VLADIMIR GRIGORIEVICH SHUKHOV, perhaps, the first architect and engineer-inventor of the Russian Empire and the young Soviet Republic in terms of merits and inventions. In the world history of engineering, there is hardly a more talented and multifaceted person, a scientist who has made an undeniable contribution to the development of the oil and gas industry, architecture and construction. Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, who was called “the first engineer of Russia” by his colleagues during his lifetime, was in many ways ahead of his time - his inventions contributed to the development of the country's economy and determined the future of the oil and gas industry. The designer, whose works are distinguished at the same time by originality, simplicity and grace, are widely used to this day.
The coat of arms of Grayvoron was approved in 1841. According to the beliefs of the Russians, the raven bird personifies wisdom.
Speaking of Shukhov, it is difficult to avoid the definition of "the first in the world." But this is really so: from the end of the 19th century until his death in 1939, his inventions determined the engineering priority of Russia. An engineer, scientist, architect, he had his say in oil refining, heat engineering, hydraulics, shipbuilding, and military affairs. And in all these areas, his discoveries became fundamental, technologies and designs - breakthrough. And many of his creations have forever merged with the name of their inventor: Shukhov's nozzle, Shukhov's reservoir, Shukhov's oil cracking scheme, Shukhov's rotunda and the most famous - Shukhov's tower.
My fellow countryman, the famous architect, engineer-inventor Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov was born on August 16 (28), 1853 in the provincial town of Graivoron of the Belgorod district of the Kursk province (now the regional center of the Belgorod region) into a poor noble family.
Panorama of the pre-revolutionary Grayvoron.
Sloboda Graivorona was founded by archers near the mouth of the Graivoronka River, at its confluence with the Vorskla River. In fact, the settlement got its name from the beautiful Graivorony tract, in which many birds traditionally gathered, and primarily crows.
The year of its foundation is considered to be 1678, when Metropolitan Misail, according to a petition, received from Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich lands along the banks of the Grayvoronka River. The main settlement of the region took place in the second half of the 17th century, and this was due to the construction of a continuous fortified line along the southern border of the Moscow state to protect it from the raids of the steppe inhabitants - the Belgorod zasechnaya line.
On the guard border of the Moscow state, XVI century. Artist S. V. Ivanov 1907
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For the first time, one of Shukhov's paternal ancestors received a title from Peter I for bravery in the Battle of Poltava, but this nobility, apparently, was personal. The grandfather of Vladimir Grigorievich rose to the hereditary nobility, who received it (according to the table of ranks) along with the chief officer's rank. However, only the youngest of his sons, Grigory Petrovich Shukhov, who was born in 1827 (according to other sources - 1824), was the father of Vladimir Grigorievich, managed to inherit this title. Grigory Petrovich graduated from the law faculty of Kharkov University and at the age of 29 he was promoted to titular counselor. For services in the Crimean War of 1853-1856 he received a bronze medal at the Vladimir ribbon.
The mother of Vladimir Grigorievich, Vera Kapitonovna, nee Pozhidaeva, came from a more noble family of Kursk landowners, whose estate Pozhidaevka was located in the Shchigrovsky district of the Kursk province. Her father, second lieutenant Kapiton Mikhailovich Pozhidaev, died in 1848, at the ball, where he went without recovering from a serious wound received in the Caucasian War. According to the surviving memories of V. G. Shukhov, in addition to intelligence and beauty, his mother was distinguished by a heavy, despotic character, and the level of well-being that Grigory Petrovich, who did not take bribes in the service, could provide, did not correspond to what she was used to in childhood. Vladimir Grigorievich's parents got married in 1851, in 1852 his older sister Nadezhda was born, and in 1853 Grigory Petrovich was appointed governor of the small district town of Graivoron,until 1838 was considered a settlement. It was here, on August 16, 1853, that Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov was born, about which there is an entry in the metric book of the Assumption Church in the city of Grayvoron. The family also had the eldest daughter, Nadezhda. She was older than Vladimir for a year.
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in all its glory. Built on the site of a wooden church mentioned in 1681. The picture was taken in 1884, immediately after the completion of construction The cathedral was closed in 1928, partially destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, and finally demolished in the 1950s.
The Shukhovs lived in a house located at 18 Podolskaya Street. According to the recollections of old residents, the house was two-story. The upper floor is wooden, the lower one is brick. Unfortunately, the Shukhovs' house of Graivoron has not survived; it perished during the Great Patriotic War. Now on the site of the Shukhovs' house there is a secondary school named after V. G. Shukhov. It can be assumed that my great-grandfather Zakhar could easily have played in the Graivoron yard with Volodya Shukhov.
Vera Kapitonovna, accustomed to more luxurious living conditions, was unhappy with her husband's position, and, apparently, actively stimulated him to career growth.
December 10, 1853 G. P. Shukhov hands over cases in Grayvoron and returns with his family to Kursk. In 1856, under the influence of his wife, he applied for a transfer to the capital, and the Shukhovs moved to St. Petersburg. In the early 1860s, Grigory Petrovich met in Odessa, where he arrived as an inspector, with Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov, and, largely under his influence, transferred to the service from the financial department to the Department of Institutions of the Empress Maria, which was engaged in educational, medical and charitable institutions. However, these movements of parents do not have a strong influence on little Volodya and his sister - they are brought up by his grandmother, in Pozhidaevka.
Grigory Petrovich Shukhov, 1890 Photo by V. G. Shukhov.
Parents brought up in their son determination, hard work, diligence and discernment. The military environment is demanding, striving for order, the ability to cope with life's difficulties. Along with this, the family encouraged the desire to learn, to learn something new. Volodya's passionate hobby since early childhood was books. By the age of four or five, his grandmother had taught him to read, and since then the boy sat for hours in the quiet of the old home library, forgetting about everything in the world. The features of his logical thinking appeared just as early: extraordinary intelligence, memory and a stubborn desire to unravel the meaning of incomprehensible phenomena. The boy amazed everyone with his ingenuity and loved to design. He then arranged a fountain near the house, using spring water and old pipes, then, having dammed a stream, built a small one,but a perfectly functioning water mill. Volodya himself guessed to use a lever when lifting weights, but he was only seven years old!
Volodya Shukhov.
In 1860, Grigory Petrovich and his children visited the academician, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Karl Khristoforovich Knorre in the city of Nikolaev. Karl Knorre was an astronomer at the Nikolaev Naval Observatory, and, of course, Volodya visited it. What he saw made a strong impression on the boy, and became another stimulus to his passion for natural sciences.
In 1863 he entered the fifth classical gymnasium of St. Petersburg.
In 1863, Volodya moved to his parents in St. Petersburg, and entered the Fifth St. Petersburg seven-grade gymnasium, where at that time an outstanding scientist and teacher KD Kraevich taught. Already in the gymnasium, his ability to exact sciences, especially mathematics, was manifested. At the age of 13, being a fourth grade high school student, he found his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Kraevich praised the schoolboy Shukhov for the original and brief proof, but, with the words that Pythagoras lived more than 2000 years ago, and it was necessary, respecting his predecessors, first to present his proof, lowered the mark.
Student of the Imperial Moscow Technical School.
In 1871, following the advice of his father, Shukhov entered the mechanical engineering department of the Imperial Moscow Technical School (now the Bauman Moscow State Technical University). Education at the school was conducted according to the advanced methods of that time, but the situation was rather harsh. Students not only studied theory, but also worked in workshops: locksmith, lathe, model, foundry, blacksmith and others. Among the teachers were such outstanding scientists as K. D. Kraevich, A. V. Letnikov, the future "father of aerodynamics" - N. Ye. Zhukovsky, F. E. Orlov. During his studies, Shukhov also communicated with the founder of the St. Petersburg Mathematical School P. F. Chebyshev, and among his friends was P. K. Khudyakov is a talented boy who entered the preparatory courses of the school at the age of ten, the future outstanding scientist in the field of applied mechanics,one of the founding scientists of the theory of machines and mechanisms.
