SOCIO-POLITICAL PRACTICE OF STUDENTS AT A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

I. F. Livshits

(Presented by the scientific seminar of the Department of Scientific Communism)

1. Formulation of the Problem and the Aim of Socio-Political Practice

The engineering intelligentsia, as a numerous and one of the most dynamic socio-professional groups of socialist society, performs a set of functions reflecting the needs of socialist social relations and the comprehensive development of the individual. All these functions—production-technical, socio-economic, socio-political, and spiritual—expressing the essence of individual elements of socialist social relations, are directed toward realizing the objective laws governing the functioning and development of socialist society and toward overcoming objective and subjective contradictions.

The production-technical function is determined by technological relations regulating the mode of connection between a person and the instruments of labor. As the scientific and technical revolution unfolds and the role of intellectual professional labor increases, the significance of this function becomes more complex and acquires ever greater weight in the activity of the engineer. This by no means signifies its self-sufficient significance, since technological relations operate within the framework of definite economic relations, experiencing their determining influence—the influence of relations among workers in socialist production with regard to public ownership of the means of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. The socio-economic function is leading and has fundamental significance, since it determines, in the broad social sense, the meaning of the activity of the engineering intelligentsia.

The production-technical and socio-economic functions are basic in the activity of engineers. The principal sphere of their life activity is connected with them. And if one approaches the higher technical school from this standpoint, it is quite obvious that the student body, by the entire logic of the educational, pedagogical, and scientific processes and by the whole content of the multifaceted work of the higher educational institution, is being prepared to perform these functions.

To the same extent, socialist society has a need for stable and complete preparation of specialists to carry out other functions, in particular the socio-political one. Such

This need is brought about by the integral character of the development of socialist society, in which any kind of social relations is a part of the whole, is determined by it, and influences it. It is precisely from integral positions that the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU approaches the definition of one of the strategic tasks of developed socialism—the task of organically combining the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system.

The advantages of socialism are connected above all with the economic system, but this system functions and develops on the basis of, and in close connection with, socio-political relations, which are called forth by socialist relations of production and, in turn, themselves exert a beneficial influence upon them.

But it would be one-sided to interpret the need to carry out the socio-political function solely on the basis of society’s needs. To the same degree, this need is conditioned by the needs of the individual. The individual, as the aggregate of all social relations, needs the all-round affirmation of his essence, proceeding in the unity of the internalization (assimilation) of social experience and its real use in the interests of society. Such a unity of the two processes unfolds under qualitatively new social conditions, when all social relations promote the accelerated and most complete socialization of the individual at all stages of his development.

The socio-political relations of developed socialism determine the class essence of the socialization of the individual, its direction and boundaries, and make the life of the individual forward-looking and large in scale. In a word, socio-political relations determine the civic character of the individual and, in many respects, broaden and deepen the diversity of his ties and relations. As Marx emphasized, “...the actual spiritual wealth of the individual depends entirely on the wealth of his actual relations”¹.

When the question arises of the need to improve socio-political practice in higher education, then, as it seems to us, very often a limited argument is advanced. It is reduced to the idea that the engineer as a manager needs theoretical and practical experience in managing people. All this is beyond doubt. But the substantiation of the present problem cannot be limited to this. Statistics convince us that the majority of engineers occupy specialist positions and by no means always manage work collectives. In all, at industrial enterprises, one-third of certified engineers are employed². Of these, as may be judged from the example of machine-building enterprises, up to 50% of the total number of engineering and technical workers are engaged in improving the technique and technology of production³. Such a situation in no way diminishes the significance of the socio-political function: first, because, as was emphasized above, the development of a person’s creative powers in the socio-political sphere is one of the conditions for the all-round development of any individual; and, second, higher education provides a sufficient basis for drawing every engineer into socio-political activity in addition to the immediate production process.

Thus, the performance of the socio-political function, both objectively and subjectively, is organically included in the system of functions that determine the social activity of the engineer’s personality.

What, then, are the socio-political relations that determine the socio-political function?

Social relations may, as is customary, be considered in a broad sense as public relations and in a narrow sense. Social relations in the broad sense appear as a type of social order. In the narrow sense, social relations are also interpreted ambiguously. All varieties of social communities are often included among them. We consider social relations as applied to labor activity. As emphasized in the book Laws and Categories of Scientific Communism, social relations between people in this regard are relations “first, concerning the labor function they perform and the form of organization thanks to which this function is performed; second, concerning the public evaluation of the significance of their labor activity; third, concerning their social position and the conditions of activity and mode of life that follow from it”^4).

