Pursuit of knowledge

About postgraduate studies as a key stage in a scientific career and the educational process in Russia

January 21 - Postgraduate Student's Day. Per aspera ad astra (Latin: "through thorns to the stars") - this is definitely about postgraduate students. A joke, of course, a postgraduate is "striving" (Latin: aspirans).

Postgraduate Student's Day is a holiday of the 21st century, when few people remember that on January 21, 1924, not only was the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "Regulations on scientific workers of higher educational institutions" published, but also the First Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V.I. Lenin died. The restructuring of higher education was started by him back in 1918, but only by the end of the 1920s the training of scientific workers became more organized and unified, and it was finally formed only in the 1930s.

The decrees of the Council of People's Commissars on the People's Commissariat of Education can be found in the Consultant Plus Appendix (Reading Room No. 6 of the scientific library, RUDN Main Building). In the Decree of January 21, 1924, you will already come across the term “postgraduate” in the meaning of “candidate”.

A special commission of the People's Commissariat of Education headed by the famous historian, member of the RSDLP since 1905, Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky (1868-1932) was engaged in developing a program for the systematic training of scientific workers since June 30, 1925. A three-year term of work for a postgraduate student was proposed by this commission in the Instruction of July 8, 1925.

The theses compiled by M.N. Pokrovsky, Deputy People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR since 1918, who began working under the direct supervision of V.I. Lenin, determined the entire subsequent policy in the sphere of science and education of the young state.

In 1937, the historian, the author of more than 500 scientific works, was accused of antipatriotism, and his works were removed from libraries. Only in 1965-1967 the Academy of Sciences published his Selected Works in 4 volumes. They are in the RUDN library, and the Rare Book Museum Collection also contains lifetime editions of M.N. Pokrovsky: Russian History from Ancient Times (1911) and collections of articles from 1923-1925.

Happy holiday, aspiring ones!