Personal Characteristics of Students and Faculty of Riga Polytechnic Institute (1958–1988). Historical Lexical Aspect

Abstract

One of the documents from the Soviet era that reflected information about a specific person’s skills, experience, and personal qualities was a personal characteristic. It was issued upon graduation from educational institutions, including eight-year schools, secondary schools, technical schools, and universities. Each graduate of Riga Polytechnic Institute (RPI) had at least two characteristics, which are stored in the student’s personal file in the archives of Riga Technical University (RTU). The number of characteristics was not limited, and some students also had other characteristics, such as recommendations for trips abroad. Personal files of faculty members had several characteristics in their personal files; they had been with RPI significantly longer than students, some even 30 years or more. Some of them had more than ten personal characteristics. Each time when faculty members were re-elected to positions, recommended for admission to postgraduate studies or for trips abroad, a characteristic was required, signed by the university administration, the leaders of the party or Komsomol organization, or the trade union committee. With the beginning of the Awakening and Latvia gaining independence, such a document was no longer required in universities. Nowadays, when applying for a job, a recommendation or letter of recommendation is often requested, which is, to some extent, comparable to the former characteristic. Research has shown that positive characteristics of people also contain elements of laudatio texts.