Pre-revolutionary Russian Universities in Modern Historiography

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Pre-revolutionary Russian Universities in Modern Historiography

M.V. Gribovskiy

PhD in History, Associate Professor, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russian Federation

The article focuses on the main trends in Russian and foreign historiography of Russian universities at the turn of the 20th century to identify the most promising directions for research. The author suggests that the current stage of historical and university research be counted from the 1980s-1990s. Though historiography of the 1990s was quick to abandon ideological clichйs, it inherited a range of approaches, problems, and conclusions from the past. Having examined a number of summarizing monographs on the history of Russian education and theory of university research, the author assumes that the 2000s witnessed a certain “social turn” with its profound attention to the “human dimension” of the university's past. The most topical and promising trends in historiography of Russian universities include the study of intra-corporate relations in various universities, “university conflictology”, academic mobility and dissertation ethics in Russia, professorial daily life and leisure, etc. Drawing on works of foreign historiographers, Russian historiographers should abandon the formal approach limited by state borders. It is suggested that the works by Ukrainian, Polish, Estonian and other researchers from the countries where some universities of the former Russian Empire are located should be viewed as a separate group. It is also noted that, unlike Russian historiographical tradition, the West European and American framework in the 20th century was not discrete by its nature and retained its traditional interest in the problem of relationships between universities (i.e. academic community and students) and Russian society. In conclusion, the author points out the anthropocentric approach as very valuable for the studies of university history.

Keywords: Russian universities, turn of the 20th century, historiography, social history, anthropocentric approach.

Дореволюционный российский университет в современной историографии

Михаил Викторович Грибовский -- канд. ист. наук, доц., Национальный исследовательский Томский государственный университет, Российская Федерация, Томск

Статья посвящена выявлению основных тенденций в отечественной и зарубежной историографии, касающейся российского университета рубежа XIX-XX вв., и определению наиболее перспективных направлений дальнейших исследований. Особое внимание уделено исследованиям университетской профессуры конца имперского периода. Современный этап историко-университетских исследований предлагается отсчитывать с рубежа 1980-х -- 1990-х годов, когда в России с изменениями политического строя стали меняться и подходы к изучению университетского прошлого. Отмечается инерционность историографии 1990-х годов, которая хотя и быстро избавилась от идеологических клише, но унаследовала от прошлого подходы и круг проблем, а порой и выводы. Анализируются обзорно-обобщающие труды по истории образования в России, а также исследования, представляющие собой теоретическое осмысление университетского прошлого. Подчеркивается, что в 2000-е годы наметился «социальный поворот», сопровождаемый большим вниманием к «человеческому измерению». К актуальным и перспективным отечественным исследованиям отнесены: изучение внутрикорпоративных отношений преподавателей различных университетов, «университетская конфликтология», изучение академической мобильности, диссертационной культуры в дореволюционной России, проблемы профессорской повседневности и досуга и др. Предлагается, обращаясь к зарубежной историографии, отказаться от формального подхода, предусматривающего ориентацию исключительно на государственные границы. По мнению автора, к отдельной группе следует отнести работы украинских, польских и эстонских историков как исследователей из тех стран, где расположены некоторые университеты бывшей Российской империи. Отмечается, что западноевропейская и американская историография в XX в. не носила такого дискретного характера, как историография отечественная и постсоветская, и сохранила характерный для более раннего времени интерес к проблеме взаимоотношений университета (в лице ученого сообщества и студенчества) и русского общества. Делается вывод о перспективах антропоцентрического подхода к изучению университетской истории.

Ключевые слова: российские университеты, рубеж XIX-XX вв., историография, социальная история, антропоцентрический подход.

The history of Russian pre-revolutionary universities is traditionally measured by the four University Statutes adopted in the 19th century. Following this logic, 1884 signified the final period in the development of Russian universities, which began with the adoption of the last University Statute regulating the life of the classical higher school, and ended with the revolutionary changes in February 1917, thus terminating the Russian Empire and the imperial university system.

The turn of the 20th century was the heyday of Russian universities when they were recognised as European centres for science and education, and when the professoriate began to play a significant role in the life of university cities as well as in the political life of the entire country.

Over the past 130 years Russian historiography has formed a broad research tradition of studying Russian universities, which means that historiographers have to deal with thousands of research papers, not to mention those on the development of university science.

This article focuses on the main trends in Russian and foreign historiography of Russian universities at the turn of the 20th century to identify the most promising among them.

The current stage of historical and university research began in the 1980s-1990s, when changes in the Russian political system affected the approaches to the studies of the university's past. However, it is a rare case when historiographic tendencies chronologically coincide with political changes, either anticipating or lagging behind the latter. Unlike journalistic works, a serious historical research may last for many years before it is published, which explains a slow responsive character of historiography of the turning epochs.

