Mykola Marchak was the son of a poor peasant from the village of Zalistsi (near
Dunaivtsi). In 1915, he graduated from a church parish school. In 1918, Marchak returned to school until September 1922. In 1922 to 1923, he studied at the preparation courses of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Institute of People's Education (today
Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University). From 1923 to 1927, Marchak was a teacher and later the director of a local school where he was from. In 1924, he joined
Komsomol and was a member of the local
Komsomol of Ukraine (LKSMU) cell. From 1927, he was a member of the
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine. From 1928 to 1931, Marchak studied at the Institute of People's Economy and the Chemical and Technological Institute in Kyiv. From 1931 to 1937, as an engineer, Marchak worked at the
Kharkiv Tractor Plant. In 1932, Marchak, without interrupting his employment at the plant, graduated from the Mechanical Faculty of the Kharkiv Engineering and Pedagogical Institute. In October - November 1937, he served as the first deputy of the People's Commissar of Education of the Ukrainian SSR. To this post, Marchak was approved by the Politburo of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine on 8 October 1937 during the ongoing political repressions better known as the
Great Purge. Already on 29 October 1937, he was approved as the first deputy chairman of the Soviet of the People's Commissars of Ukraine along with
Yakiv Tiahnybida. It happened soon after
Mykhailo Bondarenko, the chairman of the Soviet of the People's Commissars of Ukraine, was charged with
Trotskyism ("belonging to anti-Soviet Trotskyist terrorist and sabotage organization"). On 20 June 1938, Marchak was arrested in his office and accused of belonging to a rightist underground anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization and counter-revolutionary relations with the former director of the
Kharkiv Tractor Plant. On 23 September 1938, Marchak was found guilty by the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and was sentenced to death. Marchak was rehabilitated by the resolution of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR of 17 June 1958. ==References==