Article is devoted to the outstanding scientist, the organizer of science and the higher school, the corresponding member of Academy of Sciences of the USSR Vasily Sergeyevich Smirnov. It is told about years of formation of V. S. Smirnov as scientist and the head, his labor way is tracked, the main scientific achievements in the field of plastic deformation of metals are analyzed. The special attention is paid to the period of work of V.S. Smirnov at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.