1952 – 1962

Ladislav Paule – Roman Réh

The intensive development of almost all economic sectors placed increasing demands on the supply of a young, welltrained workforce. At the same time, there was an effort by the government to overcome economic and cultural inequality in the development of individual regions of Slovakia, to which a more even distribution of universities in our territory could make a significant contribution. These and other reasons led the Czechoslovak government to adopt the decree of 8th July 1952 no. 30/52, which abolished the University of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering in Košice. Two new universities emerged from its two faculties: the University of Agriculture, which was located in Nitra, and the University of Forestry and Wood Technology, located in Zvolen. In the summer of 1952, the University of Forestry and Wood Technology‘s relocation from Košice to Zvolen began. At the same time, the Faculty of Agriculture left Košice for Nitra, so a new stage in the history of agricultural and forestry university studies began.

The decision to place the University of Forestry and Wood Technology (VŠLD) in Zvolen was motivated by the favourable communication position of the city, which lies in the middle of the forested regions of Slovakia. This place was also advantageous for the Faculty of Wood Technology because, in the town itself and its vicinity, there were wood processing plants (Bučina in Zvolen, Smrečina in Banská Bystrica, and Preglejka factory in Žarnovica). The local authorities of the people‘s government assisted in every way possible and showed a universal willingness to assist in setting up a new university. However, the actual relocation and subsequent accommodation of teachers and students were accompanied by many problems. Thus, Zvolen, with a population of around 20,000 at that time, became a university town with significant forestry, wood sciences, and woodworking community. The Faculty of Wood Technology had a nationwide scope since the beginning of its operation in Zvolen.

Moving and setting up a university in the new town was not without difficulties. The material equipment of the school was very modest. For example, when comparing the value of basic resources and equipment for teaching and research work that was available in Košice and at the beginning in Zvolen, it was approximately 3:1. During the transition to Zvolen, not only the material but also the personnel availability of the school decreased. Some teachers, specifically from basic theoretical disciplines, stayed in Košice or went to the University of Agriculture in Nitra. Their positions were taken by young graduates of forestry and woodworking studies, who started at the school as assistants and later worked their way up to top experts in many scientific disciplines.

The school year 1952 – 1953 began in emergency conditions. Students' accommodation was only temporary. In the first years after the school moved to Zvolen, students most often lived in private accommodation. In 1956, wooden barracks were built in the playground to serve as temporary accommodation for students. Nevertheless, their capacity was insufficient, and the students had to live in other places in Zvolen. The teaching was conducted in the former grammar school building on the Street of T. G. Masaryk. It should be noted that the entire school staff, teachers, and students, worked hard to build in a short time a temporary dormitory for students, an apartment building for teachers, and the Rector‘s Office building located in the building originally intended for the Municipality Government Council in the street of Ľ. Štúra. The efforts of the school staff, the dedication of students, and school officials who were able to build, work, teach and learn in those difficult conditions must be appreciated above all. The first Rector of VŠLD was Prof. JUDr. Dr. Ing. František Papánek (1952 – 1955), the first dean of the Faculty of Forestry Assoc. Prof. Ing. Pavel Višňovský (1952 – 1955), and the Dean of the Faculty of Wood Technology Assoc. Prof. Ing. Víťazoslav Sprock (1952 – 1955).

In the school year 1952 – 1953, the first year of VŠLD in Zvolen, the Faculty of Forestry had four departments (Department of Forest Production, Department of Forest Protection, Department of Forest Management and Forestry Economics, and Department of Logging and Forest Structures). The Faculty of Wood Technology had three departments (Department of Chemistry, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Geodesy, and Department of Wood Production). The Rector‘s Office had four joint departments (Department of Social Sciences, Department of Physical Education, Department of Military Education, and Department of Languages). The departments were further divided into institutes. The internal organizational development of the school is characterized by the creation of new departments and other workplaces under quantitative and qualitative changes in the personnel situation and the need for better organization of faculties and the entire University.

