University and Academic Milieu in Russia of the Early 20th Century

Abstract

Sergey Druzhilov, Psy.D., Associate Professor, leading researcher at the Research Institute for Complex Problems of Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, Siberian Department of the Russian academy of Medical Sciences, Novokuznetsk, Russian Federation.  Email: druzhilov@mail.ru
Address: 23 Kutuzova St., Novokuznetsk, 654041, Russian Federation.

The study aims to investigate into the higher education system that had been developed in Russia by the Revolution of 1917. It has been demonstrated that the accumulated educational lag had been eliminated actively during the two decades preceding the World War I by establishing new universities and professional educational institutions and by creating a series of private universities in addition to the system of governmental ones.

In the dawn of capitalism, higher education was on the rise in Russia. There were ever more professors, and the number of students had increased almost ten times by that time. There also was an increase in social value of university graduates’ labor. The academic degree system was pretty close to that of Western Europe (Master and Doctor degrees), while requirements for candidates were much higher in Russia than abroad. As a professional group, university intelligentsia played a prominent role in social, economic, political, and cultural life of the pre-revolutionary Russia. In the dialogue with the government and the society, the university association defended the principles of university autonomy, which, at the time, was limited by bureaucracy and total control of the Ministry of National Education.

The Soviet Union put an end to the progressive development of higher schools in Russia. The existing higher education system was fully destroyed, while university intelligentsia, as a social and professional group bearing educational culture and university traditions, was virtually obliterated in the epoch of revolutionary terror and political repressions.