Cover of Mendeleev's book with Shukhov's nozzle.
The first registered invention of Vladimir Shukhov was a steam nozzle, which was later used in the production of steam boilers by the "Office of engineer Bari". This mechanism also graced the cover of D. I. Mendeleev "Fundamentals of Factory Industry". Shukhov made this invention in the last year of his studies at the school.
In 1876, Shukhov graduated with honors from the school, and he was even released from the defense of his thesis project - this was a sign of recognition of the student's outstanding abilities. Academician Chebyshev offered Shukhov the place of his assistant. But scientific-theoretical and pedagogical work did not attract a young mechanical engineer.
With sisters.
He wanted to quickly apply his knowledge in practice. It was at this time that a delegation was being formed for a trip to the World Exhibition of Industrial Achievements, which was held in the United States, and as an encouragement, the School Council included Shukhov in the delegation. It was there that he met the American engineer of Russian origin Alexander Veniaminovich Bari, who received the Russian delegation, and also helped in the purchase of equipment and samples for the workshops of the technical school.
Shukhov at the World's Fair in Philadelphia 1896
Returning from the United States, Shukhov joined the Warsaw-Vienna Railway Administration as head of the drafting bureau. His first assignment at the new location was the design of a locomotive depot.
One of the features of the creative spirit of V. G. Shukhov, largely explaining the depth of his ideas and the versatility of his talent, was the desire to comprehend a holistic picture of the universe, to establish internal interconnections, seemingly unrelated, of the most diverse processes and phenomena. This aspiration included in the circle of his serious interests science, far removed from the sphere of engineering activity: in his youth Shukhov became interested in astronomy and acquired extensive knowledge in it; later he was seriously interested in Einstein's theory of relativity; he called history “the most necessary science”. Shukhov was one of the first to think about the relationship between biology and technology and the possibilities that the study of natural sciences can open for an engineer. Vladimir Grigorievich attached great importance to his not frequent, but very meaningful conversations with N. I. Pirogov. It is possible that it was these conversations that led Shukhov to the decision, without interrupting his main work, to become a volunteer at the Military Medical Academy. According to his own testimony, two years of studying in it gave him invaluable experience as an engineer, enriching him with an understanding of the most perfect "structure" created by nature - the human body.
Soon, doctors diagnosed Shukhov with the initial stage of tuberculosis, and advised him to move from St. Petersburg to a place with a warmer climate.
V. Shukhov and A. Bari 1880s
In 1877, Alexander Bari, while remaining a US citizen, returned to Russia with his family and began to cooperate with Ludwig Nobel, the elder brother and business partner of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the famous Nobel Prize and inventor of dynamite. Remembering Shukhov, Bari invited him to cooperate. During this period, the rapid development of oil production began in Baku, and Vladimir Grigorievich, together with Nobel and Bari, began construction of the first oil pipeline in Russia connecting Balakhani and Baku. The ten-kilometer oil pipeline created competition for numerous owners of horse-drawn carts who transported oil. It was set on fire several times, and guard posts had to be set up along its entire length. In 1878, the pipeline was put into operation, and after the first year, the pipeline paid for itself. With the help of a steam pump, 841,150 poods of oil were pumped through the pipe a month. The pipe diameter of this pipeline was 7.62 cm (3 inches), oil was driven through it at a speed of 1 m / s, which allowed pumping up to 1,300 tons of oil per day. The main line allowed to reduce the cost of oil transportation to half a kopeck per pood in comparison with 9 kopecks when transporting it by horse-drawn transport.
Shukhov oil storage tank.
Here, in Baku, Shukhov designed and built the world's first cylindrical oil storage tanks. Prior to that, oil was stored in earthen or stone storage facilities under the open sky. In the USA, a more technologically advanced method was used - oil was collected in open metal rectangular tanks. The design of the cylindrical tanks, developed by Shukhov, made it possible to use thinner metal in the lower part, and even thinner in the upper part of the tank.
In 1880, the “Technical office of engineer A. V. Bari”(later -“Construction office of engineer AV Bari”), where Shukhov worked as chief designer and chief engineer until 1915.
From the memoirs of V. G. Shukhova: “They say that A. V. Bari exploited me. It is right. Legally, I always remained a hired employee of the office. But I also exploited him, forcing him to carry out even the most daring proposals! I was given a choice of orders, spending of funds in the agreed amount, recruiting and hiring workers. In addition, A. V. Bari was not only a smart entrepreneur, but also a good engineer who could appreciate the novelty of a technical idea."
Engineering team led by V. G. Shukhov. who worked in the firm A. V. Bari.
Even at the time of its peak, when the company performed more than 6 million rubles annually (a huge amount for that time), no more than 20 engineers, draftsmen and technicians worked in its design bureau. This was possible because Shukhov practically did not need helpers. According to the recollections of employees, “Vladimir Grigorievich did all the calculations of his numerous structures only personally himself and so briefly that it was very difficult for an outsider to understand them. His concentration was amazing. Arriving at the office at 10 o'clock in the morning, he would sit down at his desk, open a large notebook and begin, deep in thought, to write numbers, numbers and only numbers. If he went anywhere, it was only to his vast library, where he looked through magazines in foreign languages. Conversations on abstract topics he allowed himself only during breakfast, and the rest of the time he spent on work and business conversations with visitors, of whom many came to him."
For all sixty years of his engineering career, Vladimir Grigorievich has never been on a real full-fledged vacation. The engineers who worked with Shukhov recalled that his very appearance in the office had an inspiring effect on them. He infected employees with his inexhaustible creative energy and original ideas, carried such a colossal supply of positive emotions, solved any, even the most difficult engineering problem so beautifully that he awakened a response in people and they wanted to work regardless of time. At the same time, he gave everyone the opportunity to show their independence, in everyone he supported self-esteem, not only without belittling, but often even exaggerating his participation in the success achieved. Subsequently, many of those who went through the brilliant "school of Shukhov"started their own business or became professors at the Moscow Technical School.
Employees often called Vladimir Grigorievich "the factory man". Indeed, reading his workbooks and diaries, one cannot help but be amazed: almost every day they contain a new order, a new topic. So, at the turn of the 1880s and 1890s, the engineer was simultaneously working on three projects, each of which, even the only one in his creative biography, could bring him fame and honor for life. It was at this time that he invented the famous steam water-tube boilers, which made a revolution in heating technology, heated the whole of Russia for many decades and brought their creator a large gold medal at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, drew up a fundamental project of Moscow water supply and issued one of his main patents - on "devices for continuous fractional distillation of oil", in other words, a cracking process,which made it possible on an industrial scale, with the simplest equipment, to obtain high-quality gasoline.
Shukhov is a developer and construction manager of an oil refinery with the first Russian oil cracking units. He is also the holder of the patent for * water-tube boilers of the V. G. Shukhov system *.
Since the beginning of the 1890s, Shukhov's activity in the field of building structures, exceptional in its innovation, unfolded - the activity in which his genius was expressed in the most visible way, thanks to which his name became widely known outside the engineering and industrial sphere and Shukhov was recognized not only “the greatest engineer in the world ", but also an outstanding" artist in structures "(and in parallel, his fruitful work continued as a mechanical engineer, hydraulic engineer, technologist, etc.). V. G. Shukhov was highly characterized by the quality of which the architect I. V. Zholtovsky wrote: "It is possible to create a living image from a dead material only if the master is so close to this material that he learned to" think "with it, learned to form it according to the laws of the construction of living organic matter."Shukhov always managed to persuade Bari to agree to the embodiment of the most unusual inventions and innovations.
Tall, taut, fragrant with expensive cologne (he not only rubbed his hands with it, but also doused himself), the engineer seemed an exemplary gentleman. When the ladies appeared, he got up, addressed the servants to "you" and, as befits a gentleman, tempered his body and spirit. Shukhov's sisters said that in the morning he doused himself with ice water, slept four to five hours a day, and sometimes was content with only half a chicken egg for breakfast.
