Tomsk scientific and pedagogical community in 1920s: socio-political evolution

In the articleone of the most interesting periods in relations of the Soviet state and intelligentsia is considered. The period of the 1920s is characterisedby complexity and discrepancy of political, social and economic processes. Sharp change of the political climate, deterioration ofthe social status and radical reforms in the higher education sphere were a strong blow for the scientific and pedagogical community.Nevertheless, the heterogeneity of pre-revolutionary intelligentsia caused ambiguity in event estimations. In this respect, long and difficultevolution of relations of the Soviet management and representatives of physical science is indicative. The specified period is consideredin the foreshortening of the processes of institutionalisation of the Soviet physics. Originally, the repressive policy of the Sovietstate caused sharp rejection by the local professorate. In due course the situation gradually changed. Political disagreements closely intertwinedwith certain coincidences of interests. As a result, the first decade in life of the Soviet state generated some models of adaptationof scientists and teachers to new conditions. Along with sabotage and passive resistance to the conducted reforms of the higherschool, organizational cooperation took place; there were processes of integration of scientific and pedagogical community with theSoviet society and its imperious institutes. The comprehension by the party-state management and most socially active part of scientificelite of the objective necessity of mutually advantageous cooperation led to original mechanisms of symbiotic communication betweenthem. Nevertheless, the processes occurring during the 1920s did not change the overall picture of mutual relations of the power andhigher school intelligentsia radically. It testifies that the scientific and pedagogical structure of university at that time was not defined inhow to behave in relation to the Soviet power. Likes and dislikes existing at that time led to the strong pressure, which arose in the environmentof scientific and pedagogical intelligentsia. The principal cause of it is the heterogeneity of pre-revolutionary intelligentsia as asocial group. In the article by examples of leaders of local scientific community various forms of interaction of science and the power,which by no means were reduced to open opposition, are considered.

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