Social relations are derivative of the productive forces and production relations. The productive forces give rise to a system of the social division of labor, which affects society through production relations. This means that social relations are connected with the productive forces and, in particular, with technological relations indirectly.

The engineering intelligentsia, occupying an important place in the sphere of production management, significantly influences social relations, the life of the labor collective, the overcoming of old forms of the social division of labor through changes in its character and content, and the transformation of labor into life’s primary need.

Since social relations, both in the broad and in the narrow sense, have a political character in class society, they closely interact with political relations, interpenetrate them, and constitute for the engineering intelligentsia a socio-political function directed, in particular, toward ensuring the unity of economic and educational work^5). At the same time, it is important to emphasize the idea that socio-political relations, being superstructural in character, influence technological and economic relations, introducing into them a socio-political aspect. As the development of socialist society accelerates, the significance of socio-political relations will increase, which reflects the growing role of the subjective factor in the development of socialism and the increasing manageability of all spheres of social life.

What is the essence of the problem? Despite the considerable and expanding socio-political work in higher educational institutions, the concrete preparation of students for carrying out the socio-political function does not meet the requirements of the stage of developed socialism and needs to be

^4) N. E. Artukhin. The category of scientific communism “Social Relations.” Laws and Categories of Scientific Communism, Vysshaya shkola, Moscow, 1972, p. 107.

^5) This provision is emphasized in all resolutions of the CPSU Central Committee adopted after the XXIV Congress of the CPSU that deal with the ideological-political work of engineering and technical personnel. See, for example, the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee on the participation of managerial and engineering-technical workers of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant in the ideological-political education of members of the collective. Partiinaya zhizn’, 1972, No. 1, p. 11.

considerable improvement. Concrete sociological studies conducted at various higher educational institutions in the country, in particular at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute,^6 confirm this. The summarized data indicate that: 1) socio-political activity is conducted mainly at an empirical level, without knowledge in this area sufficiently formed in higher education; 2) a significant proportion of graduates have no experience of socio-political work; 3) the consequence of the above is that socio-political work has not become, for many young specialists, an inner motivation or a conscious activity.

The contradiction that has arisen creates an urgent need to overcome it. The XXIV Congress of the CPSU oriented the higher-education community toward this, setting before higher and secondary specialized schools the task of “better equipping young specialists with modern knowledge, skills in organizational and socio-political work, and the ability to apply the knowledge they have acquired in practice.”^7 This same provision is one of the fundamental points in L. I. Brezhnev’s speech at the All-Union Student Rally and in the resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, “On Measures for the Further Improvement of Higher Education in the Country.”^8 Among other measures aimed at raising the level of functioning and development of higher education, it was recognized as necessary to “develop the socio-political activity of student youth and instill in them skills in organizational and educational work.”^9

These provisions are the starting point for creating the scientific foundations for organizing students’ socio-political activity, on which the leading bodies of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, the Ministries of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the USSR and the RSFSR, and the country’s leading higher educational institutions are working intensively and fruitfully: accumulated experience is being generalized, concrete forms and ways of increasing the social activity of students and organizing them for socio-political activity are being developed, and regulations on the socio-political practice of students are being created.^10

Thus, the great general interest in improving socio-political activity once again confirms the theoretical importance of the problem and its practical topicality.

What, then, is the goal of students’ socio-political practice? Defining the goal has important methodological significance. A consciously established goal, in Marx’s words, “as a law determines the manner and character… of actions.”^11

Every goal has two interrelated aspects—the objective and the subjective. The analysis carried out above provides grounds for the conclusion that the organization of socio-political practice in higher

^6 The study, which covered more than 800 young specialists working at factories, in design organizations, and in research institutions of Western Siberia, was conducted by a group of instructors of the Department of Scientific Communism under the direction of the author of the article in 1969–1971.

^7 Materials of the XXIV Congress of the CPSU.

^8 L. I. Brezhnev, Speech at the All-Union Student Rally. Molodoi kommunist, 1971, No. 11, p. 8; “On Measures for the Further Improvement of Higher Education in the Country.” Pravda, 1972, July 30.

