Vladimir Obraztsov

Born June 6 (18), 1874, in Nikolaev; died Nov. 28, 1949, in Moscow. Soviet transportation scientist; academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939).

Obraztsov graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Railroad Engineers in 1897. Beginning in 1901 he taught at the Moscow School of Engineering. From 1919 to 1922 he was a professor at the Moscow Civil Engineering Institute, and from 1923 to 1949, at the Moscow Institute of Railroad Engineers. From 1935 to 1940 he was the director of the Railroad Transportation Research Institute in Moscow. From 1939 until his death he was head of the section for transportation problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Obraztsov’s main works dealt with problems of railroad station management, design of railroad stations and transportation junctions, planned distribution of marshaling work in rail networks, and design of a plan for assembling trains. He also dealt with problems of the interaction and development of various transportation systems of the USSR. He was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (16th convocation, 1935) and a deputy to the first and second convocations of the Supreme Soviet. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1942 and 1943), three Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and medals.