Muravlenko Street
Viktor Ivanovich Muravlenko was born on December 25, 1912 in the village of Nazamaevskaya, now in the Pavlovsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, in the family of a rural doctor.

He started his career in 1930 as a mechanic in the oil fields of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1936, he graduated from the Grozny Oil Institute and began working as a driller at the Bakneft drilling office in Lok Batai. In 1936−1937, he served in the Red Army, studied at the school of commanders of the Red Army, and completed his service with the rank of lieutenant.

In 1937, he was appointed head of the drilling office of Syzran drilling, headed the Komsomol brigade. In June 1939, he joined the CPSU. A few months later, he was appointed director of the Syzran Drilling Office.

In 1940−1946, he was the director of the drilling office of the Sakhalinneft Trust. In 1941, he was not called up to the front, but was left on Sakhalin "for the needs of the oil industry." Together with other experienced oilmen, he mentored young people who worked on drilling rigs.

In 1946, he was appointed director of the drilling office of the Stavropol Oil Company Trust. He participated in the improvement of turbine, double-barrel inclined and bush drilling methods. In 1949, he was awarded the Order of Lenin for the first time and appointed manager of the Stavropol Oil Company Trust. After some time, he became the head of the entire Kuibyshevneft management. Actively using the administrative resource, he reformed and modernized the work of the organization. He applied scientific developments to the oil industry. At that time, on his initiative, the country’s first integrated mechanized installation was built. It clearly showed all the technical innovations in drilling, put together. Subsequently, all Kuibyshevneft enterprises were re-equipped.

In 1960−1965, he was Deputy Chairman of the Kuibyshev Council of National Economy, Head of the Oil Industry Department of the Central Volga Council of National Economy (Sovnarkhoz).
On September 1, 1965, the USSR Government adopted a resolution on the creation of the Tyumen Main Production Department of the Oil and Gas Industry (Glavtyumenneftegaz) and appointed Viktor Ivanovich Muravlenko as its first head, who had previously worked as head of the Oil Industry Department and deputy chairman of the Central Volga Council of National Economy in the city of Kuibyshev. Viktor Ivanovich handed over his affairs and arrived in Tyumen, then settled in the city’s only hotel, Zarya, where there was an old-fashioned dressing table and a rattling telephone, the sound of which seemed to permeate the entire building. So this hotel became the temporary headquarters of the newly created headquarters.

From the very first days, Muravlenko began flying a helicopter over the future territory of the headquarters. In front of him stretched vast areas of virgin taiga and endless swamps. It was said that five Frances could be accommodated in this territory.

In addition, Viktor Ivanovich selected a team of professional oil workers, the same enthusiasts and optimists as himself. First of all, he began to invite those whom he knew from Kuibyshev, Tataria, Bashkiria and Baku.
"Only on the surface, we have a purely technical problem," he said, "in fact, these are social and moral problems. It is impossible to conquer this land with one technique without the power of the spirit, without creative thought." He knew how to trust people, set a personal example, and engage in work. And people didn’t let him down. Therefore, talented specialists in drilling, oil production, geologists, and builders began to come to the new headquarters. Some future glavka employees were housed in the Zarya hotel, others in hastily put together wooden barracks, where they left their families with their belongings and went to drilling rigs and fields to assess the situation and develop a work plan.

A few days later, in the evening, Viktor Ivanovich gathered the visiting managers and leading specialists and told them something amazing, where there was not a word about oil. "I invited you to my place," Muravlenko began solemnly, "to warn you: tomorrow you will see Tyumen in the light of day and, perhaps, some of you will strongly regret that you came here. You will compare this city with our native Kuibyshev, and the comparison, of course, will not be in favor of the new place of residence. But I really ask you not to jump to conclusions. The city will be different in a few years. New houses will be built here soon, and some are already under construction. We will build an Oil Workers' Palace, modern hospitals, schools, and kindergartens. The oilmen of Western Siberia will have a nice boarding house on the Black Sea coast. Guys! After all, we are starting a new big business! I give you my word, you won’t regret coming!"

The next major problem was housing for people arriving to create fuel and energy complex. Muravlenko considered providing it to people to be extremely important, no less than oil production itself. Moreover, this housing was not supposed to be temporary, as some even high-ranking leaders suggested, but permanent and comfortable.

Viktor Ivanovich understood that the headquarters was located in Tyumen — it should become the best city in Western Siberia. Of course, in those days they were very severely punished, despite their ranks, for misuse of financial resources. I had to be convinced of the correctness of the decision and have the courage to answer for it.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 23, 1966, Viktor Ivanovich Muravlenko was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal for outstanding achievements in fulfilling the tasks of the seven-year oil production plan and achieving high technical and economic performance.

With his active participation, the main fuel and energy base of the USSR with a developed infrastructure was created in Western Siberia. Throughout his career, he proved himself to be a skilled, capable of non-standard solutions, sensitive to subordinates, a leader who knew how to take risks and take responsibility.

Lenin Prize winner (1966, for scientific substantiation and practical implementation of block systems for the development of oil fields in the Kuibyshev region). Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1972, for the development and implementation of a set of technical, technological and organizational solutions that ensured high rates of drilling of oil fields in Western Siberia and accelerated creation of a new oil producing area in difficult natural and climatic conditions).

Excellent student of the USSR oil industry (1966). Honorary Oilman of the USSR (1970) Honorary citizen of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (1995, posthumously). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 8th and 9th convocations (since 1970). Professor.

V.I. Muravlenko was elected a delegate to three congresses of the Communist Party, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and a member of the regional committee of the Communist Party. In June 1977, he died of a heart attack in Moscow, where he flew to the next session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Viktor Ivanovich was buried at the Tyumen Chervishevsky cemetery.

After Muravlenko’s sudden death, numerous names were carried out in honor of V.I. Muravlenko, from a city in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District to streets in a number of cities, including Tyumen…

At that time, one of Gazprom’s construction divisions was building up the 1st Zarechny microdistrict and, of course, it was here that the street was named in honor of V.I. Muravlenko by decision of the executive committee of the city Council of Workers' Deputies on May 15, 1984. At that time, the street existed only on the sheets of designers, and in its place for many more years mosquitoes rang over the floodplain lakes and marshes of the Tura River, which were gradually covered with sand. For a long time, the entire area was called Sands.

In 2012, a memorial sign of V.I. Muravlenko "from grateful Tyumen residents" was erected near school No. 43 in front of a significant number of spectators, veterans of the oil and gas industry, students, and schoolchildren.

The inscription is carved on the memorial sign:

"The memorial sign was installed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Viktor Ivanovich Muravlenko, the first head of Glavtyumenneftegaz. The organizer of the creation and establishment of the oil and gas complex of the Tyumen region, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, the USSR Council of Ministers Award, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor. "His heart is in every drop of Tyumen oil."

Viktor Ivanovich’s name includes a city, oil and gas fields, a mountain pass, a drilling vessel, a research institute, a school, and a U-Tair Tu-154 aircraft. According to the results of the "Great Names of Russia" competition in 2018, Nizhnevartovsk airport was decided to be named after Viktor Muravlenko. On May 31, 2019, by decree The President of the Russian Federation Viktor Muravlenko’s name has been officially assigned to Nizhnevartovsk Airport.
Photos & Publications