Postgraduate studies are a direct road to science. So, we are completing a series of materials about those years that the author spent in graduate school at KSU. Many readers asked questions in their comments, asked to clarify some circumstances of interest, and they will receive answers in this article, but later, in the meantime, we will continue a consistent story about those distant events.
I thought for a long time what photographs to illustrate this material. My own ran out, I was poor, I didn't have a camera, but my friends also rarely took pictures. Give views of the city? Again, I didn't find the ones I needed … And then I was lucky, one might say, my daughter came from Venice and brought these amusing photographs … This is the entrance to the Committee of the Communist Renaissance Party, which is located in Venice near the Arsenal. The fact is that the destruction of the Italian Communist Party (ICP), the most powerful communist party in Western Europe, was the biggest tragedy of the international left movement. But this party still manages to exist, like our CPRF. And here are such interesting photos … On the first, from the Internet, the committee at the time of its opening in 2009! Communist symbolism complete with the shrine of the Sacred Heart! Yes, this can only be seen in Italy …
Like a stone fell from my soul
So, having received a recommendation for defense in November at the very beginning of September, that is, in the grace month after graduating from graduate school, I felt as if a stone had fallen from my soul. In fact - the dissertation is ready, something to improve … in principle, it is possible not to improve. And time for all this to hell. True, it was necessary to collect some "important papers" for defense. These included certificates of passing the candidate's minimum, characteristics (well, how could it be without it?) Of the university's party organization, what "forms" - brrr! It was necessary to print four copies, bind them with burgundy covers, then prepare four folders for documents of the same color - always with a pocket on the left, slots for four pens in four colors and some other "tricks". The graduate student also had to buy bottles with water for the members of the Academic Council - in Kugu in 1988, if I am not mistaken, it was Borjomi water.
One of the readers of "VO" was interested in the question of the banquet. That there was such a tradition and that such a feast cost a lot of money. Yes that's right. My mother, who studied at the graduate school of Moscow State University in Moscow, told me that after her defense in 1968 she had a banquet at the Prague restaurant, and he demanded significant cash "infusions" sent from home. I remember how she excitedly talked about what dishes were served there and what wines they drank, but what exactly was there disappeared from my memory.
But in my 1988, I was just very lucky with this. There was some kind of resolution that banquets after the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations are strictly prohibited! And all of us, graduate students, whose dissertations were defended in the fall of this year, were strictly forbidden by the party committee to feed or drink anyone. Well, if you want, they told us, you can arrange something for yourself, but … only outside the walls of the university and without the invitation of teachers.
So, looking ahead, I can say that for me it was just a gift of fate. Of course, I made some kind of treat for my fellow graduate students, and a very original one - a kebab in a pumpkin. This is when lamb with onions, tomatoes and rice is baked in a pumpkin in the oven. There was some kind of wine, but basically nothing serious.
Good old tradition
Well, today the tradition of Soviet feasts has returned. In 2005, I had to be on the same defense at a Moscow University of a very high rank, and there the applicant was told directly when the council members were given to drink and feed and how to furnish all this: there were two bouquets on the table of council members, Dagestan cognac and merlot from booze (only French brands), no fried chicken, but balyk, good caviar … well, everything like that, and quite exquisite. This treat rose to a decent amount, but it somehow did not seem excessive to me. In the end, people worked, wasted their time, why not drink for it and eat well the way they used to do it? In my hometown, Penza, on the defenses at the Penza Pedagogical University, which took place in 2004 and earlier, there was much more food on the tables, by the way, including fried chicken. And some of them gorged themselves as if from a "hungry edge". Well, after all, this is a province, but what to take from the provincials? However, I had to live up to the kebab in the pumpkin, but meanwhile I went to collect papers, bound the "bricks" of the dissertation and … just walked around the city. It was during these three months that I got to know Kuibyshev better than in the previous three years. For example, there turned out to be a downright delightful archive of abandoned inventions, where only applications for crazy inventions were not kept. Since 1927, there have been … well, just a lot. There were many applications for … samples of small arms, including the development of our famous gunsmiths, which for some reason "did not go". In theory, we should do this, there are a lot of interesting things, but this is already a matter for the readers of "VO" who live in Samara. Let them try to do this at their leisure and write to us here, on "VO", what came of it. Otherwise, the information is lost in vain, which is a pity!
