#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. One of the few Norilsk citizens who received the Hero of Socialist Labor star for their work in metallurgy and the Central Committee of the CPSU member, a delegate of three congresses and one of the few metallurgists who became an honorary citizen of Norilsk.
Sheremetov was born in the Aban village in the Krasnoyarsk region. The family was big: four sons and two daughters. Three older brothers worked in the district printing house. It is quite natural that the youngest Sasha was sent to master sophisticated German technology. Then he was only 12 years old. At the age of 16, he was already preparing to become a printer, but the war prevented his plans. And although his age was not inviting, persistent Sasha, who asked for it almost every day, was sent to the front. In 1944 he was wounded and commissioned, returned home with two military orders and medals.
Alexander Sheremetov arrived in Norilsk in 1954. He was offered a job in the Copper plant’s smelting and refining workshop. He agreed. Then there were a shift foreman and a senior smelter positions.
Alexander Sheremetov is the of high-speed melting’s author. Gradually, thanks to saving time on auxiliary operations, instead of 12 hours, he learned to melt in eight, six, and then four hours, while maintaining product quality and not losing production volumes.
Sheremetov decided to raise the thresholds on the anode furnace’s windows to increase its useful volume, and, consequently, the melting volume. One brick seems to be not much, but because of this, 20 tons more products went to bottling from each smelting.
In 1965, Alexander Sheremetov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. He was an active member of the only party in the country. In 1966, the Copper plant’s senior smelter became a delegate to the XXIII Congress of the CPSU, in 1968-1976 he was the Central Committee of the CPSU member.
Hero of Socialist Labor and a member of the Central Committee, Alexander Sheremetov always stayed a simple man, a real hard worker. Once his neighbor from the plenum came to Norilsk and decided, among other things, to visit the Copper plant. He entered the workshop. And he didn’t even recognize Sheremetov: he was used to seeing him in a suit and could not even think that the honored metallurgist was working, like everyone else, at the furnace, in a dirty, wet, burnt robe.
In the History spot photo project previous publication we told about the first nine-story building in Norilsk.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
