Postgraduate Studies in the USSR: From Archive to Archive
Graduate school - a direct road to science.
So, last time in my story about graduate school in Kuibyshev I stopped at the KSU on the sixth floor of the student dormitory I got a room for two with “graduate student Ivanov”, brought five tables there at once and started to do science in it. My chief, Professor Medvedev Alexey Ivanovich, recommended me the topic “Party leadership in scientific and technical creativity of students in the XI Five-Year Plan (on the example of Penza, Kuibyshev and Ulyanovsk universities)”. Do not be mistaken about the scientific nature of such works. In fact, any humanitarian dissertation, even a Ph.D., even a doctoral one, is a qualifying work, showing the ability of its author to work with archival documents, draw any conclusions based on them, to argue them with references to authorities ... That's all. Well, yes, it was necessary to introduce some number of sources previously unknown, and give them an assessment. And, of course, with an eye on K. Marx, F. Engels, V. Lenin and the next general secretary, whom Gorbachev became at that time. That is, it was a kind of game, but by the rules. “Black and white do not give, yes and no not to say” - this is something like this.
Soon all of our graduate students from the rest of the rooms came together, and I suggested saving for the sake of eating together. Like, I will cook at all because of ... gastritis on the nervous mail (I got cheap stuff, though), well, someone peeled potatoes or garbage to clean, well, every day, the calculation of expenses and the cash "discount" equally. Someone agreed, some did not, and our “collective life” went. In the morning I always got up very early, cooked semolina or rice porridge (you can't boil it well for one!), But each time is different: today with dried apricots (from the market), tomorrow with raisins (the same), then with prunes, then with syrup from raspberry jam (the contribution of one of my colleagues), then the rise in 8.00 of all the others, procedures, breakfast (and it is clear that there was not only porridge ...), and we all went together to the party archives. And there we were already waiting for the case for the specified years, and we looked at them for information, and immediately ordered new ones. First, the OK CPSU Kuibyshev and the RK CPSU, then the party organizations of universities.
Regarding references to central archives - and it should have been in every dissertation of that time, my boss gave me a wise instruction: “For now you’ll get quotes (and references to their sources) from other dissertations close to you. And then when you work there yourself, you may be able to find something else, but in the meantime you will have at least something! Very wise advice for a beginner, isn’t it ?!
At one o'clock in the archive, a lunch break began, and we went to the “hostel”. For lunch, there was a dietary chicken soup (from the market) with pasta, rice, dumplings, or simply “potato soup”, cabbage soup, milk noodles. Accordingly, the main dishes were quite dietary, and then - tea.
After lunch, "according to Archimedes' law," we all fell asleep and slept until the 3-4 hours. Then the wake followed, tea, and we were taken for writing. For some reason, it turned out that we all had with us white-orange typewriters of the Yugoslav production “Treveller de luxe”, and we were all briskly banging on them. At seven o'clock we had a light supper, followed by conversations "for life." After all, we were all people of the same circle, fairly old, all families, someone had their husbands and children at home, someone had wives and children, and everyone had something to tell about themselves and ... their way to science.
A graduate student from the Astrakhan Institute of Fish Culture told, for example, how Vietnamese and Koreans (northern) learn from her and how they take our bicycles, refrigerators and washing machines with them: “Iron, however, you can fix it!”
A graduate student from our PVAI also told a lot of interesting things about cadets from Africa, India and other exotic countries. But, the main part of the conversations, of course, revolved about where it is better to find what kind of material, on which archival funds what is, when and on which business trip it is best to ask. These conversations sometimes dragged on until one o'clock in the morning, but in the morning we still got up with the alarm clock and ... again the whirlwind began - the archive, the house, the table, the typewriter.
Each had its own “method” of work and its own “decoration” of the room. Our graduate students have flowers on the windows, curtains, napkins. One graduate student had an austere austere room: a bed, a table with a typewriter, a hanger and a bucket of water in the corner near the battery so that the fumes would saturate the air with moisture! In the mornings he practiced yoga, stood on his head and walked with a bare-chested in some sports pants. For me, on the contrary, for some reason it was always cold there, and over my sweater I wore a goat fur vest and a leather jacket on top. In general, the couple is still that ... Students looked at us.
Well, the work ... I had my own motto - along the walls there were strings, on which sheets of paper with archival notes were fastened with paper clips. And I moved them as needed, and then, using them, put them into the “Used” folder. Whenever the door to my room opened, the air flow lifted them and they rustled loudly ... but then the work went quickly.
Let me remind you that we had to simultaneously read lectures on plants and conduct classes, replacing “senior comrades”, and participate in department meetings and in party meetings, and all this took time. And I had to buy food!
