Childhood... The time of the first discoveries, achievements and victories. A wonderful time! And a care-free one for many. But the Rector of South Ural State University, deputy of the Chelyabinsk Region Legislative Assembly Aleksandr Shestakov has not had any care-free periods in life, and his childhood was no exception.
“You Must Keep Moving Forward”
“The memories of my childhood bring me back to our village. …A clearing in the woods with wild strawberries all over it. Together with my mother, we're picking the berries. The weather is hot! We feel incredibly exhausted! But we have our task, to fill the bucket, so we would keep working till it's done. My mother loved me very much, but she always made me “give one hundred and ten percent” to my work. She took my upbringing seriously and greatly contributed to the formation of my stoicism: 'You must tough it out and keep moving forward, until you do what has to be done'. All the while my mother advised me to aim for obtaining good higher education, and my father cultivated the respect for people in me, as well as the desire to communicate, and the ability to listen and to understand what you hear. All these qualities have been very helpful throughout my life.
I remember that I felt uneasy about it back then. I was perplexed and puzzled about why they lumbered a child with so much different work. And now, looking back, I realize that it was a proper approach. All my life I have had to work a lot. Almost 50 years of my life are tied to our university, and I never leave it before 8 in the evening. And sometimes I even stay as late as 11 in the night. So, that pre-adolescent toughness helps me out a lot.”
Indeed, one can only wonder how the Rector manages to remain such a hard worker. He keeps his finger on the pulse of all the university's fields of activity. Huge experience and strategic way of thinking facilitate the dynamic development of SUSU. But this is not our point today, as we will be talking about an outstanding personality and the stages of its forming, about a difficult way half a century long, and about an “enviable” career, which was being built smoothly and easily only on the face of it.
Aleksandr Shestakov was among the best pupils at school and participated in all the Olympiads. He became the winner of the third place in the regional competitions in Physics, and the fourth and fifth places in Mathematics. He got invited to stay in a summer camp in Akademgorodok (or Academic Town) in Novosibirsk. But he enrolled in the Department of Automatic Control Systems at the Instrumentation Engineering Faculty of Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute (CPI).
It was a young department headed by Georgy Chernorutsky, a striking personality and an outstanding professor of Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute, who created one of the strongest scientific schools in our university.
Right before Aleksandr Shestakov's graduation Professor Chernorutsky invited him to enrol in the postgraduate studies. Professor also practically “forced” the Institute's administration to open a paid position of an intern teacher for him with the lowest salary of 100 roubles per month. And 9 months later, Aleksandr Shestakov as a member of the CPI group of specialists was sent to Miass, where a big project was underway and concerned ground testing of the control system for sea-launched ballistic missiles. That was a completely new system. A first computing and controlling machine appeared. The university could not teach that, so Aleksandr Shestakov had to learn it through real work. Another 6 months after that, he became the executive in charge of this work, to which he devoted two and a half years.
Invaluable Engineering Experience
The system was commissioned in due time; and its characteristics complied with the required ones, though a truly difficult task had been set. The machine was of a rather low capacity, while differential equations needed to be solved in a real-time mode. The work was highly praised. The academic adviser was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples, and the executive in charge Aleksandr Shestakov gained the experience.
Yearning for the research work, Aleksandr Shestakov completed his candidate thesis within two years. There was no vacancy available at the Department. So, once he defended his thesis and obtained his candidate degree, he went to work as an engineer with a minimum salary. Finally, the Head of the Department Georgy Chernorutsky succeeded in opening a vacancy of a senior research fellow for Aleksandr Shestakov, who immersed himself into a new project - ground complex for testing the control system of Buran space shuttle. Once again Aleksandr Shestakov became the executive in charge of this work.
He continued to patiently wait for an opening of a teacher's vacancy while was still paid low salary. Meanwhile, a first multi-purpose robot was engineered at the Department of Control Systems. That became yet another task to be handled by Aleksandr Shestakov.
“Once Chernorutsky asked me 'Can you teach the robot to fill out glasses with beer?'. I did that. Professor gave me three roubles and asked me to go buy some beer. Then he invited the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Aleksandr Tashchev. The robot filled out the glasses with foamy beverage. The Vice-Rector drank up the beer. But… did not open the vacancy still. I don't know why. Today, I open the vacancies for all those who defend their theses. We must provide young and promising scientists with the opportunities to grow, and that I am firmly convinced of.”