^9 “On Measures for the Further Improvement of Higher Education in the Country.” Pravda, 1972, July 30.

^10 See: Teaching Students the Fundamentals of Educational and Organizational Work in Production Collectives. Information Center of Higher Education. Moscow, 1971; Students’ Socio-Political Practicum. Chelyabinsk, 1971, and others.

^11 K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. 28, p. 189.

…school is a requirement of the engineer’s functional activity that coincides with his interests as a person. Proceeding from this, the aim and essence of socio-political practice may be defined as follows: the socio-political practice of students under the conditions of developed socialism is a variety of object-sensory activity directed toward the cognition and mastery of socio-political relations and their transformation in accordance with the totality of objective laws and contradictions, as well as toward the all-round development of the personality. This aim is general in character and is made concrete by the forms of organization of socio-political practice that arise from the general conditions and the specific character of the higher technical school.

The aim of socio-political practice determines the tasks directed toward its realization. Since the methodological basis of the functioning and development of socialist society is Marxism-Leninism, it is natural that socio-political practice must, in many respects, promote the formation of a scientific worldview through an in-depth and creative study of the social sciences and of all scientific knowledge, and through their propaganda, thereby helping to transform Marxist-Leninist ideas into firm personal convictions and actions. This appears to be the first and initial prerequisite for the transition of socio-political activity into self-activity, that is, into socially active activity developing on the basis of stable value orientations toward it.

The second task consists in helping each student acquire knowledge, skills, and stable practical habits in organizational, agitational-propagandistic, and educational work, teaching the student to create and regulate relations with people in all spheres—technological, economic, social, political, and spiritual.

In the process of acquiring experience, students develop needs and interests in social activity. “Understanding the necessity of a phenomenon,” Lenin emphasized, “naturally evokes an entirely different attitude toward it, the ability to evaluate its various aspects”⁴.

The solution of the third task should help instill in students habits of self-organization and self-government and increase personal responsibility for organizational and socio-political activity.

Self-organization and self-government, taking place under social control, lay the foundation for cultivating enduring qualities of the personality—initiative, a creative attitude toward work, and self-discipline. Socio-political practice creates favorable conditions for this, since it is formed in real, life situations, and this often compels the individual to remove restrictions on his activity and to overcome difficulties.

And, finally, socio-political practice is directed toward ensuring, in the process of students’ organizational and socio-political activity, immediate and effective practical returns for society.

The tasks of socio-political practice determine its structure, consisting of the theoretical and methodological preparation of students for it and of socio-political practice itself.

II. Theoretical and Methodological Preparation of Students for Socio-Political Practice

The preparation of students for organizational and socio-political activity must take place in all spheres of the educational process and be carried out by all units that teach and educate students. The objective basis for this is the convergence among the natural, technical, technological, and social sciences that the student studies, and the presence of socio-theoretical and socio-political aspects in all elements of the educational process.

The study of the social sciences provides an integral system of philosophical, socio-economic, and socio-political views on public life and a theoretical basis for organizational and socio-political activity. In the process of studying the history of the CPSU, philosophy, political economy, and scientific communism, the student masters Marxist-Leninist theory and methodology, and methods of working with philosophical, socio-economic, and socio-political literature. Every student in the first, second, third, and fourth years has the opportunity to deliver a report or write a paper in the corresponding social discipline. Students who have shown great interest in the social sciences are drawn by the departments into research work. The departments of the social sciences develop topics on philosophical, socio-economic, socio-political, and historical-party themes, recommend them to students through student public organizations and the specialized departments supervising students’ industrial practice, and provide methodological assistance in carrying out agitation and propaganda work.

The study of general theoretical and general engineering disciplines contributes to the formation of a scientific worldview and an interest in research work, and creates a scientific basis for agitation and propaganda work in the field of the fundamental and technical sciences. General theoretical and general engineering departments organize students’ scientific work and formulate topics for the propaganda of natural-scientific and scientific-technical knowledge, and also provide methodological assistance to students.

The study of specialized disciplines contributes to the formation of a scientific worldview and the creation of a deep, stable interest in scientific creativity and organizational activity. The specialized departments, together with research institutes and problem laboratories, involve students in scientific work, instill organizational skills, identify the most pressing theoretical and scientific-technical problems connected with their field, help find ways and forms of ties with production, and provide methodological assistance to students in presenting their work in the form of reports, articles, papers, and communications.

