The Glorious Commander and the Establishment of the Oriental Faculty at the M. V. Frunze Crimean State University

this article examines a difficult period in the history of the Crimean university: the liquidation of Taurida University by the new authorities in 1920–1921 and the establishment of a state university on its premises, subordinate to the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. Organizational upheavals, the closure of the largest student and professor faculties in the law and history-philology departments led to the demise of the country’s intellectual elite, who had gathered in Crimea. The establishment of the Oriental Faculty preserved the opportunity for students to continue their education and for the professors to survive. Documents from the State Archives of the Russian Federation demonstrate the dynamics of change and the role of Army Commander M. V. Frunze in these dramatic events