On October 19, 1920 a multidisciplinary educational institution was established in the Urals by V. I. Lenin’s decree. It was the Ural State University, among others, comprising Polytechnic Institute consisting of five faculties. We will focus today on one of them – the mechanical ones.
Department of Machine Building of the Institute of New Materials and Technologies
среда 13 августа 2025, 12:03
 Photo by the library archive |
____ |
The faculty welcomed the first students (231 subjects) from the 1st November 1920. They were mainly sent by the trade unions of plants and workshops. Realizing their dream to become mechanical engineers, they were eager to grind away at their studies and parallel they earned for their living and maintenance of the educational building. A soap factory, tailor’s and shoemaker’s workshops were established. The students themselves were both customers and workers. Professor T. T. Usenko was the first Dean at the faculty. Three Professors, 27 teachers and six laboratory assistants and assistant teachers taught the students. A great attention was paid to the practical studies. The mechanical faculty equipped physical, electrical and resistance of materials’ laboratories as well as a heat testing station and study workshop.
However, not all was a success. Under the impact of economic crisis in the country, in 1922 the university division into several institutes was cancelled. Metallurgical and chemical faculties merged into a chemical-metallurgical one integrating the mechanical areas of studies as well. Thus, by the middle of 1920s only technical faculties remained at the Ural University. It was renamed into Polytechnic Institute. In 1924-1928 the institute developed quite slowly and the number of graduates was small. Archive documents supply such figures: in 1924 six engineers graduated from the institute, in 1925 – 17, 1926 – 32, 1927 – 20, 1928 – 64.
Certainly, this number was catastrophically small. Rapid growth of national economy urgently required skilled engineers. On March 25, 1930 the problem of reconstruction of the Ural Polytechnic Institute was discussed in the USSR State Planning Committee. It resulted in establishing nine industry higher educational institutions including machine-building one. In 1934 they united into the Ural Industrial Institute with the exception for mining and forest technical institutes. From that time the faculties preparing heavy industry specialists for Sverdlovsk never separated, thought repeatedly underwent changes.
The faculty of mechanical engineering and machine-building had prepared a great number of brilliant scientists, engineers and production heads. In 2016 it integrated into the composition of the Institute of New Materials and Technologies with a Department status. Today the Department of Machine Building consists of 10 subdepartments training specialists in such areas as additive and laser technologies, engineering of motor vehicles, hoisting and transportation machines, mechatronics, robotics, and automation of technological and production processes, as well as IT specialists in machine building and production organizers/analysts.
Interesting? You can find details in the following books in Russian: «УГТУ-УПИ: Очерки истории. 1920-2005» / «UGTU-UPI: Essays on the History. 1920-2005» edited by the Legendary Rector Stanislav Naboichenko and «Научные школы Уральского государственного технического университета. История и современность» / «Research Schools of the Ural State Technical University/ History and Modernity». You can borrow them at the Circulation Desk of Social and Economic Study Materials (19 Mira St., room Б-304) checking their availability in the electronic catalog. You can also use the University full-text databases. For example, UrFU Research Repository (DSpace) contains an edition of 2020: «Научные школы Уральского федерального университета : энциклопедия» / «Research Schools of the Ural Federal University: Encyclopedia». Author: Olga Konopleva
Translator: Natalia Krasnogor
|