The study of specific economic disciplines forms concrete economic thinking based on a scientific worldview, instills organizational skills and a taste for the economic analysis of technical and technological problems. The Department of Economics and Organization of Production determines the content and methodological foundations of students’ concrete presentations on economic questions in accordance with the profile of their future engineering activity.

The study of military-applied disciplines and of the theoretical foundations of physical education and development gives students the opportunity to master

in particular specialties in the organization of military-applied activity through DOSAAF and the sports club, the military department and the department of physical education (leaders of sections and circles, coaches, judges, etc.). Here there are also very great opportunities for propagandizing individual types of military-applied skill and questions of military-patriotic education.

Departments of foreign languages have the opportunity to make wide use in the educational process of materials in the most varied areas of science, technology, socio-political and cultural life, thereby broadening and deepening students’ interest in the urgent problems of the present day.

Thus, the preparation of students for organizational and socio-political activity must be carried out by all links of the educational and upbringing process. It is necessary to give this work a systematic and purposeful character. Similar work is conducted by Party, Komsomol, and trade-union organizations, creative associations and societies, organizing the training of activists. Students who have shown a deepened interest in individual spheres of organizational and socio-political activity are united in many higher educational institutions into faculties of public professions.

It is important to emphasize another point. Since organizational and socio-political activity is a specific sphere and requires special knowledge and skills, it makes great sense to introduce a number of additional courses into the educational process. Their purpose is to help form in students concrete knowledge and skills in working with people. The main emphasis, taking into account the students’ considerable theoretical preparation, should be placed on revealing the methodology of organizational and socio-political work.

In the first year it is advisable to teach the discipline “The Structure of the Higher Educational Institution and Introduction to the Specialty,” which should help accelerate the process of a student’s adaptation to the higher-education collective, to student labor, and to the corresponding specialty. In this course the student becomes acquainted with his status and with the structure of the higher educational institution, with the entire set of future engineering functions, receives the simplest notion of the organizational foundations of his activity, in particular of individual planning and of the possibilities of inclusion in the public life of the collective. This part of the course may be provided by the department of CPSU history and by the curators (scope: lectures—8 hours and seminars—4 hours).

In the second part of the course, which is conducted by the specialized department (the scope is determined by the department itself), the student becomes acquainted with the place of the corresponding branch and specialty in the system of modern production and science, with their history and prospects for development, and receives an initial idea of production-technical and organizational engineering activity. The course gives the student an opportunity to grasp the logic of the educational process for the entire period of study, the objective necessity of all its elements, and their interconnection. The presentation of the material should be visual in character and be accompanied by excursions to industrial enterprises and scientific institutions. The form of reporting may be the preparation of a personal comprehensive plan for the second semester for the first part of the course and a pass/fail examination for the second part.

In the system of organizational and socio-political activity, agitation-and-propaganda work occupies an exceptionally large place. That is why it is necessary to equip students with an understanding of the basic principles and methods of carrying it out. This provides the basis for an independent course in the 4th semester, “Fundamentals of Agitational and ...”

propaganda work.” The form of reporting may be the preparation and conduct of a discussion or lecture on a socio-political, historical-party, ethical, natural-scientific, or scientific-technical topic, or the holding of a study session in the network of Komsomol education.

The transformation of science into a direct productive force immeasurably increases the importance of propaganda of natural-scientific, technical, and technological knowledge, and of the generalization and dissemination of experience in production activity. In this connection, it makes sense in the third year, in parallel with the study of the political economy of socialism, to offer students a short course, “Organization of the Dissemination and Assimilation of Production and Scientific-Technical Experience.” The form of control may be a student’s report on the fulfillment, during industrial practice, of an assignment to generalize specific experience at the corresponding enterprise, organization, or institution.

In the fourth year of study, in the eighth semester, there are all grounds for a course, “Fundamentals of Organizational and Educational Work in the Labor Collective,” with a volume of approximately 10 hours. On the basis of contemporary data from sociology, psychology, and pedagogy, the course should reveal the structure of the labor collective and the regularities of its formation and functioning, the role of the collective in cultivating conscious labor discipline, in ideological-political education, and in the cultural development of its members. The student needs to be given an understanding of social planning in the labor collective and of the role of the leader in its functioning and development. The form of control may be a student’s report on the fulfillment of an assignment in socio-political practice during the period of industrial practice.

