97 years ago – November 8, 1927 – the construction of the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station (DniproHES), the oldest hydroelectric power station on the Dnipro River, officially started. At the same time, the construction works themselves have been carried out for almost 8 months, since March 15. But they decided to dedicate the ceremonial start of construction to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. About 20,000 people came that day for the ceremonial laying of the first cubic meter of concrete in the foundation of the hydroelectric power plant.
The construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Dnipro was planned in 1921 as part of the plan of GOELRO (“State Commission for Electrification of Russia”). DniproHES was supposed to supply electricity to the Donetsk-Kryvorizka industrial district, Tavria and the north of Crimea and to ensure shipping between Oleksandrivsk (now Zaporizhzhia) and Katerynoslav (now Dnipro).
The decision to build DniproHES was finally adopted by the Soviet People's Committee of the USSR on November 27, 1926. Ihor Aleksandrov was approved as the project manager. American engineer Hugh Cooper, who had experience in the construction of four hydroelectric power plants in Canada and the USA, became a design and construction consultant. Oleksandr Winter, the former head of the Shaturskaya GRES, was appointed the head of the construction of DniproHES.
The construction was accompanied by a huge propaganda campaign and partially financed by the “voluntary” donations of the workers. It lasted quite a long time, with the involvement of colossal human resources. At the beginning of construction, the number of workers reached 10 thousand, and in the spring of 1932, it was 63 thousand. Due to the lack of technical means, at first, most of the construction work was done manually.
By the way, the world-famous director and screenwriter Dziga Vertov (David Kaufman) in 1927 made a documentary film “Eleventh”, in which you can see footage of the construction of DniproHES. The first 10 minutes of the film are devoted to this.
On May 1, 1932, DniproHES gave the first current, and its official opening took place on October 10, 1932, when the first phase was put into operation. By 1939, all nine DniproHES hydro units were put into operation.
As a result of the construction of the dam and the rise of the water level, more than 16,000 people were flooded. ha of land on both banks of the Dnieper, 56 settlements (14 – fully, 42 – partially). Before World War II, a tram ran through the DniproHES dam. The 155.75-km flood lane stretched from Kichkas to Verkhnyodniprovsk. And the picturesque and formidable Dnieper Rapids together with the islands were known even in the time of Herodotus until 1933. completely absorbed the waters of the Dnipro Reservoir. One of the most picturesque landscapes in Europe and the pride of the Ukrainian people ended up under the water column, the profession of pilots disappeared forever, and instead we got unhindered navigation along the largest water artery of Ukraine. On May 1, 1933, the first passenger steamer “Sofya Perovska” passed here. This is how navigation through the Dnieper was opened. At the place of the rapids, the Dnipro Reservoir was formed with a maximum depth of 53 m and a width of 3.2 km. The largest threshold – Nenasitetskyi – was at a depth of 20 m under water.
The power station was seriously damaged during World War II, when, after the breakthrough of the front, the dam was blown up by German troops on the order of the NKVD on August 18, 1941. Also, during the retreat of the Germans on December 28, 1943, the engine room, the control panel, all the electrical equipment and the advance camera bridge were blown up. After reconstruction, DniproHES gave the first industrial current on March 3, 1947, and on June 26, 1950, it worked at full capacity. Builders and collective farm workers - mainly women - were sent for restoration work. In total, about 50,000 people were involved in the reconstruction of DniproHES.
On April 22, 1972, the construction of the second stage of DniproHES was started, which was completed in 1981 and the station reached full capacity. The second Dnipro shipping lock was put into operation.
During 1996–2012, large-scale reconstruction of DniproHES took place in two stages. On November 18, 2021, during a meeting at Ukrhydroenergo, the concept of reconstruction of the D DniproHES dam was approved, but these plans were hindered by the full-scale invasion of the Russian military in Ukraine.
Since February 24, 2022, the station has repeatedly come under Russian attacks. On the morning of October 31, 2022, because of a massive enemy missile attack on critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, a missile was recorded hitting the DniproHES electrical substation. On March 22, 2024, the Russian occupiers heavily damaged the dam with rocket fire, but did not destroy it. The object was put out of order for some time, and the road crossing the dam was completely blocked. As a result of the rocket attack, a fire broke out, oil products got into the Dnipro River, and the soil was contaminated. As a result of the massive, combined attack of the Russian occupiers on the night of June 1, 2024, the movement of the DniproHES dam was temporarily blocked due to significant damage. In total, the occupiers struck DniproHES with more than 40 missiles of various types and “shahedes”. According to the report of the head of Zaporizhzhia OVA I. Fedorov, DniproHES is currently in a critical state. The Russian occupiers act according to the principle of Gogol's hero Taras Bulba: what was once built with their participation, now they themselves mercilessly destroy.
Daria Yesina