The Higher Attestation Commission activities during the pre-war period of Stalinism

The article deals with the Soviet system of attestation of scientific and scientific-pedagogical staff of pre-war period through the activities of the Higher Attestation Commission (abbreviated as VAK), which was established in 1933 and controlled the awarding of advanced academic degrees and academic ranks in all of the USSR. This revising of VAK history is caused by the topicality of its modernization. Presently West European model of attestation is being extensively discussed in Russian society as more effective and democratic compared with currently existing. We think Soviet experience also deserves to be more carefully examined as a further alternative. The reviewed material has lead to the conclusion that the Soviet system of attestation of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel staff was not used as some kind of tool of "totalitarian" regime of Stalinism at the initial stage of its existence. That trend began to appear since 1936. With regard to period of 1933-1936 years we can consider the system of attestation as a rather democratic model. That also can be referred towards the Soviet science of that period when scientists actively published their scientific articles in international journals and made foreign scientific work trips. During the short period of 1933-1935 years the presence of public and scientific component was notable in the functioning of the attestation system. At that period of time the right of assignment of a number of titles and degrees was granted to councils of higher education institutions and research institutions either completely independently or with the approval of the qualification commissions of adequate People's Commissariats. In this case the Higher Attestation Commission acted as the highest court of cassation, and did not participate at first-hand in the process of assigning of titles and degrees except for doctoral degree and professor rank. What should be particularly emphasized is the role as coordinating center that played VAK in the Soviet era, coupling science with industry. VAK detected scarce specialties and aimed to provide the national economy with experts of economic and industrial sections. This feature has been obviously lost by now. As a result, high-tech sectors of the economy did not receive sufficient quantity of specialists, and scientific researches did not find an entry into the national economic market. In this lost peculiarity of VAK the author sees the main advantage of the Soviet system of certification of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel of the Soviet period, which was also free from the ideological component in the short period of 1933-1935 years.

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