ON THE NATURE OF POLITICAL REPRESSION IN THE NOVOSIBIRSK INSTITUTE OF MILITARY ENGINEERS OF RAILWAY TRANSPORT (NIVIT) IN THE PREWAR YEARS
The article deals for the first time with the topic of political repression within the walls of the Novosibirsk Institute of military engineers of railway transport (NIVIT). The time frame of the study covers the period from the mid-1930s to the prewar period. The author found that the first political repression against students and faculty in Nivit associated with getting rid of socially alien elements after the reorganization of the civil University and giving it the status of a paramilitary institution of higher education. Further repressions at the University were predetermined by the political events taking place in the country - the fight against anti-Bolshevik opposition movements. It should be noted that in those years the team of NIVIT strongly supported the line of the party and the Soviet state to fight the enemies of the people. The publication reflects the role of party, trade union and Komsomol bodies in the organization and conduct of agitation and mass campaigns at this time. Special attention is paid to the repressions in the Institute during the years of the “great terror”, such a phenomenon as the struggle against “traitors” and the consequences of this struggle for specific people and the Institute as a whole is considered separately. The work reveals for the first time the fate of a number of administrative and managerial employees, heads of departments, deans, brought to justice under political articles. On the basis of archival materials, orders on personnel, newspaper publications the author managed to restore surnames of the majority of teachers, employees and listeners of NIVIT repressed in pre-war years. In conclusion, the author concludes that almost all persons repressed for political reasons, with a few exceptions, have not returned to the walls of the University.