«THEY CONSTANTLY FELT CENSORSHIP AND A SET OF STANDARDS THEY HAD TO MEET»: THE IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV IN THE 1970S – MID-1980S (STRUCTURE, FACULTY MEMBERS, STAFFING POLICY)

Abstract

The article analyzes structural changes at the Lviv University, changes within the composition of University students and professors, as well as staffing policy in the 1970s‒mid-1980s using new sources and the perspective of individual experience – published memories and oral history. The Era of Stagnation's ideological environment determined the state of higher education and Lviv University in particular. The beginning of prolonged stagnation of the 1970s‒mid-1980s became particularly evident for the University after a high-profile condemnation campaign of «anti-Soviet group of students» from the Faculty of History and Philological Faculty who expressed critical opinions on the limited use of the Ukrainian language, Russification, and Soviet national policy. Elimination and «appeasement» of unwanted professors in the early 1970s was effected through their forced retirement, change of employment, and issue of admonitions, marking the end of a whole epoch in the life of the University, which lasted since after the war and was associated with the personalities of certain professors. From now on, staffing policy was determined by the constructed image of the «right» Soviet scientist and teacher for whom enhanced «political principles» prevailed over solid scientific achievements, which is proven not only by archival documents but also highlighted in contemporary narrative memory. At the same time, in the 1970s‒1980s, similarly to the Soviet era in general, the University continued its structural development – a new faculty was created, the activities of structural units were expanded, new research laboratories were opened, the number of departments increased together with the number of faculty members, whose substantial research distinguished the University among other schools of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1970s, Lviv University already had thirteen faculties with over seven hundred faculty members, including 8.5 % Doctors and Professors and 45 % of Candidates of Science and Docents. The largest faculties were Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law, and Philological Faculty with 1,500 students each. Overall, the University had 5,500 full-time students, 4,900 extramural students and 1,700 part-time students. Faculty of Journalism, Faculty of Geography, and Faculty of Geology did not have a part-time department, while the Faculty of Physics and Faculty of Chemistry did not have an extramural department (as of the early 1970s). Even sporadic and 1970s focused study (complete paperwork of the Scholarly Council, administrative and research units of the Lviv University for all the upcoming years is currently not available at the State Archives of Lviv Region (SALR) and the Archives of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv) can help us raise various issues of the university life, which require further profound study using a systemic and comprehensive approach and the prism of individual experience – published memories and oral history. Keywords: the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in the 1970s‒mid-1980s, students, faculty members, staffing policy, historical memory.