UNIVERSITY CERTIFICATES IN THE SYSTEM OF RUSSIAN LEGISLATION ON EDUCATION AND SCIENCE: A HISTORICAL AND LEGAL MINIATURE

The article outlines a specific historical and legal plot related to specific legal acts, namely the approval certificates of Russian imperial universities, which were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Education. The article highlights the dynamic nature of the legislation on education and science in the Russian Empire, as well as the specific role of the legislation on universities. The approval letters (acts of resolution and establishment) of the universities of the early XIX century are described as compact legal acts of a founding nature, which had not only a regulatory function but also  a significant symbolic value. The article updates the issue of the charter of the Irkutsk University, which was opened by one of the White governments, the Provisional Siberian Government, in 1918. A document from the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region is presented, and conclusions are drawn about the complex mechanisms of continuity during the so-called transitional periods, as well as the potential for understanding these legal acts in the context of education and science legislation.