Cyclists on Devichye Pole 1913, far left - Shukhov.
He played tennis, skied and skated, and walked barefoot on chopping stubble - training his will. About the fact that Shukhov is an avid cyclist racer who won many competitions, Balancing over a huge two-meter wheel (at that time such bicycles remained only in circuses), he raced along a bumpy dirt road to the finish belt, not afraid to fall and break his bones. Engineer Shukhov was very, very good - in every way
Shukhov was a very clean person. He was very consumerist about money. Money was never his goal. Money provided wealth and comfort for him and his family - it was enough for him. We can say that Shukhov was contemptuous of money. In the Bari office, when receiving a salary, he always tried to take money with his hands, which were always in white gloves. So he designated his attitude to money. AV Bari was forced to reckon with such "whims" of his leading developer.
Women have always liked Vladimir Grigorievich. He was talented and handsome. It is not surprising that in the early 1890s the famous actress O. L. Knipper, who later became the wife of A. P. Chekhov, fell in love with him. But Shukhov did not accept the courtship of Olga Leonardovna.
Talking about Shukhov, every now and then we have to use the word “first” and “first”, although this is quite natural, because we are talking about a talented inventor. Even if in his entire life Shukhov had invented only one item from the list of his works - he would have already been famous - his works are so significant.
In 1880 Shukhov was the first in the world to invent a nozzle, which made it possible to carry out industrial flaring of fuel oil. Now, in the production process, it was possible to use fuel oil, which was previously considered waste of oil refining. It takes a long time to list Shukhov's inventions, which had a great influence on the development of industry, architecture and construction. The list is long, even if you mention the most outstanding works.
In 1880 Shukhov invented a steam nozzle for burning fuel oil.
Soon Vladimir met his future wife - the daughter of a railway doctor, Anya Medintseva, who came from the old Akhmatov family. He had to seek the location of the 18-year-old green-eyed beauty for a long time. In 1894, the wedding took place. Anna Nikolaevna bore him five children - Xenia, Sergei, Flavius, Vladimir and Vera.
Ladimir Grigorievich and Anna Nikolaevna Shukhova (Medintseva), wife.
Let's dwell on the family of the great architect and inventor. The future wife Anna Nikolaevna lived with Shukhov unmarried for five years, until Vladimir's mother changed her anger to mercy, deciding that a provincial dowry, a simpleton could still make a match for her dear son.
Shukhov met the eighteen-year-old Anna Medintseva, the daughter of a railway doctor in Voronezh: she grew up in a poor noble family that belonged to the old Akhmatov family, which besides her had six children.
She fell in love and followed him like a whirlpool - headlong. Shukhov took her away from home, they went on a trip to the Caucasus, then returned to Moscow and lived in one house. This happened in 1888 and lasted until 1893, when they had a son, Sergei. In all other respects, that year for the Shukhovs turned out to be black: their father died, and Olga's sister committed suicide from unhappy love. The grandson melted the heart of Vera Kapitonovna, broken by misfortunes, and she decided that her son's wedding would protect their family from further troubles. In 1894, the wedding took place. Anna Nikolaevna bore him five children - Xenia, Sergei, Flavius, Vladimir and Vera. Since then, the meaning of Vera Kapitonovna's life has become the family of her son, where her five grandchildren grew up.
The Shukhov family. Vera Kapitonovna with her granddaughter in her arms.
Vladimir Grigorievich received one hundred and forty-five thousand rubles a year. The Shukhovs got their own mansion in Skatertny Lane, later they moved to the corner of Smolensky Boulevard and Pervy Neopalimovsky Lane, into a large manor house with a shady garden.
Anna Nikolaevna ran the household, received guests, and her husband got up strictly according to the clock, worked, went to bed, did not allow anyone to touch his papers.
Many of Shukhov's acquaintances began to look after her, Vladimir immediately lost his temper, staged stormy scenes and broke his wife's jewelry. Recovering himself, he asked for forgiveness, bought new diamonds, and life was getting better - until the next scandal. Anna Nikolaevna was an intelligent woman and did not attach any importance to this: she still loved her husband, and what he said in her hearts meant nothing.
Daughter Vera on a swing, Smolensky Boulevard 1904. Photo by Shukhov.
All their life they were connected by a tender, touching relationship. The photographs taken by Shukhov have been preserved, in which members of his large family are lovingly captured - at tea on the veranda of the dacha, reading, playing the piano … The stereoscopic picture of Vera's daughter swinging on a swing still delights even professionals: Shukhov managed to freeze the moment, saving the dynamics of the moment and the lively mood of the girl, which was almost an impossible task for the photographic technique of that time. His engineering and creative talent is clearly visible through the tiny print. He was generally passionate about photography and even said: "I am an engineer by profession, but a photographer at heart."
Wife Anna Nikolaevna on a swing. photo by Shukhov.
These words were not exaggeration. Vladimir Grigorievich gave photographs for almost half a century - from the mid-1880s to the 1930s - and left behind a colossal collection for that time, numbering over one and a half thousand photographs, in which he captured the views of Moscow, Crimea, the Caucasus, taking place before his eyes historical events and natural disasters, faces of family and friends, the stage of construction of their engineering creations.
Living room of V. G. Shukhov's house in Skatertny lane. 1901 At the piano - Anna Nikolaevna with her daughters Ksenia and Vera. In the foreground are sons Sergei and Favius. photo by Shukhov.
Staid Anna Nikolaevna looks at us from old photos. And Vladimir Grigorievich himself - fit, with a kind, intelligent, slightly tired face. And what an abyss of attractiveness, humor, what depth in everything! " His son Sergei recalled: “He most of all appreciated the sense of his own dignity in people, as equals, in no way betraying his superiority, never gave orders to anyone and never raised his voice to anyone. He was impeccably polite to both the servant and the janitor."
Sons Sergei and Faviy learn to ride a bike.
Shukhov was a cheerful, gambling person. He loved opera, theater, chess, was fond of cycling. Eyewitnesses said that once Bari got into the Alexander Manege, where the bicycle races were held. The fans were on a rampage. "Give it, redhead, give it!" they shouted to the leader. The red-haired guy gave it up, triumphantly threw up his hands at the finish, turned around, and Bari was dumbfounded when he recognized the winner as the chief engineer of his company. Viktor Grigorievich devoted a lot of free time to raising children. He took a direct and active part in their education. To maintain posture, Viktor Grigorievich practiced reading and preparing lessons by boys lying on the floor. The boys grew up tall, slender, with straight backs.
Shukhov started with small oil tankers 70 m long. However, by the end of the century, the dimensions of Shukhov's tankers had grown to 150-170 m, and the carrying capacity - - up to 1600 tons. In terms of seaworthiness and strength parameters, they surpassed similar American and German ships.
In 1891, Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov developed and patented an industrial plant for cracking in the liquid phase. Thanks to Shukhov's ideas and developments, oil refineries, pipelines, pumps, gas tanks, water and radio towers, oil barges and landing stages, blast furnaces and grain elevators, railway bridges and lighthouses, refrigeration plants and sea mines, floating platforms for heavy weapons and much more.