It is necessary to mention at least the substantial changes that have occurred in the internal organization of the University since its establishment in Zvolen.

In the study year 1953/1954, to organize and control teaching and operational internships at home and abroad, the VŠLD Institute of Practice was established.

In 1955, the VŠLD, as well as its faculties, changed academic officials. The Rector for the period 1955 – 1960 was Prof. Ing. Víťazoslav Sprock, the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry Prof. Ing. Anton Sokol, the Dean of the Faculty of Wood Technology Prof. Ing. Jozef Palovic, DrSc., who served in this position until 1966.

In the study year 1955/1956, the new departments were added to the individual faculties intended to improve organization and further differentiation of departments at faculties. Thus, in this academic year, there were seven departments at the Faculty of Forestry and eight departments at the Faculty of Wood Technology.

In the study year 1955/1956 at The Faculty of Forestry, the Department of Botany and Pedology was established from the Department of Forest Production. In the study year 1957/1958, the Department of Pedology and Geology was divided from the Department of Botany and Phytocoenology, and the Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry split from the Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Geodesy at the Faculty of Wood Technology.

In the study year 1959/1960, the Department of Forest Management and Forestry Economics was divided into the Department of Forest Management and the Department of Forestry Economics. The Department of Forestry Structures and the Department of Logging and Mechanization were also established. The latter was further divided into the Department of Logging and Transportation and the Department of Forestry Mechanization in 1964/1965.

The Faculty of Wood Technology underwent significant organizational changes in 1955/1956. The Department of Wood Production was divided into the Department of Mechanical Technology, the Department of Operation and Equipment of Woodworking Enterprises, the Department of Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Wooden Products. In the academic year 1960/1961, the Department of Mathematics and Physics was divided into two separate departments, the Department of Mathematics and Descriptive Geometry and the Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering. In 1961/1962, the Department of Wood Sciences became independent from the Department of Mechanical Wood Technology. In the academic year 1962/1963, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Thermal Mechanics and the Department of Mechanization and Automation in the Woodworking Industry were established.

At that time, there were 54 pedagogical employees at the school, of which 3 were professors, six associate professors, 45 assistant professors, 67 other economic and technical staff, and 37 staff in the student dormitory and canteen. This year, the school had 486 students in both its faculties.

In the academic year 1949/1950, at the University of Agriculture and Forestry in Košice, specialized subjects were lectured by external teachers from Brno, Prague, and Bratislava. From the study year 1950/1951, there was only one external teacher at the Faculty of Wood Technology with the rank of associate professor, while the positions of assistants were filled by the first graduates from the Faculty of Wood

Technology who completed their studies in July 1952 and graduates of the Faculty of Forestry. Since then, year after year, assistant positions at the Faculty of Wood Technology have been filled by its graduates and by graduates of other faculties with mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering degrees.

Until 1st January 1958, the school did not have its forest property. The Kyslinky forest served the school‘s needs with an area of 2,958 ha in the former Vígľaš Forestry Administration District. The learning practice of the students of the Faculty of Forestry took place during the weekly stays when the forest railway used to transport students to Kyslinky, and they used the headquarters building as the accommodation facility.

Due to the complicated commuting by rail to Kyslinky and problems with accommodation, the Forestry Faculty Area, with an area of 5,416 ha, was created for practical training and research in 1958 near the town on the southeast slopes of Kremnické vrchy Mts. and around Sliač. It was transformed into a School Forest Enterprise with an area of 7,746 ha in 1959. It was established on 1st January 1958 as a new forest enterprise from delimited parts of the territory of the Zvolen Forest Enterprise and the Banská Bystrica Forest Enterprise. By the end of 1964, the School Forest Enterprise was organizationally divided into four forests. From 1st January 1965, the area of the School Forest Enterprise increased, based on delimitation, to 7,654 ha for the operational part and 254 ha for the specialised management, i.e., a total of 7,908 ha. Organizationally, it was divided into 5 forests: Sliač, Sielnica, Kováčová, Budča, and Železná Breznica.

