Postgraduate studies in the USSR at the end of the 1980s
Graduate school - a direct road to science.
Many readers of the site were interested in the story of the modern Russian high school and its problems, based on the personal impressions of the author. And many wanted to learn about the way in which people acquired academic degrees and titles at that time. That is, they would like to learn about studying in graduate school. Since I myself studied in it from 1985 to 1988 year, then why not tell about it? Moreover, in its own way it was very interesting.
So, having finished working out in a rural school, I return to my back in the city, and nobody takes on a job in higher education institutions. There are no places, and you will not sit on a living person. Here, even the mother, PhD and associate professor, can not help. There is no court. It was necessary to get settled on the regional sytech system, the station for young technicians, and for two years to work there, and also to broadcast on local TV: “Young Technicians Studio”, “Stars Name”, “Inventing Guys”, and according to their scripts to write books on children's technical creativity. But books are a separate story, and here he was already at the "VO". The main thing was to wait patiently for vacancies and remind ourselves all the time. And the patient will be rewarded! Watches appeared at the department of history of the CPSU of the Penza Polytechnic Institute, and in the future, the place of assistant. But only under the condition, which, however, I was completely satisfied: to study in graduate school and defend my thesis. A year of "pochasovki", and then - oh, joy, held a competition for five years. Salary - 125 p. Load - 16 groups per week! And since one day was “methodical”, some days it was 6 hours in the morning and 4 in the evening, with evening dancers, before 10.00, and I got home at half 11. The condition was tough: for three years to pass the candidate minimum and go to graduate school, because three years later another person returned from graduate school, and he needed a place.
The choice is Moscow or Kuibyshev (Samara) automatically decided in favor of the latter because of the price of train tickets: Penza - Kuibyshev - 6 rubles, Penza - Moscow - 10. On my methodical day I come to Kuibyshev University, to the department of English philology. The head is a typical “woman in red”: a red suit, red gloves and a red hat. I explain my business to her ... She tells me: "Tell me the topic" My homeland ". I am saying to her: "It is a large industrial center ..."
- Enough! You have porridge in your mouth, not English. Where did you study it?
I tell him that first in a special school, then in a teacher's college, then for three years he taught him in a rural school. In response, I hear the voice of Ella-cannibals:
- Complete darkness! You will need to translate into Russian a book on your specialty, published either in England or in the USA and not translated in the USSR. Volume is not less than 100 sheets. Along with the translation, submit a certificate from the Lenin Library and more newspaper materials from the Daily Walker newspaper. Exam ... next fall. Everything!
And that is all! And where to look for such a book? On the history of the CPSU, published in England or the United States and not translated in the USSR?
However, he returned to Penza, went to the regional library and found it! "The story of Peter V. Kochchioni, one of the leaders of the US Communist Party". Needless to say that translating it was a torment? In the summer, we went to Gurzuf to rest with our family and, in front of the whole beach, went away like two idiots, muttering: “A small coffee tin box, where the law was to place corrupt money when entering the office ...” God, how did to say it in Russian? “When entering the office, the bribe was supposed to be put in a coffee tin” - that's how it is! After that, where I did not insert only excerpts from this Peter Kocchioni, starting from scientific articles and up to my novel “Pareto's Law”, it turned out to be a very cool book. And is it just that I would translate it? Not in life!
He came to take, and there ... mature uncles in shoulder straps with asterisks (and many of those, and others!), And people like me, the young - two and miscalculated. But I listened how they respond - light from the heart. "Zis ... zis ... zis of ..."
He sat down to answer, and the “lady in red” asked me if I had translated the entire book. No, I say, only 90 pages, but all 100 did not have time, the load is large. She looked at the book, looked at the translation, but did not ask any more and ... put it “excellent.” Phew! No, it’s not for nothing that the root of the teaching is bitter, but its fruits are sweet ...
It is not at all interesting to tell about the passing of philosophy, but the history of the CPSU, as a core subject, was passed in two exams. First, the story before 17, then the story after. And it was necessary to read all the volumes of the complete works of Marx and Engels, and then the 55 volumes of the last edition of the works of Vladimir Ilyich. “The Communist Party Manifesto” generally should have known almost by heart (it was welcomed!), Well, everything is at about the same level.
I passed both exams perfectly and received a certificate of enrollment from 1 November 1985 of the year. I went to Kuibyshev with my wife and daughter, they were interested to see where I would live for three years, and they helped me carry things. And they saw!
There is a room in the graduate school block (corridor away from the student one) and there are four rooms: two square for graduate female students in the third year, and two rectangular double rooms for first years. Right there in the hallway and amenities. My partner, “graduate student Ivanov,” came along with me and my wife too. We went into the room and we see that the students lived in it very merrily, and in the middle they burned a fire at all! Ivanov, as he saw it, immediately said that he would not live here, but it would be better to ride a bus from his Kinel. So I left. And they reassured me that they would make repairs, but at that time they gave me a single room near the balcony itself. Repairs were made before the New Year, but in the end I was very lucky. The room for two got me alone! I put my suitcase on Ivanov’s bed, and when the checks came, I always answered that we two live here - I am a graduate student Ivanov. “Here is his suitcase!” “And where is he himself?” - “He left for the department!” That's how it lived for three years and lived alone, which was, of course, very convenient. In addition to two beds, I had a closet there, a rented refrigerator (already used by the second generation of graduate students!) And as many as four desks, which I assembled from different floors and corridors. After one I ate, I cooked on the other, the third served to write a dissertation, well, the fourth served as a… workbench. On it, I did homemade for a television program "School Country School", which took the lead on the Kuibyshev TV. The benefit of the TV center from the university hostel was close. Well, money is never a lot. Immediately I went to them: I say I’ve led the TV show on Penza’s TV, I also want your message. They called Penza, they were told there that they were lucky, and for three years, the Kuybyshev children were provided with a creative TV show, and I had an extra salary in the whole 50 rubles! By the way, the scholarship of graduate students who worked at the university before enrollment was 90 rubles, but it was less for those who enrolled directly from the student's desk. But you had to pay for living in a hostel, although a bit.
I come to the department to get acquainted with my supervisor. It turned out to be the former first rector and founder of the Kuibyshev University, Aleksey Ivanovich Medvedev, about whom the first vice-rector of SamSU, Doctor of History, Professor Pyotr Serafimovich Kabytov later wrote a very good and informative article. Repeating all that he wrote, it hardly makes sense. However, reading about people like Professor Medvedev is always interesting. Therefore, I place here a link to the article by Kabytov for, so to speak, a parallel reading together with my material - https://ssau.ru/news/14500-aleksey-ivanovich-medvedev-11031917-25091991. But Kabytov's article is “objective,” and here only personal impressions are described, although I completely agree with everything he said in it. And especially with this: “It was a very interesting person. He had attentive, companion eyes. He had many talents. Among the merits of Alexei Ivanovich can be attributed to the fact that he considered himself the father of the team. " However, when I saw Medvedev for the first time, I thought to myself that he was most of all like ... Sir Morris Hannibal, part-time the "ghost of Morrisville Castle." The denture on his left hand, covered in a black glove, complemented this impression, so that all of us graduate students helped him in the department to dress and carried his briefcase behind him. I was immediately told that “you were lucky with the leader,” but that “he is a very, very demanding person,” I felt at our very first meeting.
First of all, he found out what I was up to, and was very happy when I said that I had a wife and a schoolgirl daughter, and that returning without protection was unthinkable for me. However, he said, you do not have three years. Throw away the months of summer vacation, winter holidays, time for classes, trips home. So you have only two years, and for them you will need to write a job in the 220 pages. And to do this, find the material ... And since you are engaged in technical creativity, then here is the topic: "Party leadership in scientific and technical creativity of youth during the 9 5th Five-Year Plan in the Middle Volga Region (Penza, Kuibyshev, Ulyanovsk universities)." Go and work ...
So my study began. By the way, the postgraduate study did not indulge us as such, so some graduate students even complained that “they don’t learn anything here”! For the first six months, we were engaged in what is now called “computer literacy”. At one of the games, I managed to stay in power in the Typhoon State of 92, and, along with two of its surviving citizens, fled to neighboring Honduras. Others were overthrown in the course of the revolution, or they were dying of starvation, so I got a test with a gun, but then forgot all this "literacy". Then, for another six months, we were taught a course in pedagogy of higher education, and this was useful and interesting - to get acquainted with how students “put in place” and ... how “students can put in place” us, the teachers. All the rest of the "training" was carried out in the course of work on a thesis!
However, just to work on it was far from easy. First, it was necessary to “participate in the life of the department,” that is, if you want it or not, you should go to all its meetings. Then, since you are “young,” you had to either attend lecturers' courses, and if you were already a lecturer, give lectures at the factories and mills of the city. True, they were paid for 5 rubles for them, but this was taking some time. And still it was necessary to conduct classes with evening students instead of “elder comrades”. And again, they paid for it. But time, time, time ... In the fall, in the winter and spring there were correspondence students with whom it was also necessary to study and which the associate professors of the department trusted us. And I also wanted to go home, and at least a little bit to rest from the “studies”. So my boss was right when he said that you have only two years to do it. Therefore, from those who really wanted to write and defend their thesis, high self-discipline and scientific organization of labor were required. But this will be discussed in the following material.
To be continued ...
Many readers of the site were interested in the story of the modern Russian high school and its problems, based on the personal impressions of the author. And many wanted to learn about the way in which people acquired academic degrees and titles at that time. That is, they would like to learn about studying in graduate school. Since I myself studied in it from 1985 to 1988 year, then why not tell about it? Moreover, in its own way it was very interesting.
Photo of those distant years. For some reason, then, it seems, there were a lot of photographs, but there were few printed photos left. And the quality was just awful. But nevertheless it is let small, but story. In this picture, the author (left) is talking about something with "senior colleagues in the department." A.I. Medvedev is on the far right.
The main condition of work in high school
So, having finished working out in a rural school, I return to my back in the city, and nobody takes on a job in higher education institutions. There are no places, and you will not sit on a living person. Here, even the mother, PhD and associate professor, can not help. There is no court. It was necessary to get settled on the regional sytech system, the station for young technicians, and for two years to work there, and also to broadcast on local TV: “Young Technicians Studio”, “Stars Name”, “Inventing Guys”, and according to their scripts to write books on children's technical creativity. But books are a separate story, and here he was already at the "VO". The main thing was to wait patiently for vacancies and remind ourselves all the time. And the patient will be rewarded! Watches appeared at the department of history of the CPSU of the Penza Polytechnic Institute, and in the future, the place of assistant. But only under the condition, which, however, I was completely satisfied: to study in graduate school and defend my thesis. A year of "pochasovki", and then - oh, joy, held a competition for five years. Salary - 125 p. Load - 16 groups per week! And since one day was “methodical”, some days it was 6 hours in the morning and 4 in the evening, with evening dancers, before 10.00, and I got home at half 11. The condition was tough: for three years to pass the candidate minimum and go to graduate school, because three years later another person returned from graduate school, and he needed a place.
Target selection
The choice is Moscow or Kuibyshev (Samara) automatically decided in favor of the latter because of the price of train tickets: Penza - Kuibyshev - 6 rubles, Penza - Moscow - 10. On my methodical day I come to Kuibyshev University, to the department of English philology. The head is a typical “woman in red”: a red suit, red gloves and a red hat. I explain my business to her ... She tells me: "Tell me the topic" My homeland ". I am saying to her: "It is a large industrial center ..."
