Genrikh Osipovich Graftio (russian: Генрих Осипович Графтио, 26 December 1869 in

Dünaburg Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see #Names, other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts ...

– 30 April 1949 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

engineer credited as a pioneer of the

hydroelectric station Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

construction, as one of the founders of the

GOELRO plan GOELRO (russian: link=no, ГОЭЛРО) was the first Soviet plan for national economic recovery and development. It became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans drafted by Gosplan. GOELRO is the transliteration of the Russian abbreviation ...

, and notable for the construction of the first hydroelectric stations in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, the

Volkhov Hydroelectric Station Volkhov hydroelectric plant (russian: Волховская ГЭС имени В. И. Ленина, Volkhovskaya GZS imeni V. I. Lenina), named after V.I. Lenin, is a hydroelectric station on the Volkhov River located in the town of Volkhov, Lenin ...

Volkhov Volkhov (russian: Во́лхов) is an industrial town and the administrative center of Volkhovsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the river Volkhov east of St. Petersburg. Population: It was previously known as ''Zvanka ...

and the

Lower Svir Hydroelectric Station Lower Svir Hydroelectric Station (russian: Нижнесвирская ГЭС) is a hydroelectric station on the Svir River located in the urban-type settlement of Svirstroy, Leningrad Oblast, in northwestern Russia. It was open on December 19 ...

in Svirstroy. Genrikh Graftio graduated from the Imperial Novorossiya University in Odessa in 1892 and the Petersburg Institute of Transport Engineers in 1896, where he was teaching since 1907. In 1921, he was appointed a professor at this university. Between 1896 and 1900 he was intern in Europe and USA, studying the power equipment. In 1900, Graftio created the first project of the electrified railway in Russia, which was never realized. In 1906, he was charged with developing an electric tram network in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, then the capital of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, which was opened in 1907. Since 1905, he was involved in project design of hydroelectric stations. In 1905, he designed a project of a power plant on the

Vuoksi River The Vuoksi (russian: Вуокса, historically: "Uzerva"; fi, Vuoksi; sv, Vuoksen) is a river running through the northernmost part of the Karelian Isthmus from Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland to Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia. The r ...

(never realized), and in 1910–1911 Graftio designed the power plant on the

Volkhov River The Volkhov (russian: Во́лхов) is a river in Novgorodsky and Chudovsky Districts of Novgorod Oblast and Kirishsky and Volkhovsky Districts of Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia. It connects Lake Ilmen and Lake Ladoga and forms pa ...

, which was only realized in 1927. Between 1918 and 1920 Graftio was the first deputy of the chief construction engineer of the Volkhov Hydroelectric Station, the first hydroelectric station to be built according to the plan. In February 1920, Graftio was included into the committee charged to draft the

, the program to provide sufficient electric power needed for future industrialization of

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and, eventually, the

. In the committee, he was responsible for the sections dealing with transportation and with the electrification of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

areas. The plan was drafted in December 1920. Since early 1921, he was the chief construction engineer until the construction was completed in 1927. On 21 March 1921 he was arrested on the charges of counterrevolutionary activity, but was freed after several months due to intervention of

Gleb Krzhizhanovsky Gleb Maximilianovich Krzhizhanovsky (russian: Глеб Максимилианович Кржижановский; 24 January 1872 – 31 March 1959) was a Soviet scientist, statesman, revolutionary, Old Bolshevik, and state figure as well as a ge ...

, who needed Graftio to continue working on the construction. After 1927, he was the chief engineer of the construction of the Svir Hydroelectric Station, opened in 1933. Between 1938 and 1945 Graftio was the Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Energy, tasked with the power plant construction. In particular, he was responsible for the program of the restoration of the stations destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He died in 1949 in Leningrad. Besides Russian, Graftio was fluent in English, French, German, Italian and Swedish. In 1932, he was elected a member of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

. He dedicated all his works to his wife Antonina.

Honours

* He was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

* He was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

* He was made a full member of the

Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unite ...

without going through all the intermediate steps * The Lower Svir Hydroelectric Station was named after Graftio * The tomb of Graftio in Bolsheokhtinskoye Cemetery in Saint Petersburg is protected by the government at the local level as a historical monument * The monument to Graftio in

and the house where he lived during the construction of the power plant are both protected as historical monuments at the federal level.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graftio, Genrikh 1869 births 1949 deaths Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Engineers from the Russian Empire Russian engineers Soviet engineers