Nikolai Andreyevich Tsymbal was an officer of the Soviet Armed Forces.
15 Facts About Nikolai Tsymbal
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Nikolai Tsymbal worked in the force's political branch and reached the rank of General-Lieutenant of Aviation.
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Nikolai Tsymbal was assigned to serve in the armed forces' political wing after the war, gradually rising through the ranks and eventually reaching the posts of deputy head of the Soviet Air Force's political department and deputy head of the Gagarin Air Force Academy.
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Nikolai Tsymbal died in 2020, having received a number of awards over his career, including the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and the Order of Friendship.
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Nikolai Tsymbal volunteered for service in the Red Army after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and rose from being a cadet, to platoon commander, and then deputy company commander of the 2nd Moscow Military Infantry School.
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Nikolai Tsymbal transferred to a Komsomol infantry regiment in 1942, and saw action with a heavy self-propelled artillery regiment on the 1st Belorussian Front and 2nd Baltic Front.
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Nikolai Tsymbal then became head of the political department of the bomber division, and then deputy commander of the Group of Forces in the Arctic.
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Nikolai Tsymbal graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1966, and from then until 1972 served as a member of the Military Council of the 1st Special Far Eastern Air Army.
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Nikolai Tsymbal remained an advisor to the chairman of the union until his death.
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Nikolai Tsymbal twice served in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.
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Nikolai Tsymbal pursued academic interests, being a candidate of historical sciences and an associate professor.
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Nikolai Tsymbal wrote and contributed to several books, including Commissars in the Line of Fire.
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The latter work, edited by Nikolai Tsymbal, was published in English as First Man In Space: The Life and Achievement of Yuri Gagarin: A Collection.
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Nikolai Tsymbal's work was later cited by other scholars, including Francis French and Colin Burgess in their 2007 work Into That Silent Sea.
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Over his career Nikolai Tsymbal had received a number of awards, including the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War First and Second classes, the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" Second and Third classes, and the Order of Friendship.