Erich Buck: two lives in the fate

The Department of Foreign Languages of Omsk State Agrarian University, being one of the oldest in the university, celebrated its 90th anniversary in September 2021. The history of the department, which is rich in events and people, was reflected in this study on the biography of the German language teacher Eric (Erich) Gustavovich Buck (1879-1962). E.G. Buck was born on March 18, 1879 in the village of Black Posad, the Baltic Territory. He knew several foreign languages (German, Estonian, Russian, English, Finnish, Latin), played the piano, worked as a translator in a pharmaceutical company, as well as a teacher at a gymnasium in Kurgan. His colleagues saw him as a diligent and hardworking teacher. In 1913 he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav of the 3rd degree. Before his work at Omsk Agricultural Institute (OmSHI), E.G. Buck taught political economy at Omsk Road Institute. From 1933 to 1958, until his retirement, he worked at OmSHI, and for 22 years he combined work at the Department of Foreign Languages with the position of a senior librarian of the Department of Foreign Literature in the institute library. E.G. Buck conducted public work in the society “Knowledgeˮ, prepared methodological manuals for working with the book, developed and improved librarians’ qualifications, organized an inter-library work. He was also the head of the foreign languages club at the library. Erich Buck was awarded the medal “For Valorous Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945ˮ and the medal “For Labor Valorˮ.