Nikolai Dollezhal

Born Oct. 15 (27), 1899, in Omel’nik, in present-day Orekhov Raion, Zaporozh’e Oblast. Soviet scientist and power engineer, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1962; a corresponding member in 1953), and Hero of Socialist Labor (1949).

In 1923, Dollezhal’ graduated from the Moscow Higher Technical School. From 1932 to 1934 he was the technical director of the Nitrogen Mechanical-Engineering Institute in Leningrad. Between 1935 and 1938 he was the chief engineer of the Bol’shevik factory in Kiev, and from 1942 to 1953 he directed the All-Union Design, Planning, and Scientific Re-search Institute of Chemical Mechanical Engineering in Moscow. In 1953 he became the director of a scientific re-search institute. He developed the theory of automatic valves in a piston compressor. Dollezhal’ was the head designer for the reactor in the world’s first atomic electric power plant. He has received the State Prize of the USSR (1949, 1952, 1953, 1970) and the Lenin Prize (1957). He has been awarded four Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and also medals.