Wartime dissertations in the regional dimension (experience of Chelyabinsk Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, 1944–1945)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the process of defending dissertations during the Great Patriotic War. The article presents the experience of the Chelyabinsk Institute of Agricultural Mechanization – the only university in the region that received the right to award scientific degrees of candidate of sciences during the war years. The author, relying on the paperwork of the institute, considers the corps of dissertants, the peculiarities of con ducting dissertation disputes, as well as the interaction of the university leadership with the Higher Attestation Commission on the award of academic degrees. In the period 1944 1945. candidate dissertations were defended by 8 researchers. The article presents biograph ical information about dissertations, which made it possible to identify general trends and, on the contrary, pay attention to the features of the formation of the circle of applicants for a degree. The article pays attention to the influence of evacuation and re-evacuation process es on the formation of the academic council of the university and the corps of dissertation scientists. It is concluded that military everyday life influenced both the organization of dis sertation defenses and the presentation and content of scientific research submitted for de fense. The first candidates of sciences who defended their dissertations at the institute, for the most part, left the region. An appeal to their experience in defending dissertations allows us to reveal how the regulatory requirements for awarding academic degrees were applied in the field and the Soviet dissertation culture developed.