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User:Xx236/Soviet university

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Soviet university is a state university in a Communist-ruled country. The Soviet universities were organised on the basis of pre-revolutionary universities or from scratch and reorganized or dissolved after the Revolutions of 1989.

Soviet-type universities existed in the Soviet Union and in other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Medical, technical, economical, technological and arts faculties were frequently separated from universities (compare the List of institutions of higher learning in Russia).

Indoctrination

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Soviet ideology was taught in the Soviet Union divided into three disciplines: Scientific Communism, Marxism-Leninism (mostly in form of Leninism) and Communist Political Economy) and was introduced as part of many courses, eg. teaching Karl Marx' or Vladimir Lenin's views on energy or history. In other countries the quantity and quality of ideological indoctrination was specific to country, type of university and period.

Political control

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Parallely to the formal powers (rectors, deans, self-governments) university units of country communist party influenced university life. The level of party influence was specific to country and period, generally higher before 1956 and after failed reforms (Czechoslovakia 1968, Poland 1981). Student communist/socialist unions controlled students but during revolutionary periods influenced also ideologically weak professors. International Union of Students was an umbrella organisation of soviet type student organisations. Country political police had secret workers and informers in any university, who among other tasks controlled any western visitor. Professors travelling outside the Block frequently worked for intelligence agencies. Military counter-intelligence supervised military research. In Polish universities 1981-1989 STASI run an independent network of informers.

Any academic text in many Soviet countries was censored before being published. Self-censorship was even more important than censorship. Research in history of Soviet system and practically the whole history of the period after WWI, Soviet economy, sociology and philosophy were ideologically controlled and no independent research was possible.

Western and old books and journals were censored by libraries, available to professors only, sometimes to their students.

Staff and students were frequently obliged to take part in political demonstrations, eg. May Dat parades. The number and intensity of demonstrations decreased after 1956. Students and sometimes staff were obliged to work manually during certain days or longer periods to be closer to the working class.

Teaching and research

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Sciences were generally tolerated - 7 Nobel Prizes in Physics, 1 in Chemistry, 1 in Economics (Mathematics) - but humanities curbed.

Persecutions in the Soviet Union

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See also: Suppressed research in the Soviet Union In 1922, the Bolshevik government expelled some 160 prominent intellectuals on the Philosophers' ship, later some professors and students were killed (Lev Shubnikov,Nikolai Kondratiev), died in prison (Nikolai Vavilov), worked in Sharashka prison laboratories (Sergey Korolyov) or in common Gulag camps (Nikolai Aleksandrovich Kozyrev, Lev Landau). Mikhail Kogan died when arrested during the alleged Doctors' plot. Communist economy was preferred, liberal ideas criticized or ignored. Genetics was degradated to Lysenkoism from the middle of the 1930s to the middle of the 1960s. The leading university was the Moscow State University. The Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University provided higher education as well as a KGB training ground for young communists from developing countries.

Between 1980 to 1986, Andrei Sakharov was kept under tight Soviet police surveillance in Gorky. Mikhail Kazachkov, physicist, was imprisoned 15 years. Victor Brailovsky was arrested and sent into exile.

Persecutions in Eastern Block

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Polish professors: After WWII

After 1965

1981-1989

Hungarian professors:

Arrested after 1956 revolution

Czechoslovak professor:

US professor:

  • Frederick C. Barghoorn arrested in Moscow for 16 days

Rusyn professor Ivan/Janos Haraida died in Smersh prison.

Professor Dumitru Stăniloae imprisoned 1958-1963 in Romania, a young scientist Liviu Librescu lost his job.

After Joseph Stalin's death, universities in some Communist countries obtained more freedom. Teaching of Russian language was suggested or even mandatory.

Any communist country had a network od (para-)universities working for communist party, police, political police or armed forces.

Exceptions

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National Film School in Łódź was a notable academy for future actors, directors, photographers, camera operators and TV staff in Poland.

Military training

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In some countries and perioda graduates were drafted as soldiers or future officers. There existed also military training of male students (and of female medicine students) eg. one day in a week or during holidays. Expulsion from university and drafting was a common method of controlling independent student leaders.

Student revolts

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Soviet student unions

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End of the system

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The system failed during the years 1989-1991. In some countries a number of communists and political police informers were expelled from universities, political universities resolved or reorganized. Universities in North Korea continue the Soviet tradition.

See also

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Sources

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