Politica de formare a corpului didactico-științific a școlii superioare din URSS (1918–1941) [Articol]

Abstract

In the present article, the author aims to examine the Soviet policy of transforming the teaching and research staff of higher education institutions during the period 1918–1941, with a focus on subordinating this body to the ideological objectives of the party-state. The research is based on the analysis of educational policy documents, legislative acts, and relevant historical sources, applying the historical-comparative method and the contextualization of political and social factors. The findings reveal that the abolition of university autonomy, the introduction of political commissars, the restructuring of academic titles, and the proletarianization of access sought to replace the old intelligentsia with cadres loyal to the regime. In the context of a shortage of specialists, prerevolutionary personnel were partially retained, while new training mechanisms such as the Institute of Red Professors and the Soviet aspirantura (1925) were established under political control. In the 1930s, the Higher Attestation Commission monopolized the awarding of academic titles and degrees, filtering scholarly output according to ideological criteria, ultimately leading to the creation a model of the Soviet academic staff – politically loyal and fully integrated into the state’s control structures.