EARLY BIOGRAPHY OF MYKOLA GOVOROV (1899 – 1920) – THE FIRST DEAN OF THE GENERAL TECHNICAL FACULTY OF ZAPORIZHIA INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING

Abstract

The research is devoted to the examination of life and work of Mykola Hovorov (1899-1850), the first Dean of the General Technical Faculty of Zaporizhzhia Institute of Agricultural Engineering, the first Head of the Department of «Machine Elements» and also brother of the USSR Marshall L. Hovorov. It turned out that in his younger years, before becoming a teacher, M. Hovorov was an officer (warrant officer and second lieutenant) of various anti-Soviet armies during the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), and then Soviet «militarily specialist». Based on the data from Russian State Military Archive, archive materials of the Scientific Progress Museum of the National University «Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic», memories of former students and teachers of Zaporizhzhia higher educational institutions, there was made an attempt to study life-changing turn of military and teaching events in the carrier of M. Hovorov and his vital survival strategy during the revolution and civil war. Being a talented individual and coming from the countryside areas, M. Hovorov had tried many social roles during 1916-1920, one by one: student of Petrohrad Forest Institute, junker of Konstiantynivsk Artillery Academy, wartime warrant officer in the Russian Federation Army, worker at Elabuga Consumer Cooperation, «junior officer» of People’s Army of Komuch, warrant officer of Ufa Directory, second lieutenant of Admiral Kolchak’s Russian Army, «militarily specialist» – artillerist of 51st division of the Red Army, and finally teacher of Machine Science at Zaporizhzhia Industrial Technical School, where he managed to hide from repressions of the communist regime. The anabasis of an adventurous associate professor, who managed to survive in the flames of the deadliest military operations of the Russian Civil War and became famous engineer and teacher, is pretty impressive. We believe that this publication is an important addition to the history of revolutionary actions in 1918-1920, history of Ukrainian science and technology, history of higher education of Ukraine.