The fate of the unique complex of ultra-high voltage laboratories at Peter the Great Polytechnic University

In order to fulfill the plans for the total electrification of the country, special capacities were required. And in order to be able to modernize its own electric power industry, the Soviet Union desperately needed a unique high-voltage test site.

This is how the polygon built on the basis of the department of the Peter the Great Polytechnic University became, about the difficult fate of which I will tell you now.

Unique landfill and its history

The history of the unique test site goes back to the pre-revolutionary period, namely in 1911. It was in this year, under the direct supervision of M. BUT. Chatelain founded the first in the Russian Empire Laboratory of High Voltage Technology (TVN).

It was on the basis of this laboratory that tests up to 400 kV began to be carried out in order to solve the problem of transporting electricity over long distances.

Even the October Revolution that happened did not put an end to the unique complex, on the contrary, according to the plan of the State electrification of the country, since 1919 the laboratory has become the main platform for the formation of a new department of transmission electricity.

The head of the department is A. BUT. Gorev and engineers and scientists gathered under his leadership immediately set about developing projects for the first power lines.

In 1931 A. BUT. Gorev was removed from work at the department, and a year later he formed a closed design organization at the Bureau of Kuibyshev Works. The task of the closed group included work on the study of the transmission of electricity from the cascade of hydroelectric power plants on the Volga (which were to be built).

To implement such serious projects, a specialized test site was required for various field tests, as well as unique equipment.

That is why, simultaneously with the start of the office, the construction of the first high-voltage buildings with a hall for high-voltage tests with the most modern equipment in addition time.

The complex was fully completed and put into operation only on January 1, 1959. Such a long construction period can be easily explained.

All work was interrupted due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and resumed only in the second half of the 1940s. And the outer part of the experimental landfill began to be built in general only in 1950.

In the future, the complex was almost continuously developed and updated, allowing students, graduate students and scientists actively experiment and study various properties of insulation, high-voltage capacitors, etc. P.

So in 1972, it was at the test site that a project was launched to develop the Parus relativistic accelerator - a prototype of such an object as Angara-5 developed by the staff of the Kurchatov Institute.

Polygon sunset and modern realities

The landfill was actively exploited and developed almost until the last days of the existence of the USSR, even after its collapse there was a chance that this unique place will survive hard times and continue to work. But in February 1995, there was a serious fire, as a result of which the work of the landfill was suspended.

During the dashing 90s, naturally, no one thought about restoration, but on the contrary, marauders came, who stole and completely disabled exclusive equipment, which was still quite possible restore.

For a long time, the complex was not needed by anyone, but, according to the latest information, the landfill will be demolished and houses will be built on its former territory. This is how the fate of the unique complex of ultra-high voltage laboratories developed.

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