Founding head of Mintransstroy who led Soviet transport construction across the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras
Colleagues recalled that Kozhevnikov insisted 'state funds must be conserved,' refusing to swell the administrative apparatus and instead trusting careful placement of existing cadres — building the only one of ten Union construction ministries that consistently met its quarterly targets.
A railway engineer by training, he served as the founding Minister of Transport Construction (Mintransstroy) for over twenty years, overseeing the railroads, ports, highways, subways, and airfields that formed the physical backbone of Soviet industrial expansion. Under his leadership the ministry delivered the Virgin Lands railway networks, the Volga-Baltic Waterway, and the Vanino-Kholmsk rail ferry, and initiated the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). He also directed Soviet transport infrastructure projects abroad in Mongolia, Syria, Iraq, and Vietnam. He introduced a streamlined two-tier management system, ministry to territorial trusts, that made Mintransstroy the most consistently plan-fulfilling of the ten Union construction ministries, and received the title of Hero of Socialist Labour upon retirement in 1975.
Career Timeline
- 1927Engineer, Track Department, Central Asian Railway Administration (Ashgabat)
- 1928–1930Section head, then deputy head of construction zone, Turkestan-Siberian Railway (Alma-Ata)
- 1930–1936Technical director of new-line construction, Kuznetsk Metallurgical Combine → head of Zemzheldorstroy → chief builder, Kuznetsk Locomotive & Wagon Plant
- 1936–1940Chief engineer, Nickelstroy / Ormedstroy / Yuzhuraltyazhstroy (South Urals)
- 1941–1943Chief engineer then manager, Yuzhuraltyazhstroy Trust — defence plant construction
- 1943–1944Expert, Soviet Government Procurement Commission in the USA
- 1944–1945Head, Glavspetsstroy, People's Commissariat for Construction
- 1945–1949Head of Construction Industry Planning, Gosplan → Deputy Chairman, Gosplan
- 1949–1953Asst. to Deputy Chairman for Fuel & Transport, USSR Council of Ministers → Head of Construction Dept.
- 1954First Deputy Minister of Construction, USSR
- 1954–1963Minister of Transport Construction, USSR (founding)
- 1963–1965Chairman, State Production Committee for Transport Construction — Minister of the USSR
- 1965–1975Minister of Transport Construction, USSR (restored ministry)