И. А. Курбасова Е. И. Силантьева

6. Make a short report on higher education in pre-revolutionary Russia.


TEXT 2. THE HISTORY
OF THE MOSCOW RAILWAY TRANSPORT INSTITUTE

(1) The Moscow Railway Transport Institute is one of the oldest higher educational institutions in our country. Its activities were closely connected with the development of railway transport. The institute was founded in 1896 as the Moscow Engineering School.

(2) In August 1896, the first 204 young men who were going to become railway specialists took entrance exami­nations. Only 60 of them passed the exams successfully and became students.
(3) In the early days of its existence the Moscow Engi­neering School and its hostel occupied the upper floors of a building in Tverskaya Street, in the centre of Moscow. The ground floor of that building was occupied by Eliseev's food store so well-known in Moscow.
(4) In 1898, a special building for the School was con­structed in Bakhmetievskaya Street later renamed after Academician V. N. Obrastsov.
(5) The course of theoretical study at the Engineering School lasted three years. Then the theoretical course was followed by two-year practical training on the construction sites.
(6) Some graduates from the Moscow Engineering School became well-known scientists. Academician I. G. Alexandrov was one of the first graduates from the Moscow Engineering School. He worked in the field of railway electrification and was a member of the GOELRO Commission. It was I. G. Alexandrov who designed the Dneproges.
(7) Prominent Russian scientists delivered lectures to the students at the Moscow Engineering School. Among them, for example, Academician V. N. Obrastsov who is famous as an outstanding teacher and scientist in the field of railway design and construction, Academician E. 0. Paton who is well-known for his scientific papers on bridge build­ing and welding, professor N. E. Zhukovsky, a great Russian scientist who delivered lectures on hydromechanics at the School for a long time. Later, V. I. Lenin called him the father of Russian aviation.
(8) In 1913 for great achievements in training railway-specialists the Moscow Engineering School was turned into the Moscow Railway Transport Institute.


(to be continued)