THE JOURNAL OF REGIONAL HISTORY V.10 No.2
Formation of Political Positions of Siberian Engineering and Technical Professoriate in the Conditions of the 1917 Revolution and Civil War
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The article examines the problems of the activity of Siberia’s engineering and technical school during the years of revolutions and the civil war. It assesses the level of development of Russian engineering and technical education in the first decades of the twentieth century. The main areas of socio-political activity and the value orientation of the faculty and students of Siberian engineering and technical school are considered. Based on the materials of the Tomsk educational complex, it was established that the faculty of technical universities adhered to liberal views tending to support regionalism. The students were distinguished by more radical Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik views. It is concluded that during the period under review, the staff and students of Siberia’s higher engineering and technical school were undergoing a wave-like process of politicization. According to the authors of the article, the rule of anti-Bolshevik regimes in the east of the country had a contradictory effect on the position of higher technical school. On the one hand, new centers of higher technical education were created, in particular, the Omsk (Commercial) Polytechnic Institute, and on the other hand, due to the mobilization of part of the students, classes in some universities were irregular. Nevertheless, despite the revolutionary events of 1917 and the vicissitudes of the civil war, the training of engineering personnel continued in Tomsk and Omsk. In the conditions of constant change of political regimes, the intelligentsia of the engineering and technical school was inclined to take a conformist position in relation to the authorities while demanding the preservation of academic freedoms and funding.
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Feklisova, T.M., and N.N. Mozgunova. “Stanovlenie russkoi inzhenernoi shkoly” [The formation of Russian engineering school]. In Professional'noe obrazovanie: aktual'nye problemy i puti ikh resheniya: materialy 3-i regional'noi nauchno-prakticheskoi Internet-konferentsii (Livny, 18 dekabrya 2020 goda) [Professional education: Current problems and solutions: Proceedings of the 3rd regional scientific and practical Internet conference (Livny, December 18, 2020)], edited by E.A. Zvyagina, 97–101. Orel: OGU imeni I.S. Turgeneva, 2021. (In Russian)
Gribovskii, M.V. “Politicheskaya aktivnost' ‘levoi’ universitetskoi professury v Rossii v kontse XIX – nachale XX vekov” [Political activity of the ‘leftist’ university professors in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries]. Novyi istoricheskii vestnik, no. 2 (44) (2015): 54–71. EDN: UGXMEJ (In Russian)
Khandorin, V.G. “Natsional'naya ideya i admiral Kolchak” [National idea and Admiral Kolchak]. iknigi.net. Accessed March 2, 2025. (In Russian)
Khandorin, V.G. “Politicheskaya ehvolyutsiya tomskoi professury v gody revolyutsii i grazhdanskoi voiny” [Political evolution of Tomsk professoriate during the Revolution and the Civil War]. ru_civil_war. Accessed March 2, 2025. (In Russian)
Khisamutdinova, N.V. Dal'nevostochnaya shkola inzhenerov: k istorii vysshego tekhnicheskogo obrazovaniya (1899–1990 gg.) [Far Eastern School of Engineers: On the history of higher technical education (1899–1990)]. Vladivostok: VGUES, 2009. (In Russian)
Maier, G.V., and S.F. Fominykh. “Tomskii period v zhizni akademika N.N. Semenova” [Tomsk period in the life of academician N.N. Semenov]. Natsional'nyi issledovatel'skii Tomskii gosudarstvennyi universitet. Accessed March 2, 2025.
