Higher educational institutions of the Belarusian­Lithuanian provinces in the system of scientific certification and training of scientific personnel of the Russian Empire (XIX – early XX centuries)

Abstract

The system of scientific certification, which was gradually formed in the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century, included higher educational institutions on the territory of the Belarusian­Lithuanian provinces: Vilnia University, Vilnia Medical and Surgical Academy, Polatsk Jesuit Academy, Vilnia Roman Catholic Academy. The training of scientific personnel in the natural sciences and humanities was the responsibility of the professorial colleges of these educational institutions, each of which was an independent certification center. The activities of these educational institutions within the framework of the system of scientific certification assumed the existence of a hierarchy of academic degrees, the composition of which was actually reduced to the following scheme: “candidate” – “master” – “doctor of sciences”. The most representative on the scientific and pedagogical weight and the number of professors and teachers was Vilnia University. The practice of defending of the dissertations by specialists from internal Russian provinces and from abroad in it evidenced of the high recognition of Vilna University. Vilnia University and the Vilnia Medical and Surgical Academy were well­known centers for the training of scientific personnel in the field of medical sciences. Under the academic jurisdiction of the Vilnia University, as well as the Polatsk Jesuit Academy, Vilna Roman Catholic Academy was theology. A significant contribution to the training of scientific personnel, the creation of new areas of agricultural science was made by the Hory­Horki Agricultural Institute, although it was not an independent center of scientific certification. After the closing of this institute, there were no higher educational institutions in Belarus capable of training specialists for scientific research, but at the beginning of the 20th century. a certain role in the formation of personnel in the field of special historical disciplines was played by the Vitsebsk branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute.