Prodan Igor Alekseyevich — director of the Marshal of the Soviet Union V. I. Chuykov Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Training and Methodology Center of Nizhny Novgorod Region in Nizhny Novgorod, reserve colonel, and participant in the cleanup operations following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster [1][2]. He has been listed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities as director of the center since December 18, 2002 — the date the institution was entered into the register [3][4][5][6]. He is named as director of the center as early as 2008 [7] and remains so in September 2026 [2].

Biography

He has been part of the civil defense system since 1976. His military career began as a cadet at the Moscow Higher Command School of Road and Engineering Troops [1]; he graduated from the school in 1980, then completed studies at the V. V. Kuybyshev Military Engineering Academy (1991) and the Civil Defense Academy of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (1993). He served as an officer in the Armed Forces of the USSR and in the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, with his service consistently connected to the country's civil defense [1].

He personally took part in the cleanup operations following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986 [1]; other sources indicate the years 1986–1987. He also participated in a number of emergency rescue operations. He is the author and co-author of more than fifty methodological and educational-methodological manuals and guidelines on the organization of civil defense, the prevention of and protection from emergency situations, and the training of the population in how to act during emergency situations in both peacetime and wartime.

A senior instructor and educator of the highest category, and a reserve colonel. His birthday falls on June 28: on that date in 2019, the regional security department of Nizhny Novgorod Region congratulated him on a milestone anniversary [1].

Key Biographical Stages
YearsStage
1976–1980Cadet at the Moscow Higher Command School of Road and Engineering Troops [1]
from 1980Officer service in the Armed Forces of the USSR, then in the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MCHS), associated with civil defense [1]
1986Participation in the cleanup of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster [1]
1991Graduated from the V. V. Kuybyshev Military Engineering Academy
1993Graduated from the Civil Defense Academy of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations
2002 – presentDirector of the Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region (registered since December 18, 2002) [4][5]; in post as of September 2026 [2]

Awards and Titles

For his work in disaster response and his contribution to the development of the country's civil defense, he was awarded the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 2nd class, and more than twenty medals of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia [1][8]. Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation [1]; according to the center's records as of 2017, he also holds the title of Honorary Worker of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia [8].

Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations

The full name is the state-funded educational institution of continuing professional education "Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region, named after Marshal of the Soviet Union V. I. Chuykov." The founder is Nizhny Novgorod Region; the powers of the founder are exercised by the Ministry of Regional Security of Nizhny Novgorod Region (postal address of the ministry: the Kremlin, Building 14). The center is located in Nizhny Novgorod at 28 Dachnaya Street and carries out educational activities under a license dated October 2, 2014 [3][9].

The center provides advanced training for civil defense officials and specialists, government authorities, and organizations (in 2008, more than seventy categories of students), conducts specialized training, and informs the public [9][10]. Such training is mandatory once every five years, and for newly appointed personnel — within their first year of work [11]. Instructors travel to train managers and the public at their local sites [12].

The center occupies a two-story building with a floor area of 1,108.2 square meters on a plot of more than 6,000 square meters, with classrooms, a library, and a temporary accommodation unit [10]. District-level public information cycles operate through separate subdivisions in Vorotynets, Pavlovo, Vetluga, Shakhunya, Shatki, and Diveevo [3].

The Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for Nizhny Novgorod Region, located on The Oka Descent, calls the center a "forge of personnel" for the regional subsystem of the Unified State Emergency Prevention and Response System: rescuers, Firefighters, and emergency rescue unit specialists from across the region receive their training here [3][13]. Each year the center trains an average of 60,000 to 70,000 students [14]. In the first half of 2026, 19,851 people completed training, of whom 18,901 were non-working residents [11].

History of the Center

The center traces its history to August 18, 1941, when the executive committee of the Gorky Regional Soviet of Workers' Deputies, by Resolution No. 1200 and in pursuance of the USSR Council of People's Commissars decree of July 2, 1941, established a regional school of local air-raid defense along with 22 schools in populated localities across the region to train self-defense groups and public instructors [9][14]. During the Great Patriotic War, the population was taught how to act during air-raid alerts and how to extinguish incendiary bombs [14].

According to some sources, the civil defense courses for Gorky Region were established on the basis of the school in 1961 [9][10]; according to others, the school was reorganized into courses in January 1965 [14]. On May 8, 1973, the courses were designated "368th Civil Defense Courses of Gorky Region"; on May 31, 1993, by order of the Governor, they were reorganized into the 368th Training and Methodology Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of the Region; and by Regional Administration Directive No. 678-r of April 27, 1999, into the Training and Methodology Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region [9][14]. By Regional Government Directive No. 1818-r of November 23, 2007, the center became an institution of continuing professional education [10].

On August 4, 2011, by Nizhny Novgorod Region Government Directive No. 1476-R, the center was named after the country's first head of civil defense, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov; the current full official name was established on August 4, 2014 [9][14]. In August 2026, the center marked its 85th anniversary [13][14].

