Academician I.G. Petrovsky: Rector of Moscow University

The book is an analytical study of Academician I.G. Petrovsky’s activities as Rector of Moscow State University. He held this post for 22 years in the period between May 18, 1951 and January 15, 1973. This covers a third of the Soviet period in Russian history. The time of Petrovsky’s rectorship is the heyday of the Moscow University as a major scientific educational and cultural center of world renown. Based on a detailed investigation of a large amount of documentary, factual and statistical material, most of which was unavailable for scientific research before, the book analyses the functions of the MSU Rector as a civil servant (in terms of management sociology) and their implementation by specific people in the 1920s – 40s. All of this enables us to link the dynamic development of Moscow University more organically and directly with the scale of Petrovsky’s personality as an inividual, scientist, state and public figure of a high civil and moral standing.