Postgraduate studies are a direct road to science. One of the characteristics of Professor Medvedev's leadership was that he usually invited graduate students to his home. His apartment was large, "Stalin's", and in it he had a separate office. Purely professorial: bookcases with books to the ceiling on both walls from the door and a large writing table with a beautiful (it was fashionable then) ink set. Since he did not have one hand, he placed a very original paperweight on the open books so as not to hold the pages. All this was very unusual, as was what he was talking about. Each meeting, in addition to discussing the progress of work on the dissertation, was devoted to some historical topic. For example, one day he started a speech about collectivization and talked about his work in the party organs of Moldova and how he documented that after the annexation of the USSR, 10,000 peasant landowners were dispossessed there illegally, and how many dispossessed people were, according to which documents were simply not survived … Why he told this, I did not understand then, and only then I realized that he wanted to share his knowledge, and so that "no one, nothing."
Homeschooling
At one of the meetings he showed me a table laid with books of documents of congresses and decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU. And he showed, and very clearly, how from publication to publication they reduced negative assessments of both figures of the past and texts with party decisions on certain negative points. One edition has three paragraphs, the next… only one. Then he raised his finger pointedly and said, “See what this means? And where is this going?"
"Well …"
"The consequences can be very bad!" He added pointedly. And again I didn’t understand anything then, but I understand very well now.
As a researcher, he demanded of me, first of all, to clearly understand the essence and tasks of the party leadership, which included: selection and placement of personnel, setting a task, monitoring its implementation, summing up and evaluating the results. That is, for successful work it was necessary to find the right people. Put on the places corresponding to their knowledge, experience and character. Indicate the goal and determine the ways to achieve it, periodically monitoring the progress of implementation. At the end, it was necessary to find out what worked and what did not, why it did not work, and what should be done so that failures would not follow in the future. All stages of this work should have been reflected in the dissertation and it was necessary to find out whether (and how much!) The party leadership of the research work in the Volga region was effective at the time being studied, and also what was required for this very efficiency to increase. At the same time, I was told: “Criticize in moderation! Not a single dissertation has been successfully defended on just one negative!"
It should be noted that the place in which he was then located was rather … "vile". In a sense, there were streets built up with wooden houses of the most "soviet" type, that is, from different boards, roofing felt and slate, laid in a checkerboard pattern. The streets were not asphalted, and in the center of each were ruts filled with disgusting green slurry. I really hope that now all this "shelter" has been demolished.
So what was the essence of the party leadership of the High School?
Gradually, in the course of the work, it became clear that there, at the top, in the Central Committee, a resolution was actually adopted at that time on increasing the effectiveness of the leadership of the NIRS, that party meetings of communist teachers of higher educational institutions of the region were gathering, that they said that it was necessary to intensify efforts in this area and thereby to raise both the quality of education in universities and the economic return from the high school. This was discussed both at the cathedral party meetings and at the general university ones. And, of course, everyone was in favor. But what's next? People talked and dispersed! Yes, somewhere there were student circles, somewhere whole student design bureaus. But the share of students participating in this work fluctuated at the level of 2-5%, and only at KUAI (Kuibyshev Aviation Institute) reached 15. The teachers, in fact, whether they are communists or not, had no particular interest in working more with students and involving them in science. Well, they will give you another certificate and where is it?
That is, the party leadership at the High School most often duplicated and supplemented the administration and the leadership of specialized departments. In essence, it was, in Lenin's words, "the fifth wheel in the cart," which did not interfere with the work of universities, but did not help much either. What was most effective in the management of university science was … the control of morality! As soon as some professor started stroking the students on the hand and retired in the office, or the dean of the physical transport vehicle began to photograph naked swimmer students, like a wife or one of the well-wishers immediately wrote a letter to the party committee and … the poor professor was sneezed in the tail and mane, threatening to be reprimanded with entry into the registration card, or even expulsion from the party in general. And if for the employees of technical departments it was not so scary, for the same teachers of scientific communism and the history of the CPSU it meant dismissal, since non-communists could not teach these disciplines. Always in which case it was possible to say loudly: "We have a party card of the same color!" Get into a pose and … eventually get your way. But what was of fundamental importance in terms of attracting students to research work?
Specificity of the East
And all this was required in the work to somehow show, to bring the evidence base in the form of documents under his statements, which required a lot of effort and resourcefulness of mind. Most importantly, it was impossible to lie. All graduate students remembered about the "black opponent" who could request in the archive to check any of your links, and if you gave a link to a non-existent document or it contained one thing, and you yourself wrote another, you could not count on mercy. The already protected work was declared invalid and that's it! However, there was no need to invent anything. There was enough information in the archives. Moreover, it is often very interesting. So, in the archives of the Central Committee of the Komsomol in Moscow, I came across a document-certificate sent from the Central Committee of the Komsomol to the Central Committee of the CPSU on attracting students from universities of Central Asian republics to research work, and it turned out that there were more than 100% of them! Moreover, the data for the Volga region were completely different - 5-10% of students maximum! It was a huge discrepancy and I was not the only one who noticed it, because the document had a funny postscript: "You need to take into account the specifics of the East" or something like that. But the state money was spent on scientific research work! And that means they were sent … to the "leaders" in this area, but in the same Volga region they were simply not enough. This is how the knowledge came that "not everything is all right in the Kingdom of Danish", but … everyone wanted to believe that with time everything would be fine, that we were "on the right path." And, by the way, if everyone in the Central Committee saw, knew, understood and … did nothing, then what could an ordinary graduate student do here?