By the way, the Americans were the first to steal Shukhov's patent for an oil refinery. After all, this installation opened a new era in the processing of oil and the production of gasoline and all other components from it. Some Barton, Dubbs, Clarke, Hall, Ritman, Ebil, Gray, Greenstit, McCom, Iceom called themselves the American "inventors" of such an installation. America "did not remember" about Shukhov's patents. This is how civilized countries do with Russian inventors when they really need it. Still, the Americans shocked Shukhov in this sense. And not some overseas rogues, but quite respectable richest people. In 1923, in a hungry year, a commission from Sinclair, a competitor of Rockefeller (familiar name) in the oil business, came to Russia to Shukhov. The official goal of the commission is to find out the real priority of the invention of cracking, that is, that very oil refinery. Sinclair was unhappy that Rockefeller appropriated the right to use it only for his company. Shukhov, in conversation, as they say, on fingers, with documents, proved his priority. Do you know what the "respected" Americans have done? At the end of the conversation, they took out a bundle of their dollars from the briefcase and put the sum of $ 50,000 in front of Shukhov. In general, they decided that the Russian brilliant engineer would immediately lay flat in front of their money. Shukhov turned purple and said in an icy voice that he was satisfied with the salary he received from the Russian state, and the gentlemen could take the money.what did the "respected" Americans do? At the end of the conversation, they took out a bundle of their dollars from the briefcase and put the sum of $ 50,000 in front of Shukhov. In general, they decided that the Russian brilliant engineer would immediately lay flat in front of their money. Shukhov turned purple and said in an icy voice that he was satisfied with the salary he received from the Russian state, and the gentlemen could take the money.what did the "respected" Americans do? At the end of the conversation, they took out a bundle of their dollars from the briefcase and put the sum of $ 50,000 in front of Shukhov. In general, they decided that the Russian brilliant engineer would immediately lay flat in front of their money. Shukhov turned purple and said in an icy voice that he was satisfied with the salary he received from the Russian state, and the gentlemen could take the money.
The second who stole his inventions were the Germans. And when Shukhov, indignant at the unceremonious theft of his ideas of oil reservoirs already realized in Russia, wrote a letter to a certain German engineer Stieglitz, he received a nice answer: "It is unlikely that the well-known engineer Shukhov will be especially important for him to acknowledge this issue." This is how civilized countries deal with Russian inventors when they really need to steal and appropriate …
Bridge in Krasnoyarsk across the Yenisei River 1899. Opening invitation card.
The industrial development of the country, the construction of many water towers required the development of the railway network. In 1892 Shukhov built his first railway bridges. Later, he designed several types of bridges with spans from 25 to 100 m. Based on these standard solutions, under his leadership, 417 bridges were built across the Oka, Volga, Yenisei and other rivers. Almost all of them stand now
We also owe Shukhov a modern water supply system. Especially for her, he designed a new water-tube boiler, which began to be mass-produced in 1896. Using his own experience in the construction of oil tanks and pipelines and applying new modifications to his pumps, he laid a water pipeline in Tambov. On the basis of extensive geological research, Shukhov and his employees drew up a new project for Moscow water supply in three years.
Fragment of the Baku-Balakhny oil pipeline designed by Shukhov.
Shukhov is the founder of the Russian oil tanker fleet. In Moscow, according to his projects, drawings were created, and in Saratov and Tsaritsyn (Volgograd), steel barges with a length of 50 to 170 meters, with a carrying capacity of up to 1,600 tons, were assembled according to these drawings. At that time, tankers were already being built in Norway by order of Nobel, but the Russian ones were more reliable.
Together with his son Karl Knorre, Eugene Knorre and Konstantin Lembke, Shukhov worked on a universal method for calculating water pipes. The technique was tested during the reconstruction of the Moscow water supply system, and then a water supply system was laid along it in Voronezh, Tambov, Kharkov and other cities.
Hanging roofs without rafters adorned the four pavilions of the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod.
For 15 years of work in the Construction office A. V. Bari”Shukhov received nine patents: horizontal and vertical steam boilers, oil barge, steel cylindrical tank, hanging mesh covering for buildings, arch covering, oil pipeline, industrial cracking unit, openwork hyperboloid tower. As for the tower, at the All-Russian Exhibition, which took place in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896, the 32-meter water tower Shukhov made a real sensation. At that time, such exhibitions were very important events in the industrial, technical and cultural life of the country. Shukhov was directly involved in the creation of the exhibition. Vladimir Grigorievich designed eight pavilions for the event with a total area of about 27,000 square meters. Half of the pavilions were covered with hanging and half were covered with an innovative mesh. This unique principle was almost half a century ahead of its time. Similar structures appeared abroad only in the 1930s (Hanging roof of the elevator in Albany - 1932, the French Pavilion at the exhibition in Zagreb - in 1937). The hanging and arched structures of Shukhov laid the foundation for a new direction in construction, therefore Shukhov is rightfully ranked among the outstanding architects.
Throughout his life, work has always been Shukhov's main "love object". “In 1891-1893, on Red Square in Moscow, a new building of the Upper Trading Rows was built with Shukhov's coatings, so graceful and light that from below they seemed like a cobweb with glass cut into it,” says Elena Shukhov's great-granddaughter. “Such an effect was provided by the arched truss invented by Shukhov, in which the traditional rather massive braces and racks were replaced by thin beam puffs with a diameter of about a centimeter, working only in tension - the most beneficial type of effort for metal.
In 1895 Shukhov applied for a patent for mesh coatings in the form of shells. It was the prototype of the hyperboloid tower he constructed, which soon turned the whole world architecture upside down. “Faced with the question of the lightest covering, Vladimir Grigorievich invented a special system of arch trusses that work in tension and compression thanks to the wire rods attached to them. The search for the location of the rods and the dimensions of the trusses is carried out by the researcher under the condition of the least weight of the structure. … This idea of finding the most advantageous designs lies at the basis of almost all the technical works of Vladimir Grigorievich. He conducts it in a harmonious and simple mathematical form, illustrating his thought with tables and graphs. Vladimir Grigorievich's essay on the most advantageous form of reservoirs is based on this idea,”noted Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky.“What looks beautiful is durable,” he said, always believing that technical innovations are born with careful observation of life and nature.
Openwork roof of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin.
In January 1896, Vladimir Grigorievich applied for the "Openwork Tower" privilege. The water tower, built according to this system at the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896, became a real sensation for specialists and, as they wrote then, "one of the main magnets for the public." Successfully chosen proportions of the structure (height 25 m, the ratio of the diameters of the lower and upper rings to 2.6) made the structure very elegant.
The tower was built at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition in 1886.
The tower is a "hyperboloid of engineer Shukhov", which for subsequent generations became a symbol of the engineer's creativity and overshadowed his other equally outstanding creations. While still at the Technical School, at lectures on analytical geometry, Shukhov drew attention to the property of a one-sheet hyperboloid, which has great constructive value: the possibility of its curved surface forming from rectilinear generators. Since then, the idea of a hyperboloid has sunk into his soul. “I have been thinking about the hyperboloid for a long time,” he said. - There was some kind of deep, apparently subconscious work, but somehow I didn’t get close to it … And then one day I come earlier than usual to my office and see: my willow wastepaper basket is turned upside down, and there is heavy pot with ficus. And so clearly the future structure of the tower stood before me. The formation of a curved surface from straight bars was shown very expressively on this basket.
In a short time, Shukhov worked out in detail the entire structure of the tower down to the smallest parts, established the principles of calculation, which in the then state of construction mechanics with respect to such repeatedly statically indeterminate systems as mesh towers was far from easy to do, he defined a simple and visual way of drawing up project documentation, and after that - the method of installation.
The round pavilion of the engineering and construction department of the XVI All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod.
The first samples, which marked the creation of a completely new type of load-bearing structure, were presented by Shukhov to the public during the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod. These were eight exhibition pavilions: four with hanging roofs, four with cylindrical mesh vaults. One of them had in the center a hanging covering made of thin sheet metal (membrane), which had never been used in construction before. A water tower was also erected, in which Shukhov transferred his grid to a vertical lattice structure of a hyperboloid shape.
