Postgraduate study as a way for higher school sovietization in late 1920s - early 1930s(by example of Tomsk State University)

In the 1920s -1930s sovietization was one of the principal tenets of the state policy in the sphere of higher education aiming at changes in the socialcomposition and party membership of the student body and the teaching staff of higher schools. Postgraduate schools as the main centersof training the brainpower for higher school and research institutions were to play the main role in this policy realization since 1925.The role of postgraduate school in higher education sovietization at TSU can be taken as an example. It was the Party, Komsomol andTrade union organizations that were responsible to nominate candidates for postgraduate school with the preference given to people ofparticular social origin, namely those from workers or peasant families as well as activists in public life and communist groups. Thispractice gave rise to a numerous conflicts between students and professors with the opinion of the latter being always decisive. Emphasizingthat there were not enough young personnel among the university staff, professors as a rule succeeded in nominating students whohad been working under their guidance for many years and were more capable for carrying out research work then activists of workersand peasant origin. As a result the social composition and party membership of the postgraduate school at TSU did not answer the requirementssuggested by the State and the Communist Party as most of postgraduate students were from families of office workers, therebeing not a single Party or Komsomol member. Since the 1930s the policy was hardened, the social origin and party membership of acandidate were taken as the most important consideration in the procedure of admission to a postgraduate course. The students whoconcealed their genuine social background were expelled from the university and postgraduate school. By the mid 1930s postgraduateschool of TSU was fully complemented by Party and Komsomol members or people from workers and peasant families.

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