Aleksey Ya. Sychev was born to a family of a poor peasant in the Irkutsk Governorate of Siberia in 1902. Staring from the age of 8 he began helping his family. Soon after the Great October Socialist Revolution he enrolled in a pedagogical vocational school in 1919. There he joined the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. In 1921 he became member of the Communist Party. In 1924–1925 he was appointed commissary of the district Joint State Political Directorate of the All-Russian Special Commission for Combating Counter-revolution, Sabotage and Speculation in Kirensk, and simultaneously – head of the department of UKSHa of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Starting from 1924 he served as political instructor in the army and continued his studies. In 1930 he graduated from the Irkutsk State University and began teaching at the Ural Polytechnic Institute (UPI).
In 1934, Aleksey Sychev defended his Candidate thesis and was awarded the title of Associate Professor. In 1941, he was appointed the head of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Having completed the military courses of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR (June of 1942), he was sent to the army field forces of the Southwestern Front.
His front biography included such positions as deputy head for political unit of the 65th army of the Don front, and later of the Central front, deputy commandant at the cities of Lublin and Warsaw, head of trade and industry in the Soviet Occupation Zone in Berlin.
After his demobilization from the army in 1946, he returned to working as a teacher. From 1946 through 1951, he worked as Associate Professor at UPI. In 1951, he was appointed Director of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute (CPI) and defended his Doctor’s thesis.
The building of CPI began under his leadership. Working as the Institute director from 1951 through 1962, Aleksey Sychev actively participated in expanding its facilities and resources and opening of new academic programmes. He was a delegate at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
He was awarded the Medal "For the Defence of Stalingrad"; Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st and 2nd class; Order of the Red Star; and Medal "For the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945". For his work at CPI, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and Order of the Badge of Honour.
For his great educational-and-disciplinary, scientific-and-research, and organizing work, and on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, an entry with the name of Aleksey Sychev was made in the Institute’s Book of Honour.