The Center under Prodan

In June 2002, the center established a museum of the history of local air defense — civil defense — the Unified State Emergency Prevention and Response System in Nizhny Novgorod Region and the country. According to some sources, its collection comprises around 5,000 exhibits [14]; according to others, around 3,000 [15]. Among them is an issue of Gorkovskaya Kommuna dated July 4, 1941, aerial bombs found by rescue workers, and Marshal Vasily Chuikov's military tunic, donated by his relatives [15]. In 2022, an exhibition about [14] Nizhny Novgorod residents who are participants in the special military operation was added. According to the director, around 8,000 young Nizhny Novgorod residents visited the museum in 2024 [16].

The 2017 State Report of the Russian Government on the Protection of the Population and Territories from Emergency Situations named the center one of the best in the country; the center has twice been awarded the honorary standard of the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, the badge "For Active Work on Patriotic Education of Citizens of the Russian Federation," and the social responsibility certificate of the Pension Fund of Russia [1]. Since 2018, training has been provided here in anti-terrorism security and basic first aid, and since 2020, volunteers have been trained for search-and-rescue operations and emergency response [14].

Since 2014, the center has provided methodological and practical assistance to the governing bodies of the Republic of Crimea, and since 2017, to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and to the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions [14]. In September 2024, a working group from the center conducted seminars on anti-terrorism security and first-aid classes for students of a technical school, a technology college, and schoolchildren in the center's affiliated city of Khartsyzsk; Prodan reported that agreements had been reached to conclude cooperative activity agreements with the technical school and the college [17][18]. In September 2025, center specialists shared their experience in training operators of unmanned aerial systems for civilian applications; at that time, agreements were signed with the Khartsyzsk Technology College and the Civil Defense and Emergency Management Training and Methodology Center of the Republic of Crimea [19].

The mobile "Museum on Wheels" tours children's camps in summer; in August 2026, the sessions reached 1,835 people — including at the Mayak camp in Dalnekonstantinovsky District and the Lesnaya Skazka center in Dzerzhinsk [20].

Interviews and public appearances

Prodan regularly discusses the center's work with regional outlets — the Vremya N news agency [17] and the newspaper Nizhegorodskaya Pravda [18][16][19].

Our center has an extensive methodological base and modern practical expertise. Over the course of a year, we train no fewer than 60,000 people — civil defense specialists, heads of social institutions, students, and schoolchildren of the region. We also share our experience with affiliated territories

— I. A. Prodan, "Nizhegorodskaya Pravda," September 18, 2024 [18]

Every year we travel to the constituent territories of the Russian Federation and present the advanced experience of Nizhny Novgorod Region in preparing the population to act under various emergency situations

— I. A. Prodan, "Nizhegorodskaya Pravda," September 16, 2025 [19]

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Department of Regional Security of Nizhny Novgorod Region — congratulatory address to I. A. Prodan on his anniversary, 28 June 2019 (archive)
  2. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Management: Director Prodan Igor Alekseyevich (archive)
  3. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Contacts and requisites: Director Prodan Igor Alekseyevich, OGRN 1025202616559 dated 18.12.2002, address (archive)
  4. rusprofile.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region named after Marshal V. I. Chuykov, TIN 5258032782: Director Prodan Igor Alekseyevich since 18 December 2002 (archive)
  5. audit-it.ru — Prodan Igor Alekseyevich has served as Director of the Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region since 18 December 2002
  6. companium.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region named after Marshal of the Soviet Union V. I. Chuykov, Nizhny Novgorod: Director Prodan I. A., TIN 5258032782
  7. web.archive.org — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Contacts, 2008: center management, Director Prodan Igor Alekseyevich (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Management, 2017: Honorary Worker of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, awards of the director — Management. Faculty and teaching staff (archive)
  9. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Historical background: from the regional MPVO school of 1941 to the Training and Methodological Center named after Marshal V. I. Chuykov (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — About the training center, 2008: historical background, categories of trainees, building and classrooms (archive)
  11. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — training results for the first half of 2026, 11 July 2026 — Summing up the first half of 2026
  12. 52.mchs.gov.ru — Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for Nizhny Novgorod Region — public training and education: field-based teaching method, Director of the Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Prodan Igor Alekseyevich (archive)
  13. 52.mchs.gov.ru — Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for Nizhny Novgorod Region — congratulatory address to the center on its 85th anniversary, 18 August 2026 (archive)
  14. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — on the center's 85th anniversary: history since 1941, museum, training volume, 18 August 2026 — 85 years since the founding of our Center!
  15. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — about the MPVO–RSHS history museum, 29 May 2026 — Visit the Center's museum
  16. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — patriotic event at the center's museum, 6 February 2025 — A patriotic event dedicated to the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland was held at the Chuykov Civil Defense and Emergency Situations Center (archive)
  17. Vremya N — Nizhny Novgorod residents conducted medical classes for schoolchildren and students from Khartsyzsk, 5 September 2024 (archive)
  18. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — masterclasses by the center in Khartsyzsk, 18 September 2024 — Specialists from the Nizhny Novgorod Chuykov Center conducted first-aid masterclasses in Khartsyzsk (archive)
  19. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — exchange of experience in training unmanned systems operators, 16 September 2025 — Specialists from the Chuykov Center shared their experience in training UAV operators (archive)
  20. emercomcenter.ru — Training and Methodological Center for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of Nizhny Novgorod Region — results of work with non-employed population in August 2026, "Museum on Wheels"