Moscow Higher Technical School

(full name, N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School), one of the oldest higher technical schools and the largest institution in the USSR for the study of machine building and instrument-making. It was founded in 1830 as a trade school “for training skilled masters with a knowledge of theory.” In 1868 it became the Imperial Technical School, with mechanics and chemistry departments. The scientific method of training engineers developed at the school during the 1860’s and 1870’s (particularly the close interrelation between a profound theoretical training, practical work, and independent laboratory experimentation) achieved a worldwide reputation and was repeatedly recognized by awards granted at international exhibitions (gold medals awarded at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876 and the Paris Exhibition in 1900).

Among the prominent Russian scientists who founded scientific trends at the Imperial Technical School were N. E. Zhukovskii, S. A. Chaplygin, A. M. Bochvar, A. P. Gavrilenko, V. I. Grinevetskii, P. K. Khudiakov, K. V. Kirsh, K. A. Krug, P. P. Lazarev, A. V. Letnikov, N. I. Mertsalov, A. I. Nekrasov, Ia. Ia. Nikitskii, I. P. Prokof’ev, K. I. Shenfer, N. A. Shilov, A. I. Sidorov, N. S. Streletskii, and B. I. Ugrimov. During the first years of Soviet power, new departments (electrical engineering, engineering construction, and aeromechanics) were organized at the school, which has had its present name since 1917. An aviation and power engineering institute, the Academy of Chemical Defense, and the Higher School of Engineering Construction (later the Moscow Institute of Engineering Construction) were founded in 1930 from departments of the Moscow Higher Technical School, and the department of mechanics was made into the N. E. Bauman Institute of Mechanics and Machine Building (its former name, Moscow Higher Technical School, was restored in 1943).

The Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute, the Research Institute of Motor-vehicle Engines, the All-Union Heat Engineering Institute, and other institutes were organized at various times on the basis of a number of laboratories of the Moscow Higher Technical School.

As of 1973 the Moscow Higher Technical School had departments of automation and mechanization of production, mechanical design, machine building, instrument-making, and power-engineering machine building; an evening division; preparatory and general-technical divisions; a branch in Kaluga; divisions in a number of plants; a graduate school; 78 subdepartments; 16 sectorial and special-problems laboratories; and a library, with more than 1.6 million volumes. During the 1972–73 academic year the school had 26, 700 students, and the teaching staff numbered 1, 800, including seven academicians and corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 157 professors and doctors of sciences, 828 docents and candidates of sciences, 14 Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of Socialist Labor, 34 laureates of the Lenin Prize and the State Prize of the USSR, and 21 Honored Workers in Science and Technology.

Among the prominent Soviet scientists whose careers are associated with the Moscow Higher Technical School are G. A. Aparin, B. V. Bulgakov, E. A. Chudakov, S. O. Dobrogurskii, N. A. Dollezhal’, F. V. Drozdov, S. I. Freiberg, G. I. Granovskii, L. K. Kifer, A. P. Kotel’nikov, V. M. Kovan, M. K. Kristi, A. M. Kugushev, I. I. Kukolevskii, V. P. Nikitin, A. S. Orlin, S. D. Ponomarev, E. P. Popov, N. N. Rubtsov, E. A. Satel’, M. A. Saverin, A. N. Shelest, L. P. Smirnov, A. I. Tselikov, V. E. Tsydzik, S. I. Vavilov, and V. P. Vetchinkin. The school confers candidate’s and doctoral degrees. Textbooks on machine building and instrument-making written by the scientific staff of the Moscow Higher Technical School are basic reference works for this area of studies, not only in the technical higher educational institutions of the USSR but also in those of other countries. Symposia and transactions are published. Since its founding, the Moscow Higher Technical School has trained 61, 000 engineers. Among the graduates of the school are Academicians V. P. Barmin, V. I. Dikushin, M. M. Dubinin, B. N. Iur’ev, S. T. Kishkin, V. Ia. Klimov, S. P. Korolev, I. L. Knuni-ants, V. S. Kulebakin, S. A. Lebedev, N. A. Piliugin, B. S. Stechkin, A. N. Tupolev, V. G. Shukhov, and V. V. Shuleikin; the astronauts A. S. Eliseev and K. P. Feoktistov; and O. G. Makarov. The school has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1933) and the Order of Lenin (1955).