Restructuring of Universities in the Middle Volga Region and New Forms of Work Organization in the 1930s

Abstract

This article examines the changes in the higher education system of Russia during the 1930s when the long-established educational system was transformed to meet the state’s demands. The Soviet state faced the problem of training and fostering highly qualified specialists to solve the problems of the country’s industrialization. For this reason, an extensive campaign was launched to create technical universities in the country. The Middle Volga region, where several technical universities were opened in a short time, played an important role in this process. Based on archival documents, the steps taken to build a new higher school are analyzed. Due to the state demand for the economy industrialization, new forms of work organization were introduced into the professional activities of professors and lecturers, in some cases either against their actual will or under pressure from the authorities. A close connection between science and production contributed to the emergence of new work formats that did not always “fit” into the academic environment. By the end of the 1930s, however, the Soviet state, which had set a clear course for the development of industrialization, defined technical specialization as a priority direction in the system of higher education.