- Enough! You have porridge in your mouth, not English. Where did you study it?
I tell him that first in a special school, then in a teacher's college, then for three years he taught him in a rural school. In response, I hear the voice of Ella-cannibals:
- Complete darkness! You will need to translate into Russian a book on your specialty, published either in England or in the USA and not translated in the USSR. Volume is not less than 100 sheets. Along with the translation, submit a certificate from the Lenin Library and more newspaper materials from the Daily Walker newspaper. Exam ... next fall. Everything!
And that is all! And where to look for such a book? On the history of the CPSU, published in England or the United States and not translated in the USSR?
However, he returned to Penza, went to the regional library and found it! "The story of Peter V. Kochchioni, one of the leaders of the US Communist Party". Needless to say that translating it was a torment? In the summer, we went to Gurzuf to rest with our family and, in front of the whole beach, went away like two idiots, muttering: “A small coffee tin box, where the law was to place corrupt money when entering the office ...” God, how did to say it in Russian? “When entering the office, the bribe was supposed to be put in a coffee tin” - that's how it is! After that, where I did not insert only excerpts from this Peter Kocchioni, starting from scientific articles and up to my novel “Pareto's Law”, it turned out to be a very cool book. And is it just that I would translate it? Not in life!
Exams
He came to take, and there ... mature uncles in shoulder straps with asterisks (and many of those, and others!), And people like me, the young - two and miscalculated. But I listened how they respond - light from the heart. "Zis ... zis ... zis of ..."
He sat down to answer, and the “lady in red” asked me if I had translated the entire book. No, I say, only 90 pages, but all 100 did not have time, the load is large. She looked at the book, looked at the translation, but did not ask any more and ... put it “excellent.” Phew! No, it’s not for nothing that the root of the teaching is bitter, but its fruits are sweet ...
It is not at all interesting to tell about the passing of philosophy, but the history of the CPSU, as a core subject, was passed in two exams. First, the story before 17, then the story after. And it was necessary to read all the volumes of the complete works of Marx and Engels, and then the 55 volumes of the last edition of the works of Vladimir Ilyich. “The Communist Party Manifesto” generally should have known almost by heart (it was welcomed!), Well, everything is at about the same level.
I passed both exams perfectly and received a certificate of enrollment from 1 November 1985 of the year. I went to Kuibyshev with my wife and daughter, they were interested to see where I would live for three years, and they helped me carry things. And they saw!
For a couple with a graduate student Ivanov
There is a room in the graduate school block (corridor away from the student one) and there are four rooms: two square for graduate female students in the third year, and two rectangular double rooms for first years. Right there in the hallway and amenities. My partner, “graduate student Ivanov,” came along with me and my wife too. We went into the room and we see that the students lived in it very merrily, and in the middle they burned a fire at all! Ivanov, as he saw it, immediately said that he would not live here, but it would be better to ride a bus from his Kinel. So I left. And they reassured me that they would make repairs, but at that time they gave me a single room near the balcony itself. Repairs were made before the New Year, but in the end I was very lucky. The room for two got me alone! I put my suitcase on Ivanov’s bed, and when the checks came, I always answered that we two live here - I am a graduate student Ivanov. “Here is his suitcase!” “And where is he himself?” - “He left for the department!” That's how it lived for three years and lived alone, which was, of course, very convenient. In addition to two beds, I had a closet there, a rented refrigerator (already used by the second generation of graduate students!) And as many as four desks, which I assembled from different floors and corridors. After one I ate, I cooked on the other, the third served to write a dissertation, well, the fourth served as a… workbench. On it, I did homemade for a television program "School Country School", which took the lead on the Kuibyshev TV. The benefit of the TV center from the university hostel was close. Well, money is never a lot. Immediately I went to them: I say I’ve led the TV show on Penza’s TV, I also want your message. They called Penza, they were told there that they were lucky, and for three years, the Kuybyshev children were provided with a creative TV show, and I had an extra salary in the whole 50 rubles! By the way, the scholarship of graduate students who worked at the university before enrollment was 90 rubles, but it was less for those who enrolled directly from the student's desk. But you had to pay for living in a hostel, although a bit.
