Alexander Sergeevich Sukhanov

Alexander Sergeevich Sukhanov (Russian: Александр Сергеевич Суханов; 6 May 1933 – 28 September 1989) was a Soviet metro construction worker, tunneller and brigade leader of Construction and Assembly Directorate No. 8 of Mosmetrostroy, the organisation responsible for construction of the Moscow Metro. He was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labour in 1976. Sukhanov was also a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of the 10th and 11th convocations and a delegate to the 26th and 27th Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Early life and career

Sukhanov was born on 6 May 1933 in Moscow. According to the biographical profile published by the Heroes of the Country project, after completing vocational school he worked from 1948 as a toolmaker at a machine-building plant. He served in the Soviet Army from 1952 to 1955.

After his army service, Sukhanov connected his working life with metro construction. Published sources state that he worked in Metrostroy from 1955 and later became a brigade leader of tunnellers in Construction and Assembly Directorate No. 8 of Mosmetrostroy. Sources differ on the exact year when he became brigade leader: some give 1960, while the Heroes of the Country profile gives 1963.

Mosmetrostroy, the organisation in which Sukhanov worked, also had a broader role in Soviet technical assistance for metro construction abroad. A Soviet history of metro construction described the construction of the Prague Metro as a characteristic example of Soviet technical assistance to socialist countries, carried out through cooperation between Czechoslovak and Soviet specialists after a 1970 agreement on Soviet technical assistance. The same source states that Soviet tunnelling equipment was used in Prague and was installed with the help of Moscow specialists.

The Prague station now known as Anděl opened on 2 November 1985 under the name Moskevská. Contemporary Czech architectural sources describe it as part of a Prague–Moscow exchange in which Czechoslovak architects designed the Pražská station in Moscow, while architects from the USSR designed Moskevská in Prague. The Soviet architect Lev Nikolaevich Popov worked on the Prague station together with Czech architects including Eva Břusková and Marie Davidová.

No published source has yet been identified that directly confirms Sukhanov's personal participation in the construction or finishing works of the Prague Metro or the Moskevská/Anděl station.

Political and public activity

Sukhanov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Published sources give slightly different dates for his joining the CPSU, either 1969 or 1970.

The stenographic record of the 27th CPSU Congress also lists Sukhanov as a member of the commission preparing draft resolutions on the Political Report of the Central Committee, the new edition of the CPSU Programme and amendments to the Party Statute.

Awards

Sukhanov received the following Soviet awards:

Film and archival footage

Sukhanov appears in Soviet documentary and archival materials from the perestroika period.

Net-Film holds a TASS photograph of Sukhanov speaking at the 27th CPSU Congress on 28 February 1986 in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

The 1987 documentary film Delegates includes an interview with Sukhanov about plans for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan and problems with spare-parts supply. The Net-Film description also lists a meeting of metro builders with O. N. Makarov, First Deputy Minister of Transport Construction of the USSR, where problems of Mosmetrostroy, the prestige of the profession and questions of perestroika were discussed.

Sukhanov is also listed among the figures appearing in the documentary film Strategy of Acceleration, produced in 1986 and devoted to the 27th CPSU Congress and the policy of socio-economic acceleration.

Death and legacy

Sukhanov died on 28 September 1989. He was buried in Domodedovo, Moscow Oblast, at the Old City Cemetery.

Works

Sukhanov, A. S. Podzemnye gorizonty: dokumentalnaya povest [Underground Horizons: A Documentary Novella]. Moscow: Profizdat, 1990.