RECTOR'S SPECIAL LANGUAGE

Myakzum Salakhov was recently elected new Rector (number 33) of Kazan State University. A Rector cannot be a person no one knows at the University. He graduated from the University, then headed a chair, and then became a Prorector

RECTOR'S SPECIAL LANGUAGE

I don't know why, walking along the corridors of the Kazan University main building, I recalled my mother's words. Coming back from Naples for the first time, she said that she wanted to touch every house there to feel fully the history of Italy and to try and preserve the recollection at least at her fingertips. These were my feelings in KSU, when Stella Pisareva, director of the Museum of KSU History, managed me kindly (the only visitor at that hour) along the halls that remember vividly the news of Napoleon's army crossing the Niemen or the December rebellion at the Senate Square.

In 1979, when the University was celebrating its 175th anniversary, we opened the Museum of KSU History in the students Church of Exaltation of the Cross, Stella tells. Earlier, service had been performed at this church, and professors were married here. A funeral service for Lobachevsky was held here in 1856. After 1917, there was a gym here, and later, during World War II, it was the dormitory of the Academy of Sciences, and then the reading room of the Department of Physics and Mathematics.

Coming over from hall to hall, I am listening to the lady who is telling me enthusiastically that Kazan University is an oldest one in Russia, and that once there was a large Kazan Educational Area including the Volga, the Urals, Siberia and the Caucasus. I am looking at the wealth of portraits of well-known scientists, writers, and statesmen...

Before setting up the museum layout, Stella goes on, I had to think hard to present the scientific school of the University in full. This is where Lobachevsky and Butlerov made their discoveries. Well-known scientist Simonov took part in the discovery of the Antarctic in the team led by Bellingshausen and Lazarev. Aksakov, Leo Tolstoy, composer Balakirev, Velimir Khlebnikov, Melnikov-Pechersky and many others studied here. In the 20th century, our graduate Academician Zavoisky discovered here electron paramagnetic resonance. He could win the Nobel Prize, but that was not his destiny.

— Well, what about Lenin, leader of the world proletariat? The University is still named after him.

— Before, it was all related to Lenin's story. However, now we are not very proud of the student who was studying only three months at our University. Nonetheless, that is history, and that person was a great statesman. We cannot deny that.

We pass to the assembly hall, where concerts of classical music are often held nowadays. A feeling of ceremonial expectation is in the air, as it forever. Once more, Stella draws attention to numerous portraits on the walls.

— Before, Czars family portraits were over there, where portraits of outstanding graduates are. In the center, there was a portrait of the ruling Czar. We plan to celebrate 200th anniversary of the University, and we intend to hang a portrait of Alexander I, under whom the University was founded. At the time, we were called Imperial Kazan University.

— I hear that your University is famous both by closeness to the Czar dynasty and by bringing up its own academic dynasties.

— You are right, our University is famous for its academic dynasties. For instance, the dynasty of Arbuzovs, well-known chemists. Father and all of his sons taught at the University. Moreover, there are many such dynasties...

How does it feel to lead such a legendary University that managed to write close to two centuries into its history? I put that question to myself while entering the room of Myakzum Salakhov, recently elected new KSU Rector number 33.

— Mr. Salakhov, they say that a Rector cannot be a person no one knows at the University. Were you associated with the University before you took the post?

— I graduated from the University, then headed a chair at the Department of Physics,, then became a Prorector. I was actively involved in the preparation for the 200th anniversary. Just recently, at the last elections, I was elected Rector.

— Is that right that your biography is closely related to that of Lenin, and the University you head bears his name.

— It can be said so. I finished high school in Uliyanovsk, the same school where Lenin studied. At the University, I was granted a Lenin scholarship. So, there have been many coincidences.

— What changed for you at the moment you became the Rector of the famous University?

— I felt immense responsibility. I noticed that I became more disciplined (for instance, I have to be at work now by 8 o'clock while university professors are not accustomed to such a schedule). But honest, I am not afraid of all that.

— I suppose, lots of acquaintances appeared who had never been at the horizon but now want to remind of themselves, for instance, with a request to help their relatives to enter or to study.

— True, some people whom I haven't seen for a hundred years start calling me up. They say that a victory has a hundred fathers, and defeat is an orphan. But frankly, I am accustomed to such relations. One has to understand and sympathize. So I talk to all of them and make it clear what I can do for them and what is beyond me.

— What problems did you have to settle first?

— A rector had many problems related to both household concerns and to shaping a new team of prorectors. Within a short period of time, it is necessary to find the people who could work successfully together.

— Can one say you are a good household master?

— I think, yes. I have to deal with construction and settle business problems to support the University at an appropriate level. However, a rector cannot just run the household. He has to support science. Our principal problem now is that many countries reject our diplomas. Recently, even India and Czech Republic rejected them. So we have to deal with these problems as well. We have already reached agreements with Turkish, German and many American institutions (for instance, with universities of Chicago and Texas). We managed to come to an agreement even with the Japanese. Very often, all that we have to settle personally, between deans and rectors.

— Can we call Kazan a university city?

— Naturally, we can. Over 150 thousand students are trained in the city to date. That is a very large percentage of the overall city population. Besides, Kazan in general is a scientific, academic city. There are many higher educational institutions in the city. Almost every other university separated from KSU. KSU had been set up by a decree of Emperor Alexander I. Our scientists have always been on demand. During the War, Academy of Sciences moved to Kazan, and that gave an impetus to our further academic development. Chemical-Technological and Aviation Institutes were set up in the city. They gathered many orders then. Besides, during the Soviet period, the regulations were such that every enterprise had to allocate cash for R & D work. The world is well aware of our universities.

— What will you start the new academic year with?

— With a traditional freshmans day, with meetings at the pan (this is the students nickname of the square in front of the main building where graduates meet, because it is regarded to be like a frying pan).

— Have you been meeting your fellow graduates there?

— Absolutely. Regrettably, we are not going to meet this year, because our year graduates meet every five years. We shall meet next year. That will be 30th anniversary of our graduation. By the way, my school teachers arrived at the University to welcome my new position. I had a meeting with them as well.

— Are your children related to Kazan University?

— Yes, they are. My daughter graduated from the Legal Department, and my son from that of Physics.

— Are present-day students different from the students of your days in any way?

— The period was different. As before, the same 10 per cent become post-graduates, and the same percentage of school leavers enter a higher educational institution. However, the problem of cash is more acute for present-day students. They have to work as we had. When I was a student, I was busy unloading railroad carriages and did many other things (incidentally, in summer I could go to the Crimea with my family for Rb 100). Well, now they work mainly in commercial companies, where they cant find a half-time job. So they have to miss something from the curriculum. That is why many talented young people do not go in for science. Even if they become post-graduates, that is because they do not want to gent to the army.

— Is there any fraternity of graduates from Kazan University?

— Naturally. There are even associations of our graduates in other cities. There are special lists of them being all over the world. There are special people who keep the lists. Directly in the University, for instance, Academician Konovalov, former University Rector, dealt with that. There are such people in Moscow. Oleg Morozov from the State Duma is our graduate, and he says that they gather in Moscow as well. I communicate with these people using such a language that they are almost obliged to render me assistance, because they just cannot refuse a request from the University because they are its graduates ... (He laughs.)

Leaving the KSU main building, I passed the frying pan where todays student were sitting. I wonder, with whom of them the Rector is going to use such a language in ten years time? Who of them will call up todays fellow students before they meet again at the pan and maybe recall this happy-go-lucky day?

Mikhail DOVZHENKO