Irina Zh. We Have Learnt to Think: About the Student Movement of Novosibirsk State University in the 1960s. Part 1

Abstract: The subject of the research is the student movement at Novosibirsk State University (NSU) in 1963 - 1967 as part of a wider opposition movement in the Campus. Previous researches and articles devoted to this topic do not fully reveal the history or specify this phenomenon. According to the author of the article, civil activity was the unexpected side effect of the Siberian expirement. Analysis of the phenomenon may help to seek solutions aimed at the renovation of the society system. The article is devoted to the analysis of prerequisites and factors of the student movement as well as a full range of their activities including self-management, club forms of activity, antisemite trial, participation in the university's rector elections, preservation of the university's autonomy and academic freedoms, protection of teachers and students against political repressions. The article has been written at the intersection of several genres and methods: documented facts from the history of the student movement are accompanied with students' and teachers' memories, sociological observations are combined with statistical data. The main contribution of the author is the analysis of the student movement of NSU in the 1960s, its grounds, forms and main actions and activities, precedents and reasons why the movement stopped existing. This is the first analysis of this kind in the academic literature. It is shown that it was the first open, legal and longest student movement since the 1920s. It was the example of opposition without dissidence, independent movement aimed at self-management and transformation of the society system. It had the best effect on the development of the civil society than all the other famous student movements of that time. 

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