This assertion fully applies to Russian historiography of Russian university in the 1990s and, in part, in the 2000s, which has already been in the focus of scholarly interest Lapteva L. P Istoriia rossiiskikh universitetov XVIII -- nachala XX veka v noveishei otechestvennoi literature (1985-1999 gody) // Rossiiskie universitety v XVIII-XX vv. Iss. 5. Voronezh, 2000. P. 4-27; Sosnitskii D. A. Osnovnye napravleniia izucheniia istorii Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta v sovremennoi rossiiskoi istoriografii // Klio. 2017. No. 10 (130). P. 207-217.. Though the historiographers were quick to abandon ideological clichйs, they inherited a range of approaches, problems, and sometimes conclusions from the past See, for example: Vuchinich A. Russkaia nauka v epokhu krizisa: 1890-1910 gg. // Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 1993. No. 3. P. 3-28; Zmeev V. A. Universitetskii ustav 1884 g. // Sotsial'no-politicheskii zhurnal. 1998. No. 6. P. 139-154; Romanov Iu.V. Nauka i vlast': nasledie L. A. Kasso // Trudy nauchnoi konferentsii studentov i aspirantov “Lomonosov-99”. Istoriia. M., 1999. P. 76-80; Iablokov S. A. Iuridicheskii fakul'tet Moskovskogo universiteta posle vvedeniia universitetskogo Ustava 1884 g. // Vestnik of Moscow University. Ser. 11. Pravo. 2006. No. 5. P. 113-126..

There are numerous works on the political history of universities (A. E. Ivanov, L. Litvin, V. L. Markin, S. A. Nekrylov, E. A. Rostovtsev, S. F. Fominykh, A. V. Sharova), however, it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of Russian researchers tend to side up with the “progressive” liberal professorship opposed to the government. Rare exceptions include the works by V. S. Brachev on the history of St. Petersburg University self-government, student protests, and relationship between professorial corporations and power See: Ivanov A. E : 1) Rossiiskoe “uchenoe soslovie” v gody “Vtoroi Otechestvennoi voiny” (Ocherk grazhdanskoi psikhologii i patrioticheskoi deiatel'nosti) // Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 1999. No. 2. P. 108-127; 2) V preddverii kadetskoi partii: vserossiiskii soiuz deiatelei nauki i vysshei shkoly // Vlast' i nauka, uchenye i vlast': 1880-e -- nachalo 1920-kh godov: materialy Mezhdunarodnogo nauchnogo kollokviuma. SPb., 2003. P. 202-212; Litvin A. L. Uchenye Kazanskogo universiteta vo vremia smeny politicheskikh rezhimov // Ibid. P. 124-132; Markin V. L. Studenty i prepodavateli Moskovskogo universiteta v obshchestvenno-politicheskoi zhizni Rossii nachala XX veka: diss. ... kand. ist. nauk. M., 2009; Rostovtsev E. A. Akademicheskaia korporatsiia Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta v nachale XX v.: otnoshenie k vlasti i grazhdanskomu obshchestvu // “Byt' russkim po dukhu i evropeitsem po obrazovaniiu”: Universitety Rossiiskoi imperii v obrazovatel'nom prostranstve Tsentral'noi i Vostochnoi Evropy XVIII -- nachala XX v. M., 2009. P. 139-156; Sharova A. V. Universitetskoe soobshchestvo i vlast' v nachale XX veka (po materialam dnevnikovykh zapisei A. N. Savina) // Vestnik of the Russian State University for the Humanities. 2010. No. 18. P. 270-287; Fominykh S. F, Nekrylov S. A. Neugodnyi vlastiam professor: kak uvol'niali I. A. Malinovskogo iz Imperatorskogo Tomskogo universiteta // Chasopis Natsional'nogo universitetu “Ostroz'ka akademiia”. Ser. Pravo. 2012. No. 2 (6). URL: http://lj.oa.edu.ua/artides/2012/n2/12fsfitu.pdf (accessed 10.06.2018).; on the history of university institutions (L. V. Golovko, T. I. Eremin, E. A. Zag- orulko, N. V. Ilyutchenko, V. V. Suyazova) Golovko L. V., Il'iutchenko N. V. Professorskii distsiplinarnyi sud pri Imperatorskom Moskovskom universitete // Vestnik of Moscow University. Ser. 11. Pravo. 2004. No. 6. P. 94-110; Zagorul'ko E. A. Professorskie distsiplinarnye sudy v vuzakh Sankt-Peterburga (1907-1914 gody) // Izbrannye tezisy dokladov III Studencheskoi sotsiologicheskoi mezhvuzovskoi konferentsii. SPb., 2012. P 28-30; Eremina T. I. O poriadke deloproizvodstva v universitetskikh sudakh v otnoshenie studentov (na primere Sankt-Peterburgskogo i Kazanskogo universitetov) // Istoriko-pravovye problemy: novyi rakurs: sbornik nauchnykh rabot. Iss. 9-1. Kursk, 2014. P 57-63; Suiazov V. V. Professorskii distsiplinarnyi sud v vuzakh Rossiiskoi Imperii // Vestnik of Science and Education. 2015. No. 5 (7). P 101-105.; departments (A. Yu. Dvornichenko, N. F. Kozyrenko, N. V. Kaledin) Kozyrenko N. F Istoriia algologii na kafedre botaniki biologo-pochvennogo fakul'teta // Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. Ser. 3. 2005. Iss. 2. P 62-70; Dvornichenko A. Yu. Kafedra istorii Rossii s drevneishikh vremen do nachala XX veka // Institut istorii Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta segodnia. K 80-letiiu osnovaniia Istoricheskogo fakul'teta LGU-SPbGU. SPb., 2014. P 29-37; Kaledin N. V. Obshchestvennaia geografiia v Sankt-Peterburgskom universitete: istoki i etapy razvitiia // Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. Ser. 7. 2015. No. 1. P 58-74; Dvornichenko A. Iu., Rostovtsev E. A., Barinov D. A. The department of Russian history at St. Petersburg university (1821-1917): a group portrait // Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. History. 2016. Iss. 3. P 46-56. or personalities (A. V. Antoshchenko, M. A. Balyshev, E. S. Dosekin, E. D. Frolov, D. A. Tsygankov, I. V. Cherkazyanova) Frolov E. D. Nemetskii professor v russkom universitete: Ernst Romanovich fon SHtern (1859-1924) // Problemy sotsial'noi istorii i kul'tury srednikh vekov i rannego novogo vremeni. 2001. No. 3. P 29-52; Tsygankov D. A. Professor Moskovskogo universiteta V I. Gere (1837-1919) // Novaia i noveishaia istoriia. 2002. No. 5. P 219-230; Cherkaz'ianova I. V. Aleksandr Nikolaevich Shvarts: okruzhenie, vospriiatie, otsenki // Charkivs'kii istoriografichnii zbirnik. Iss. 7. Charkiv, 2004. P 84-94; Balyshev M. A. Professor istorii Mikhail Vasilevich Klochkov. Dokumental'no-biograficheskii ocherk // UNIVERSITATES. Nauka i prosveshchenie (Khar'kov). 2005. No. 2. P 18-29; Tsygankov D. A. V. I. Gere i Moskovskii universitet ego epokhi (vtoraia polovina XIX -- nachalo XX v.). M., 2008; Dosekin E. S. Evgenii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi: obshchestvennyi i politicheskii deiatel'. Samara, 2014; Antoshchenko A. V. Professor imperatorskogo Moskovskogo universiteta Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradov (ocherki zhizni i deiatel'nosti). M., 2015..

The mid-1990s saw the revival of the pre-revolutionary tradition of biographical dictionaries of Russian university professors. Though such editions usually qualify as reference books, some of them appear to be full-fledged researches in terms of their content.

During the period under analysis, there appeared new versions of biographical dictionaries of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan universities Dekany Kazanskogo meditsinskogo universiteta: (ot meditsinskogo do meditsinskogo universiteta): Biograficheskii slovar' dekanov Kazanskogo gosudarstvennogo meditsinskogo universiteta. Kazan', 1997; Levshin L. V. Dekany fizicheskogo fakul'teta Moskovskogo universiteta. M., 2002; Professora Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Biobibliograficheskii slovar. SPb., 2004; Professora Moskovskogo universiteta. 1755-2004. Biograficheskii slovar'. Vol. 1-2. M., 2005; Setevoi biograficheskii slovar' professorov i prepodavatelei Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta (1819-1917). URL: http: // bioslovhist.history. spbu.ru/biografika/pp1.html (accessed 04.06.2018)., as well as first editions of such dictionaries of Kharkov, Novorossiysk, Tomsk, Saratov, and Perm universities Professora Tomskogo universiteta. Biograficheskii slovar. Iss. 1. 1888-1917. Tomsk, 1996; Professora i doktora nauk Saratovskoi oblasti, 1909-1999. Bibliograficheskii spravochnik. In 8 vols. Vol. 1. 1909-1917. Saratov, 2000; Profesori Odes'kogo (Novorosijs'kogo) universitetu. Biograficnij slovnik. Vol. 1-4. Odessa, 2000; Professora Permskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta (1916-2001). Perm,, 2001; Biobibliograficheskii slovar' uchenykh Khar'kovskogo universiteta (1805-2004). Vol. 1. Khar'kov, 2004; Kostitsyn V. I. Rektory Permskogo universiteta. 1916-2006. Perm', 2006; Fominykh S. F., Nekrylov S. A., Gribovskiy M. V., Mendrina G. I., Vengerovskii A. I., Novitskii V. V. Professora meditsinskogo fakul'teta Imperatorskogo (gosudarstvennogo) Tomskogo universiteta -- Tomskogo meditsinskogo instituta -- Sibirskogo gosudarstvennogo meditsinskogo universiteta (1878-2003). Biograficheskii slovar'. Vol. 1-2. Tomsk, 2013.. A remarkable achievement of historiography was the book “Professors of Tomsk University. A Biographical Dictionary. Issue. 1. 1888-1917” published in Tomsk, in 1996, where each article is a deep biographical study including not only general information (years of life, place of birth and death, Alma Mater), but also the detailed information on parents and family, research activities, mentors and students, followed by the list of major works.