In Kuibyshev, food stamps were introduced just at that time. Which ones, I’ll not say exactly now, but I do remember that we were most interested in sausage tickets! They brought us the head. hostel and they were given exactly for a fortnight and only in the shops of their area. That is, you leave the party archives, enter the store, and there is no sausage and no queue! But ... figs you sell it - not your area! Come to your - no sausage! The next morning you go - there is a sausage, but all ... and you have twenty minutes or lesson, or a lecture, or a party meeting. And tomorrow is the 16 number and ... your unspent coupons "are covered with a copper basin." But on the market there was everything that your heart desires and feeds on. True, someone went to the student canteen, but ... there happened in the soup came across cockroaches, and everything else was ... at the same level, and we tried not to go there.
We, graduate students, managed to eat even ... buckwheat porridge, but this story special and very funny. The fact is that in addition to us, graduate students, there were graduate students at the department - graduates of the same university, and among them there is one young and very nice girl, whose father was, let's say, a very responsible party worker. Her husband did military service in my Penza, and with him he would receive parcels, so I had to visit her, and not only me, but all my friends, graduate students, because the team we had was close, there was little entertainment, and Guests to each other was probably the main entertainment. For example, people come to me, and I am preparing another TV program and on my desk there is a strange all-terrain vehicle from the cans from the Yantar cheese. Well, to her, we happened to look in, and she always (thanks to her wholeheartedly!) Treated us to buckwheat porridge. Well, we silently called her “buckwheat porridge” and ... were persuaded in turn when some of us go to visit her!
And, by the way, it was so that in discussing the finished work, none of the “senior comrades” began to play along with the “obkom daughter” and threw in her remarks so much that she, poor thing, had to fix them for almost three months. In the same way, they “hacked” our “Astrakhank”, who came to the discussion for one day before going to defense, and because of the comments made, she was forced to stay in Kuibyshev for more than a month. She, of course, did not take any clothes with herself and went all the time either in her ceremonial dress or ... in a terry robe. She returned with us to the "hostel" and began her hysterics: "I am not the wife of my husband! I am not a mother to my child! I have this bastard ... I have this ... Ah, they ... "I had to give her half a glass of cognac to calm her down a little!
So, as I have stressed many times, there was plenty of bad things in the era of the USSR, but here ... principled in matters of attitude towards science, even if such as the history of the CPSU, was. Although ... we ourselves laughed this science many times, saying that it is quite possible to write a thesis on the topic: “Party leadership of Baba Yaga”, with chapters “Baba Yaga and stupa: questions of historiography and primary sources”; "TO. The immortal and the role of the party in the selection and placement of personnel ", and so on ...
Then, however, when all the comments were corrected, everything further went like clockwork. Although it was necessary to take into account the "little things". For example, the finished work needed to be printed not just on paper, but on very good paper, but recruited from a “good typist”, not himself, with mistakes ... The binding was ordered in the only workshop for Kuybyshev, and he didn’t write for dissertations on the history of the CPSU. could be red, but could not be black, green and blue. Various shades of burgundy were considered decent, and ... “Blue is not in tune. This burgundy and gray here to the tone! "
To the twisted volumes of the thesis (3 pieces), a special folder was needed for papers in the Higher Attestation Commission, with pockets and sockets for three pens of different colors - for opponents. "Black" - the worst opponent, wrote his comments! And all this was necessary to know, find, buy, spend money on it. True, it was already noted here that the graduate students who worked were paid a rather large stipend - 90 R., but still it was difficult to manage all these expenses without help from home. Or I had to earn lectures, TV programs, articles in newspapers and magazines.
In addition to the party archives, one had to go to the archives of universities, which was truly vile. All of them at that time were literally soaked with dust and smelled either of cats, or mice, or cabbage schi soup, which they ate from old woman’s keeper’s jars. That in medical institute, in polytechnic, both in Kuibyshev, and in my Penza, as well as in all other "order" was one. The exception was the AMC, where the archive was in a bright and clean room, but it was very difficult to work there - and this is impossible, and then secretly, with the word "secrets at every step."
About how we, post-graduate students, were sent “for potatoes”, I once wrote here (“Features of science in the USSR or graduate students on potatoes”, 11 July 2017), but it should be emphasized that my boss, for example, did not accept This circumstance was taken into account, but I gave the task to 25 in May to write the introduction and the first chapter, and added: “We have to do it!” And I had to carry a typewriter with me, and write it all in the canteen of the collective farm. It seems to be a good thing - a combination of physical and mental labor, but then I really didn’t like “communism” ...
However, all this was, let's say, no more than “everyday difficulties” (as, for example, frequent interruptions with hot water in the shower), but what about science, you ask? Such a question from readers of VO should be fully expected, but the story, darling, “science-mother”, will be told in the following material.
To be continued ...