Fifth-year students, who after graduation from the institute are assigned to leading administrative posts, need a course on the methodology and techniques of social research (12 hours). The form of control may be considered a report on the fulfillment of an assignment during pre-diploma practice.

Such, as we see it, is a system of means capable of solving the task of forming the theoretical, methodological, and psychological foundations for ensuring the participation, at a scientific level, of every student in organizational and socio-political work in accordance with his present position and future engineering functions.

III. Forms of Involving Students in Organizational and Socio-Political Activity

The goal of socio-political practice and its tasks are realized through involving students in various forms of organizational and socio-political activity. What initial considerations, in our view, should guide the determination of such forms?

First, the extent to which a given form reflects the class positions of socio-political activity under the conditions of developed socialism, and the extent to which it contributes to overcoming the basic contradiction of the epoch—that is, the question concerns the ideological orientation of socio-political practice.

Second, the extent to which the corresponding form contributes to the development of the student’s creative powers and independence, and instills in him an interest in active participation in public life, since precisely this is the most important condition for transforming activity into...

independent activity, the formation of stable positive attitudes and value orientations toward socio-political activity.

Third, the extent to which a given form strengthens the student collective, promotes its cohesion, and broadens the individual’s communication with production collectives, including the individual in new connections and relations.

Fourth, the extent to which the form of socio-political activity reveals the specificity of the year of study and the specialty, since from year to year, on the one hand, a given form is filled with new content, while on the other, the connection between socio-political work and professional training is strengthened.

Fifth, the extent to which the form of socio-political practice takes into account the interests and abilities of the student’s personality and provides opportunities for freedom of choice. In some cases this is the choice among different forms, and in others, choice within one or another form.

Sixth, the extent to which a given form is effective both from the standpoint of the time expended and of the final result.

These are the general provisions that must be taken into account in determining the forms of organizational and socio-political activity.

All forms may be conditionally subdivided into general, or cross-cutting, forms that extend to all years of study, and specific forms characteristic of one or several years. General forms may include, for example, the preparation of a report or the writing of a term paper in the social sciences. Over the course of all the years of study, every student has the opportunity at least four times to demonstrate independence in the analysis of theoretical problems of Marxism-Leninism, the practice of communist construction, and the development of the world revolutionary process; and “without a certain amount of independent work,” Lenin emphasized, “truth cannot be found in any serious question.”⁵ Examples of specific forms include assignments for practical training in production, participation in scientific seminars, work by senior students with first-year students, and so on.

What forms of involving students in organizational and socio-political activity are typical for each year of study?

First year

In the autumn semester of the first year, the main task consists in adapting students to student work and in mastering the fundamentals of organizational work and the planning of their own activity. Students begin to be drawn into public work within the group and the year, receiving everyday assistance from the curators of study groups and from Komsomol and trade-union bureaus. Beginning with the spring semester, first-year students are already widely involved in various kinds of organizational and socio-political activity in accordance with their capabilities:

1. Each student prepares a report or writes a term paper on the history of the CPSU or of the Leninist Komsomol;

2. Participation in term-paper circles in the general theoretical sciences and in scientific circles on the history of the CPSU;

3. Participation in competitions in the social sciences, mathematics, physics, descriptive geometry, etc.;

4. Participation by every student in the conduct of group political discussions and thematic Komsomol meetings and conferences;

1. Work in elected and self-governing organizations, including in the voluntary people’s patrol;

2. Patronage work in secondary schools and children’s homes;

3. Participation by every student in the institute’s labor activities and beyond its confines;

4. Mastering a specialty in order to participate, beginning in the second year, in the work of student construction detachments;

5. Participation in amateur artistic activities;

6. Participation in sports sections.

Second Year

1. Preparation by each student of a report or the writing of an essay on Marxist-Leninist philosophy;

2. Completion by each student of an assignment in the course “Methodological Foundations of Agitation and Propaganda Work,” mainly within the institute, in construction detachments, and during introductory production practice;

3. Participation in scientific circles in philosophy, in essay-writing circles in general-theoretical and general-engineering disciplines, and the gradual inclusion of well-performing students in the scientific work of departments, research institutes, and problem laboratories; participation in competitions in the social sciences, mathematics, physics, etc.;

4. Work in elected and self-governing organizations at the level of the study group, year, and faculty;

5. Work in dormitory student councils and self-governing clubs;

6. Participation in commissions of the Komsomol and trade-union organizations, in public dean’s offices, etc., for the organization of academic, scientific, political-educational, and cultural-mass work;

7. Participation by every student in the holding of group political discussions and thematic Komsomol meetings and conferences;

8. Patronage work in secondary schools and children’s homes, vocational schools, and technical schools;

9. Participation by every student who has previously mastered a construction specialty in the institute’s labor activities and beyond its confines;

10. Participation in amateur artistic activities;

11. Participation in agitation work for recruitment to the institute;

12. Work to improve athletic mastery and preparation for passing the standards for the titles “sports judge” and “public instructor.”

