Forming the institutions of student selfgovernment in the 1920s: on the materials of Tomsk State University

On the basis of archival sources (reports, certificates, protocols of meetings of party and trade union bodies) and periodicals there is reconstructed the history of the forming institutions of student selfgovernment at Tomsk State University in the 1920s. It is noted that attempts to create student organizations were taken soon after the release of Tomsk on whites. Initiative was showed by a few students communists and then komsomol ones. Efforts and attempts to revive the fraternities. Form of grassroots student organizations had become subject commissions which took an active part in the reform of curricula, teaching methods, teachers elections through competition, etc. The students were presented in the board of the university too. At the same time, the increased participation of students in the management of university was met by professors with resistance. One of the most effective forms of student government became trade unions. Trade union organizations more clearly and objectively reflected the composition of the student at the time. Initially, it looked as follows: 1) profsections; 2) faculty committees; 3) the trade union executive bureau. During the period of reorganization of profsections, faculty committees were abolished and instead there appeared trade union committees. Profsections permanent representatives along with the trade union committees became steel union delegates. The article deals with the various activities of student union organizations, covering all aspects of life of the university: academic performance and improvement of the quality of learning; subscription on the industrialization loan; distribution of scholarships and places in hostels, cultural and sports activities, literacy, patronage, etc. At the same time, according to documents, student independence of trade unions was far from complete. The students were under active control of communist fractions. The party organization played a crucial role in deciding many problems including trade union life, depriving trade unions initiative that ultimately played a negative impact on their work. Union members, the majority of students, showed little interest in participation in the life of the university. As a result, the apparent non-partisan solidarity with the party of students and managers were often negative in the work of profsections. There was concluded that in contrast to the minority at the time of the party and komsomol organizations aimed at providing the maximum impact on the activities of trade unions, it was the latter which began to form associations of considerable mass of students. The experience of self-organization of students gained in the 1920s., сan be claimed today too.

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