Devoted to the memory of Nikolay Ivanovich Melnikov...

..:: M a i n :: B i o g r a p h y :: P h o t o g r a p h y :: A b o u t  a u t h o r s :: RU :: EN ::..

Melnikov Nikolay Ivanovich
(1924 - 2002)

    School... What is it? What does it begin with? Perhaps, first of all, it begins with a teacher and, of course, with a lesson. And what is a lesson? That is a short period of time full of problems and discoveries, the first accurately written letters, the world of literature and mystery. And all of this is a lesson. From that very moment when the teacher entered the school he had to be thoughtful, generous and hard-working. Nikolay Ivanovich Melnikov always came to school early in the morning during 46 years of his pedagogical life.

    N.I.Melnikov was an Honoured school teacher of the Public Education, the participant of the Great Patriotic War and an Honoured citizen of Samara.
    He was born in 1924 and all his life was full of difficulties and glory.
    In 1942 just from school he joined the Soviet Army. After that he was sent to the First Moscow signal college and graduated from it successfully in 1943. Soon he was sent to the 23-rd guard regiment by the end of Kurskaya battle. All the ordeals of war years of this regiment are described by K. Simonov in his book "Alive and Dead". Six huge night bombers TB-3 were slowly flying over the forest. It seemed that they were not flying they were slowly moving across the sky and bombing. And there was none of our fighters there. From the pilot's story we knew that the bridge had exploded and crashed and fallen with tanks under water. It is not fiction. There are real facts from the war activities of that regiment.
    During the Great Patriotic War Nikolay Ivanovich was a guards sergeant, a gunner and a wireless operator of the aviation for the far distance.
    Guards master sergeant N.I.Melnikov took part in the operation of relieving Leningrad under siege, in the liberation of the Ukraine, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to the full crashing of the fascist Germany. For his feats of arms he was awarded with the order of the Red Star, the Order of the Great Patriotic War and with medals: "For Courage", "For Liberation of Leningrad", "For Victory over Germany" and many others. He was a faithful soldier of his Motherland and was rewarded according to his deserts.
    His experience to work with people in the army has determined his further choice of the job. From his memories: "Army and soldier chilling has taught me to be disciplined and responsible to do my duty honestly. If a mechanic prepares a plane for the flight a pilot needn 't to check up the plane. The pilot believes him. As for me the main feature in a man's character is reliability. I feel myself a soldier all my life. And I'm really a soldier in the large army of teachers".

    In 1950 N.I. entered the physics department in Kuibyshev Teacher's Training College and in 1954 he graduated from the college successfully. In 1962 he was invited to school 63 to work as a teacher of physics and had been working there till the 25-th of August, 2000.
    Now this school is specialized in physics, maths and computing. And that is his merit.
    He was the leader of the school radio station and radio club "Electron" for 26 years. Signals of this radio station were known to many radio lovers of our country and other countries: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Cuba, Japan, New Zealand, Zambia, Spitsbergen. Not all of them are mentioned here. Radio lovers of school 63 sent their signals, their "visiting cards" to different parts of the world in order to establish close links with other radio stations and countries. Radio lovers of this school regularly displayed the exhibits at the region exhibitions. And they always took first places, taking part in All-Union and international competitions of shortwavers.
    Only thanks to N.I.Melnikov pupils could build their own radio station. They couldn't do it if they hadn't had deep knowledge in physics received in school laboratories and physics study. Nikolay Ivanovich's study was the best in the city. The slogan of this study was: "Think, think and think..."
    From his interview to the newspaper "Volzhskaya Zarya" : "Everything must work and act in the Physics study. Besides, the equipment in the study must be on a very high level. I can't see another way to bring up the feeling of up-to-date life. Our teenagers are preparing different scientific reports. And I must say the reports are real scientific discoveries. At last the defense of the scientific reports... I 'm looking at the audience. It is interesting for me to know how my pupils react. Everything is dear for me. I appreciate everything: friendly and attentive relationships among my young investigators, their creative search. I teach them to live and to work in the collective, among people. For this purpose they need their talent and the teacher should bring them up to be creative and nice people".
    Nikolay Ivanovich's classes - are classes of the highest feeling of responsibility, clearness of purpose and humanism. And is it possible to limit only with his scientific discoveries? Of course, not.
    Nikolay Ivanovich is a great master of his classes. His invitation classes are of great importance. All his classes were invitation classes. He considered that it was impossible to imagine a lesson for show. It was more important for him to make everything interesting, understandable and productive. Every time at the end of the lesson he gave them very simple hometask for the next lesson and for two weeks ahead. "It's very important in our life to go for a long distance, my pupils should be able to do this," - he said.

    In those years there was a scientific society in school 63 called "Thought". It was the most favourite Melnikov's offspring. Doors of the higher educational laboratories were open for its members everywhere.
    All was interesting and serious in this society. The defense of the scientific reports was always on a very high level.
    Every year his students brought prizes, honorary certificates and diplomas from olympiads and All-Union reviews of physics lovers.
    His students were noticed everywhere: in Kuibyshev, in Moscow and other cities. No one school in the region could bother of such a great number of graduates who further studied in Moscow Physics Technical Institute. His pupils could be met in Bauman college and other higher educational establishments of Moscow and Leningrad, in Novosibirsk and Samara universities. Many of them became physicists-theorists, teachers of physics and a lot of them defended a thesis for a degree.
    N.I.Melnikov was invited to work at the institute by the Doctor of Physics and Maths L.I. Koshkin. He even worked there for a year. Everything was OK. But, Nikolay Ivanovich suddenly realized that his place was at school, among his students.
    All his life he was proud of his honourable job. During his pedagogical activities he has published his 16 works.
    In peaceful time he was awarded with some orders and medals for his honest labor.