“The weight of Shukhov's 'roofs without rafters', as their contemporaries called them, turned out to be two to three times lower, and the strength was much higher than that of traditional types of roofs, says Elena Shukhova. - They could be assembled from the simplest elements of the same type: strip iron 50-60 mm or thin corners; The installation of insulation and lighting was simple: in the right places, instead of roofing iron, wooden frames with glass were laid on the mesh, and in the case of an arched roof, the height differences of various parts of the building could very well be used for lighting. All designs provided for the possibility of easy and quick installation using the most basic equipment like small hand winches. Diamond mesh strip and angle steel mesh has become an excellent and lightweight material for long-span hanging roofs and mesh vaults.
Polibinskaya tower in Lipetsk region, modern look.
The structures have become widely known. All the newspapers wrote about them. High technical perfection, external simplicity and spaciousness of the interior under the soaring network of hanging ceilings - all this created a real sensation. The shell in the form of a hyperboloid of revolution has become a completely new, never before used building form. It made it possible to create a spatially curved mesh surface of inclined straight rods. The result is a lightweight, sleek and rigid structure that is easy to calculate and build. The Nizhny Novgorod water tower carried a tank with a capacity of 114,000 liters at a height of 25.6 m to supply water for the entire exhibition. This first hyperboloid tower remained one of the most beautiful building structures in Shukhov. After the completion of the exhibition, the wealthy landowner Nechaev-Maltsev bought it and installed it on his estate at Polibino near Lipetsk. The tower still stands there today.
Installation of the oval pavilion Nizhny Novgorod 1986
“The works of V. G. Shukhov can be considered the pinnacle in this area of architecture,” says Elena Shukhova. "Their appearance, unlike anything before, organically follows from the properties of the material and exhausts its possibilities in constructing a form to the end, and this" pure "engineering idea is not masked or decorated with" unnecessary "elements."
Orders poured into Bari's firm. The first was an order for a metallurgical plant in Vyksa near Nizhny Novgorod, where it was required to build a workshop using hyperboloid structures. Shukhov performed it brilliantly: spatially curved mesh shells significantly improved the usual design. The building has survived in this small provincial town to this day.
The tower was built at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition in 1886.
"The surface of the tower seems to be completely transparent, striking the viewer with its amazing simplicity and lightness," - this is how Professor Khudyakov formulated the general opinion. (This tower has survived. Now it is located in the village of Polibino, Lipetsk region.) Hyperboloid towers immediately became widespread. In a relatively short time, they became a noticeable part of the industrial landscape of Russia and the architectural appearance of many cities and, together with the large span bridges that were being built in the same years, became a visible presence in the living environment of a new, technical, aesthetics. The lists of Shukhov's water towers, built in 1896-1929, available in the archive, allow us to establish that these structures were erected by A. V. Bari's firm (after nationalization - by the Mosmashinotrest construction office) in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Tambov, Kolomna, Podolsk, Tula,Tsaritsyn, Samara, Priluki, Kashin, Vologda, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Orekhovo-Zuev, Gus-Khrustalny, Kazan, Feodosia, Baku, Grozny, Samarkand, Andijan, Bukhara, Ashgabat. Krasnodar, Cherkassy, Minsk, etc., etc. all the way to Sakhalin Island.
For several years, Shukhov designed and built more than 2000 of them, which led to a partial typification of the structure itself and its individual elements - stairs and tanks. At the same time, Shukhov did not have twin towers. Demonstrating an amazing variety of forms, he proved to the whole world that the engineer, as the ancient Greeks believed, is a real creator.
The equipment of the water towers included a steam piston pump. Especially for him, Shukhov developed an original transportable design of a samovar-type boiler. Vladimir Grigorievich said that it is no coincidence that the boiler looks like a samovar: “My wife complained at the dacha that the samovar did not boil for a long time. I had to make her a samovar with boiling pipes. So he became the prototype of the vertical cauldron. It is now called steam pipe.
Hyperboloid masts of the battleship * West Virginia * Pearl Harbor, 1941.
Beginning in 1905, Shukhov's mesh towers were used as ship masts. They were installed on two Russian battleships: "Andrew the First-Called" and "Emperor Paul I". as well as on most of the US Navy battleships that still fought in the Second World War.
Openwork masts designed by Shukhov for the placement of rangefinder posts made warships less noticeable Russian battleship * Emperor Paul I * 1912.
As for his political convictions: for all the closeness of his convictions to those of the Cadets, V. G. Shukhov has never been a member of the party of people's freedom, let alone any other. He never spoke publicly on political issues. The exception in this respect was the events of the Russo-Japanese War.
On May 14, 1905, six engineers, graduates of the Technical School, were killed in the battle at Tsushima.
Adjigol lighthouse in the Kherson region.
“I consider it necessary to make an essential reservation about love for the Motherland,” Shukhov wrote at the time. “Christian morality, according to which the peoples of Europe were brought up, does not allow the extermination of other peoples for the sake of love for the motherland. After all, war is a manifestation of the brutal nature of people who have not achieved the ability to resolve the issue peacefully. No matter how victorious the war may be, the Fatherland always loses from it. She puts forward heroes, gives rise to false patriotic stories; but the people generally continue to bear the burden of the feats of their warlike representatives for a long time, and sometimes, from a victorious war, they fall straight into savagery …"
On a sports trapeze in the yard of his house on Smolensky Boulevard. 1910.
In 1910-1911, by order of the Naval Department, Shukhov designed two hyperboloid lighthouses for the Kherson port: Ajigolsky, 68 m high to the fire, and Stanislavsky, 26.8 m high. (Both structures have survived.)
For the Moscow General Post Office, built in 1912, Shukhov designed the glass covering of the operating room. Especially for him, he invented a flat horizontal truss, which became the prototype of spatial structures from seamless pipes, which were widely used in construction several decades later.
In 1913 A. V. Bari died. His sons did not inherit the administrative qualities of their father, and now, in general, everything rested on Shukhov.
Until 1914, the Shukhov family lived very happily. Everything was changed by the First World War and the year 1917 that turned Russia.
Shukhov's sea mines.
But - and this is one of the tragic contradictions of life - Vladimir Grigorievich still had to participate in the war. The year 1914 has come. He could not stand aside either as an engineer or as a citizen. In 1914, Shukhov designed a bathoport for Sevastopol - a floating gate for closing a dry dock - which became an example of such structures.
Shukhov in Moscow 1914
From January 1915 to the summer of 1917, he was busy fulfilling another extremely important order of the Naval Department. During this period, the engineer developed designs for more than 40 original types of underwater mines for various depths: chain, free-standing, with a hydraulic fuse, etc., and also resolved the whole range of issues related to their manufacture, transportation and installation. Fulfilling this order, Vladimir Grigorievich worked closely with Admiral A. V. Kolchak, with whom he established relations filled with deep mutual respect.
Artillery platforms of the Shukhov system in the stowed position. 1916. In the background - the building of the Bari boiler plant in Simonova Sloboda in Moscow, being built according to Shukhov's design. Photo by Shukhov.
In 1916, representatives of the Artillery Department turned to Shukhov with a request to improve the heavy and cumbersome structure of the platform for heavy weapons used by siege batteries. The solution found, clever and very simple, characterizes the traits of Shukhov's genius in the best possible way. “The platform does not need to be loaded anywhere. Let her be a transport device herself. We must not forget one of the greatest inventions of mankind - the wheel,”he formulated his idea. A round disc, bound with iron, became the basis of the construction. During transportation, two such disks, placed on the edge, served as the wheels of the cart, onto which all other necessary accessories were loaded. In this form, two platforms were delivered to their destination at once, and this required 4-5 times fewer horses than before. The platform was assembled within 30 minutes, its design made it possible to rotate the gun to a full circle by one person. The responses of the artillerymen testified: "Shukhov's platforms have fully justified the hopes placed on them."
Installation of the landing stage at Bryansk (Kievsky railway station).
In two months of the war of 1915, the landing stage of the Bryansk (now Kiev) railway station in Moscow was mounted, and each of its arches with a span of 47 meters and a height of 27 meters was erected within one working day!
Ready landing stage for Kievsky railway station.
