Sergey Yakovlevich Zhuk (Russian: Сергей Яковлевич Жук; April 4, 1892 – March 1, 1957) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

hydraulic engineer, technician and state official.

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

(1952).

Biography

Early life

Zhuk was born in to a middle class Ukrainian family in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. He attended the 2nd Kyiv high school and after the death of his father he was enrolled in the Orlovsk Cadet Corps. In 1914 he enrolled in the Petrograd Institute for Civil Engineers, a year later he moved to the State University of Transportation in St. Petersburg. Due to the great losses that the Russian army suffered in fighting with German troops, Zhuk was forcibly drafted and transferred to the Alekseevsk School for Pioneers in Kyiv, whose training he completed in November 1916. He then did military service in a pioneer battalion in Siberia. During the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

he took the side of the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

and fought for the forces under

Alexander Kolchak Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (; – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918, Kolchak headed a mili ...

. At the end of 1919, during the defeat of the army Kolchak, second lieutenant Zhuk was taken prisoner but was later released. In 1921–1922 he worked in Sevzapvod, then was enrolled in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and taught engineering at the Kamenev United military school, in the Sumy artillery and in the Poltava infantry schools.

State engineer

On January 10, 1931, he was arrested by the organs of the

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...

in the "Vesna" case and was accused of involvement in a counter-revolutionary officer organization and was convicted by the judicial board of the OGPU. He was sent to the construction of the

White Sea–Baltic Canal The White Sea–Baltic Canal (), often abbreviated to White Sea Canal (), is a man-made ship canal in Russia opened on 2 August 1933. It connects the White Sea, in the Arctic Ocean, with Lake Onega, which is further connected to the Baltic Sea. U ...

and showed himself there as an engineer and on July 14, 1932, was released on parole "for more efficient use in construction." In October 1932 he was enrolled in the staff of the OGPU and was appointed to the post of deputy chief engineer of Belomorstroy. From 1933 he was Deputy Chief Engineer and Chief Engineer for the construction of the Moscow Canal. In the position of Deputy Chief Engineer of Belomorostroi, he carried out scientific and technical leadership in the design of the largest hydraulic structures. In August 1933 he was awarded the Order of Lenin. People were not spared on construction, the main thing for the leadership was the fulfillment of the plan. In the book ''

The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' () is a three-volume nonfiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident. It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian ...

'', Alexander Solzhenitsyn named Zhuk among the main culprits of the mass death of Gulag prisoners during the construction of the canal. From September 1935 he was the Chief Construction Engineer of the Uglich, Rybinsk and Ivankovskaya Hydroelectric Power Plants. From June 1939 he was First Deputy Head of the Construction Directorate of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric complex. From September 1939 Zhuk became chief engineer and first deputy chief of the Glavgidrostroy of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

of the USSR.

World War II and later life

Zhuk was a participant in the Second World War, in August 1941, he was appointed chief engineer and deputy head of the Main Directorate of Defense Work (GUOBR) of the NKVD. At the same time, in November 1941, he was the head of the hydrotechnical works department of the Glavpromstroy of the NKVD. In 1942 he became a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

. From 1942 to 1957 he was the permanent head of the design and survey department of hydraulic works (Gidroproekt) of the Glavpromstroy NKVD of the USSR and oater Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. From 1944, he was also a member of the Technical and Economic Council of the USSR State Planning Committee. At the same time, since March 1948, he was the chief engineer of the Volgodonstroy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and was responsible for the construction of the Volga–Don Canal and Tsimlyanskaya Hydroelectric Power Station. Zhuk was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet since 1935 and was elected an Academician of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

since 1953. He was a Major General of the Engineering and Technical Service since 1943. After his death on March 1, 1957, he was cremated, the ashes were placed in an urn in the

Kremlin Wall The Moscow Kremlin Wall is a defensive wall that surrounds the Moscow Kremlin, recognisable by the characteristic notches and its Kremlin towers. The original walls were likely a simple wooden fence with guard towers built in 1156. The Kremlin ...

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

in Moscow.

Awards and honors

(9/19/1952) – for particularly outstanding services in the construction of the Lenin Volga–Don Canal * Three

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

– for ensuring high-quality design work on the construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal *

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

(01/30/1951) *

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(07/14/1944) * Two Orders of the Red Star (07/14/1937; 12/10/1945) *

Medal "For Battle Merit" The Medal "For Battle Merit" () was a Soviet military medal awarded for "combat action resulting in a military success", "courageous defense of the state borders", or "successful military and political training and preparation". It was created on ...

Medal "For Labour Valour" The Medal "For Labour Valour" () was a civilian labour award of the Soviet Union bestowed to especially deserving workers to recognise and honour dedicated and valorous labour or significant contributions in the fields of science, culture or t ...

(04/26/1940) * Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945." (1945) * Stalin Prize of the second degree (1950) – for the development of the Volga–Don Canal project. * Stalin Prize of the first degree (1951) – for the development of the design assignment for the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station on the Volga. * Honored Worker of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (11/2/1948)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhuk, Sergey 1892 births 1957 deaths Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Fourth convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Gulag governors NKVD officers Soviet rehabilitations Hydraulic engineers Russian engineers Soviet engineers Burials at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis