Institute of Red Professors

The Institute of Red Professors of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (Russian: Институ́т кра́сной профессу́ры, ИКП) was an institute of graduate-level education in the Marxist social sciences located in the Orthodox Convent of the Passion, Moscow.

History edit

It was founded in February 1921 to address a shortage of Marxist professors but only about 25 percent of its graduates continued an academic career; most rather became functionaries of the Communist Party.[1] At first it was under the jurisdiction of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union and later under the Department for Agitation and Propaganda (Agitprop).[2] The studies lasted four years and students (nicknamed ikapisty) were required to write research papers, which were often published and represented a significant body of Marxist historical research. Two hundred thirty-six students completed the course between 1924 and 1929.[2] In 1929, there were 69 teachers at the institute, seven of whom were not members of the Communist Party.[1] Its rectors were Mikhail Pokrovsky (1921–31) and Pavel Yudin (1932–38). The institute was abolished in 1938.[3] The institute was integrated into a system of higher party schools of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

References edit

  1. ^ a b David-Fox, Michael (1997). Revolution of the Mind: Higher Learning Among the Bolsheviks, 1918-1929. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 133, 139.
  2. ^ a b Banerji, Arup (2008). Writing history in the Soviet Union: making the past work. Berghahn Books. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-81-87358-37-4.
  3. ^ Boterbloem, Kees (2004). The life and times of Andrei Zhdanov, 1896-1948. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-7735-2666-2.