This year, Vyatka State University is celebrating its anniversary - 60 years since the founding of the Kirov Polytechnic Institute. In this article we will talk about the man who stood at the origins of the first state classical university in Vyatka land - Alexander Savvich Bolshev.
Alexander Savvich Bolshev is a colossal figure on the scale of the Kirov region. This man came to the Vyatka land, just stepping out of the future, he was so far-sighted, hard-working and large-scale in his ideas and actions.
In 1932, a young guy Sashka Bolshev graduated from the "Krasin" technical school and came to work at the "Lepse" plant in Moscow, the country's leading enterprise for the production of aircraft electrical equipment. Before the war, on the job, he managed to learn at the evening department of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute and developed an electrical mechanism for the TU-2 aircraft, which provides headlight control in night flights.
Hard days have come. In the autumn of 1941, the plant was evacuated to Kirov, so Bolshev came to our city for the first time. It was very difficult. Working day and night, living in cramped barracks, people were so hungry that they could hardly walk. Bolshev was then 27 years old - it seems that he should be a young, strong guy. And he, going to Kutsho from the city uphill from the "Krasny Instrumentalshchik" plant to the "Iskozh" plant, rested three times on the way - he was so exhausted.
After the war, Alexander Savvich studied at the Academy of Aviation Industry and returned to Kirov to the post of chief engineer of the "Lepse" plant.
"Working as a chief engineer for three years, I became more and more convinced that with a small number of technicians and engineers not acting in unison, you cannot raise the technological process at the plant," - recalled Alexander Savvich. - "To speed things up, it was necessary to create, in Kirov, its own higher educational institution of the corresponding profile."
Bolshev infected the regional authorities with his thought. And in 1955 in Kirov an educational and consulting center of the All-Union Correspondence Energy Institute was opened under the "Lepse" plant. Moscow was in no hurry to open a new institute, limited itself to the UKP so far. But Bolshev knew that it was important to take this first step and organize the educational process in such a way that they would understand in the capital that they teach in Kirov in earnest, serious people come there.
A couple of years later, Alexander Savvich, who had already become the director of the plant, began to implement his further plans for the university - and in 1957 the UKP was reorganized into the Kirov branch of the All-Union Correspondence Energy Institute.
The main function of the branch was to train engineers in energy specialties. But the diversified industry of the region needed specialists of other profiles, so in 1959 a general technical faculty was opened in the branch, with a form of on-the-job training. The range of specialties has expanded significantly: specialists in mechanical engineering, computing devices, industrial and civil engineering are being trained. In 1961, the general technical faculty was a member of VDNKh for the successes achieved.
Soon, the institute grew so much that the allocated premises were no longer enough, they also studied in the House of Culture "Rodina", in the building of school No. 45. The leaders of the city and region agreed and allocated the building of the former party school on Theater Square (now building No. 2) to the branch.
Alexander Savvich decided to take the next step in the transformation of the university. With the active assistance of the authorities, a package of documents was prepared proving that extramural learning could no longer provide city industry with engineers, it was necessary to open a full-fledged polytechnic institute in Kirov.
In March 1963, an order was received from the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the RSFSR on the approval of the structure of the Kirov Correspondence Polytechnic Institute. Bolshev's first parting word to the first rector of the "polytechnic" Pyotr Zakharovich Mosunov was - do not back down, do everything to make the institute full-time!
Alexander Savvich did a lot not only for the institute, but also for our city. No wonder he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and Honorary Citizen of Kirov.
Based on the materials of the documentary novel by V. Shishkin “VyatGTU: pages of a biography”, 1998.
Translation: Artemy Sizov
