Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich is commemorated as one of the foremost Soviet aircraft designers of the twentieth century, whose contributions significantly shaped military aviation during the Cold War. He was born on 12 January 1893 into a Jewish family in Leningrad, within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Gurevich demonstrated considerable academic and athletic promise in his youth. He excelled in gymnastics and was awarded a silver medal in a regional competition in Kharkiv in 1910. He subsequently enrolled at Kharkiv University to study mathematics. However, due to his early involvement in revolutionary political activities, he was expelled from both the university and the region after only one year.

Following his expulsion, Gurevich relocated to Montpellier, France, where he resumed his studies. In 1913, he attended Supaero, studying alongside Marcel Bloch—later known as Marcel Dassault. His education was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 while he was visiting his family in Russia. The subsequent Russian Civil War further hindered his academic progress. Ultimately, Gurevich completed his studies in 1925, graduating from the Aviation Faculty of the Kharkiv Technological Institute.

Upon graduation, Gurevich commenced his professional career as an engineer with the state company Heat and Power. In 1929, he moved to Moscow to pursue his growing interest in aircraft design, which was, at the time, conducted primarily through state-controlled design bureaus. In 1937, Gurevich was appointed head of a design bureau, where he met Artem Mikoyan, who would become both his colleague and long-term collaborator. In 1939, amid the onset of the Second World War, the two established the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau. Gurevich initially served as Vice Chief Designer and was later elevated to the position of Chief Designer in 1957, a role he continued to hold until his retirement in 1964.

Despite his senior position and the political environment of the period, it is notable that Gurevich never became a member of the Communist Party.

In 1940, Gurevich and Mikoyan introduced the MiG-1 fighter aircraft, a project that evolved from earlier work conducted by Nikolai Polikarpov’s team. The improved MiG-3 subsequently became one of the Soviet Union’s principal fighter aircraft during the Second World War.

In the postwar years, the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau played a central role in the development of Soviet jet fighter technology, producing the nation’s first supersonic aircraft. The MiG-25 interceptor, the final project in which Gurevich was directly involved, remains one of the fastest military aircraft ever to enter operational service.

Throughout his distinguished career, Gurevich received numerous state honors, including:

• Stalin Prize, First Degree (1941, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953)

• Stalin Prize, Second Degree (1949)

• Order of Lenin (1962)

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1957)