Since the late 1990s, various research teams have been working on summarizing works on the history of Russian education. The book edited by the Minister of General and Vocational Education V. G. Kinelev was the first post-Soviet experience of a systematic description of the history of higher education in pre-revolutionary Russia. Only one chapter in the book focuses directly on universities, with the whole emphasis laid on the government policy on higher education, organization of educational process, and training of the academic staff Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii: ocherk istorii do 1917 goda. M., 1995.. The same range of topics is discussed in the works by a Moscow professor V. A. Zmeev, whose monograph dwells on the development of the national higher school in the imperial period Zmeev V. A. Evoliutsiia vysshei shkoly Rossiiskoi imperii. M., 1998.. university historical russian imperial

Apparently valuable are relatively small, yet very informative historical essays by a Saratov researcher A. I. Avrus. Unlike the two above-mentioned works, this research exclusively concentrates on Russian universities, which makes it the first attempt in Russian historiography to systematically analyse the university history from its start to the late 20th century. In her overview, the author divides the history of universities into three periods (pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and post-Soviet). The book is organised into chronological chapters, with sections 3.2 “A new attempt to limit university self-government”, 4.1 “Universities on the eve of and during the first Russian revolution” and 4.2 “Between the two revolutions” being of a particular interest because in these chapters A. I. Avrus traces the development of various aspects of university life under the new Statute and political realities of the early 20th century Avrus A. I. Istoriia rossiiskikh universitetov: ocherki. M., 2001..

Somewhat less informative and novel are the teaching aids, although there are exceptions among them, too. The most original is the series of lectures Universities and University Traditions in Russia by T. N. Zhukovskaya. In addition to such familiar aspects as educational processes, university system and academic degrees, she pays much attention to the everyday life of Russian nineteenth-century universities, studied within the context of European educational tradition. T. N. Zhukovskaya focuses on the problem of relationship between university and city and examines the architecture of university buildings, university holidays and folklore. She creates a portrayal of the university professor in terms of their social and professional status, and financial position Zhukovskaia T. N. Universitety i universitetskie traditsii v Rossii. Kurs lektsii. Petrozavodsk, 2011..

The work published by Moscow State University of Civil Engineering is based on series of lectures, with a little more than 20 pages devoted to the period under analysis. The authors provide a concise description of the educational process after the adoption of the new University Statute, outlining the university everyday life. They point out that “the interference of government officials in the university academic life caused indignation among professors and sometimes led to rather acute conflicts” Ocherki istorii universitetskogo obrazovaniia. M., 2011. P. 88..

The least successful were the textbooks by a St. Petersburg researcher N. K. Gurkina Gurkina N. K.: 1) Istoriia obrazovaniia v Rossii (X-XX veka): uchebnoe posobie. SPb., 2001; 2) Istoriia obrazovatel'nykh uchrezhdenii v Rossii (X-XX veka): uchebnoe posobie. SPb., 2012.. Covering a ten-century period of the national education history, they provide a rather sketchy outline of historical sources and contain factual errors, which has already been noted in historiographical literature Kostina T. V. Retsenziia: Gurkina N. K. Istoriia obrazovatel'nykh uchrezhdenii v Rossii (X-XX veka). SPb.: Poltorak, 2012 // Istoricheskaia Ekspertiza. 2014. No. 1. P 167-170..

Of particular interest are the theoretical studies of the university's past. The works by A. Yu. Andreev (Moscow University) and S. I. Posokhov (Kharkov University) discuss the national university model and the evolution of the university idea in the Russian Empire. Some of their works are based on the sources of the 18th -- the first half of the 19th century Andreev A. Yu.: 1) Lektsii po istorii Moskovskogo universiteta. 1755-1855. M., 2001; 2) Rossiiskie universitety XVIII -- pervoi poloviny XIX veka v kontekste universitetskoi istorii Evropy. M., 2009; Andreev A. Yu., Posokhov S. I. Universitet v Rossiiskoi Imperii XVIII -- pervoi poloviny XIX veka. M., 2012..

Joint efforts of the Moscow and Kharkov schools of history resulted in the anthology University Idea in the Russian Empire of the 18th -- Early 20th Centuries Universitetskaia ideia v Rossiiskoi imperii XVIII -- nachala XX veka: antologiia. M., 2011., preceded by a program article “The National Model of University Education: On Emergence and Development” by A. Yu. Andreev, who focused on the continuity of the university idea in Russia and its correlation with the German and European tradition Andreev A. Yu. “Ideia universiteta” v Rossii (XVIII -- nachalo XX v.) // “Byt' russkim po dukhu i evropeitsem po obrazovaniiu”: Universitety Rossiiskoi imperii v obrazovatel'nom prostranstve Tsentral'noi i Vostochnoi Evropy XVIII -- nachala XX v. M., 2009. P. 9-31..

The article centres on the concept of “university model”, which includes university structure, principles of its functioning, and mechanisms for its expansion and interaction with other institutions in the educational space Andreev A. Yu. “Natsional'naia model'” universitetskogo obrazovaniia: vozniknovenie i razvitie // Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii. 2005. No. 1. P. 156-169; No. 2. P. 110-119.. Taking the classical German university model as the starting point, A. Yu. Andreev defines the “national model” as the interaction of the classical university with the state system and educational policy. Referring to the turn of the 20th century, he concludes that it was the spirit of corporatism inhereted by Russian universities from the pre-classical era that turned the life of professors into the struggle of factions and political parties towards the end of Imperial Russia. In general, A. Yu. Andreev believes that the national model of the Russian pre-revolutionary university combines pre-classical (medieval) and classical (German) elements: the former include corporatism and university privileges, while the latter -- the ideals of pure science. This idea was also reflected upon in his later works Andreev A. Yu.: 1) Sushchestvoval li “russkii put'” razvitiia universitetov? // Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii. 2008. No. 7. P. 113-119; 2) O “novom prochtenii” istorii rossiiskikh universitetov // Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii. 2009. No. 3. P. 156-169..

