Doctor Nauk

Doktor nauk (Russian and Ukrainian: До́ктор нау́к, Bulgarian: Доктор на науките, Belarusian: Доктар навук, literally translated as "Doctor of Sciences") is a higher doctoral degree which may be earned after the Candidate of Sciences (the latter is informally regarded in Russia and many other post-Soviet states as equivalent to PhD obtained in countries in which PhD is not the highest academic degree).

The "Doktor Nauk" degree was introduced in Russia in 1819 and abolished in 1917. Later it was revived in the USSR on January 13, 1934, by a decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. By the same decision, a lower degree, "Candidate of Sciences" (Kandidat Nauk), roughly the Russian equivalent to the research doctorate in other countries, was first introduced. This system was generally adopted by the USSR/Russia and many post-Soviet/Eastern block states, including Bulgaria, Belarus, former Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Ukraine. Of note, the former Yugoslav degree "Doktor Nauk" / "Доктор наук" / "Doktor znanosti", still awarded by Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia follows the Bologna Process and is therefore equivalent to a PhD, and not to a Higher Doctorate.

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