Abstract

The development of higher education in Belarus is inextricably linked with the Belarusian State University. His activities are widely covered in numerous scientific and popular science publications. At the same time, the history of the formation and development of the working faculty did not fall into the field of view of Belarusian researchers. The article is devoted to issues related to the activities of the working faculty of the Belarusian State University. Based on the analysis of archival sources, the author focuses on the difficulties faced by teachers in classrooms, provides a detailed list of subjects studied and classroom load, considers the social and national composition of faculty students. It is concluded that the working faculty was not part of the higher education system. This was a transitional step that allowed citizens of the young Soviet state to realize the right to education and minimize the educational gap that arose among young people in the first decades of the 20th century. The closure of the working faculty in 1939 was the logical conclusion of the development of the system of secondary specialized education in Belarus.