Diachenko Nadezhda Zaharovna

Diachenko Nadezhda Zakharovna was born at may 9th 1922 in Blagoveshensk, Russia. Her father Zachary Michailovich Merkulov had fought in S. Lazo’s detachment during civil war years and for bravery he was awarded a silver riffle. He perished under unknown circumstances in the late 20s. Her mother, Varvara Emelianovna Michailovskaya, was a remarkable person. After her parent’s death she took care of her brothers and sisters all by herself and having graduated from gymnasium went to work as an elementary school teacher in a vllage school where she eventually met her future husband.

In a year after her parent’s wedding, Nadezhda Zakharovna was born. Her father was fond of his only daughter and Nadezhda Zakharovna carried his love throughout her entire life. Even though her father died when she was a little girl, she still remembers him with great warmth. There was a war going on during her student years and hunger and the cold were common those days. Studies were held in dark and cold classrooms and students were often sent to unload freight cars, to harvest, and other collective activities. Despite all that, Nadezhda Zakharovna had graduated with excellence from of M.I. Kalinin Blagoveshensk State Pedagogical Institute in 1944 and was offered to lecture at Zoology Department. Soon she became deputy dean of Biology Faculty’s correspondence department, where she met her future husband, Michail Ivanovich, and married him. In 1948 they had a daughter Olga

In 1950 together with her husband she went to Leningrad to apply for post-graduate program at A.I. Gertzen State Pedagogical Institute. After defending her PhD thesis “Development of classification cognitive process of 2–7 grade school children”, Nadezhda Zakharovna gladly accepted an offer to stay at the department to work as a lecturer. After some time she and her family have moved to Moscow.

In 1962 Nadezhda Zakharovna was invited to take up a post of associate professor at Moscow Veterinary Academy where she continued to work for 25 years. She remembers this time with true affection:

“I was fulfilling the duties of Head of pedagogy department for 5 years. I didn’t liked it much for never-ending paperwork. And when I was offered an official post of department’s head, I refused it.

The most precious to me was working with the students, that’s where a true life was. My lectures had always been scheduled in early morning because students eagerly attended them. I managed to achieve this through teaching in school and then in the Higher School and I enjoyed it. No matter what mood I was in, I always wore a smile when entering in the classroom, and my students always smiled back to me. I used to end my lectures on time but afterwards got constantly surrounded by students asking questions.  

At our department the whole staff worked hard on methods of teaching different courses. We often invited colleagues from other universities and went to out-of-town schools to test out ideas on practice. Well, it wasn’t an academic science in its full sense, it was teaching closely connected with real work of future specialists”.

Students surrounded Nadezhda Zakharovna not only after lectures, they were welcomed at her home where she helped them to cope with various scientific and life problems.

Nadezhda Zakharovna had devoted herself not only to her students, but also to her close ones, especially grandchildren – Alesha and Sasha, to whom she had generously given love with all her patience and wisdom.

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