Chimburg, Ivan Savich

He studied at the Slutsk Belarusian gymnasium , working school, at general education courses.

In 1922, on the recommendation of the Komsomol, he entered the Belarusian State University (BSU) in the legal department of the faculty of social sciences. As a result of the reorganization of the university in 1924, the faculty of social sciences was disbanded. Chimburg continued his studies at the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Saratov , which he graduated in 1927 . He worked in the prosecutor's office in Novy Oskol , participated in collectivization. In 1931, Chimburg changed his profession and received the post of assistant at the Department of Dialectical and Historical Materialism of the Voronezh Veterinary Institute. In 1933 he entered the graduate school of the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature, while simultaneously fulfilling the duties of assistant professor of the department of dialectic and historical materialism of the Moscow Institute of Economic Accounting. On June 25, 1936, Chimburg defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of philosophical sciences (the theme was “Criticism of Plekhanov's understanding of classes and class struggle”). By distribution, Chimburg was sent to BSU, where he worked as an assistant professor in the department of socio-economic disciplines, and in October of that year he was appointed dean of the Faculty of History instead of Vasily Karpovich Shcherbakov .

The newly formed Department of History needed qualified teachers, and Chimburg, as the dean, tried to attract as many specialists as possible from Moscow and Leningrad , but only one graduate student arrived in Minsk - Lev Mikhailovich Schneerson . Soon, Chimburg was appointed vice-rector for the academic part of BSU, and in June - July 1937, he served as rector of the university. Under the new rector, Nikifor Mikhailovich Bladyko , Chimburg continued to occupy the post of vice-rector of the university. Soon, far-fetched charges were brought against him, which, however, were not confirmed. In 1937 - 1938, Chimburg occupied the post of head of the department of the foundations of Marxism-Leninism, and published actively. During the Great Patriotic War, Chimburg was an instructor of organizational and party work in various parts of communications, in 1947 he was discharged.

In 1947 - 1949, Chimburg headed the Institute of Party History under the Central Committee of the CP (b) B, organizing the translation of the works of Lenin and Stalin into Belarusian at this post. Under his editorship were the books The National Partisan War in Belarus Against Fascist Invaders (the author is the Minister of State Security of the BSSR Lavrenty Tsanava, although his authorship is being called into question) and the collective monograph “V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin — organizers of the Byelorussian SSR. ” July 26, 1949 Chimburg was appointed rector of BSU.

Rector at BSU

Upon taking up the post at BSU, there were 6 faculties, 35 departments, 2 independent institutes, 161 teachers and 1220 students. The problems of providing the university with qualified specialists and training areas were very acute. Shortly after being appointed rector, Chimburg announced the need for training "politically educated, skilled builders of the new society." At his post, faced with the problem of reducing the teaching of the Belarusian language, culture and history (the department of history of the BSSR was closed in 1949, the teaching of the Belarusian language and Belarusian culture in the humanitarian specialties was reduced), the rector suggested the USSR Ministry of Higher Education to develop separate curricula for universities of the RSFSR and universities of the Union republics. Under Chimburg, whose years of rectorhood were at the time of the struggle against cosmopolitanism, BSU actively introduced teaching on the basis of "brilliant instructions from Comrade Stalin, " especially in the field of philology and philosophy. At the Faculty of Philology, for example, presentations were made on topics such as “Communion in the modern Russian literary language in the light of Comrade Stalin’s works on linguistics,” new seminars and special courses were introduced (“A verb in the Belarusian language in the light of Comrade Stalin’s teachings about language” and “The style and language of the newspaper in the light of the Stalinist doctrine of language”). The departments of physical culture, logic, psychology, as well as the biological faculty of BSU forcibly studied the heritage of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov . Under the leadership of the rector, some reforms were undertaken in the organization of the university: in 1951, the biological and chemical faculties for a short time merged into the faculty of chemical and biological sciences, the geographical faculty was transformed into a geological and geographical one. Departments of philosophy and logic were created (Chimburg headed this department until 1953 ), experimental physics and soil science. The departments of invertebrate zoology and vertebrate zoology were combined into the department of zoology, and the departments of catalysis, applied physical chemistry were merged with the department of organic chemistry.

Under the leadership of Chimburg, the postgraduate study was established at the university. Despite the fact that the number of graduate students increased (89 people in the 1951/52 academic year), the number of successfully defended dissertations was very small. In this regard, the rector issued a decree banning any work for graduate students, except for scientific, and also called for the exclusion from the graduate school of unscrupulous graduate students. Scientific trips and trips to various conferences were organized for graduate students. In addition, scientific expeditions were organized at the university, and the foundations of close cooperation with industry were laid. Under Chimburg, the work of student research societies in the departments was intensified and the organization of student scientific conferences was established; the best works at scientific conferences were submitted to the city review of student scientific works, and since 1951 the best works were published. The works were classified into three categories: independent research, work with elements of independent research and abstract works. It is known that a significant part of the work of the 1952 conference was recognized as not having a research character. Scientific sessions and anniversary conferences were also organized.

July 19, 1952 Chimburg left the post of rector of BSU on the orders of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR. It is believed that the resignation of Chimburg was associated with the scandal that erupted at the Department of Russian and World Literature, which was accompanied by numerous complaints to all instances, right up to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (B) B. In 1953 he left the university.

Subsequently, Chimburg worked at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR , headed the department of dialectic and historical materialism of the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute , then worked there as an assistant professor. Since 1964 he was an assistant professor of dialectical and historical materialism at the Belarusian State Pedagogical Institute named after Gorky . In 1970 he retired.

• Sankov A.P. , Chimburg I.S. Dialectical materialism. - Mn. : Higher School, 1969 .-- 342 p.
• Chymburg I. C. Ideal barazba ў Belarus napiadadnі Kastrychnika. - Mn. : Vydavetsva BDU, 1977 .-- 142 p.

• Yanoski A. A. , Zelski A. G. Gistorya Belariskaga dzyarzha naga universiteta і biagrafіyakh yago rektaraў, 1921-2001 (80 reptiles). - Mn. : BDU, 2001 .-- 319 p. - ISBN 985-445-541-6 .

• Brief History of BSU