The first decade of the 21st century was marked with a heated discussion about the Russian national model of higher education. An alternative position was set forth in a series of publications by a group of authors led by Professor E. V. Olesiyuk. They oppose the “Russian model and West European models of education, insisting on the fact that the national higher school went its own way which was fundamentally different from the western one, so this experience brought about a number of significant advantages Dines V. A., Oleseiuk E. V., Shulus A. A. Ocherki po istorii i teorii otechestvennoi vysshei shkoly. Saratov, 2002; Oleseiuk E. V., Kruglov Iu.G., Dianova V. Iu., Nasonkin V. V., Chistokhvalov V. N. Rossiiskaia vysshaia shkola (ocherki istorii): ucheb. posobie. Vol. 1. Istoki i razvitie do 1917 g. M., 2005; Kruglov Iu. G., Oleseiuk E. V., Shulus A. A. Universitetskie ustavy XIX veka v svete natsional'noi doktriny obrazovaniia // Sotsial'no-gumanitarnye znaniia. 2003. No. 1. P. 35-47; Oleseiuk E. V. Sizov V. V., Kruglov Iu. G., Shulus A. A. Byl li “russkii put'” razvitiia universitetov? // Sotsial'no-gumanitarnye znaniia. 2009. No. 3. P. 145158; Dines V. A. Eshche raz o natsional'nykh modeliakh obrazovaniia i o novom prochtenii istoricheskikh tekstov // Sotsial'no-gumanitarnye znaniia. 2009. No. 6. P. 305-320.. As I find the position of E. V. Oleseyuk and his colleagues somewhat isolationist, I am inclined to identify with A. Yu. Andreev's view.

Recognizing the importance and necessity of the above-described researches for history, I would like to argue that the scholaraly perspectives of the topic lie with the social turn in the studies of university history. The deficiency of Russian historiography is that due to the traditional state centricity it interprets and studies universities as part of the state machine. However, universities are not only a driving belt of the state educational, scientific, and personnel policy, but also a set of unique people (which was especially relevant for the 19th century), who differ from the majority of the population in terms of culture and intellect. It is what makes the human dimension of university analysis very important. On understanding this, the researchers of university history began to shift their focus from functioning of individual elements of the university system to social, anthropological, historical and cultural aspects.

Due to the interest in the revolutionary themes, Soviet historiographers did a lot of research on the student body of the 19th -- 20th centuries, though many of their works appeared one-sided, being focused on socio-political aspects. The early 21st century brought about studies that viewed the student body as a broader and more complex problem. This approach is apparent in the works by A. E. Ivanov, who concentrates on the relationship among students, their daily life and rituals Ivanov A. E.: 1) Studencheskaia korporatsiia Rossii kontsa XIX -- nachala XX veka: opyt kul'turnoi i politicheskoi samoorganizatsii. M., 2004; 2) Mir rossiiskogo studenchestva. Konets XIX -- nachalo XX veka. M., 2010..

Unlike students, the professional community of university professors has seldom been in the centre of scholarly attention.

The “social turn” of Russian historians was greatly influenced by the German researcher Trude Maurer, who passed away in April 2017. Her monograph “Hochschullehrer im Zarenreich. Ein Beitrag zur russischen Sozial- und Bildungsgeschichte” (Professors in Tsarist Russia. To the Study of Russian Social History and the History of Education) has become a very significant event in the historiography of Russian universities as social institutions Maurer T. Hochschullehrer im Zarenreich. Ein Beitrag zur russischen Sozialund Bildungsgeschichte. Kцln; Weimar; Wien, 1998..

In this monograph, T. Maurer focuses on three aspects: the state status of professors, their university career and involvement in political processes. It should be noted that T. Maurer's work mainly draws on the previously published sources and research literature available at that time. Though she relied only on the documents from eleven RSHA funds, two SARF funds, one IAE fund and one fund of the Pushkin House Manuscript Department, she managed to give an insight into the life of the pre-revolutionary professorial community, exactly identifying their place in the Russian society as “between bureaucracy and intelligentsia.”

In fact, it was T. Maurer who suggested that Russian researchers should shift the emphasis from “university regulations” to studying people and their activities. In her famous collection of articles “The Barometers” or “Beacons” of Society?: Selected Articles on the Social History of Russian and German Universities”, T. Maurer states that, as a researcher, she perceives universities as “communities shaped by its two constituent groups: professors and students” Maurer T. “Barometry” ili “maiaki” obshchestva? Izbrannye stat'i po sotsial'noi istorii russkikh i nemetskikh universitetov. M., 2015. P. 30..

Many Russian-speaking historians accepted this approach of paying more attention to social aspects of higher education, which enabled a Ukrainian researcher S. I. Posokhov to identify the transition from socio-political to cultural history as a trend of modern historiography of university history Posokhov S. I. Obrazy universytetiv Rosils`koп imperiп druhoп polovyny XIX -- pochatku XX st. v publitsystytsi ta istoriohrafiп. Kharkiv, 2006. P. 358..