Sit and think
As my leader said, I had time to just sit and think, which had never happened before. So, these three months in my graduate school were probably the best. The defense passed … somehow routinely, except perhaps that my boss sat down at the coffee table directly opposite me with the young graduate students and constantly commented on everything I said, pointing out all the pros and cons. It was somewhat distracting, but on the other hand, interest and support could be felt in him a mile away, and it was pleasant. One of the council members - a professor from Togliatti threw one black ball, and people congratulated me on this after the announcement. “It's good that there is one“against”, VAK finds fault with such works less than with those who have all“for”. Then we got to talking, and I told him that I was the author of the book "From everything at hand." "If I knew this, I wouldn’t quit!" he honestly said, and that's how I found out to whom I "owed" this gift. It is interesting that at that time a number of historical-party dissertations on the topic of scientific research work were defended, but for different five-year periods. But the Higher Attestation Commission was not embarrassed, and we all received the diplomas of candidates of sciences. After all, a dissertation is a qualification work, where you show the skills of scientific work that you had, and if you have them, then … why did it become?
The history of the CPSU is a very important matter
The history of the CPSU at that time was also considered a matter, and a very important matter. Moreover, today the CPSU is long gone, but the history of the CPSU exists, just like the history of ancient Assyria and the monkey-men from the Oldowai Gorge. It has something in common with the history of the USSR, and this is understandable, but it contains a lot of specific information. And she was! Good or bad, but it was, and since it was, then it contains information that is, in principle, useful in that it can help us identify mistakes and lessons, find positive and negative points, identify their corrections in the future, and also see with our own eyes flaws and mistakes, and even give an answer to the most burning question of our history - why? Happens, they say, is that why you did it? Yes, that's all "because" … And we were paid well for it!
So we ate a kebab in a pumpkin and I went to do the transcript the next morning. Outside the windows the wind howls. At the university, the cold is a dog, and you sit, turn the tape recorder and write what they asked you about and what you answered. Oh, how much easier it is today. Was defending his daughter in Moscow. Academic secretary to her: “You need to make a copy of the transcript. You can make it yourself (I immediately remembered how I “sweated” over it) or pay this amount and you can leave even now! " Of course, we "voted" for quality and convenience and immediately went home, and someone had the opportunity to save money on this - everything is very correct.
You need to feel sorry for them
I was asked a question about the attitude to the fact that today you can order a dissertation writing, and even on the Internet and … get a turnkey job right up to the questions and answers written for your defense. On the one hand, this is undoubtedly immoral, but on the other … well, a businessman or a deputy would like to have crusts. n. or d. e. n. and in this way he goes and gets them, since he has money. But … the whole point is that they will not add intelligence and knowledge to him. Having received the coveted crusts, a man of science then writes and writes, and develops as a specialist. The name of science does not write anything else. Finding this out today in the age of the Internet is easier for anyone, including students. And if suddenly such a person is drawn to the pulpit (well, all of a sudden ?!), then there awaits him a b-o-lous disappointment. Well, let's say, as if he himself made a tattoo on his forehead with the inscription "fool" and in this form came out into the people. So I would say that such people should not be scolded, but should be pitied, and that they themselves sign in this way in their stupidity and narrow-mindedness, and it is only necessary (if we are talking about deputies) only not to vote for them after that. Well, if people know and vote, then again - let them!
Today young people are reluctant to go to graduate school, and it is clear why. They don't see the point. At one time I had 10 graduate students (here I outdid my supervisor by two), only he defended all 8, and I have … only one graduate student. But the time, the time has come another. Then the crusts Ph. D. were a sure pass to interesting work and big money, while now you can complete a three-month course of commercial real estate agents, practice a little and start earning money that is simply incomparable with a HSE teacher. Again, it is not without reason that it is said that new times are new songs.
Give me wisdom
Well, I would like to end this story with the words of the prayer of the German theologian Karl Friedrich Etinger (1702-1782), who said in it: “Lord, give me peace of mind to accept what I cannot change, give me the courage to change what I can change. And give me wisdom to distinguish one from the other! This applies to both people of science and any of us.
Well, now, it seems, that's all.
