Since the War beginning
thousands of Tyumenians were mobilized to the front. A lot of them
fought in the 712th signal battalion and in the Siberian volunteers
brigade. The 368th Red Banner infantry division formed in Tyumen took
part in releasing over 400 inhabitant locations in the Volgograd and
Leningrad regions, as well as in Karelia and Norway.
During the War over 20 industrial and research enterprises were
evacuated to Tyumen out of the Central Russia and Ukraine. Some of them
(accumulator plant, pharmaceutical, weight, and plastic industries) were
left in Tyumen after the war, and became the leading industries. A
Design bureau of an aircraft engineer O. Antonov was evacuated to Tyumen.
Over a short period production was organized of noiseless planes
specially designed for reconnaissance and delivering partisans into the
enemy’s rear front. In Tyumen a donation fund was opened for
construction of an air squadron called ‘Tyumenians to the front’, of a
tank column ‘Battle female friends’, and of a submarine ‘Siberian Water
Worker’. The Tyumen railway workers arranged a special bath-train and
sent it to the front.
In July 1941 an unusual cargo arrived in Tyumen. It was a sarcophagus
container with Lenin’s body inside. The sarcophagus was placed in the
building of the Agricultural college (at present the Agricultural
academy). Near it commandant guards delivered from the Moscow Kremlin on
this particular occasion were on the whole-day honourable duty. In March
1945 the sarcophagus was transported back to Moscow. The history of the
Agricultural college is also closely connected with the life of Nikolai
Kuznetsov, a legendary secret agent. In 1926-1927 he studied here at the
department of land-tenure regulation.
During the War the population of Tyumen increased almost in twice. This
was due to a great inflow of people from out of different parts of the
country. 26 hospitals were placed in the town’s offices. Since 1942 till
1948 prisoners of war were kept in Tyumen. They were organized into
working teams and worked at large-scale construction sites in Tyumen.