Third Year

1. Preparation by each student of a report or the writing of an essay on political economy;

2. Completion by each student of an assignment during production practice in the course “Organization of the Dissemination and Assimilation of Production and Scientific-Technical Experience”;

3. Participation in competitions, including those in the social sciences;

4. Participation in scientific circles in political economy and broad inclusion in the work of scientific seminars of general-engineering and specialized departments, research institutes, and problem laboratories;

5. Work in elected and self-governing organizations at the level of the study group, faculty, and institute;

6. Work in dormitory student councils and self-governing clubs;

7. Participation by every student in the holding of group political discussions, thematic Komsomol meetings and conferences;

1. Students’ participation in sections of the faculty of public professions;

2. Giving lectures, holding discussions, leading study circles in the network of Komsomol education at enterprises, in institutions, schools, etc.;

3. Participation in agitation work for recruitment to the institute;

4. Participation of every student in the institute’s labor activities and beyond its walls.

Fourth year

1. Preparation by every student of a report or the writing of a paper on scientific communism;

2. Completion by every student, during industrial practice, of an assignment in the course “Fundamentals of Organizational and Educational Work in the Work Collective.”

3. Participation in competitions, including those in the social sciences;

4. Participation in scientific circles on scientific communism and broad involvement in the work of scientific seminars of general-engineering and specialized departments, research institutes, and problem laboratories;

5. Participation in the work of design bureaus of sponsored enterprises; assistance to workers in rationalization and inventive activity;

6. Work in elected and voluntary organizations at the level of the study group, year, faculty, and institute;

7. Work in dormitory student councils and voluntary clubs;

8. Participation by every student in conducting group political discussions, thematic Komsomol meetings, and conferences;

9. Participation in sections of the faculty of public professions;

10. Giving lectures, holding discussions, leading study circles in the network of Komsomol education at enterprises, in institutions, schools, etc.;

11. Participation in agitation work for recruitment to the institute;

12. Participation of every student in the institute’s labor activities and beyond its walls.

Fifth and sixth years

1. Broad participation by every student in the life of the production collective during pre-diploma practice:

a) giving lectures and holding discussions on socio-political, economic, scientific-technical, and natural-science topics;

b) leading study circles in the network of Komsomol education;

c) assistance to workers in rationalization and inventive activity;

d) participation in socialist competition and in advanced initiatives;

e) organization of cultural-mass and sports work, etc.

1. Participation in scientific circles in the social sciences at any department and in social-science competitions;

2. Work in elected and voluntary organizations at the level of the study group, year, faculty, and institute;

3. Work in student councils and voluntary clubs;

4. Participation by every student in conducting group political discussions, thematic Komsomol meetings, and conferences;

5. Sponsorship work with first-year students;

6. Participation in agitation work for recruitment to the institute;

7. Participation of every student in the institute’s labor activities and beyond its walls.

IV. Planning, Monitoring, and Assessment of Students in Socio-Political Practice

Organizational and socio-political work can be planned at two levels—the study group and each individual student—and is a most important component of the overall plan of the study group, of its Komsomol and trade-union organizations, as well as of the student’s personal comprehensive plan.

It is advisable to draw up the study group’s plan for the academic year in accordance with the content of the educational program. It should be holistic in character, including seven areas. The first area is connected with the acquisition of theoretical and special-professional knowledge, abilities, and skills through the implementation of curricula and syllabi. The second consists in acquiring the skills of a researcher. The third area addresses the task of forming civic qualities through public activity. The fourth addresses the same task through labor activity outside the educational process. The fifth area ensures aesthetic development. The sixth accustoms the student to the ability to acquire knowledge independently through self-education and, finally, the seventh leads to physical development as a necessary component of an all-round personality.

