I met Nikolay Kucherskiy (Nikolai Kuchersky), a Hero of Uzbekistan and former director of the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine (NMMC), several times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the time, NMMC was one of the country’s most closed-off enterprises, as it produced gold and uranium.
Once, I was even flown to Navoi on a special flight together with other journalists. However, we were shown nothing at the combine itself and were immediately separated from the rest of the delegation and placed in a separate cafeteria. We were not allowed into the production facilities.
Later, I was invited to a reception organized by the combine in Tashkent. Kucherskiy looked much the same as in this photograph, with his wavy gray hair. From my observations, he tried to joke and maintain friendly relations with those around him.
Kucherskiy was born in Melitopol, Ukraine, in 1937. In 1961, he graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute in Ukraine and in the same year moved to Uzbekistan, where he began working in Uchquduq, the town where NMMC is located, as a mining foreman. He later served as a section chief, quarry manager, chief engineer, and director of the Central Mining Administration.
Nikolay Kucherskiy headed NMMC from 1985 to 2008. He was also elected to the Oliy Majlis, Uzbekistan’s parliament, and served as a member of the Senate. In 1996, he was awarded the title of Uzbekiston Qahramoni (“Hero of Uzbekistan”). He also received a number of state decorations.
Nikolay Kucherskiy died on December 13 at the age of 81 in Moscow (according to other reports, in the Moscow region), where he had moved after stepping down as head of the combine. The obituary published by the Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) was signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, and other senior state officials.