After the outbreak of World War II, the sons of Vladimir Grigorievich, Sergei and Flavius, left their studies and entered the cadet schools, and the "Construction office" began to work for the war. Despite his active work for the needs of the military department, Shukhov was sure that the war would end in collapse and massacre - where can we compete with Germany, the country of engineers and technicians!
But what happened in October 1917 exceeded all his expectations.
On November 1, 1917, Vladimir Grigorievich wrote in his workbook: “A three-inch shell destroyed the harmonium, the aquarium, and the glass flew out. After the hall, a shell flew through the wall (with a tree on the wall) into the living room and from the hall rolled into a large office. The family hid in the basement. I was alone in the rooms. The fighting went on until November 3, when the Bolsheviks conquered Moscow."
The domed roof * of the Metropolis * designed by Shukhov.
If the ideas proclaimed by the February Revolution were largely shared by V. G. Shukhov, then the October Revolution, which encroached on his main values - freedom and human dignity - could not accept. And yet, despite persistent invitations from America and Germany, he flatly refused to go abroad. The thought that moved him, like many of his colleagues who remained at home, was simple and clear, although utopian, as further history showed. Bolshevism arose out of the collapse of the country, and by this collapse it keeps, they believed. Therefore, in order to defeat Bolshevism, it is necessary first of all to liquidate the collapse. Creative, cultural work in Russia must be preserved at all costs. “We have to work and work regardless of politics. Towers, boilers and rafters are needed, and we will be needed,”Vladimir Grigorievich wrote in his diary.
Pages of Shukhov's workbooks late 19th early 20th century.
The first thing that the new government did was kicked the inventor out of his own house on Smolensky Boulevard. Here is Shukhov's entry in his diary: “September 11, 1918 received an order to leave the house by September 20, new style. He moved to the premises of the "Construction office" (house number 11/13 on Krivokolenny lane - E. Sh.) on September 19. When dismantling old documents, he destroyed drafts for the development of a number of projects for the previously carried out work of the Bari office, Shukhov's injectors, etc. " With this and subsequent crossings, seals, a significant part of the engineer's archive perished. Documents stored in the family archive - diaries, work notebooks, Shukhov's notebooks show how hard it was for him in the atmosphere of those years.
Shukhov's children Vera and Sergey. Photo by Shukhov.
What was happening around was terrifying: the workers took control of factories and factories into their own hands, and then the factories were closed, there was no food or fuel, Russia was rolling back before our eyes - to the wooden plow.
Shukhov sent his son Sergei to Kolchak, Flavius at that time was already serving with Denikin. The "construction office", which after the death of Bari passed to his heirs, was still alive and struggling to fight off the State Association of Metallurgical Plants. They tried to remove Shukhov from the board, then he was given a mandate to manage the plant.
House on Krivokolenny lane 11/13 where he lived in 1922-34. V. G. Shukhov.
Meanwhile, the firm and the plant were nationalized, the family was evicted from the mansion on Smolensky Boulevard. I had to move to a cramped office in Krivokolenny Lane. Shukhov, who was already over sixty, found himself in a completely new situation. The construction office of Bari was transformed into the organization "Stalmost" (now it is the research and design institute of the Central Research Institute Proektstalkonstruktsiya). The Bari steam boiler plant was renamed into Parostroy (now its territory and the surviving structures of Shukhov are part of the Dynamo plant). Shukhov was appointed their director.
Shukhov's son Sergei recalled: “My father did not live well under Soviet rule. He was an opponent of monarchy and did not put up with it in the Stalinist era, which he had foreseen long before it began. He was not closely acquainted with Lenin, but had no love for him. He told me more than once: “Understand that everything that we do is of no use to anyone and for anything. Our actions are ruled by ignorant people with red books, pursuing incomprehensible goals. " Several times my father was in the balance of destruction."
And only creative energy and will allowed him to survive in such conditions, create and implement many outstanding projects, the main of which, of course, was the famous radio tower.
In July 1919, after Denikin and Kolchak went on the offensive and the famous Bolshevik decree "The socialist fatherland is in danger!" Was issued, he received an order that eventually glorified him.
The Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Defense decided: "to establish in an extremely urgent manner in Moscow a radio station equipped with devices and machines with a capacity sufficient to ensure reliable and constant communication between the center of the republic and foreign states and the outskirts of the republic." Poor radio communications could cost the young Soviet republic defeat in the war, and Lenin understood this well. Initially, it was planned to build five radio towers: three - 350 m high and two - 275 m each. But there was no money for them, five towers turned into one, a place for it was allocated on Shabolovskaya street and "cut" to 160 m.
Shukhov was engaged in the installation for three whole years: inflation devoured the money allocated for the wages of the workers, and he had to spend his own, there was not enough high-quality metal, the commissioners assigned to him constantly interfered in his affairs.
The reality made it possible to erect a six-section tower 160 m high with a lower base 42 m in diameter and weighing 240 tons. Vladimir Grigorievich wrote in his diary: “Work on the tower 150 m: preliminary decision on August 12, 1919. On August 22, an agreement was signed with the State Association of Radiotelegraph Plants for the construction of the tower. Commencement of works (earthworks) on August 29. Ending March 29, 1920 . So, the tower had to be built in 8 months, including winter. But this period could not be met. Now it is even difficult to imagine the conditions in which the design and construction of this masterpiece of engineering thought went. To build such a unique in scale and bold construction in a country with an undermined economy and a ruined economy, with a population demoralized by hunger and devastation, and only recently ended by a civil war,was a real organizational feat “August 30. There is no iron, and the project of the tower (meaning the working drawings. - E. Sh.) is not yet possible,”Shukhov writes in his diary. Finally, on Lenin's personal instructions, the metal was given out from the reserves of the War Department. But its quality was about heterogeneous, and the product range was extremely limited. The project had to be adjusted to the given. The tower was built by an artel of craftsmen and workers organized by Shukhov, headed by foreman Galankin. The tower was built by an artel of craftsmen and workers organized by Shukhov, headed by foreman Galankin. The tower was built by an artel of craftsmen and workers organized by Shukhov, headed by foreman Galankin.
Drawings of connections of radio tower elements.
The work went on all year round: in the heat, and in the rain, and in the harsh cold, when the climbers' suits were covered with a crust of ice. In such conditions, the "telescopic" method of erection of structures invented by Shukhov, which made it possible to abandon the use of scaffolding, complex lifting equipment and to minimize work at height, was of paramount importance. Vladimir Grigorievich visited Shabolovka almost every day, recording his impressions. “There are no presses for bending rings. There are no cables or blocks. There is no firewood for the workers. " “It's cold in the office, it's very difficult to write. There are no drawing supplies. " “Our artel is falling apart. I. P. Tregubov is full of indignation at the small remuneration. He does not hide his mocking contempt for me as a person who does not know how to make money and grab … " Non-receipt of a ration puts our work in impossible conditions. An Italian strike of workers … " Climbers receive one million a day. Counting on bread - this is 7 pounds, or less than 25 kopecks for work at an altitude of 150 meters …”Such records are constantly found on the pages of an engineer's workbook. And to this - family sorrows: the death of the youngest son, anxiety for the elders, the death of the mother. But despite all the difficulties, the tower was raised. The lifting of the second and third sections went well, confirming the correctness of the calculations. And suddenly misfortune happened. “June 29, 1921. When lifting the fourth section, the third one broke. The fourth fell and damaged the second and the first at seven in the evening. " Vladimir Grigorievich wrote so sparingly about one of the most difficult days in his life. Two years later, everything had to start over. Only by a lucky chance people were not injured in the accident. The reason was the fatigue of the metal.
Assembling the Shukhov tower in Moscow.
Immediately followed by calls to the GPU, long inquiries about sabotage. In those years, they were shot and not for such reasons, but the radio tower needed to be completed - he was saved by the fact that there was no second Shukhov in Russia.
