In this article the formation of A. S. Bartenev as a medieval scholar is considered against a broad background of institutional changes and reform of the system of higher education and postgraduate studies in the USSR in the second half of the 1920s – first half of the 1930s. The development of the system of academic training in the field of medieval studies took place under the direct influence of the scholars of the “old” school, who sought to adapt the traditional requirements for qualifying essays to the new conditions.
