Askochenskii, Aleksandr

Born Aug. 24 (Sept. 5), 1898, in the village of Verkhnii Lomovsk, in what is now Voronezh Oblast; died Mar. 5, 1973, in Moscow. Soviet specialist in hydraulic engineering and land reclamation. Academician of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1956); academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR (1943). Hero of Socialist Labor (1968). Member of the CPSU from 1944.

Askochenskii graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Railroad Engineers in 1925. From 1928 to 1947, he designed irrigation systems in Middle Asia. He was deputy minister of cotton cultivation of the USSR from 1950 to 1953 and deputy minister of agriculture of the USSR from 1954 to 1957. In 1957 he became the head of the division of hydraulic engineering and land reclamation of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Askochenskii’s main works dealt with the water resources of Middle Asia and their comprehensive use. Askochenskii helped design the Great Fergana Canal, the power and land-reclamation complex on the Chirchik River, and the Karakum Canal.

Askochenskii received the Lenin Prize in 1965. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin and six other orders, as well as various medals.