The first Russian historiographer who emphasized the need to create a collective biography of professors was V. S. Kazakova Kazakova V. S. Kollektivnaia biografiia professury -- novyi put' v sotsial'noi istorii russkikh universitetov // Klio. Zhurnal dlia uchenykh. 2001. No. 1 (13). P. 254-258. -- Let us note that the idea of a collective biography fit into the world research agenda; a few years earlier a similar question was posed by Canadian researchers; see: Bruneau W Toward a New Collective Biography. The University of British Columbia Professoriate, 1915-1945 // Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'йducation. 1994. Vol. 19, no. 1. P. 65-79.. She was followed by E. A. Vishlenkova and her colleagues, who published the monograph “Russian Professoriate. Creators of Statuses and Senses”, where they emphasize that they were attracted by a different aspect: “how university people understood themselves, what language they used to describe themselves, how they created their community and what they used for it” Soslovie russkikh professorov. Sozdateli statusov i smyslov. M., 2013.. Another interesting experience was a collective biography of professors of a previously understudied University of Warsaw by a Ukrainian researcher A. Yu. Bazhenova, published in Poland first in Russian, and later in Polish Bazhenova A. Iu.: 1) Istoriki Imperatorskogo Varshavskogo universiteta 1869-1915: prosveshchenie, nauka, politika. Liublin, 2014; 2) Historycy Cesarskiego Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 1869-1915: nauka i polityka. Lublin, 2016..

Among the most prospective Russian studies of the university's past is the search for new information opportunities of the sources on the history of universities and university corporations See: Zheliaskov S., Levchenko V. Metricheskie knigi Aleksandro-Nevskoi tserkvi Imperatorskogo Novorossiiskogo universiteta kak istochnik biograficheskikh issledovanii ego professorsko-prepodavatel'skogo sostava // IUgo-Zapad. Odessika. Istoriko-kraevedcheskii nauchnyi al'manakh. Iss. 11. Odessa, 2011. P. 22-34; Zharova E. Iu. Izdavaemye universitetami “Obozreniia prepodavaniia nauk” kak istoricheskii istochnik po istorii vysshego obrazovaniia v dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii // Istoricheskoe obozrenie. 2013. No. 14. P. 68-73; Kiseleva Iu.A. Tsennosti universitetskoi kul'tury skvoz' prizmu chuvstv (Po vospominaniiam vospitannikov i professorov Imperatorskogo Char'kovskogo universiteta) // Dialog so vremenem. Al'manakh intellektual'noi istorii. 2017. No. 60. P 111-127..

Intra-corporate relations in various universities are now studied fruitfully by A. V. Antoshchenko, L. A. Bushueva (Sazonova), M. V. Gribovskiy, A. N. Dmitriev, and E. A. Rostovtsev Antoshchenko A. V. Istoriia odnoi professorskoi otstavki // Kazus. Individual'noe i unikal'noe v istorii. 2002. No. 4. P. 234-274; Sazonova L. A. Korporativnye otnosheniia professorov Kazanskogo universiteta. Vtoraia polovina XIX veka // Obrazovanie i prosveshchenie v gubernskoi Kazani. Iss. 2. Kazan', 2009. P 169175; Bushueva L. A. Professorskaia korporatsiia Kazani v epokhu peremen: mezhlichnostnye kommunikatsii universitetskikh liudei (nachalo XX veka) // Dialog so vremenem. Al'manakh intellektual'noi istorii. 2011. No. 36. P 248-266; Rostovtsev E. A. Kazus professora fon Lista (epizod iz universitetskoi istorii perioda Pervoi mirovoi voiny) // Uroki istorii -- uroki istorika. Sb. statei k 80-letiiu Iu.D. Margolisa (1930-1996). SPb., 2012. P 308-315; Gribovskiy M. V. Fenomen privat-dotsentury v rossiiskikh universitetakh kontsa XIX -- nachala XX v. // Vestnik of the Moscow State Regional University. Ser. History and Political Science. 2012. No. 2. P. 103-108; Dmitriev A. N. Statusy znaniia (o sotsial'nykh markerakh evoliutsii rossiiskogo universiteta pervoi treti XX veka) // Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie. 2013. No. 4 (122). URL: http://magazines.russ.ru/ nlo/2013/122/16d.html (accessed 06.06.2018)..

A special case of intra-corporate relationship analysis is university conflictology, which reconstructs the relationship within the academic staff through the analysis of conflict situations Ermichev A. A. O tom, kak possorilis' dva uchenykh muzha. Ocherk istorii nravov universitetskoi professury v Rossii nachala XX v. // Voprosy filosofii. 2003. No. 5. P. 124-134; Sveshnikov A. V. “Vot Vam istoriia nashei istorii”. K probleme tipologii nauchnykh skandalov vtoroi poloviny XIX -- nachala XX v. // Mir istorika. Iss. 1. Omsk, 2005. P 256-260; Vishlenkova E. A. Pamiat' o konfliktakh: osobennosti arkhiva Kazanskogo imperatorskogo universiteta // Ekho vekov. 2008. No. 2. P 248-257; Beliaeva O. M. Akademicheskoe soobshchestvo Peterburgskogo universiteta v rektorstvo E. D. Grimma. Konflikty v professorskoi srede // Dialog so vremenem. Al'manakh intellektual'noi istorii. 2011. No. 34. P 215-235; Nikiforov Iu.S. Kommunikativnaia kul'tura rossiiskikh istorikov kontsa XIX -- nachala XX v. Vzaimodeistvie i konflikty v universitetskoi srede // Ibid. 2014. No. 48. P 138-164..

