Moscow Pedagogical Institute

(full name, V. I. Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute; MGPI), one of the major centers of pedagogical education in the USSR. It developed out of the Moscow Advanced Courses for Women, founded in 1872. In 1918 the courses were reorganized as the Second Moscow State University, and in 1930 the university’s department of pedagogy was reorganized as the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. Between 1937 and 1960 the K. Liebknecht Institute of Vocational Training, the Institute of Defectology, and the V. P. Potemkin Municipal Pedagogical Institute were incorporated into the pedagogical institute. The institute was named in honor of V. I. Lenin in 1941.

The development of methodological schools at the institute is associated with the educators S. A. Balezin, F. M. Golovenchenko, V. V. Golubkov, N. F. Deratani, M. E. Elizarova, L. V. Zankov, A. V. Zaporozhets, V. A. Izmail’skii, I. A. Kairov, K. N. Kornilov, S. E. Kriuchkov, A. F. Losev, N. N. Malov, A. P. Pinkevich, B. I. Purishev, I. F. Svadkovskii, S. D. Skazkin, I. V. Ustinov, M. F. Shabaeva, and E. V. Shpol’skii.

In 1973 the institute comprised departments of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biochemistry, biology and geography, history, Russian language and literature, English language, German, French, and Spanish languages, graphic arts, music education, preschool education, pedagogy, and defectology. The institute also has an evening division, a department for the advanced training of instructors at pedagogical institutes, a department offering training in cultural work, advanced pedagogical courses for foreign language teachers, and courses for specialists in defectology. In addition there are 77 subdepartments, seven special problem laboratories, and a library with holdings of more than 1 million volumes.

In 1972–73 the institute had 11, 000 students, 1, 700 instructors and researchers, more than 100 professors and doctors of sciences, and about 600 docents and candidates of sciences. The faculty includes academicians I. I. Mints, A. L. Narochnitskii, and P. S. Novikov; I. T. Ogorodnikov and A. V. Peryshkin (corresponding members of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR); V. P. Efanov (member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR); and professors V. D. Arakin, S. S. Liapidevskii, A. I. Reviakin, L. Iu. Maksimov, and S. I. Sheshukov. The institute accepts doctoral and candidate’s dissertations for defense. It has published Uchenye zapiski since 1934 and has trained more than 50, 000 teachers in the years of Soviet power. It was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1967 and the Order of Lenin in 1972.