CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

DALIBOR JÍLEK CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ of farmers was organized in the camps Bernadot and Sirkedji as well as Constantinople. Along with the farmers, mostly pupils and students with their teachers were gradually transported in sums of a hundred or higher numbers. Additionally, a special commission with a selective task was sent to Turkey, which in situ verified the qualification of the applicants who were planning to continue their disrupted studies in Czechoslovakia and did not possess the required study documents. The pupils and students that had the proper school and university documentation were at large approved for the transport. As soon as the summer of 1921, the Commission for enabling the studies of Russian students in the Czechoslovak Republic was purposefully authorized by the government. 22 The commission was involved in providing joint accommodation and catering at the expense of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 23 The highest-ranking representatives of the city of Prague as well as private legal entities, such as banks and industrial companies, were also closely cooperating. Among other things, the committee was tasked with ensuring the enrolment of students and their admission to universities. Student recruitment was further extended to other European states. 24 By the end of 1921, the committee was taking care of 1,500 Russian students, who it provided with housing, food, clothes, and money for dormitories and school supplies. 25 In the same year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs secured the transfer of a Russian reformed grammar school to Moravská Třebová, were it was placed in the buildings of a former prisoner of war camp. The grammar school was originally instituted in 1920 in Constantinople. Russian teachers, tutors, and even physicians were relocated along with the grammar school. A general school for Russian pupils was also established alongside the grammar school. The establishment of a Russian Law Faculty in Prague, in accordance with the Minister’s Decree no. 55165/22-II from 7 April 1922 with the oral permission of the Ministry of Education and National Enlightenment, prompted an extraordinary response among the Russian and Czechoslovak public. 26 Subsequently, the faculty was not regarded as a public university established pursuant to Act no. 28/1922 Coll. from 19 January 1922 on the establishment and arranging of universities. The Russian faculty did not even gain the status of a private university under the Austrian Imperial Regulation no. 28 from 27 June 1850. Its nature was only of a temporary scientific institution with the right to provide educational or training courses. Later, the arrival of more students from some Balkan states, such as Bulgaria, or Greece, as well as Egypt and Tunisia was managed by Czechoslovakia. The overall picture is provided by the following data. In 1923 there were 2,728 students in Prague, 606 students in Brno, 80 scholars in Příbram and only 36 in Bratislava. In total, there were 3,459 Russian students, which was roughly 60% of all Russian students who would be able to continue their education and school attendance in their forced European emigration. The incoming Ukrainian scholars were taken care of by the Czech-Ukrainian Commission for Ukrainian students which was established in the autumn of 1921. Its organizational structure was similar to that of the Russian commission. Ukrainians in Prague could attend 22 The establishing meeting of the Committee ( Komitét ) was held on 12 August 1921. 23 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave ca. 5 million Czechoslovak crowns to the Committee in 1921. 24 For the purpose of fulfilling the task, the Commission of Russian professors was created in order to accomplish recruitment of Russian students. 25 An average monthly spending of one student comprised of 1,000 Czechoslovak crowns. 26 Lectures began on 19 May 1922. The Russian Law Faculty was closed in the summer term of 1927/1928.

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