So, last time in my story about graduate school in Kuibyshev I stopped at the KSU on the sixth floor of the student dormitory I got a room for two with “graduate student Ivanov”, brought five tables there at once and started to do science in it. My chief, Professor Medvedev Alexey Ivanovich, recommended me the topic “Party leadership in scientific and technical creativity of students in the XI Five-Year Plan (on the example of Penza, Kuibyshev and Ulyanovsk universities)”. Do not be mistaken about the scientific nature of such works. In fact, any humanitarian dissertation, even a Ph.D., even a doctoral one, is a qualifying work, showing the ability of its author to work with archival documents, draw any conclusions based on them, to argue them with references to authorities ... That's all. Well, yes, it was necessary to introduce some number of sources previously unknown, and give them an assessment. And, of course, with an eye on K. Marx, F. Engels, V. Lenin and the next general secretary, whom Gorbachev became at that time. That is, it was a kind of game, but by the rules. “Black and white do not give, yes and no not to say” - this is something like this.
Those who get up early, the Lord himself gives!
Soon all of our graduate students from the rest of the rooms came together, and I suggested saving for the sake of eating together. Like, I will cook at all because of ... gastritis on the nervous mail (I got cheap stuff, though), well, someone peeled potatoes or garbage to clean, well, every day, the calculation of expenses and the cash "discount" equally. Someone agreed, some did not, and our “collective life” went. In the morning I always got up very early, cooked semolina or rice porridge (you can't boil it well for one!), But each time is different: today with dried apricots (from the market), tomorrow with raisins (the same), then with prunes, then with syrup from raspberry jam (the contribution of one of my colleagues), then the rise in 8.00 of all the others, procedures, breakfast (and it is clear that there was not only porridge ...), and we all went together to the party archives. And there we were already waiting for the case for the specified years, and we looked at them for information, and immediately ordered new ones. First, the OK CPSU Kuibyshev and the RK CPSU, then the party organizations of universities.
Regarding references to central archives - and it should have been in every dissertation of that time, my boss gave me a wise instruction: “For now you’ll get quotes (and references to their sources) from other dissertations close to you. And then when you work there yourself, you may be able to find something else, but in the meantime you will have at least something! Very wise advice for a beginner, isn’t it ?!
What did graduate students talk about over tea?
At one o'clock in the archive, a lunch break began, and we went to the “hostel”. For lunch, there was a dietary chicken soup (from the market) with pasta, rice, dumplings, or simply “potato soup”, cabbage soup, milk noodles. Accordingly, the main dishes were quite dietary, and then - tea.
After lunch, "according to Archimedes' law," we all fell asleep and slept until the 3-4 hours. Then the wake followed, tea, and we were taken for writing. For some reason, it turned out that we all had with us white-orange typewriters of the Yugoslav production “Treveller de luxe”, and we were all briskly banging on them. At seven o'clock we had a light supper, followed by conversations "for life." After all, we were all people of the same circle, fairly old, all families, someone had their husbands and children at home, someone had wives and children, and everyone had something to tell about themselves and ... their way to science.
A graduate student from the Astrakhan Institute of Fish Culture told, for example, how Vietnamese and Koreans (northern) learn from her and how they take our bicycles, refrigerators and washing machines with them: “Iron, however, you can fix it!”
A graduate student from our PVAI also told a lot of interesting things about cadets from Africa, India and other exotic countries. But, the main part of the conversations, of course, revolved about where it is better to find what kind of material, on which archival funds what is, when and on which business trip it is best to ask. These conversations sometimes dragged on until one o'clock in the morning, but in the morning we still got up with the alarm clock and ... again the whirlwind began - the archive, the house, the table, the typewriter.
And this author is sitting at the typewriter “Traveller”, but not in his room, but in the room of a graduate student-first-year student A.Zharkov. He had a hobby - photography, so photos are stuck on the wall. For communication and work is fun.
Scientific organization of labor!
Each had its own “method” of work and its own “decoration” of the room. Our graduate students have flowers on the windows, curtains, napkins. One graduate student had an austere austere room: a bed, a table with a typewriter, a hanger and a bucket of water in the corner near the battery so that the fumes would saturate the air with moisture! In the mornings he practiced yoga, stood on his head and walked with a bare-chested in some sports pants. For me, on the contrary, for some reason it was always cold there, and over my sweater I wore a goat fur vest and a leather jacket on top. In general, the couple is still that ... Students looked at us.
Well, the work ... I had my own motto - along the walls there were strings, on which sheets of paper with archival notes were fastened with paper clips. And I moved them as needed, and then, using them, put them into the “Used” folder. Whenever the door to my room opened, the air flow lifted them and they rustled loudly ... but then the work went quickly.
Let me remind you that we had to simultaneously read lectures on plants and conduct classes, replacing “senior comrades”, and participate in department meetings and in party meetings, and all this took time. And I had to buy food!
