Vasilii Petrovich Nikitin

Born Aug. 2 (14), 1893, in St. Petersburg; died Mar. 16, 1956, in Moscow. Soviet scientist in electromechanics and electric welding; academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939). Joined the CPSU in 1938.

Nikitin graduated from the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute in 1914. He was a professor at the Onepropetrovsk Mining Institute from 1925 to 1929 and at the Moscow Academy of Mines (since 1930, the Moscow Institute of Steel) from 1929 to 1932. From 1933 to 1950 he was a professor at the N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School (he became its director in 1950).

Nikitin originated the theory of electrical machines and apparatus for electric arc welding. Standard welding transformers were developed under his direction, and he is credited with the founding of the Soviet electric-welding machine-building industry and with the introduction of welding in industry. In 1939 he became a member of Gosplan (the State Planning Commission of the USSR); he later was deputy chairman of Gosplan (until 1943), chairman of the Section for Scientific Work on Problems of Electric Welding of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1941–47), member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1947–53), and chairman of the Council on Branches and Centers of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1951–54). He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals.