Universities in the System of Higher Education in the USSR: From Classical to Soviet Model (Tasks, Structure, Personnel)

This article analyses the processes of restructuring classical universities into Soviet ones, as well as the features behind the formation of new universities established in the early Soviet period. The analysis refers to a comparison of two universities, i. e. Perm State University, founded in 1916, and Ural State University, established in 1920. Perm University was the last imperial university and until the end of the 1920s, it preserved the traditions and culture of Russian classical universities. Ural State University was one of the first Soviet universities based on the new class principles and ideas of a socialist university. In the study, the author compares three aspects — tasks, structure, and personnel drawing upon biographical directories to study the personnel of the two universities. They served as a basis for creating a database of university employees born before 1920. The database made it possible to study the dynamics and features of the change of generations of university teachers, as well as their role in ensuring the continuity of university traditions and culture. The two Ural universities, created according to the old (classical) and new (Soviet) patterns, demonstrate two variants of the formation of a Soviet university: in the first case, we are dealing with a successive variant of development, in the second — with the evolution of a polytechnic university (HTU) into a Soviet university. The succession model is characterised by the leading role of the first generation of teaching staff in preserving the idea and traditions of the classical university. The successive model is characterised by a significant humanitarian component and a closer contact between generations. The early Soviet model of transition is characterised by fundamental gaps determined by the specificity of technical (applied) and classical education and augmented by institutional reforms.