Grigory Peredery

Grigory Peredery (Григо́рий Петро́вич Переде́рий, 29 September 1871 - 14 December 1953) was a Russian civil engineer whose career spanned both the Imperial and the Soviet eras. He became known, in particular, as the pioneering designer of a series of major railway bridges. Peredery enjoyed a distinguished parallel career as a university teacher, becoming rector at the Petrograd State Transport University (as it was then known) in 1921. He was the author of over 80 published pieces of academic work, including a detailed course on bridge design and construction.

Biography

Grigory Petrovich Peredery was born at Yeysk, an important port town and a noted spa resort beside the Sea of Azov. His father was a builder. After leaving school he enrolled at the Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University, a university-level institution with a focus on railway transport. He graduated in 1897. The Russian railways were enjoying a period of History of rail transport in Russia#Russian Empire (1837–1917)rapid expansion, and later that year Peredery went to work of the construction of the Dankov-Smolensk line which would open in 1899. He then went on to work on various new railways in the Caucasus region.

While still a young engineer he took charge at "Инженерное дело" (loosely, "Engineering") Magazine which was published in Tbilisi, and it was here that his first written contributions were published. Peredery successfully combined research and teaching with practical engineering work focused on bridge design and construction. He was a pioneer in the use of steel-reinforced concrete, developing as early as 1915 the concept of standardised designs for reinforced concrete beam structures. Later he advanced the idea of building from precast concrete bridge structures. In 1912 he published "Курс железобетонных мостов. Конструкция, проектирование и расчет" which dealt with the design of reinforced concrete bridges, and the necessary parameters and calculations to be applied. This amounted to a detailed written instruction course. It was reprinted several times and became extremely influential.

In 1902, while he was working as an engineer on the construction of the Moscow-Kazan railway, Peredery took a teaching job with the railways department at the Moscow Engineering Academy ("Московского инженерного училища"). Between 1907 and 1914 he also lectured at the Engineering Institute of Transport Communications (Петербургского "Института инженеров путей сообщения ") in St. Petersburg. In 1919 became a professor. In 1920 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Structures and in 1921 he became rector at the Petrograd State Transport University (as it was known at that time). The period since 1914 had been one of enduring crisis, which for the transportation sector meant addressing the urgent need for reconstruction following the widespread destruction and degradation caused by the Civil War and surrounding events.

The State Transport University was one of the country's main engineering universities, training engineers in respect of all forms of transport. However, during the period 1918 - 1920 it was only producing approximately 60-70 trained engineers each year. There was a desperately urgent need to implement educational reforms that would permit the mass training of dedicated transport engineers to restore the railways and develop a modern rail infrastructure worthy of the young republic. Students had traditionally been recruited from the nobility, officer families and the middle classes. Social and political upheavals during 1917/18 and the subsequent Civil War had led to great changes. Some of the teachers had died while others had escaped to the west. Social classes that had traditionally provided the students were much diminished. The government installed a commissar who was able to resolve some of the political issues that arose and ensure that the university progressed in a manner acceptable to the government, but that did not, on its own, address all the challenges. Restructuring therefore involved what one source identifies as rapid proletarianisation of the university. The first step was the creation of "workers' faculties" designed to prepare the country's proletarians for university admission. The courses involved lasted 2-3 years. Meanwhile in May 1921 the university opened a "day-time work school" where approximately 250 were trained. In November 1922 an evening branch was opened. By the start of the 1922/23 academic year the day-time department was able to welcome 380 new students.

В 1922 г. было утверждено новое Положение об Институте. Совет старост ликвидировали и заменили новыми студенческими организациями. Начавшийся процесс изменения социального состава студентов был одним из главнейших вопросов перестройки работы Института.