Specialists for Modernisation. Discussion about Training of Specialists for the Electro-Technical Industry in Russia on the Cusp of 19th-20th Centuries

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the topic, which is important at present time: formation of human capital as an important factor of the social and economic development of society. Modernization of education plays an essential part in terms of the development of human capital during all historical stages and its importance grows significantly alongside with the economic growth of the country. The role of education and necessity to improve its quality became of significant value for Russia during the economic modernization on the cusp of the 19th–20th centuries. In this article, the author makes an attempt to analyze the experience of formation of different levels of electro-technical education during the economic modernization, as well as to reveal the role of civil society in this process. The Russian economic modernization implied the formation of a competitive industrial complex, which included mining, manufacturing industries and transport. The electro-technical industry, which was lacking trained personnel, was the most quickly developing one. The discussion in the relevant journals as well as during the work of All-Russia electro-technical congresses set up, to the most extent, the main ways to form all the levels of electro-technical education, which helped to train personnel for the respective industry. The author analyzed both the available experience in realization of lower and secondary specialized electro-technical education and the new approaches to its organization, developed mostly in the Electro-technical department of the Emperor’s Russian Technical Society (ERTS). Apart from that, there was a curious attempt to open a higher electro-technical school in Moscow based on the European (mostly French) experience, which was oriented mostly towards additional training of the already working engineering and technical specialists.

Directorate of Electrotechnical Joint Stock Companies in Pre-revolutionary Russia

“…7 Partially, this topic was covered in the early publications of the author of this article. 8 The study uses a significant amount of new archival sources stored in the Russian State Historical Archives (RGIA), the Central State Historical Archives of St Petersburg (TsGIA SPb), and the Central State Archives of Moscow (TsGA Moskvy).…”

“…Частично эта тема получила освещение в ранних публикациях автора данной статьи 8 . В представленном исследовании использован значительный объем новых архивных источников, хранящихся в Российском государственном историческом архиве (РГИА), а также в Центральном государственном историческом архиве Санкт-Петербурга (ЦГИА СПб) и Центральном государственном архиве г. Москвы (ЦГА Москвы).…”