Taken together, these areas can ensure the all-round development of the student primary collective and of each individual student on the basis of a scientific worldview and communist morality. All areas include socio-political practice, but the leading one for socio-political practice is public activity.

The unity of the goals of the student collective and of each student makes it possible to have a study-group plan and a plan for each student that are common in structure. The student’s personal comprehensive plan should differ from the group plan in its specific means and features, which follow from the needs, interests, and possibilities of each student. If the personal plan is created on the basis of the group plan, then the group plan is adjusted in accordance with the personal comprehensive plans. Such an approach makes it possible to avoid formalism in the planning and work of students and their public organizations, and to combine harmoniously the general (group) and the particular (personal) in the life activity of the collective.

Typical personal comprehensive plans are intended to provide substantial assistance to students. Such plans should be given to each student at the beginning of the academic year and submitted at the beginning of the next academic year to the dean’s office for storage in the student’s personal file. Typical student plans make it possible to orient oneself in areas of activity, in the choice of forms of work, and provide great convenience for distributing activities and the time resource by the weeks of the year. Typical plans should not restrain the initiative of students, who are free to choose specific forms and means of activity.

Monitoring of the implementation of the plans of the group and of each student should be carried out periodically, once every two months, at a Komsomol–trade-union meeting. In the personal comprehensive plan, a note is made in each section, by the group’s triangle and by the curator, on the fulfillment of the plan, including socio-political practice.

The personal comprehensive plan performs a dual function—internal and external. It contributes to the all-round development of the student, to self-organization and self-government in his activity, and increases

systematicity and regularity in the work. At the same time, fulfillment of the plan provides objective information about the student, about the orientation of his activity, needs and interests, and reveals his potential capabilities. On the basis of such information, which is discussed at the Komsomol–trade-union meeting of the academic group, students are certified for the Lenin examination, and the curator enters a differentiated pass mark for socio-political practice, which is recorded in the grade book. The students’ activity that takes place after the Lenin examination at the institute, in production practice, and in student construction brigades may be taken into account when students are certified and receive credit for socio-political practice in the following academic year.

The main criteria for granting credit are the content of the socio-political work, which is carried out in the forms recommended for each year of study, the completeness with which the comprehensive plan is covered, and the systematic nature of the activity.

An increased grade in socio-political practice—“good” or “excellent”—should be given to students who combine active socio-political activity with successful study and scientific-technical work in their specialty. A satisfactory grade is given to those students who fulfill the necessary minimum but do not show initiative in carrying out the entire comprehensive plan.

A positive grade in socio-political practice serves as one of the grounds for the awarding of a scholarship⁶.

Students who ignore socio-political practice receive an unsatisfactory grade. Such students have the opportunity, within a three-month period, to make up the arrears. Within the same period, a retake for a higher grade may be conducted.

In the event of a student’s systematic evasion of socio-political practice, the dean’s office, upon the recommendation of the Komsomol–trade-union meeting of the group and of the relevant department, has the right to consider the question of his continued stay at the institute.

The final grade in socio-political practice for the entire period of study should be assigned on the basis of the results of the annual certification and taken into account in the placement of the young specialist. Students who have received a final grade of “excellent” may be recommended for the award of a diploma for public activity.

The leadership of socio-political practice should be carried out, at the institute level, by the Party committee, the rector’s office, the Komsomol committee, the trade-union committee, and the local committee; and, at the faculty level, respectively, by the Party bureau, the dean’s office, the faculty bureau of the Komsomol, and the trade-union bureau. Directly in the academic group, the curator, Komsomol group organizer, trade-union organizer, and group monitor organize and direct socio-political practice.

These are the questions of improving the organization of socio-political practice, the resolution of which, as it seems to us, can contribute to strengthening integrity in the training of the modern engineer and to the development of his personality, and to increasing the student’s social activity.

1. K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 3, p. 36. ↩

2. “Public Education, Science, and Culture in the USSR.” Statistical collection. Statistics, Moscow, 1971, p. 238. ↩

3. M. A. Ivanova, I. A. Samarina. Technical Progress and the Structure of Engineering and Technical Workers and Employees. Ekonomika, Moscow, 1970, p. 46. ↩

4. V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 2, p. 223. ↩

5. V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 23, p. 68. ↩

6. See: Instruction on the procedure for awarding and paying scholarships to students of higher educational institutions, 1972. ↩