Serious people then taught in universities the history of the CPSU. Look at the medal strips ...
Research Supervisor
I come to the department to get acquainted with my supervisor. It turned out to be the former first rector and founder of the Kuibyshev University, Aleksey Ivanovich Medvedev, about whom the first vice-rector of SamSU, Doctor of History, Professor Pyotr Serafimovich Kabytov later wrote a very good and informative article. Repeating all that he wrote, it hardly makes sense. However, reading about people like Professor Medvedev is always interesting. Therefore, I place here a link to the article by Kabytov for, so to speak, a parallel reading together with my material - https://ssau.ru/news/14500-aleksey-ivanovich-medvedev-11031917-25091991. But Kabytov's article is “objective,” and here only personal impressions are described, although I completely agree with everything he said in it. And especially with this: “It was a very interesting person. He had attentive, companion eyes. He had many talents. Among the merits of Alexei Ivanovich can be attributed to the fact that he considered himself the father of the team. " However, when I saw Medvedev for the first time, I thought to myself that he was most of all like ... Sir Morris Hannibal, part-time the "ghost of Morrisville Castle." The denture on his left hand, covered in a black glove, complemented this impression, so that all of us graduate students helped him in the department to dress and carried his briefcase behind him. I was immediately told that “you were lucky with the leader,” but that “he is a very, very demanding person,” I felt at our very first meeting.
First of all, he found out what I was up to, and was very happy when I said that I had a wife and a schoolgirl daughter, and that returning without protection was unthinkable for me. However, he said, you do not have three years. Throw away the months of summer vacation, winter holidays, time for classes, trips home. So you have only two years, and for them you will need to write a job in the 220 pages. And to do this, find the material ... And since you are engaged in technical creativity, then here is the topic: "Party leadership in scientific and technical creativity of youth during the 9 5th Five-Year Plan in the Middle Volga Region (Penza, Kuibyshev, Ulyanovsk universities)." Go and work ...
Learning
So my study began. By the way, the postgraduate study did not indulge us as such, so some graduate students even complained that “they don’t learn anything here”! For the first six months, we were engaged in what is now called “computer literacy”. At one of the games, I managed to stay in power in the Typhoon State of 92, and, along with two of its surviving citizens, fled to neighboring Honduras. Others were overthrown in the course of the revolution, or they were dying of starvation, so I got a test with a gun, but then forgot all this "literacy". Then, for another six months, we were taught a course in pedagogy of higher education, and this was useful and interesting - to get acquainted with how students “put in place” and ... how “students can put in place” us, the teachers. All the rest of the "training" was carried out in the course of work on a thesis!
And this is my close-up supervisor. Always a little afraid of him. It seems to be smiling, but how will she look ...
However, just to work on it was far from easy. First, it was necessary to “participate in the life of the department,” that is, if you want it or not, you should go to all its meetings. Then, since you are “young,” you had to either attend lecturers' courses, and if you were already a lecturer, give lectures at the factories and mills of the city. True, they were paid for 5 rubles for them, but this was taking some time. And still it was necessary to conduct classes with evening students instead of “elder comrades”. And again, they paid for it. But time, time, time ... In the fall, in the winter and spring there were correspondence students with whom it was also necessary to study and which the associate professors of the department trusted us. And I also wanted to go home, and at least a little bit to rest from the “studies”. So my boss was right when he said that you have only two years to do it. Therefore, from those who really wanted to write and defend their thesis, high self-discipline and scientific organization of labor were required. But this will be discussed in the following material.
To be continued ...
Information