Tomsk period in the life of Professor B.P. Tokin

The article is devoted to the life and work of Boris Petrovich Tokin. Particular emphasis is placed on the Tomsk period (19361946). During this period he was the Director (Rector) of Tomsk State University for some time (from August 1936 to November 1937) In this short time, B.P. Tokin paid special attention to developing research and educational activities of the university, the first Siberian university. Under him, the Assembly Hall of the Fundamental Library of the University was transformed into a student's reading room. In the article on the basis of documents and memories, events were reconstructed associated with the removal of B.P. Tokin from his office as the Director, his expulsion from the party in November 1937 and subsequent arrest in February 1938. A year later, B.P. Tokin was acquitted for innocence, restored in the party and continued to work at the University of Tomsk first as a professor of the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology (from March 1, 1939), and in December 1939 he was appointed HeaD of the Dynamics (mechanics) of the Animal Organism Department. The article reflects the activities of B.P. Tokin as a scientist. For a long time he was engaged in the problems of cell division, in research on the ontogeny of the cells, the nature of mitogenic rays. The result was the discovery of plant-derived microbicides, called phytoncides. Later, in 1950, already in the Leningrad period of his life, B.P. Tokin was awarded the Stalin Prize, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Shortly after the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, B.P. Tokin became the head of Tomsk Scholar Committee to promote the industry of transport and agriculture in wartime. The first of such public bodies in the country, it had worked throughout the years of the war and joined the efforts of scientists of different specialties. On the eve of the war, Tomsk was the largest scientific and educational center of Siberia. In the first months of the war, several universities and research institutes were evacuated from the European part of the country. About 900 professors and associate professors out of 130 thousand inhabitants lived in Tomsk at the time. As Chairman of Tomsk Scholar Committee B.P. Tokin fully realized diverse organizational activities. Protocols of meetings of the presidium, plenum and bureau of Tomsk Scholar Committee give a clear idea about what kind of contribution to the victory over the enemy Tomsk scientists made. The committee extended its activities over the whole Siberia. The paper provides concrete examples of various work of the Committee in the interests of defense and national economy. It is emphasized that it allowed mobilizing the scientific resources, directing their activities to the quick solution of military-economic problems, strengthening the cooperation of science and industry.

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