair and maintenance). Directory. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Compiled by: E.A. Levitin, Sh.I. Hirschhorn, V.N. Krakau, V.P. Singers. Moscow: All-Union Cooperative Publishing House, 1949
• E.A. Levitin. Parameters and characteristics of radios. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0046. (Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1949.
• E.A. Levitin. Operating modes of tubes in receivers. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0061. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1950.

Radio amateur reference book. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0128. Edited by V.I. Shamshura. Authors: E.A. Levitin, A.V. Astafiev, Z.B. Ginzburg, B. B. Gurfinkel, V. N. Dogadin, M. S. Zhuk, V. G. Korolkov, A. A. Kulikovsky, F. A. Lobov, V.N.Loginov, R.M. Malinin, V.V. Mikhailov, G.I. Rabchinskaya, I.I. Strizhevsky, F.I. Tarasov. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1951.

• E.A. Levitin. The output stage of the radio. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0098. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1951.
• E.A. Levitin. New in the production of radio equipment. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0139. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1952.
• Radio "Moskvich". Radiola "Kama". "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0141. Compiled by A.V. Komarov, E.A. Levitin. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1952.
• E.A. Levitin. Qualitative indicators of the mass radio receivers. Issue 0172. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1953.
• E.A. Levitin. Broadcast tube receivers (repair and maintenance). Moscow: All-Union Cooperative Publishing House, 1953
• E.A. Levitin. Electronic tubes. Edited by L.V. Kubarkin. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0209 Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1954
• E.A. Levitin. Superheterodyne. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0200. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1954.
• Radio amateur reference book. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0222. Edited by A.A. Kulikovsky. Composed by: A.A. Kulikovsky, E.A. Levitin, F.I. Tarasov, P.O. Chechik .. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1955.
• E.A. Levitin. Establishment of receivers 2nd edition, revised. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0225. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1955.
• L.V. Kubarkin, E.A. Levitin. Entertaining radio technology. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0249. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1956.
• E.A. Levitin. Broadcast tube receivers. KOIZ Leningrad, 1956 circulation of 5000; 1957 circulation of 25,000
• Radio amateur reference book. Second Edition. “Mass radio library.” Issue 0286. Edited by A.A. Kulikovsky. Compiled by: Burland V.A., Ganzburg M.D., Elyashkevich S.A., Zagik S.E., Korolkov V.G., Kulikovsky A.A., Levitin A.E., Sutyagin V.Ya., Tarasov F.I. and Chechik P.O. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1958.
• E.A. Levitin. Electronic tubes. Edited by L.V. Kubarkin. Second edition, revised and enlarged. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0368. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1960.
• E.A. Levitin. "Guide to broadcasting receivers." Gosenergoizdat 1960.
• E.A. Levitin. A guide to broadcasting receivers. The second, stereotyped edition. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1961.
• L.V. Kubarkin, E.A. Levitin. Entertaining radio technology. Second edition, revised and enlarged. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0454. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1962.
• Radio amateur reference book. Third Edition. Mass radio library. " Issue 0394. Edited by A.A. Kulikovsky. with a foreword by academician A.I. Berg. The author of chapters 1,2,7,12,13,15 is E.A. Levitin. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1963.
• E.A. Levitin, L.E. Levitin. Electron tubes. • Edited by L.V. Kubarkin. Third edition revised and supplemented. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0507. • Moscow - Leningrad: Energia Publishing House, 1964.
• L.V. Kubarkin, E.A. Levitin. Entertaining radio technology. Third edition, revised and supplemented. "Mass Radio Library." Issue 0549. Moscow - Leningrad: Gosenergoizdat, 1964.
• E.A. Levitin, L.E. Levitin. Broadcast receivers. Directory. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Moscow: Energia Publishing House, 1967.
• Exhibition of 40 years of radio. Collection guide. Edited by L.I. Sapelkov. Compiled by E.A. Levitin, L.I. Sapelkov, M.E. Old man. L. type. Leningrad true. 1935.

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