Another interesting topic is academic mobility in the pre-revolutionary Russia. M. V. Loskutova, a researcher from St. Petersburg, in her case studies of several faculties of Imperial St. Petersburg and Kazan Universities covered 330 biographies of professors, lecturers, private docents, laboratory assistants, and office curators who served in the above-mentioned universities in the 1850s and 1890s. As she notes, “the analysis of territorial mobility of Russian scientists and professors in the 19th century can become the first step towards understanding the role of academic institutions and professoriate in the functioning of the Russian Empire as a single political and cultural space” Loskutova M. V. Geograficheskaia mobil'nost' professorov i prepodavatelei rossiiskikh universitetov vtoroi poloviny XIX v.: postanovka problemy i predvaritel'nye rezul'taty issledovanii // “Byt' russkim po dukhu i evropeitsem po obrazovaniiu”: Universitety Rossiiskoi imperii v obrazovatel'nom prostranstve Tsentral'noi i Vostochnoi Evropy XVIII-XX v. M., 2009, p. 187.. The study of academic mobility is closely connected with the study of scientific ties in the late 19th -- early 20th centuries See: Fuks E. Vliianie voiny na mezhdunarodnye nauchnye sviazi // Nauka, tekhnika i obshchestvo Rossii i Germanii vo vremia Pervoi mirovoi voiny. SPb., 2007. P 94-113..

Another promising direction is the dissertation ethics in Russian universities at the turn of 20th century. Though the problem has already been studied extensively, some of its aspects have not been sufficiently investigated yet. It is interesting to note how the focus of research shifted from the functional analysis of the system of academic degrees in the 1990s -- 2000s Mazalova E. A. Uchenye stepeni i podgotovka prepodavatel'skikh kadrov v Sankt-Peterburgskom universitete v XIX-XX vv. // Istoriia uchenykh stepenei v Rossii i Zapadnoi Evrope (XII-XX vv.): materialy nauchnoi konferentsii. M., 1998. P 43-46; Chartanovich M. F Prisvoenie uchenykh stepenei v Rossii vo vtoroi polovine XIX v. // Ibid. P 67-73; Iakushev A. N., Kaznacheev D. A. Problemy zakonodatel'stva v sfere proizvodstva v uchenye stepeni v Rossiiskoi imperii // Pravo i obrazovanie. 2006. No. 3. P 162-177; Iakushev A. N., Kononova S. Prisuzhdenie uchenykh stepenei v universitetakh Rossiiskoi imperii (statisticheskii analiz) // Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii. 2006. No. 3. P 147-150; Sharshunov V. A. Istoriia sozdaniia gosudarstvennoi sistemy attestatsii uchenykh i pedagogov v Rossiiskoi imperii // Problemy upravleniia. 2007. No. 3 (24). P 74-91. to the socio-anthropological analysis of the dissertational culture in the 2010s, which is mostly apparent in the works by N. N. Alevras, V. P. Korzun, S. I. Posokhov, T. Sanders Posokhov S. I. “Schitaiu dlia sebia neprilichnym...”: eticheskie aspekty protsessa zashchity dissertatsii v universitetakh Rossiiskoi imperii XIX -- nachala XX v. // Kharkivs'kii istoriografichnii zbirnik. Iss. 11. Kharkiv, 2012. P 131-153; Sanders T. Tretii opponent: zashchita dissertatsii i obshchestvennyi profil' akademicheskoi istorii v Rossiiskoi imperii // Istoricheskaia kul'tura imperatorskoi Rossii: formirovanie predstavlenii o proshlom. M., 2012. P. 161-192; Alevras N. N. Dissertatsionnaia kul'tura rossiiskikh istorikov: vzgliad na problemu shest' let spustia // Dissertatsiia po istorii v kontekste rossiiskoi nauchnoi kul'tury XIX -- serediny XX vv.: opyt i perspektivy izucheniia. Cheliabinsk. 2016. P. 4-18; Korzun V. P O sootnoshenii poniatii dissertatsionnaia kul'tura i professorskaia kul'tura: Definitsii kak issledovatel'skaia optsiia: dis. po istorii v kontekste rossiiskoi nauchnoi kul'tury XIX -- serediny XX vv.: opyt i perspektivy izucheniia. Cheliabinsk, 2016. P. 19-25..

Unlike the thoroughly studied topic of student leisure (e.g. works by L. A. Bushueva), professorial daily life and leisure do not seem to be fully investigated Bushueva L. A. Dosug universitetskikh professorov Kazani kontsa XIX -- nachala XX v. // Izvestiia Samarskogo nauchnogo tsentra Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. 2011. Vol. 13, no. 3. P. 80-83.. Another understudied, but promising direction is the study of the symbolic spheres in the pre-revolutionary university Vishlenkova E. A. Universitetskie ritualy (na materialakh Imperatorskogo Kazanskogo universiteta) // Kharkivs'kii istoriografichnii zbirnik. Iss. 7. Kharkiv, 2004. P. 4-14; Parfinenko A. Iu., Posokhov S. I. Starye i novye simvoly universitetov (na materialakh Xar'kovskogo universiteta vtoroi poloviny XIX -- pervoi poloviny XX vekov) // Epokha. Kul'tury. Liudi (istoriia povsednevnosti i kul'turnaia istoriia Germanii i Sovetskogo Soiuza. 1920-1950-e gody): materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii. Sb. dokladov. Khar'kov, 2004. P. 236-248..