nov.php (In Russian)
Malyavina, L.S. “Rol' uchenykh Urala i ‘beloi’ Sibiri v razvitii vysshei shkoly i nauki Dal'nego Vostoka Rossii (1918–1922 gg.)” [The role of scientists from the Urals and “White” Siberia in the development of higher education and science in the Russian Far East (1918–1922)]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya, no. 3 (11) (2010): 57–71. (In Russian)
Nekrylov, S.A., and M.V. Gribovskii. “Sibirskaya professura rubezha XIX–XX vekov: sotsial'nyi i politicheskii portret” [Siberian professoriate in the late 19th – early 20th centuries: A social and political profile]. Novyi istoricheskii vestnik, no. 1 (55) (2018): 21–37. . EDN: XRVEEH (In Russian)
Parsamov, V.S. “Bor'ba za universitet v bol'shevistskoi Rossii 1917–1921 gg. [Struggle for the university in Bolshevik Russia, 1917–1921]. Vestnik RGGU. Seriya: Istoriya. Filologiya. Kul'turologiya. Vostokovedenie, no. 6 (39) (2018): 121–46. (In Russian)
“Pervye professora Imperatorskogo Tomskogo universiteta” [First professors of Imperial Tomsk University]. Ehkskursionno-prosvetitel'skii tsentr TGU [Excursion and Educational Center of Tomsk State University]. Accessed March 2, 2025. (In Russian)
Polkanov, V.D., and A.F. Bukin. “Omskii kommercheskii (politekhnicheskii) institut
(1917–1919 gg.)” [Omsk Commercial (Polytechnic) Institute (1917–1919)]. Dinamika sistem, mekhanizmov i mashin, no. 5 (2012): 195–98. EDN: SHJYGZ (In Russian)
Pomozov, O.A. “Den' osvobozhdeniya Sibiri” [Siberia Liberation Day]. Laivlib. Accessed March 2, 2025. (In Russian)
Posadskov, A.L. “Vysshee obrazovanie v stolitse ‘beloi’ Sibiri: iz istorii vuzov g. Omska v gody Grazhdanskoi voiny (1918–1919)” [Higher education in the capital of ‘white’ Siberia: From the history of universities in Omsk during the Civil War (1918–1919)]. In Istoriya nauki i obrazovaniya v Sibiri: sbornik materialov Vserossiiskoĭ nauchnoĭ konferentsii s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem (Krasnoyarsk, 15–16 noyabrya 2005 g.) [History of science and education in Siberia: Proceedings of the All-Russian scientific conference with international participation. (Krasnoyarsk, November 15–16, 2005)], edited by Ya.M. Kofman, 290–97. Krasnoyarsk: Izdatel'stvo Krasnoyarskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta im. V.P. Astaf'eva, 2006. (In Russian)
Ryzhkovskii, V.V. “Vysshee spetsial'noe obrazovanie v 1880–1930-kh godakh (meditsina, sel'skoe khozyaistvo, finansy i ehkonomika)” [Specialized higher education in the 1880s–1930s (Medicine, agriculture, finance, and economics)]. In A.N. Dmitriev et al., Raspisanie peremen. Ocherki istorii obrazovatel'noi i nauchnoi politiki v Rossiiskoi imperii – SSSR (konets 1880-kh – 1930-e gody) [Timetable of change. essays on the history of educational and scientific policy in the Russian Empire – USSR (late 1880s – 1930s)], 775–808. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2012. (In Russian)
Saprykin, D.L. “Inzhenernoe obrazovanie v Rossii: istoriya, kontseptsiya, perspektivy” [Engineering education in Russia: History, concept, and prospects]. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii, no. 1 (2012): 125–37. EDN: OOGUEL (In Russian)
Shishkin, V.I. “Sibirskoe oblastnichestvo v kontekste revolyutsionnykh sobytii: marta–oktyabrya 1917 goda” [Siberian regionalism in the context of revolutionary events: March–October 1917]. Acta Slavica Iaponica, vol. 37 (2016): 47–71. (In Russian)
Tarasova, V.N. “Vysshaya inzhenernaya shkola Rossii (poslednyaya chetvert' XVIII v. – 1917 g.)” [Higher engineering school of Russia (last quarter of the 18th century – 1917)]. Doctoral thesis, Russian Independent Institute of Social and National Problems, 2000. EDN: ZKTHNF (In Russian)
Vdovenko, A. “Skol'ko zarabatyvali prepodavateli imperatorskikh universitetov. I kakoi u nikh byl status v Rossii kontsa XIX – nachala XX veka” [How much did professors at imperial universities earn? And what was their status in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th century]. Skillbox. Accessed March 2, 2025. (In Russian)
Zhilyakova, N. “Oktyabr' 1917-go v Tomske: revolyutsiya na fone defitsita i prestupnosti” [October 1917 in Tomsk: The revolution against the background of shortages and crime]. vtomske.ru. Accessed March 2, 2025. (In Russian)
Keywords:
higher engineering and technical education, The Great Russian Revolution, Civil War, politicization of students, level of engineering training, conformism, nonconformism
For citation:
Osipov, A.G., and D.I. Murenko. “Formation of Political Positions of Siberian Engineering and Technical Professoriate in the Conditions of the 1917 Revolution and Civil War.” Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, vol. 10, no. 2 (2026): 537–71, https://doi.org/10.23859/2587-8344-2026-10-2-5; EDN: FXIFOD
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