Nikolay Aleksandrovich Malyshev (December 6, 1911, selo of Krapivino, Balakhna Uyezd, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, now part of the selo of Purekh, Chkalovsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Region — March 13, 2005, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian specialist in hydropower, water management, and hydraulic engineering structures, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1976), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1958). A native of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, he served as chief engineer of the largest hydraulic engineering projects of the twentieth century — the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Station, the Aswan Dam, and the Tabqa hydroelectric complex on the Euphrates.[1][2]

Origins and Education

He was born into a peasant family in the selo of Krapivino, Balakhna Uyezd, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. He finished the village school, then graduated from secondary school in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) in 1929. That same year he enrolled in the civil engineering faculty of Gorky University, but a year later he was transferred to the hydraulic engineering faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1934.[2]

Engineering Career

After graduating from the institute, he was assigned to the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex on the Volga, where he rose from rank-and-file engineer to head of the design department. In early 1941 he was appointed chief engineer of construction of the Upper Oka hydroelectric complex (the Kaluga Hydroelectric Station). With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, construction was halted, and Malyshev headed the district's Defensive Works Directorate; he was then transferred to the Urals, to the construction of the Tagil Metallurgical Plant, and also worked on the construction of the Shirokovskaya Hydroelectric Station (on the Kosva River) and the Ponyshskaya Hydroelectric Station (on the Chusovaya River). In 1942 he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[2]

After the war he took part in the restoration of the White Sea–Baltic Canal. From 1947 he worked at the Hydroproject Institute, at first as chief project engineer of the Volga–Baltic Waterway, and then he was appointed chief project engineer of the Kuibyshev (Volga V. I. Lenin) Hydroelectric Station. At this facility, new solutions for the design and construction of large hydraulic engineering structures on soft soils were applied on a broad scale for the first time. For outstanding achievements in building the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Station, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 9, 1958, Malyshev was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, together with the Order of Lenin and the gold "Hammer and Sickle" medal.[2]

Upon completion of the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Station, he led the design work on the high Aswan Dam on the Nile in Egypt, where progressive technical solutions, approved by international expert review, were developed under his direction. He then directed the design of the Tabqa hydroelectric complex on the Euphrates (Syria; some sources give Iraq). He later became deputy head of the Hydroproject Institute.[1][2] In 1964 he defended his doctoral dissertation, and in 1976 he was elected a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Division of Physical and Technical Problems of Energy.[2]

Malyshev's scientific works are devoted to the design of unique multipurpose hydroelectric complexes and to problems of water management, including the diversion of water from northern rivers to the country's southern regions. He proposed and demonstrated in practice that it is possible to build high dams and powerful hydroelectric power plants on any natural foundation.[1]

Awards and recognition

Malyshev was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1958, 1971), the Order of the October Revolution (1978), two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1942, 1964), the Badge of Honor (1944), and several medals. He was a laureate of the 1951 Stalin (State) Prize of the USSR for developing the design assignment for the Kuybyshev Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Volga.[2]

Final years and legacy

He lived and worked in Moscow. He died on March 13, 2005, and was buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.[2]

Sources

  1. dic.academic.ru — Malyshev Nikolay Aleksandrovich — what is it? Who is Malyshev Nikolay Aleksandrovich? (archive)
  2. warheroes.ru — Hero of Socialist Labor Malyshev Nikolay Aleksandrovich — Heroes of the Country (archive)