Resistance of the "right" professorship: the election of the dean of the faculty of physics and mathematics of Leningrad State University in 1926

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the episodes of confrontation between different generations of teaching staff at the Leningrad University in the 1920s. On the example of the election of the dean of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, on the one hand, the methods of struggle of the old pre-revolutionary professors for their autonomy are demonstrated, on the other hand, the attempts of the Bolsheviks to promote cadres loyal to themselves to leading positions in Leningrad State University. The episode under consideration demonstrates that, contrary to existing opinions, the old professors were by no means a silent victim of the sovietization policy and had the strength to resist.