In general, Kuibyshev at the end of the 80s of the last century made a strange impression on me. Here are quite decent high-rise buildings and … right there opposite - wooden wreckage, from the courtyards of which the grace of the womb flowed right into the street from the bleached sorts. There were many old merchant houses, but they were all kind of shabby … And these were the slopes to the Volga. No wonder then in the novel "Pareto's Law" many events took place in Samara in 1918. Since that time, nothing has changed there - I compared the photos. Perhaps the lampposts have changed.
Specificity of the work of graduate students
And, among other things, the very process of working with large amounts of information required internal mobilization, self-control and good organization of work, otherwise it was possible to "get sick" with one of the purely "graduate student diseases". No … not syphilis or AIDS. Having simply learned to work well in the archive, the graduate student "fell ill" with the "hoarding mania" and continued to collect materials, even if he no longer needed them. The leader said: “Write! It's time to write! " But … the fear of a blank sheet of paper, too, has not been canceled, and many tried to at least postpone this acquaintance with him. Another ailment was "a passion for publishing." For defense, it was then required to publish only 3 articles, and only one in the edition of the Higher Attestation Commission, and at the beginning everyone was afraid that they would not have time to "accumulate" the required amount. But then the collected material made it possible to write articles one by one, and some published 7, 8, and even 10 articles, again, just not to write the text itself! That is, we had to fight all the time with our own brain, which, as you know, lives in our body as if by itself, and, moreover, according to the law of least resistance. What is the least energy-consuming, he inclines you to that, and it takes a lot of willpower to make him obey you!
In the hostel of the obkom drivers
But gradually all these "pitfalls" were overcome, and the dissertation began to acquire "meat". In the first year we were not given business trips, but in the second year you could go to the archives of Moscow and to neighboring Ulyanovsk. In my hometown, of course, business trips were not given. And, by the way, I would like to tell you about one such trip to Ulyanovsk. We went there together with graduate student Zharkov in June 1987 and immediately went to the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where they showed our certificates and asked for assistance in housing and food. And we got both - coupons to the OK dining room and a referral to the hostel of the OK KPSS drivers. The building was completely inconspicuous, without a sign, but inside … spacious bright rooms with carpets and fashionable polished furniture. Now these lacquered coffins are perceived as the height of bad taste. And then it was the very "that". In the kitchen, the ZIL refrigerator is the dream of every Soviet housewife. In a word, chauffeurs sent on business with their bosses lived well, and if, by the way, ordinary chauffeurs lived like that, then what kind of "hostel" did the district secretaries of the Republic of Kazakhstan have?
We came to the dining room, and there is marble, Finnish plumbing (yes, my God, Mama don't worry - that's what happens!) And the menu is like in a restaurant! We got into a democratic line and decided to eat properly for the sake of arrival, therefore, in addition to the main dishes, we also took strawberries with cream. And they paid - I was 1, 20 rubles, and Zharkov - 1, 21 rubles. And everything was not only cheap, but also delicious!
We returned to the "hotel", rested and went to the market. And there are early strawberries for 4, 50 rubles. kilogram! We were surprised, just as surprised by the fact that the next day she was not on the menu. We ask - where? And to us - “it is not in demand, because it is expensive, but we buy it on the market! "But what about … if we paid 1, 20 for lunch with her?" In response, the cook just shrugged her shoulders.
"The collision of the Volgo-Don-12 dry cargo ship with the bridge over Samarka took place on May 15, 1971". Why is a society of total scarcity good? And the fact that … you could come with a box of chocolates to the archive of the OK KPSS, give it to the "girl" in the reading room and … get access to personal files, which you otherwise would not have seen, and to classified materials about disasters, accidents and explosions that ordinary Soviet citizens had no idea about. All this was interesting to read and … elevated in my own eyes, which was also nice!
A problem in the spirit of J. Orwell
That time lunch cost us 1 ruble and a penny. And then graduate student Zharkov offered me a funny bet: try to eat more than 1, 10 rubles every day. (if without a berry!), and whoever "outweighs" whom, he feeds the loser with dessert with nuts in a cafe on the banks of the Volga. There were delicious desserts and we both really liked it. And the view is beautiful! We began to take two salads, a herring with an onion … a chop … and so on … all from meat, and still, during our stay there, no one surpassed this amount. And only later, having raised the documents of 1928, we learned that the prices in the regional committee canteens were frozen at this level and, with all the reforms, they remained at this level! That is, everything was like George Orwell's later: “All animals are equal. But some are more equal than others."
So the second year passed, and at the end of this year the second version of the thesis was ready. The chief read it and said: “You did everything right! But … do you see how it all turned out? So go and write everything as it is, only without the marketplace abuse against the CPSU. After all, she started perestroika with herself! " I said "yes" and … went to rewrite the work for the third time!
