On the facade of the Mosmetrostroy Administration, on April 12, a memorial plaque was installed in memory of the outstanding metro builder, Hero of Socialist Labor Yuri Koshelev. Our correspondent attended the opening ceremony.
At noon, dozens of people gathered near the building on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. In the background is one of the main songs for many generations of subway builders - “Komsomol Volunteers”. On the brick wall, a memorial sign has already been installed, waiting to be unveiled. The satin curtain billows slightly from the April wind. Near the board is a guard of two young members of the “Memory of Metrostroy” search team.
Chairman of the Council of Veterans Boris Prigoda opens the ceremony, inviting Sergei Zhukov, General Director of Mosmetrostroy JSC, to speak. “We installed a memorial plaque dedicated to Yuri Anatolyevich on our home building. This is a man who gave more than 40 years of his life to the Moscow Metro Construction. We hope that young people will always remember such heroes,” notes Zhukov.
The floor passes to Igor Buchinsky, who for a long time held the post of deputy director of Mosmetrostroy under Koshelev. A colleague speaks about the results of Yuri Anatolyevich’s 10-year work as the head of Glavtonnelmetrostroy: before his arrival there were only six subways in the USSR, by the end of his activity there were already 14. The veteran also recalls Koshelev’s desire to preserve the metrostroy team at all costs in the difficult 90s, when funding stopped.
Tatyana Chubarova, daughter of Yuri Koshelev, on behalf of the family thanks the company for installing the memorial plaque. “Dad loved Metrostroy so much - he said that it was the best organization. After the astronauts, it’s only us!” – these words sound especially heartfelt on Cosmonautics Day.
To applause, Sergei Zhukov and Honored Builder of Russia Boris Yatskov, who held the position of chief engineer of Mosmetrostroy for more than 20 years, unveiled a bronze plaque on the facade of the Department.
Yuri Koshelev would have turned 92 years old on April 4. Now his memory is kept in the very heart of the Moscow Metro.