Afanasy Nikitich Antipin

Afanasy Nikitich Antipin was a participant in the Great Patriotic War, a teacher, director of the Institute for the Improvement of Teachers, and a writer. He was born in Kirensk into a working-class family. After finishing secondary school in 1940 he was drafted into the Red Army and served until the end of the war as a commander of an artillery reconnaissance squad. He was wounded three times.

 

After demobilization Antipin taught geography in Kirensk for a while and worked as a methodologist at the Irkutsk children's excursion and tourism station. In 1949 he enrolled in the correspondence department of the Faculty of Geography at Irkutsk State University, which he graduated from with honors in 1956. From 1951 to 1959 he worked at Irkutsk School No. 61 as a geography teacher, deputy headmaster and headmaster. At the same time he was actively involved in local history work and in issues of pupil upbringing, especially collective education.

From 1959 Antipin worked at the Institute for the Improvement of Teachers, first as head of the pedagogy office, and from 1969 as director. He was a talented children's writer, author of the books "Conversation about Children", "The First Knoll", "The Bell for the Lesson" and others. Antipin actively participated in public life: for twenty years he headed the regional branch of the Pedagogical Society, was twice elected a deputy of the City Council and had been a member of the CPSU since 1967. For his combat and labour activities he was awarded three orders and seven medals, and in 1966 he received the title Honored School Teacher of the RSFSR. Afanasy Nikitich Antipin passed away on July 13, 1980, and was buried in the Radishchev Cemetery in Irkutsk.