Introduction. The study provides a detailed analysis of the «purge» («academic checking») carried out in 1924 at Leningrad State University. The years 1922–1929 were a time of active struggle between «new» and «old» students at the university and the course of proletarianization of the student population pursued by the authorities. In the period under study, the «purges» became the main factor that radically changed the socio-political composition of the university student body. The relevance of the study is determined by the gaps in the study of the history of Leningrad State University in the 1920s, the lack of analytical articles in modern historiography. The focus of the study is to analyze the process of «purge» among the students of LGU in 1924 and to assess its impact on the social and political composition of the student body. The «purge» was an important event that reflected the internal moods of students and the attitude of the university authorities to the «old» students of that time.
Materials and methods. The study applied the principle of historicism and the method of reconstruction; the statistical method revealed the number of «purged students», as well as those who were able to subsequently return to the university; the narrative method was used to describe the events that took place at the university; the comparative method was used to compare the simultaneous «purges» of 1924 both at the Leningrad State University and at the working faculty (Rabfak). Structural-functional approach and the method of prosopographical analysis were used to analyze the biographies of the participants of the purge events. The sources of this study include both the published memoirs of former students of Leningrad State University, materials of the Soviet periodicals of 1924, and a number of previously unpublished materials, many of which are introduced in this study for the first time (materials from the fonds of the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg, the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg, and the State Archive of the Russian Federation).
Results. It is revealed that the «purge» of 1924 was one of the most large-scale purges carried out at Leningrad State University in the 1920s. For the first time a complex and comprehensive analysis of the «purge» implemented in 1924 was carried out, which was a new knowledge in the historiography of the history of the university in the 1920s, the exact chronology of the events of 1924 was restored. It was established that this «purge» of the student body of the Leningrad State University seriously differed from the «purges» carried out during the same period in other higher educational institutions not only in Leningrad, but also in the USSR as a whole. The «purge» of 1924 was a turning point for the formation and strengthening of the party organization.
Conclusion. The university authorities regarded the «purge» of 1924 as a definite outcome of their struggle, thanks to which the resistance of disloyal «old» students to the university authorities was broken; it became a victory and an important milestone in the internal student confrontation between «new» and «old» students; the university party organization began to strengthen, and the number of students belonging to the party increased. The study showed that despite the general declarative nature of the measures taken in 1924, some of the «purged» students were able to subsequently recover and continue their studies at the university.