1875–1936
○ Natural causes
A technical planner who linked electrification to regional development
Instead of several small stations along the Dnieper rapids, he proposed a single dam with an immense-for-its-time 560-megawatt capacity.
Ivan Alexandrov was a Russian and Soviet engineer who connected hydropower with economic regionalization after beginning his career in railways and bridge design. He designed the Dnieper hydroelectric project around a single large dam and treated electricity generation together with industrial location and transport. His work on GOELRO placed electrification within a planned reorganization of the national economy, leaving a mark on the spatial thinking of the later Five-Year Plans. Working between scholarship and state planning, he led Gosplan’s energy sector in the early 1930s before returning in his final years to research and teaching.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1901Graduated from the Moscow Engineering School; worked on railway and bridge design
- 1912Began research and design work on irrigation in Central Asia
- 1920Began developing and designing a large hydroelectric station on the Dnieper
- 1920–1921Contributed to GOELRO and jointly directed economic regionalization work
- 1921–1932Member of the Presidium of Soviet Gosplan; led its energy sector
- 1932Elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
- 1932–1936Led the Academy of Sciences’ transport section and focused on research and teaching