Professor N. V. Gutovsky.

Rector of the Siberian Technological Institute.

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary

of Prof. N. V. Gutovsky.

On November 25, 1928, twenty-five years were completed of the scientific and pedagogical activity of Professor Nikolai Vladimirovich Gutovsky, Rector of the F. E. Dzerzhinsky Siberian Technological Institute.

Nikolai Vladimirovich Gutovsky was born on February 6, 1876, in Nizhny Novgorod. After completing the course of the Nizhny Novgorod Institute (a secondary educational institution) in 1895, he entered the Leningrad Technological Institute, from which he graduated in 1902. Already as a student he showed an inclination toward scholarly pursuits, and therefore, after graduating from the institute, having spent some time in industry as head of the power station of the main workshops of the Ekaterininskaya Railway, he had already in 1903 established a firm connection with institutions of higher education. His merits duly appreciated, in August 1903 he was invited to the Tomsk Technological Institute for scholarly work as a laboratory assistant in the department of mechanical technology. The young scholar’s considerable abilities, diligence, and sound theoretical and practical training immediately attracted the attention of specialists. To prepare for occupying a professorial chair, Nikolai Vladimirovich received an assignment to Germany. The years 1904–1908 of his stay at the Aachen Polytechnic Institute were spent by him with extraordinary success; he studied mechanical technology very thoroughly in the section of hot working of metals. He worked in factories and in the laboratories of the Aachen Polytechnic Institute and the Berlin Polytechnic Institute under the guidance of the most eminent specialists. His scholarly labors were abundant. Here, among other things, at the Aachen Polytechnic Institute he defended a dissertation on the topic: “Zur Theorie des Schmelz und Erstarrungsprozesses der Eisenkohlenstofflegierungen” (“Toward the theory of the melting and solidification process of iron–carbon alloys”). This dissertation by the young Russian scholar met with a very sympathetic response from German specialists. Nikolai Vladimirovich was awarded the academic degree of doctor-engineer with distinction.

On September 1, 1908, upon Nikolai Vladimirovich’s return from abroad, he began lecturing on the course of mechanical technology of metals in the mining, chemical, and civil-engineering faculties.

Nikolai Vladimirovich is the author of a whole series of scientific works published both in Russian and in various foreign journals. Among them, the following are most worthy of attention:

Experimentell Studie über den Ersterrungs-und Schmelzvorgang bei Roheisen (Metallurgie 1908, 5, 463).

Experimentelle Untersuchung über den Ersterrungs-und Schmelzvorgang bei Technischem Roheisen. (Metallurgie 1908).

Zuz Theorie des Schmelz-und Ersterrungsprozesses der Eisenkohlenstofflegierungen. (Metallurgie 1909).

Ueber das Zustandsdiagramm der Eisenkohlenstofflegierungen. (Report presented to the VII International Congress of Applied Chemistry in London).

Tool steel and the processes of its heat treatment (Journal of the Society of Siberian Engineers, 1912).

On broadening during rolling. (Journal of the Society of Siberian Engineers, 1913).

The ironmaking industry of Siberia. (Bulletin of the Society of Siberian Engineers, 1916).

On the training of scientific workers for Siberia (Proceedings of the 1st Siberian Scientific-Research Congress, 1927).

On the theory of the iron–carbon system. (Proceedings of the Tomsk Technological Institute, 1914, vol. 36).

Since January 27, 1921, N. V. Gutovsky has continuously served as Rector of the Tomsk, now Siberian, Technological Institute. His tenure at the head of a higher technical educational institution of regional scope, with 2,000 students in four faculties, is undoubtedly a difficult task, requiring extensive knowledge of life, rich erudition, and familiarity with the region. In this case, in the person of Nikolai Vladimirovich, the Siberian Technological Institute found a selflessly devoted and diligent worker, one who valued the success of the educational institution, the proper organization of instruction, and the broad scale of administrative and economic undertakings. His role at the head of the institute deserves to be especially noted, all the more because the difficult years after the civil war created exceptional hardships in the various spheres of the Institute’s life. And in this respect, at the cost of his health and his personal interests, Nikolai Vladimirovich did everything he possibly could to maintain the well-being of the Institute.

His role as Rector of the Institute was duly appreciated by representatives of the People’s Commissariat of Education and the Regional Executive Committee at the jubilee celebration held on March 10, 1929. The congratulatory telegrams and the warm speeches that Nikolai Vladimirovich heard at his jubilee from representatives of Soviet authority were a well-deserved reward for his great labors.

Speaking of Professor N. V. Gutovsky on the occasion of his jubilee, one cannot fail to note his connection with industry and the public.

Siberia. From 1913 to 1920 N. V. worked tirelessly for the development of cottage industry in Western Siberia. At the same time he served as consultant to the Kuznetsk Coal and Metallurgical Joint-Stock Company, carrying out all the preparatory work for the organization in Siberia of an ironworks. In this respect, through his close connection with industry, N. V. is widely known among specialists working at the factories of Siberia.

Since 1921 N. V. Gutovsky has taken constant part in resolving questions concerning the development of Siberian industry. Especially worthy of note is his role in the elaboration of five-year plans for the industrialization of Siberia (1925–1926), as well as in the compilation of the general plan for the Siberian Territory.

Nikolai Vladimirovich is a member of the Presidium of the Siberian Territorial Executive Committee, a member of the Council of the Siberian Territorial Council of National Economy, chairman of the Tomsk group of the Scientific Research Bureau of the Siberian Territorial Planning Commission, and deputy manager of the Telbess Bureau.

Alongside this closest connection with industry, N. V. Gutovsky carries on extensive public work. He is a member of the City Council of the city of Tomsk, chairman of the Society of Siberian Engineers, a member of the editorial board of the Siberian Soviet Encyclopedia, and a member of the editorial collegium of the journals Life of Siberia and Bulletin of Siberian Engineers. From 1913 to 1917 N. V. Gutovsky was chairman of the society for the promotion of evening general-education courses in the city of Tomsk, and from 1910 to 1913 chairman of the student technical circle.

Finally, in this brief note it is necessary to speak of N. V. Gutovsky as a person. His restraint, as well as his humane attitude, have created among those around him complete confidence in his invariably benevolent relations toward his colleagues at work and toward students. More than one hundred engineers, pupils of Nikolai Vladimirovich, retain the very best memories of him.