“The Road Will Be Mastered by the One Who Walks It”: Tajik Transport Legend Boipochо Fattidinov Turns 90

Boipochо Fattidinov’s life brought together technical calculation, state responsibility, a love of high art and a refined sense of humor. On September 7, the scholar and honored figure in Tajikistan’s transport industry marks his 90th birthday.

Behind his Order of the Badge of Honor, the “Honored Transport Worker” badge and numerous state awards lies an era in the development of Tajik motor transport. His career began in Leninabad, now Khujand, where he was born in 1936. After graduating from school with a silver medal, he went to Moscow and entered the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute.

Fattidinov returned to Dushanbe in 1959 with an engineering degree and became an assistant in the motor transport department of the Tajik Polytechnic Institute. His pursuit of knowledge soon took him back to Moscow. He entered MADI’s postgraduate program in 1962 and defended his candidate dissertation three years later.

In 1966, he headed the republic’s new Department of Economics and Organization of Motor Transport Production. In 1979, he became head of the Avtotranssistema production and technical association. His arrival brought major changes to the sector, including detailed research into logistics flows, scientific analysis and the introduction of new developments that reshaped transport infrastructure in the Tajik SSR.

His influence extended beyond administration and research. Over years of teaching, he trained specialists who later became transport ministers, Academy of Sciences professors, diplomats and leading lecturers at Moscow universities. In 1990, he was elected a people’s deputy to Tajikistan’s Supreme Council. During the country’s most difficult years, he took part in the historic 16th session of the council and worked to keep the republic’s transport artery operating. In 1995, he became head of TajikGAZservice, while continuing to serve as a mentor and chair the State Examination Commission at the Khujand branch of the Technical University.

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Whoever has understood life no longer hurries, savors every moment and observes: how a child sleeps, how an old man prays, how rain falls, and how snowflakes melt.