The OKB was formed in the early 1930s to produce and improve upon the liquid-cooled Hispano-Suiza 12Y V-12 piston engine for which the USSR had acquired a license.
Under Shvetsov, his OKB became the primary provider of radial piston engines for Soviet aircraft industry (Mikulin's and Klimov's OKB were assigned to creation of in-line engines).
The teachers of the violinists were Max Rostal, Walter Levin and each one of the other members of the LaSalle Quartet, Ricardo Odnoposoff, Gerhart Hetzel, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Ingeborg Scheerer, Josef Grünfarb, Machie Oguri-Kudo and for shorter periods Valery Klimov, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Pierre d'Archambeau, composition and theory Allen Sapp.