The History Department of the Institute of Red Professors in the 1920s
The article concerns the History Department of Moscow's Institute of Red Professors (1921-1930), whose graduates actively participated in the political and scholarly life of the country during the 1920s (A. N. Slepkov, I. I. Mints, A. M. Pankratova and others). It investigates the department's training program, the composition of its teaching staff and students, and its party and scholarly work. The author argues that the activity of the institute was determined by one of the primary tasks of the party - the struggle on the ideological front. Marxist views were considered to be the only scientifically-defendable ones during those years. 122 Новейшая история России / Modern history of Russia. 2014. №1 Therefore the criticism of non-Marxist scholarly theories was prioritized and non-party instructors working on even the most arcane periods were placed under Communist control. The goal of preparing a “new type of scholar” (“the red professor”) and politicallyactive personnel led the institute to admit only party members, for the most part. It also determined the specific character of the institute's work (specifically, the prioritizing of seminars and the absence of specialized courses) and the topics of study (social and economic development, class conflict, popular movements). Students were obliged to be engaged in professional pedagogical work (teaching courses in their specialty in higher educational institutions, workers' schools and the institutes' preparatory program), supplementing propagandist cadres. In the opinion the author, the Institute of Red Professors was simultaneously a center for training, scholarship and party ideology.