When Aleksandr Shestakov left for the Department of Measuring Equipment, the work on the Buran stand (which had already been completed by about forty percent) was handed over to another staff member. Upon the completion of the project that employee was awarded the Medal “For Labour Valour”. That work was so serious that the project leaders were granted government awards. And, of course, for Aleksandr Shestakov, who had been invariably appointed the executive in charge, it was an invaluable engineering experience.
During the Perestroika (or Reformation) period the employees were quitting the university and were doing business, while Aleksandr Shestakov kept on walking to work with a briefcase, covering lots and lots of notebooks with his writings, and preparing his doctoral thesis. After the defence he was appointed the Head of the Department of Information-measuring Equipment. And later Aleksandr Shestakov became the Dean of the Instrumentation Engineering Faculty. Its 40th anniversary was nearing, and it should have been honoured properly.
“I organized the party bureau meeting; we developed a program, and published a book. It turned out that we had the contacts of Alexei Leonov (a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut). One of the instruments operated at the Mir space station back then was the one that we had designed. We wrote a letter with an invitation to the cosmonaut. The negotiations took us one month and half, and he gave his consent. I greeted him at the airfield. The car was driven right to the ramp. I remember as the two-star general was walking down the airstairs… Big fuss was all around, all the mass media were present! Alexei Leonov was a guest of mine for four days. He was a down-to-earth person when it came to socializing, he told us a lot of fascinating things about how it all really was “up there”. That was the coolest way to celebrate the anniversary of the Instrumentation Engineering Faculty! Since then we have maintained our friendship with Alexei Leonov.”
“Time and People Elected Me”
For three years Aleksandr Shestakov worked in the position of the Dean. And then, Rector German Vyatkin offered him to become the Vice-Rector for Research. He agreed to that proposal; after all, his research adviser Georgy Chernorutsky kept saying that 'Do not ask for work, but never decline it'. In this job Aleksandr Shestakov worked for six years. He supervised not only the research sphere. He also acted as the Rector when the health of German Vyatkin deteriorated. And in 2005 Aleksandr Shestakov was proposed by German Vyatkin as a candidate during the infamous elections.
“We faced denouncements, were dragged through the mud in mass media, but we won. During the elections 75 percent of people voted for me. Since then I'm on duty and try to develop our university. We have won the contest within the Education National Project. We have been granted 750 million roubles for the development of our university, which were mostly invested into creating our research base. Next, we have been awarded the status of a national research university: one billion and 800 million roubles were also invested into our research base. We have become members of Program 5-100…”
Today SUSU is becoming a prominent international university of good reputation. The development strategy has been elaborated, and the collaboration with the world's leading corporations is being fulfilled.
“Our partners are successful players in the global market. We quite efficiently interact with such companies as Metran and Emerson; in joint effort we develop the process of education, and intend to maintain our collaboration. We are the pioneers of the digital industry in our country. We had started working in this field long before it became the talking point in Russia. By the way, the president of Emerson company confessed that their corporation provides such support to only two universities in the world: to the American university being its headquarters, and to SUSU in Russia.”
Aleksandr Shestakov is a father of three daughters. The eldest is an economist, she graduated from Chelyabinsk State Technical University, got married and now lives with her daughter in Australia. The second daughter graduated from the medical university, defended her thesis and became a very good immunologist. She has two beautiful kids of her own now: a son and a daughter! The youngest daughter is a Philosophy student at RUDN University. And the wife of Aleksandr Shestakov is also a wonderful woman. Though she had to quit the position of the SUSU Director of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications since, according to the legislation, a rector's wife cannot work as an executive employee. It was a great pity, of course, as Liudmila Shestakova created this institute, as they say, from scratch.
What helped you succeed in life?
“You see… the path to success is always a difficult one. I don't know the ending to my story of success, but in any case, it all is a result of hard work,” shares his thoughts Aleksandr Shestakov. “I didn't have any global-scale plans, and didn't intend to hold the job of a rector. The time and people elected me. I was entrusted with the most difficult tasks. I have always been doing more than was required, and tried to do any job well. I, probably, inherited this from my mother, who unfortunately passed away early.”
…The aroma of wild berries still unfailingly brings Aleksandr Shestakov the memories of his childhood. And he will always keep in his heart the happy memory of his mother. She continues to guide him through life and blesses him for new victories.