"The project is flawless," - this was the conclusion of a commission specially created to investigate the circumstances of the case, which included the most authoritative engineers.
A phenomenal solution was found: Shukhov was sentenced to "conditional execution". It was a reminder that hung like a Domokles sword: if you don't build a radio tower, you will have to stand against the wall.
Shukhov Tower, 1922
The tower almost collapsed on the heads of the builders only because of the constant savings on materials. Shukhov warned about such a danger more than once, but no one listened to him. Entries in his diaries: “August 30. There is no iron, and the design of the tower cannot yet be drawn up. " “September 26th. Sent projects of towers 175, 200, 225, 250, 275, 300, 325 and 350 m to the board of directors of GORZ. When writing: two drawings in pencil, five drawings on tracing paper, four calculations of networks, four calculations of towers "…" October 1. There is no iron "…
“To build such a unique in scale and bold construction in a country with an undermined economy and a ruined economy, with a population demoralized by hunger and devastation, and only recently ended by the Civil War, was a real organizational feat,” says Elena Shukhova.
I had to start all over again. And the tower was built. It became a further modification of mesh hyperboloid structures and consisted of six blocks of the corresponding shape. This type of construction allowed for the construction of the tower with an original, surprisingly simple "telescopic" installation method. Elements of subsequent blocks were mounted on the ground inside the lower support section of the tower. With the help of five simple wooden cranes, which stood on the next upper section of the tower during construction, the blocks were lifted one after another, successively increasing the height. In mid-March 1922, the tower, which was later dubbed "a model of brilliant construction and the top of building art", was put into operation. So, despite the harsh atmosphere, Shukhov completed the construction, the transmitter started working, and the authorities decided to reward the engineer. Shukhov did not accept the award …
The tower became very popular, artists portrayed it on posters, reporters put photos of it in newspapers. Alexey Tolstoy, inspired by this construction, created the novel "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" (1926).
However, only in 1987 the tower was recognized as an architectural monument of local (!) Significance, and now it is an object of cultural heritage of regional significance. In 2017, an anti-emergency structure was erected inside it, but everyone does not proceed to a real, full-fledged restoration of an engineering masterpiece that arouses admiration for the whole world …
128 meter power transmission line on the banks of the Oka River in Dzerzhinsk.
Nine years later, Shukhov surpassed his first tower structure, having built three pairs of mesh multi-tiered hyperboloidal supports for the 1800 m long high-voltage power lines across the Oka near Nizhny Novgorod, 20, 69 and 128 m high., their design turned out to be even lighter and more elegant. The authorities "forgiven" the disgraced engineer. Shukhov became a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in 1929 he received the Lenin Prize, in 1932 - the Star of the Hero of Labor, became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, and then an honorary academician.
Steppennaya Anna Nikolaevna, photo by Shukhov.
Staid Anna Nikolaevna looks at us from old photos. And Vladimir Grigorievich himself - fit, with a kind, intelligent, slightly tired face. Shukhov's contemporary NS Kudinova described him as follows: “Vladimir Grigorievich is a man of average height, thin, with surprisingly clear and spotless blue eyes. Despite his age (at the time of his acquaintance he was 76 years old.), He is constantly tucked up and impeccably neat … And what an abyss of attractiveness, humor, what depth in everything! " His son Sergei recalled: “He most of all appreciated the sense of his own dignity in people, as equals, in no way betraying his superiority, never gave orders to anyone and never raised his voice to anyone. He was impeccably polite to both the servant and the janitor."
Shukhov 1928
The son of Vladimir was released after a long investigation, but he was so exhausted and exhausted that he never came to his senses and died in 1920, in the same year Vera Kapitonovna's mother died, then he was widowed. Shortly before her death, Vera Kapitonovna had a terrible dream: her son, engulfed in flames, was rushing about the family crypt. She woke up with a shout: "Volodechka!", The family attributed the nightmare to the dying mind of an old woman who had a presentiment of imminent death.
However, in those years, many terrible things happened, from which one could endlessly see bad dreams …
Vladimir Grigorievich was saved by work. Shukhov created so many different structures that it is not possible to list them. All major construction projects of the first five-year plans are associated with his name: Magnitka and Kuznetskstroy, Chelyabinsk Tractor and Dynamo Plant, restoration of objects destroyed in the Civil War and the first main pipelines … Few people know that it was he who designed the famous rotating stage of the Moscow Art Theater, transparent ceilings of GUM, Main Post Office, State Museum of Fine Arts. Alexander Pushkin, Petrovsky Passage, the glass dome of the Metropol … In addition, under his leadership, about 500 bridges were designed and built.
Shukhov's sons, Sergei and Flavius, who served with the whites, returned home alive, and they were not affected by arrests and deportations. Sergey graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Moscow Technical University, worked in industry, married happily, the Shukhovs received a new apartment on Zubovsky Boulevard, Vladimir Grigorievich had grandchildren.
Mesh floors of the Petrovsky Passage.
The engineer participated in the design of the largest industrial enterprises of those years, performed a set of works for TsAGI, advised the builders of the Moscow-Volga canal and the first lines of the Moscow metro. In 1928, V. G. Shukhov was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences as the first Russian practical engineer, on the recommendation of A. N. Krylov and P. P. Lazarev, and in 1929 - its Honorary Member. Considering the situation in the Academy at that time, Vladimir Grigorievich refused to run for full membership.
All patents were transferred to the state by Shukhov in 1929.
In the 1920s – 1930s, V. G. Shukhov managed to realize many of his old ideas in the field of oil technology, decades ahead of the era. Under his leadership, the country's first main oil pipelines Grozny - Tuapse and Baku - Batum were built.
Shukhov's unit for thermal cracking of oil 1931.
A significant project of this period, in which Vladimir Grigorievich was directly involved, was the launch of the “Soviet Cracking” plant in Baku. Despite the fact that at that time Shukhov was 79 years old, in the first days of the plant's operation, he personally followed the process.
Shukhov's last engineering work of colossal importance was the straightening in 1932 of the earthquake-damaged minaret of the Ulugbek madrasah in Samarkand, built in the 15th century and being the pearl of Central Asian architecture. After the earthquake, the minaret tower deviated significantly from the vertical, and there was a threat of its collapse. Shukhov became not only the winner of the competition, but also the head of the work on straightening the minaret using a kind of rocker arm.
The last major project of Vladimir Shukhov was the straightening of one of the two minarets of the famous Ulugbek madrasah in Samarkand.
As in other cases, Shukhov's idea was amazingly simple and elegant, which at first aroused bewilderment and then admiration, according to the testimony of the architect A. V. Kuznetsova.
The straightening of the minaret according to Shukhov's method began on January 7, 1932 and lasted three days. According to the testimony of the architect M. F. Mauer, “during the work, not a single brick fragment collapsed and, as far as can be traced, not a single new crack appeared” on the minaret trunk. Vladimir Grigorievich himself said: “What looks beautiful is durable. The human view is accustomed to the proportions of nature, but in nature what is solid and expedient survives."
By the way, many of Shukhov's designs were difficult enough to implement. According to the memoirs of Professor P. K. Khudyakov, who was friends with Vladimir Grigorievich, high-ranking officials in pre-revolutionary times often did not approve of Shukhov's projects, as they were extremely cheap and did not allow receiving kickbacks. In Soviet times, the efficiency of Shukhov's developments turned out to be in demand. Shukhov's hyperboloid structures are an excellent example of a combination of economy, practicality, strength, lightness and beauty.
He became a member of the Central Executive Committee, in 1929 he received the Lenin Prize, in 1932 - the star of the Hero of Labor, became an honorary academician. The authorities now welcomed him, and this saved the sons of engineer Shukhov.
In the last years of his life Shukhov spent in solitude. The death of his wife, fears for the fate of his children, the forced resignation from work - all this undermined his strength and health. Vladimir Grigorievich did not feel much sympathy for the Soviet regime, but he refused incoming offers to move abroad. I would like to emphasize once again that Shukhov transferred all the rights to his inventions and all fees to the state.