The Faculty of Wood Technology provided operational and technological practice directly in the plants of the woodworking industry. The modest material conditions available to the school in the first years of its operation in Zvolen gradually improved. The Decree of the Commission of Education, Science and the Arts in Bratislava of 18th December 1952 established the State Study Library in Zvolen.

The biggest problem after the University of Forestry and Wood Technology moved to Zvolen was accommodation and food for the students. Students were accommodated in barracks, and a canteen provided meals in the city‘s centre. A significant change related to the improvement of students‘ life in Zvolen was the construction of the Student‘s Hall of Residence of Ľudovít Štúr. It had a capacity of 582 beds and another hall of residence, which both were built between 1958 and 1962. The fourth pavilion of the student‘s hall of residence served until 1983 as the main building of the Faculty of Wood Technology of the VŠLD. A part of the Student‘s Hall of Residence was also a spacious dining hall, which, in addition to serving food for students and employees, served for the cultural events of students. In the dining hall, students‘ dance parties and other festivities, such as matriculation were regularly organized.

After the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Zvolen began its operation, a remarkable and qualitatively positive change was the extension of studies from eight to ten semesters from the academic year 1954/1955. The extension of studies enabled replacing the hours devoted to social sciences and military training for specialised education and deepened specialised education and improved the preparation of diploma theses and the entire preparation for state final exams. Another benefit was the introduction of teaching foreign languages – compulsory Russian and another foreign language – into the curricula from the academic year 1952/1953.

In the education of forest engineers, the orientation towards a biotechnical and technical direction, introduced in the academic year 1953/1954, showed no positive effect. The effects of the new orientation occurred after the reorganization of forestry, in which the production activity was divided between silviculture companies (forest management administrations) and logging companies (forest industry enterprises) from 1st January 1952. The biotechnical line focused on the education of forest engineers for silviculture, and the technical line was aimed at logging and construction organizations of forestry. The production practice soon showed the disadvantages of such an organization of forestry in the conditions of our republic. After four years, the silviculture and logging companies merged again. Thus, in 1957/1958, the two-line education of forest engineers was cancelled, the education returned to its original complexity, and the problems of graduates’ placement were eliminated.

A government decree of 9th June 1953, introduced a significant amendment to the education plans of forestry and woodworking engineers. It included operational practices as a mandatory part of the learning process, as they verify and consolidate theoretical knowledge acquired at the University.

• Class of physical education, Ing. Manica teaches students to put the weight (1952 – 1953)

The number of enrolled students of the Faculty of Forestry during the first years of operation in Zvolen was more or less identical to the number of students in the post-war years during the operation of VŠPLI in Košice, namely 235 students enrolled per year. In 1959/1960, the number of enrolled students increased to 310. In the second half of the 1950s, the first international students studied at VŠLD. The first few international students were followed by an increase in the number of international students from 1940 to 1953 when forestry studies in Bratislava, Košice, and Zvolen were completed by 13 students from Bulgaria. In the academic year 1958/1959, the first four graduates from the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea completed their studies at the Forestry Faculty of VŠLD, and the first two graduates from the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea and two from the USSR also graduated from the Faculty of Wood Technologies. In 1959/1960, four more graduates from the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea and six from the USSR completed their studies at the Faculty of Wood Technology.

The Faculty of Wood Technology recorded a particularly dramatic increase in students. In the last years of the University of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering in Košice, only 77 students were enrolled to study wood engineering. In contrast, in 1954/1955, the number of enrolled students increased to 227 and five years later to 335. This number also includes students who worked beside their studies, 25 and 79 students, respectively.

Since 1955, study trips abroad for university students began to occur. Annual exchange study trips were held with forestry and wood technological faculties in the Democratic Republic of Germany, Poland, and Hungary, and later with forestry faculties in Sofia, Sarajevo, and Zagreb.

