Veterans Council

At the origins of the Council of War and Labor Veterans of the Moscow Metrostroy were outstanding pioneer metrobuilders: Ilya Davidovich Gotsiridze - head of Metrostroy in 1939-1940, Vasily Dementievich Polezhaev - Hero of Socialist Labor, head of Mosmetrostroy in 1958-1972, Tatyana Viktorovna Fedorova, Hero of Socialist Labor, deputy head of Mosmetrostroy in 1961-1987.

For almost fifty years, the Council has been preserving the historical memory of thousands of metro builders who created the best metro in the world, and unites veterans of different generations, different professions and specialties, and even different views. But they are all “a special breed of people.” This is what Yuri Anatolyevich Koshelev called the metro builders.

Metrobuilders are 53 Heroes of the Soviet Union and 1 Hero of the Russian Federation, 23 Heroes of Socialist Labor, these are outstanding statesmen, academicians, laureates of state and public awards, honored builders of Russia, Honorary Builders of Moscow, order bearers, prominent managers, talented and experienced engineers, distinguished foremen and workers.

The first chairman of the Council was Gubankov Nikolai Alekseevich, the first metro builder, head of Mosmetrostroy in 1950-1958, Doctor of Technical Sciences. And subsequently, well-known metro builders were also elected as chairmen: Tatyana Viktorovna Fedorova, Valentina Vasilievna Shulgina, Galina Aleksandrovna Lopatkina, Anatoly Vasilyevich Zhigarev. Since 2016, the Chairman of the Council of War and Labor Veterans of Mosmetrostroy has been Boris Filippovich Prigoda.

Currently, the Council of Veterans of Mosmetrostroy unites more than 2,000 veterans of the company’s subsidiaries, the ROO “Afghan-Metrostroy” and the search team “Memory of Metrostroy”.

The council works with the active support of the company’s general director, Sergei Anatolyevich Zhukov, and, together with the management and trade union of Mosmetrostroy, organizes the participation of veterans in public life, and also interacts with retired veterans and with the descendants of outstanding metro builders.

The Council attaches great importance to providing assistance to needy and disabled veterans, participating in anniversary and mourning events, preserving and restoring historical and memorable places of Mosmetrostroy, and caring for the burial sites of outstanding metro builders.

The Veterans Council honors and enhances the glorious military and labor traditions of the four-time decorated team, collects documents and materials on the history of metro construction. Under the auspices of the Council, branches of the Mosmetrostroy Museum have been created and operate. Archival and museum-exhibition activities are carried out, including in collaboration with museums of Moscow, the Moscow Metro, the Borodino Field Museum-Reserve, etc.

The active members of the Council conduct events of a humanitarian, historical, military-patriotic and educational nature, contact with the councils of veteran builders of Moscow, Russian Railways and other veteran organizations, with educational institutions and search teams.