Man - era

On December 14, metro builders said goodbye to the outstanding builder, Hero of Socialist Labor Yuri Anatolyevich Koshelev. He served as head of the Moscow Metro Construction in 1972 - 1976, 1986 - 1999. At that difficult time, when the very existence of the company was in question, Yuri Anatolyevich managed not only to maintain a workforce of thousands and production capacity, but also to continue to build underground tunnels and stations.

A native of Ryazan, Yuri Koshelev graduated from the Russian University of Transport (MIIT) in 1951 and was assigned to the Far East. It was planned to build a 10-kilometer railway tunnel under the Nevelskoy Strait to connect the mainland with Sakhalin. In 1953, Stalin died and construction stopped. But Yuri Koshelev managed to establish himself and one of the project managers, Hero of Socialist Labor Ivan Yatskov, invited the specialist to return to Moscow.

At Mosmetrostroy, Yuri Anatolyevich, after a year of working in the production department of the Directorate as a senior engineer, became deputy head of this department. In 1957, thirty-year-old Koshelev was appointed chief engineer of SMU-1 (now Tunnel Detachment No. 6). One of the serious tests for builders then was the excavation of distillation tunnels from the bank of the Moscow River to the University station. To overcome the quicksand, a caisson option was used. It was then that the young leader began to think about how to save tunnel workers from harmful work under high air pressure. The solution came later: in the second half of the 70s, an innovative method of tunneling in flooded unstable soils, which involved forced dewatering, was successfully implemented. This option for conducting underground work did not require the constant presence of a person in the danger zone.

In 1967, Koshelev became the chief engineer of Glavtonnelmetrostroy. A high position meant a sharp expansion of the range of tasks, and most importantly, new experience. When the first metro builder, Hero of Socialist Labor Vasily Polezhaev, died in the fall of 1972, Yuri Anatolyevich was entrusted to replace him as head of Mosmetrostroy.

The years that followed turned out to be significant. The company completed the tasks of the 9th Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule - November 30, 1975. Soon the hundredth station, Kuznetsky Most, opened. The Metro construction workers were awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the third overall. For engineering developments, Koshelev was awarded the USSR State Prize. In April 1976, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor.

In the same year, Yuri Anatolyevich, by order of the USSR Ministry of Transport Construction, was again transferred to Glavtonnelmetrostroy, but this time as a chief. Over the next ten years, the number of subways in the Soviet Union grew from six to fourteen. At the same time, the Baikal-Amur Mainline was being built, tunnels were being excavated in Transcaucasia.

From 1986, for the next 13 years, Koshelev led Mosmetrostroy. At the end of the 80s, the team numbered about twenty thousand people. The company began to purchase foreign mechanized tunnel boring systems, and the Tunnel Association of Russia was created. Under Koshelev, ties between construction practitioners and theorists of industrial science were strengthened, and advanced technologies were spread.

The economic effect achieved at the same time helped to stay afloat even in conditions of unstable financing.

Tatyana Chubarova

daughter of Yuri Koshelev, MIIT graduate

Dad until the end of his days was faithful to his friends from his student days, to their memory. He liked to invite former Mitovites to visit him. And he has had the desire to simply feed his comrade since the hungry forties. As an excellent student, he received an increased Stalin scholarship. Moreover, when after the holidays I brought gifts from my grandmother’s garden from Ryazan, I myself prepared a whole bucket of vinaigrette - so they later said. And I am a witness to how he loved to cook borscht. Moreover, he took some kind of cauldron for this in order to treat more people. His leadership qualities probably showed up in college. And they went well with a friendly, positive attitude towards people. He also loved poetry: in his youth - Mayakovsky, and then he was more inclined to his fellow countryman - Sergei Yesenin.

Sergey Zhukov

General Director of JSC "Mosmetrostroy"

Metrostroy workers knew Yuri Anatolyevich and respected him as a director who was able to lead the organization out of a severe crisis; his responsibility and sensitive, sincere care for people left an indelible mark in our hearts. This is what Yuri Anatolyevich was - a decent, noble man. These high qualities were organically combined in him with the status of a major scientist and talented leader.

All of his multifaceted activities were based on deep knowledge in the field of metro construction, on a constant analysis of existing problems in the industry. Yuri Anatolyevich Koshelev made a huge contribution to the development of underground construction. He is the author of 60 certificates, including a method of constructing tunnels that reduced the danger level of the caisson. Yuri Anatolyevich, with his life and professional example, showed us that work is always held in high esteem, and the connection between generations of metro builders will never be interrupted.

Valery Merkin

Yury Koshelev’s colleague at the Russian Academy of Transport, head of the Research Center “Tunnels and Subways”

For decades, his surname “Koshelev” was and is still a symbol of “tunneling”. Both the main structures and the leadership of the union republics treated him with respect. He was persistent in promoting progressive technical ideas, and he managed to resolve even emergency situations. There is a proposal - to enshrine the memory of Yuri Anatolyevich Koshelev in the name of one of the Moscow metro stations. The man who embodied an entire era of metropolitan metro construction deserves to be on the map of Moscow.

Georgy Makarevich

General Director of TO-6 in 1999 - 2015

Yuri Anatolyevich Koshelev is a large-scale leader, an engineer rich in ideas, but he is also a personality, truly the first person of a large team. At high-level meetings with the participation of city authorities, his word always carried weight. As he said, what time he named, so it will be. And Koshelev’s authority, to a certain extent, spread to other metro builders. You could feel protected next to him. But he could also ask harshly on the matter. And he made a fair decision.