THE CHEMICAL FACULTY OF THE LOMONOSOV UNIVERSITY (AVID COURSES OF STUDY)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A048800120001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 4, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

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1. In 1957 about 1500 students, including .100 foreigners, were
enrolled in the chemical faculty of Lomonosov University. A
special permit was required to enter the grounds, which were
in the new university building in the Lenin Hills.
2. The faculty included the following departments:
a. Organic chemistry.
b. Inorganic chemistry.
c. Physical chemistry.
d. Analytical chemistry.
e. Collodial chemistry.
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f. Chemical technology.
g. History of chemistry.
3. The faculty had the following laboratories:
a. Synthesis (Bolshoi Sinte~,y).
b. Aromatic and nonaromatic compounds.
c. Petroleum.
d. Organic catalysis.
e. Albuminal compounds.
f. Analysis of alloys.
g. Thermodynamics.
h. Thermochemiatry. This laboratory included a special
department engaged in research on fuel purification for
the Soviet Air Force.
i. Electrochemistry.
~. Catalytical kinetics. Professor Topcheyeva, the dean
of the faculty, conducted research on the catalysis of
alumi-silicate in this laboratory.
k. Kinetics.
1. 3pectroacopy.
m. Crystallography.
n. Chemistry of radioactive elements, for which an entry
permit was required.
o. Mechenikh Atomov (?).
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p. Adsorption.
Colorimetry.
5.
r. Soil depression (?).
Following was the first-year curriculum of the chemical faculty:
a. Inorganic chemistry.
b. Mathematics.
c. Physic a.
d. Marxism-Leninism.
e. One foreign language.
f. Physical culture.
With one exception, the substitution of analytical chemistry
for inorganic chemistry, the course for the second year was
identical.
Following was the third-year curriculum:
a. Organic chemistry.
b. Mathematics, a continuation of second-year studies.
c. Crysta]Jography.
d. Theoretical physics.
e. Chemistry of colloids.
f. Theory of matter (Badanie Materii).
g. Political economy.
h. Foreign language.
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6. The fourth-year course consisted of the following subjects:
a. Physical chemistry.
b. Chemistry of colloids.
c. Theory of matter.
d. History of chemistry.
e. Foreign language.
f. Marxism-Leninism.
At the end of the fourth year the students spent two months
for specializing in a chemical works.
?. The fifth year was devoted to specialization in one of the
faculty's laboratories, preparation and presentation of thesis;
tests in professional subjects; and government examinations
in Marxism-Leninism. Students who failed in the latter subjects
did not receive diplomas. A committee classified students and
assigned them to jobs for three years.
~. Only a few of the 300 students in the thermochemistry laboratory
were farmers' or workers' sons; the majority were the children
of high government or Party officials or of high-ranking mili-
tary officers. About 10 percent belonged to various national
minorities.
9. There were boarding facilities, at a cost of ~5 rubles a month,
which ~~ere used by about 15 percent of the students. There
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were also two restaurants, for the lecturing staff and the
students, respectively. Student lunches cost 2.5, 3.5 or
5 rubles, and each included a meat course.
10. Students were generally on the campus from 1000 to 1800 hours,
since lecture attendance was compulsory. Students with above
average marks received a monthly scholarship grant of 350 to
150 rubles, or even more fn the case of outstanding achieve-
ment. Since 1957, however, the economic position of the
student's parents has determined scholarship eligibility;
students whose parents individually earned more than 500
rubles a month no longer received scholarships. The pur-
pose of the change was to achieve a greater degree of im-
partiality, since professors had formerly overgraded scholar-
ship students. Moreover, under the former system wealthy
students spent their scholarship money on entertainment
while workers' sons went hungry.
11. A network of secret informers maintained strict surveillance
ove~ll student activities; even intimate conversations were
related to the security authorities. After the Stalin era,
and especially after the 7QCth CPSU Congrees~a spirit of
doubt and criticism spread anong the students, particularly
in the physics faculty. In 1956 many students listened to
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the BBC and the Voice of America, and during the Hungarian
rebellion a typewritten pamphlet, which contradicted official
communia_ues on Hungary and Poland, was circulated in the
university. A demonstration was held in portest to the of-
ficial banning of Dudintsev's Not by Bread Alone. There
were a number of incidents of inebriation, theft, and burglary,
and a low moral standard prevailed, although not among the
Chinese group, which was the largest foreign contingent.
The Chinese were extremely conscientious and were almost
religious about their studies, which they completed with
distinction.
12. The following persona were known:
a. Professor Rembinder (fnu),
b. Professor Spitsin (fnu),f
c. Professor Tatyevski (fnu) was the deputy dean of the
faculty. His textbook on the composition of materials
was used by the university.
d. Professor Klaudya Vasilevna Topcheyeva was the dean of
the faculty and the head of the catalytical kinetics
department.
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