Years of George Fedotov's postgraduate training

This article is a case study of George Fedotov’s preparation of his master’s thesis on early Christian history in Western Europe. The research is based on documents stored at Saint-Petersburg University archives. Exploring unique facts of the historian’s biography, the author reveals general principles of postgraduate training at the Departments of History and Philology in Russian universities in the early XXth century. Research skills were an important prerequisite for the selection of graduates in order “to prepare them for professorship”. These skills could be demonstrated in their competitive papers. Postgraduate students specializing in world history could take a biennial trip abroad to conduct research in libraries and archives of the studied country. Supervision of training was carried out in the form of annual reports on research and final examinations for a master’s degree. Completion of the master’s program opened doors to teaching at the university.