The problem of "buckwheat porridge"
In Kuibyshev, food stamps were introduced just at that time. Which ones, I’ll not say exactly now, but I do remember that we were most interested in sausage tickets! They brought us the head. hostel and they were given exactly for a fortnight and only in the shops of their area. That is, you leave the party archives, enter the store, and there is no sausage and no queue! But ... figs you sell it - not your area! Come to your - no sausage! The next morning you go - there is a sausage, but all ... and you have twenty minutes or lesson, or a lecture, or a party meeting. And tomorrow is the 16 number and ... your unspent coupons "are covered with a copper basin." But on the market there was everything that your heart desires and feeds on. True, someone went to the student canteen, but ... there happened in the soup came across cockroaches, and everything else was ... at the same level, and we tried not to go there.
We, graduate students, managed to eat even ... buckwheat porridge, but this story special and very funny. The fact is that in addition to us, graduate students, there were graduate students at the department - graduates of the same university, and among them there is one young and very nice girl, whose father was, let's say, a very responsible party worker. Her husband did military service in my Penza, and with him he would receive parcels, so I had to visit her, and not only me, but all my friends, graduate students, because the team we had was close, there was little entertainment, and Guests to each other was probably the main entertainment. For example, people come to me, and I am preparing another TV program and on my desk there is a strange all-terrain vehicle from the cans from the Yantar cheese. Well, to her, we happened to look in, and she always (thanks to her wholeheartedly!) Treated us to buckwheat porridge. Well, we silently called her “buckwheat porridge” and ... were persuaded in turn when some of us go to visit her!
Party principles in action!
And, by the way, it was so that in discussing the finished work, none of the “senior comrades” began to play along with the “obkom daughter” and threw in her remarks so much that she, poor thing, had to fix them for almost three months. In the same way, they “hacked” our “Astrakhank”, who came to the discussion for one day before going to defense, and because of the comments made, she was forced to stay in Kuibyshev for more than a month. She, of course, did not take any clothes with herself and went all the time either in her ceremonial dress or ... in a terry robe. She returned with us to the "hostel" and began her hysterics: "I am not the wife of my husband! I am not a mother to my child! I have this bastard ... I have this ... Ah, they ... "I had to give her half a glass of cognac to calm her down a little!
So, as I have stressed many times, there was plenty of bad things in the era of the USSR, but here ... principled in matters of attitude towards science, even if such as the history of the CPSU, was. Although ... we ourselves laughed this science many times, saying that it is quite possible to write a thesis on the topic: “Party leadership of Baba Yaga”, with chapters “Baba Yaga and stupa: questions of historiography and primary sources”; "TO. The immortal and the role of the party in the selection and placement of personnel ", and so on ...
"Bordeaux" - the most it!
Then, however, when all the comments were corrected, everything further went like clockwork. Although it was necessary to take into account the "little things". For example, the finished work needed to be printed not just on paper, but on very good paper, but recruited from a “good typist”, not himself, with mistakes ... The binding was ordered in the only workshop for Kuybyshev, and he didn’t write for dissertations on the history of the CPSU. could be red, but could not be black, green and blue. Various shades of burgundy were considered decent, and ... “Blue is not in tune. This burgundy and gray here to the tone! "
To the twisted volumes of the thesis (3 pieces), a special folder was needed for papers in the Higher Attestation Commission, with pockets and sockets for three pens of different colors - for opponents. "Black" - the worst opponent, wrote his comments! And all this was necessary to know, find, buy, spend money on it. True, it was already noted here that the graduate students who worked were paid a rather large stipend - 90 R., but still it was difficult to manage all these expenses without help from home. Or I had to earn lectures, TV programs, articles in newspapers and magazines.
Mice, cats and sour soup ...
In addition to the party archives, one had to go to the archives of universities, which was truly vile. All of them at that time were literally soaked with dust and smelled either of cats, or mice, or cabbage schi soup, which they ate from old woman’s keeper’s jars. That in medical institute, in polytechnic, both in Kuibyshev, and in my Penza, as well as in all other "order" was one. The exception was the AMC, where the archive was in a bright and clean room, but it was very difficult to work there - and this is impossible, and then secretly, with the word "secrets at every step."
About how we, post-graduate students, were sent “for potatoes”, I once wrote here (“Features of science in the USSR or graduate students on potatoes”, 11 July 2017), but it should be emphasized that my boss, for example, did not accept This circumstance was taken into account, but I gave the task to 25 in May to write the introduction and the first chapter, and added: “We have to do it!” And I had to carry a typewriter with me, and write it all in the canteen of the collective farm. It seems to be a good thing - a combination of physical and mental labor, but then I really didn’t like “communism” ...
However, all this was, let's say, no more than “everyday difficulties” (as, for example, frequent interruptions with hot water in the shower), but what about science, you ask? Such a question from readers of VO should be fully expected, but the story, darling, “science-mother”, will be told in the following material.
To be continued ...
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