In the second half of the fifties, talented students already had the opportunity to gain experience in scientific work during their university studies. This role was fulfilled by student scientific clubs, in which students, under the guidance of teaching staff, familiarized themselves with the methodology of scientific research work and solved partial current practical problems. Some groups cooperated in solving the scientific research tasks of the departments. Since 1957 student scientific conferences have been organized at both faculties, and their winners have presented themselves at national rounds of student scientific and expertise activity. Already in the first years of 1958 – 1962, students from VŠLD in Zvolen won leading positions in national rounds of agricultural, forestry, and wood technological faculties. Scientific research, which formed the scientific profile of VŠLD, had a significant place in the workload of university employees, creating a unity with the educational process. A crucial milestone was the establishment of scientific research institutes at both faculties on 1st August 1957. These research programmes cooperated closely with departments and production practices. Scientific research work was an integral part of the school‘s complex activity. It fulfilled its mission in three main areas: solving scientific research tasks for the needs of forestry, woodworking, and social sciences; improving the quality of scientific research work; and participating in the introduction of scientific and technical progress into the practice of forestry economy and the woodworking industry. A progressive event of the University was the organization of national scientific conferences. From 1953 to 1960, the University of Forestry and Wood Technology organized five independent national scientific conferences (four at the Faculty of Forestry and one at the Faculty of Wood Technology) and co-organized two others. Among the most important, the following can be included: the Conference on Forests and Pasture (Tatranská Lomnica, 1955), the Conference on Selection Forests (Sliač, 1956), the Conference on the Use of Wood in Construction (Smolenice, 1956), and the International Scientific Conference on Beech as an Industrial Raw Material (Sliač, 1957). Scientific staff from eight countries and Czechoslovakia participated in the lastmentioned conference. The papers presented at the conference were published in the conference proceedings. This international conference organised on the 150th anniversary of forestry education in Czechoslovakia started the tradition of organizing international conferences on the anniversaries of VŠLD and later numerous international conferences and symposia organised under the auspices of the IUFRO and IAWS.

International scientific research cooperation began in the second half of the 1950s between VŠLD and affiliated faculties in the Democratic Republic of Germany, Hungary, and Poland.

Cooperation with the Faculty of Forestry in Tharandt, the Institute of Wood Technology in Dresden, the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology in Poznań, and the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in Sopron began to develop on this platform. At the turn of the fifties and sixties, cooperation with the Leningrad Forestry Academy in Leningrad began. Scientific research cooperation between VŠLD and partner faculties was organized in terms of bilateral contracts, within which study trips of teaching and research staff and study trips of students took place during the summer holidays.

The cooperation of the school with the practice through the secondary economic activity was also significant, expanding the scope of the research activity. On the other hand, it presented a source of extra-budget income for the school, improving its economic situation. Talented and diligent students were involved in scientific research activities in individual departments either as auxiliary scientific forces or in the form of student professional, scientific activity, which in many cases required the need to support their further scientific work.

The results of the research were published in the form of studies in the Proceedings of the University of Forestry and Wood Technology in the years 1957 – 1963, and from 1964 in due scientific proceedings of both facultiesProceedings of Scientific Works of the Forestry Faculty of the VŠLD in Zvolen later named Acta Facultatis Forestalis, Zvolen, and Proceedings of Scientific Works of the Faculty Wood Technology of the VŠLD in Zvolen, later named Acta Facultatis Xylologiae, Zvolen – with foreign language summaries and papers. Furthermore, the results of the research activities were published in the professional magazines Les and drevo (trans. Forest and Wood), but also in the scientific journals of Lesnícky časopis (transl. Forestry Journal) and Lesnictví (transl. Forestry) in Czech, specialized journals and abroad. Our teachers were the authors or co-authors of university textbooks and university study texts.