The breakdown of the empire statehood and the establishment of soviet statehood in Russia were accompanied by the revision of the social roles of many members of the society and communities, including the university teaching community. The article is devoted to the crisis of the corporate identity of the university lecturers in Russia in the first years after the revolution (1917 early 1920's.). According to the authors the crisis was caused by various factors. Firstly, if at the past, pre-revolutionary, social structure of the Russian Empire professors belonged to the elite, at the new "coordinate system" professors were forced to give way on "social Olympus" to the representatives of other "class-hegemon". Secondly, the majority of the university corporation had deep ideological differences with the Soviet authorities, as they mostly shared liberal, more rarely, monarchical ideological tenets and were far from the socialist ideals. Thirdly, the overall political and socio-economic situation in the country during the civil war did not create the necessary conditions for the teaching and research activities. The authors conclude that the crisis of the corporate identity of the university teaching community was expressed in a social split into "old" and "new" professorship, the conflict between "old" and "new" professors, leaving the occupation by many lecturers who had developed in the pre-revolutionary system, emigration of two types: involuntary and voluntary. As a result of these processes the academic teaching community of Soviet Russia (since 1922 USSR) has undergone tremendous changes in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period.