Stereo camera designed and manufactured by Shukhov.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries and from the personal diaries of Shukhov, one can find out that he was not only an outstanding engineer and architect, but also an interesting person. Despite such impressive results in his work, Shukhov found time for various hobbies. He loved opera and theater, was fond of playing chess, designed furniture, went in for cycling, and even became the winner of city competitions.
Photo by V. G. Shukhov Flood on the Moskva River April 12, 1908
The most serious hobby of the architect was photography, including stereoscopic photography - a method in which an object is shot from two angles, eventually creating a three-dimensional moving image. You can compare such a photo with the now popular "gifs". Among his friends were many famous people of that time: scientists, artists, actors, doctors. In the welcome address that colleagues presented to Shukhov in 1910, it was said: “We will not touch upon your inventions here: they are known throughout Russia and even beyond its borders. But we cannot pass over in silence the fact that, playing such a huge role in the life and growth of the entire enterprise, you have always been available to us and sympathetic not only as a boss, but also as a comrade and teacher. Everyone could calmly bring his grief and his joys to you in the confidence that everything will find a lively response from you …"
With granddaughter Alla.
The last five years of his life, Vladimir Grigorievich lived in the then newly built cooperative house of the Academy of Sciences on Zubovsky Boulevard, no. 16-20. His granddaughter Alla Sergeevna recalled: “In that house, grandfather felt uncomfortable: numerous imperfections, poor-quality wall material, poor heating, narrow living space. But he loved Zubovsky Boulevard. Nearby, obliquely, at the corner of 1st Neopalimovsky Lane, once stood his own house - an old Empire mansion. Vladimir Grigorievich loved to stroll along the seemingly endless boulevard with centuries-old and spreading trees, sometimes alone, but mostly with his wife, with whom he lived for half a century, or with fellow comrades-in-arms. Until luxurious trees were cut down and the boulevard began to be rapidly destroyed,bringing the Garden Ring to its current state …”Vladimir Grigorievich still spent most of his time at his desk. He worked literally until the end of his days.
In everyday life, Shukhov was very conservative. In the evenings he did not like to turn on the electric light. Preferred lighting from candle flame. Shukhov was ruined by his habit of neatness: one evening, as usual, he rubbed his hands with concentrated cologne, poured the rest of the bottle over himself, reached back to put it on the bedside table, and touched the candle with his shirt sleeve … doors, trying to rip off his shirt on the go.
He called his daughter: “Ksenechka, I'm burning! I'm burning! " At the scream, the housekeeper ran in, threw a blanket over Shukhov and knocked down the flames. The children called a doctor, who examined him and said that eighty percent of his body was burned. There was no hope, but Shukhov still tried to joke, encouraging his relatives: "The academician got burned …". The next five days were continuous torment for him, and on the sixth he died …
Shukhov died on February 2, 1939 at the age of 85, and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Vladimir Grigorievich called himself "a man of life" …
In 2008, a monument to the engineer was erected on Sretensky Boulevard in Moscow. In ancient Greece, art was called "techne" and meant the highest manifestation of technical skill and artistic vision. Over time, the "artistic" principle left this concept and it began to mean "technique" - something directly opposite to art. But in world culture there are few examples, for the definition of which it is necessary, as it were, to turn back to the original concept, where "technical" and "artistic" are still inseparable. Undoubtedly, such an example is the work of V. G. Shukhov.
On December 2, 2008, a monument to Vladimir Shukhov was unveiled in Moscow. He looks at Turgenevskaya Square from Sretensky Boulevard.
As for the sons of Vladimir Grigorievich: son Vladimir died at the age of twenty from cholera. After the death of his father, the middle son Favius was exiled to Omsk, where he contracted tuberculosis and died in 1945. The eldest son Sergei followed in his father's footsteps and became a civil engineer. Thanks to him, the archive of Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov has reached us.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries and from the personal diaries of Shukhov, one can find out that he was not only an outstanding engineer and architect, but also an interesting person. Despite such impressive results in his work, Shukhov found time for various hobbies. He loved opera and theater, was fond of playing chess, designed furniture, went in for cycling, and even became the winner of city competitions. I would like to emphasize once again that photography was the architect's most serious hobby. Viktor Grigorievich left as a keepsake for posterity a large number of beautifully executed photographs that allow him to look at many events that took place in our great country, in its capital through his eyes.
Mesh floors of the exhibition pavilion designed by V. G. Shukhov 1896 and the oval hall of the British Museum by N. Forster today.
Shukhov Tower in Kobe Japan.
In 1999, the famous English architect Norman Foster received the title of honorary peerage and lord for the mesh ceilings of the courtyard of the British Museum. At the same time, he always openly admitted that he was inspired in his work by Shukhov's ideas. In 2003, a gilded model of the Shukhov tower was installed at the exhibition "The best structures and structures in the architecture of the 20th century" in Munich.
610 meter Shukhov construction in China.
Elena Shukhova writes: “For all the uniqueness of his talent, Shukhov was the son of his time - of that short and irrevocably bygone era, about which the Russian thinker said: their play gave rise to beauty … "These words of NA Berdyaev, spoken by him in 1917, are habitually associated in our minds with the Silver Age, the flourishing of art, literature, philosophical thought, but they can rightfully be attributed to the technology of that time. Then the culture and the scientific and technical sphere of life had not yet become so tragically disunited as today, the engineer was not a narrow specialist, blindly limited to the sphere and interests of his specialty. He was in the full sense of the word "Renaissance man" who opened a new world,possessed "symphonic", according to Shukhov's definition, thinking. Then technology was a life-building principle, it was a worldview finding: it seemed that it is not only a way of solving practical problems facing a person, but also a force that creates spiritual values. Then it still seemed that she would save the world”…
On the territory of TsNIIPSK them. NP Melnikov in Belgorod installed a bust of Shukhov.
In 2008, a monument to the engineer was erected on Sretensky Boulevard in Moscow. In ancient Greece, art was called "techne" and meant the highest manifestation of technical skill and artistic vision. Over time, the "artistic" principle left this concept and it began to mean "technique" - something directly opposite to art. But in world culture there are few examples, for the definition of which it is necessary, as it were, to turn back to the original concept, where "technical" and "artistic" are still inseparable. Undoubtedly, such an example is the work of V. G. Shukhov.
Modern Grayvoron remained an outwardly patriarchal provincial merchant town
Modern Grayvoron, the small homeland of the great son of Russia and a brilliant engineer, is striking in its accuracy and respect for its antiquity and its history. There are many flower beds in the city, well-groomed old merchant and bourgeois houses, and on all the old merchant mansions there are signs with their brief history, and the buildings themselves are so good-looking, as if their owners are still merchants and landowners, who monitor their condition and appearance with a strict master's look. Through thoughtlessness, by malicious intent, but thanks to the activities of the "headless horsemen" Gorbachev, Yeltsin & Co and with our tacit consent, Grayvoron now again found himself at the "notch line" - the border city of the Russian state …
Bust of V. G. Shukhov in the Shukhov Secondary School in the city of Grayvoron.
Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, a remarkable engineer of the late XIX - early XX century, refused to imitate foreign models and began to create in the original, purely Russian style, relying on the traditions of Lomonosov, Mendeleev, Kazakov, Kulibin. During his lifetime, he was called "the man-factory" and "Russian Leonardo": with only a few assistants, he was able to accomplish as much as a dozen research institutes could do. Shukhov has more than one hundred inventions, but he patented 15: there was no time … And this is also very Russian …
Lyceum No. 38 of Belgorod on September 1, 2015 became the Shukhov Lyceum.
Memories of Elena Maksimovna Shukhova, great-granddaughter of V. G. Shukhov "Shukhov is a great engineer".
Author: Khodanov