Deputy Head of the NIVIT in Charge of Military Training - Colonel A. A. Timmerman (1939-1941)
The article covers for the first time the professional activities of colonel A. A. Timmerman, who worked for a short time at the Novosibirsk Institute of Military Railway Engineers (NIVIT). Based on the documents of the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region, the archive of the Siberian Transport University (NIVIT archive), and the publications in the NIVIT's newspaper “Personnel for Transport”, the picture of A. A. Timmerman’s activities as a deputy head in charge of military training (from October 1939 to September 1941) is recreated. The author obtained new information about the day-to-day work of the university’s deputy head in the pre-war years. The article focuses on the reflection of the socio-political situation in NIVIT at that period, some specific cases and events that were handled by the deputy head in charge of military training. A number of proposals and measures in order to increase the officers and teaching staff’s responsibility for the military training of transport commanders-to-be, to enhance the ideological and political education are described. Due to his official position and ideological belief, colonel A. A. Timmerman actively promoted the strengthening of discipline and order among teachers and students, which is confirmed by a number of documents, including minutes of the Party meetings, trade union and Komsomol activists’ meetings. He organized for the first time a military section in the framework of the scientific-technical conference in NIVIT, made a number of proposals for improving the methods of organizing and carrying out military field games, being responsible for organizing and holding several important military-sports events and tournaments. He paid special attention to coordination of the summer military camp training activities for the university students on the basis of the Yurginsky training ground in the Siberian Military District. The author concludes that colonel A. A. Timmerman completed a lot of important tasks during his work at NIVIT.