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Birth of Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin, Brilliant Soviet Engineer, Scientist, Designer of the Ostankino Tower
Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin was born on December 15 (28), 1907 in Tobolsk in the family of Vasily Vasilyevich and Olga Nikolayevna Nikitins. In 1911, the family moved to Ishim. His father got engaged in judicial practice, while his mother opened her own photo studio. In her youth, Olga Nikolayevna was the first assistant to her father Nikolay Borozdin, a photographer of the Chita city newspaper. From 1915 to 1917, Nikolay Nikitin studied at the parish school, then, until 1918, at the Ishim Gymnasium. He continued his education in Novosibirsk. After receiving a school leaving certificate, he got enrolled in the Tomsk Technological Institute. He studied at the Architectural Department of the Faculty of Construction. In the second year, he attended lectures by the famous professor N. I. Molotilov, who taught a new discipline “Reinforced Concrete Technology”. The professor read the lectures brilliantly; they made a great impression on the students. The first term paper of Nikolay Nikitin was written on the topic to which he devoted his later life – “Disclosure of the Constructive Possibilities of Reinforced Concrete”.
In 1930, Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin graduated from the Institute. Already during his studies, he headed the student design bureau, which was engaged in the development of methods for calculating standard reinforced concrete structures for the Kuznetsk Iron and Steel plant, including the calculation of frame structures for lateral displacement. These were the first calculations for high-rise reinforced concrete structures. Nikolay Nikitin was appointed architect of the Novosibirsk Regional Committee. In 1930-1932, he participated in the design of the buildings of the regional executive committee, residential complexes “House under the Clock” and “House of Political Prisoners”. In 1932, he designed the large-span reinforced concrete arched ceilings of the Novosibirsk-Glavny railway station. In September 1937, Nikitin was invited to the workshop for the design of the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow, where he worked together with engineer G. B. Krasin.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Nikolay Nikitin was not taken into the army for health reasons. In his youth, he was bitten by a snake, doctors fought for his life and health for six months, and he had to learn to walk again. Lameness remained for life, and in 1966, due to the aggravation of childhood trauma, part of the leg had to be amputated.
Since 1942, Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin has been developing structures for construction in wartime conditions at the Promstroyproekt Moscow Institute. Since 1944, he participated in a number of projects for the creation of precast reinforced concrete structures of industrial buildings. In 1951, he received the 3rd Degree Stalin Prize “For the Development of a Long-span Shedding and the Method of Its Construction”.
After the war, Nikolay Nikitin was one of the authors of design solutions for high-rise buildings of Moscow State University, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, the Lenin Central Stadium in Moscow, the Motherland monument on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, the memorial in Ulyanovsk, the first high-rise building in Tashkent.
The main work of Nikolay Nikitin's life was the construction of the Ostankino Television Tower, the creation of which was a great contribution to the development of world construction equipment and architecture. Nikitin started developing the project in 1958. The idea to use pre-stressed reinforced concrete compressed with steel cables made it possible to make the construction of the 540-meter tower simple and durable. Construction lasted from 1960 to 1967. It was a structure of the highest category of complexity. The construction stopped for almost two years, since the commission doubted the reliability of the foundation. Finally, in November 1967, the television broadcast has begun. In 1970, Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin won the Lenin Prize as the chief designer of the construction of the Ostankino Tower. The Ostankino Tower is currently the tallest building in Europe.
Nikolay Nikitin was a corresponding member of the Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences. He had many awards: the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Badge of Honour, the Polish Order of the Silver Cross, etc. Nikolay Nikitin has always been away from politics and was not a member of the party. “All my life I have been trying to do something interesting, new, I was happy with my success. I worked in two or three places, read lectures, gave consultations...”, – Nikitin wrote to his sister.
Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin died in 1973 at the age of 65. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
In 1991, Nikolay Vasilyevich Nikitin posthumously became a laureate of the V. G. Shukhov Gold Medal for the design and creation of particularly important structures. One of the streets of Tobolsk is named after him, and a monument was dedicated to him in Ishim in 2011.
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Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Based on the article of the Tyumen Region Branch of the Presidential Library