Yuri Shkuropat

Yuri Aleksandrovich Shkuropat was born on 1 March 1937. In 1960 he graduated from the faculty of industrial and civil engineering at the Tomsk Institute of Civil Engineering, beginning a career in construction that would last the rest of his working life.

Shkuropat started work on the large chemical industry construction projects at Usolye-Sibirskoye in Irkutsk region and took part in building industry in Mongolia. He was later awarded medals of the Mongolian People's Republic. He went on to head the Irkutskpromstroy construction trust and became first deputy head of Glavvostoksibstroy, the main construction directorate for Eastern Siberia.

In the 1970s and 1980s he was among the pioneers of an automated integrated system for the engineering preparation of construction work, later adopted for wide use across the Soviet Ministry of Industrial Construction. Projects he worked on included the Novo-Irkutsk combined heat and power plant, workshops of the Irkutsk aviation plant, the Kuibyshev heavy engineering works (IZTM), the Irkutsk radio plant, the oil and fat works, the Megeta metal structures plant and institutes of the Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences.

From 1982 to 1990 he was chairman of the Irkutsk city executive committee, the head of the city's government. He took an active part in developing the region's construction industry base and in rebuilding and creating the engineering structures and networks that supported the growth of Irkutsk for many years.

He later became general director of ZAO Glavvostoksibstroy. He was the author of numerous publications on organising and managing construction, and he initiated the creation of the Union of Builders of Irkutsk Region, serving as its president from April 1996 to January 2025.

Shkuropat was known among colleagues as a mentor. Irkutsk mayor Ruslan Bolotov described him as an older comrade to whom one could always turn for advice, and thanked him for the knowledge, experience and practical wisdom he shared so generously. Details of his family life have not been widely published.

Yuri Shkuropat died in his ninetieth year, aged 89. His death was reported on 27 October 2026 by the Irkutsk outlet Glagol38, citing tributes from Governor Yuri Kobzev and Mayor Ruslan Bolotov. Kobzev wrote that his whole life was an example of devotion to his work. Bolotov said that with his passing a whole era had gone and called it an irreplaceable loss. The cause of death was not made public.

Shkuropat led Irkutsk through most of the 1980s and helped build much of the industrial and engineering infrastructure of the city and region. He was named an Honoured Builder of the RSFSR and an Honorary Builder of the Russian Federation, and was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Order of the Badge of Honour, the Order For Merit to the Fatherland fourth class, the badge For Merit to Irkutsk Region and the Construction Glory badge of the Russian Union of Builders. He became an honorary citizen of Irkutsk in 1996 and of Irkutsk region in 2007.