A research team led by A. V. Kupriyanov and M. R. Demin from St. Petersburg branch of Higher School of Economics has been investigating the national pre-revolutionary universities with the use of big data processing, which allows generating data on specified parameters. In particular, the team has studied the personnel dynamics of Russian Imperial universities and developed approaches to studying the academic mobility of pre-revolutionary professors with the use of big data analytics Ivanova E.: 1) Chto mozhet dat' edinaia baza dannykh po professure dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii issledovateliam akademicheskoi mobil'nosti? // Sotsiologiia v deistvii -- 2015: izbrannye materialy VII sotsiologicheskoi Mezhvuzovskoi konferentsii studentov i aspirantov. SPb., 2015. P. 131-141; 2) Popytka postroeniia kauzal'noi modeli kadrovoi dinamiki professorsko-prepodavatel'skogo sostava universitetov dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii // Ibid. P. 118-136; Kostina T. V., Kouprianov A. V. Growth or stagnation? Historical dynamics of the growth patterns of Dorpat University (1803-1884) // Vestnik of SaintPetersburg University. History. 2016, iss. 3. P. 31-45; Kupriianov A. V. Ot prosopografii universitetskoi professury do tsifrovogo sleda filosofskogo parokhoda: “Srednie dannye” i formal'nye podkhody v istorii nauki // Topos. 2017. No. 1-2. P. 111-137..

There is much potential in studying universities within the context of urban space. This approach stems from the fact that the university as a product of urban culture has always been closely associated with city institutions and urban communities. The professorial community has always greatly affected urban life. The relationship between the university and the city can be intepreted as a mutual exchange of opportunities and resources. This approach was employed by historians from Russia, Germany and Estonia in their book on St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and Yuryev universities of the early 20th century. Later, a Kharkov researcher S. I. Posokhov used it in his case study of Moscow, Kazan, and Kharkov universities of the middle of 18th -- middle 19th centuries Posokhov S. I. Universitet i gorod v Rossiiskoi imperii (vtoraia polovina XVIII -- pervaia polovina XIX vv.). Khar'kov, 2014.. There is also a special study on the history of Kazan University written partly from the cultural-urban positions Vishlenkova E. A., Malysheva S. Iu. Sal'nikova A. A. Terra Universitatis: dva veka universitetskoi kul'tury v Kazani. Kazan', 2005.. Such studies have a benefit of giving a picture of the city as of a cultural, rather than socio-economical phenomenon.

Finally, it should be mentioned that by now there are theses defended on the history of pre-revolutionary professoriate of four of the eleven universities: Imperial Tomsk University (S. A. Nekrylov, 1999), Imperial Moscow University (N. N. Niks, 2004), Imperial Kazan University (L. A. Sazonova, 2009) and Imperial St. Petersburg University (E. A. Rostovtsev, 2017). Their foci are quite different. S. A. Nekrylov studies the academic staff of the oldest university in the Asian part of Russia, including its social characteristics as well as educational, scientific, and public activities Nekrylov S. A. Professorsko-prepodavatel'skii korpus Imperatorskogo Tomskogo universiteta (1888 -- fevral' 1917 gg.): diss. ... kand. ist. nauk. Tomsk, 1999.. L. A. Sazonova concentrates on the history of everyday life of Kazan professors, social characteristics of the professorial corporation and corporate relations Sazonova L. A. Povsednevnost' universitetskogo professora Kazani 1863-1917 gg.: diss. ... kand. ist. nauk. Kazan', 2009.. N. N. Niks investigates the Moscow professoriate on the whole, with an emphasis on the socio-cultural aspect Niks N. N. Moskovskaia professura vtoroi poloviny XIX -- nachala XX v. Sotsiokul'turnyi aspekt: diss. ... kand. ist. nauk. M., 2004.. E. A. Rostovtsev examines student and professorial corporations of Imperial St. Petersburg University, without addressing the research activities of professors Rostovtsev E. A. Sankt-Peterburgskii universitet v kontekste sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii Rossii (1884-1917): diss. ... dokt. ist. nauk. In 2 vol. SPb., 2017..

The main object of his analysis is the university corporation, which he understands as a body of professors, assistants and students. This approach appears to be innovative for Russian historiography, which traditionally studies professorial and student communities separately. The emphasis of the work is laid on the problem of university autonomy. Although the topic has already been looked on in historical and philosophical studies from different angles, E. A. Rostovtsev comes to an important conclusion that the actual autonomy of universities was incomparably more formal, being stipulated by the University Statute of 1884 and subsequent normative acts. Of great value in this work is the differentiation of faculties based on the specificity of academic groups depending on specialty or a branch of science. Thus, the professors of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics are defined as those who made a particularly significant contribution to science; the academic staff of the Faculty of Law is distinguished by their greater involvement in social and political processes, and the professoriate of the Faculty of the Eastern Studies as having the most stable composition among other faculties. E. A. Rostovtsev concludes that there are several corporate structures within the university community. Though his thesis represents a case study of only one university, Rostovtsev manages to give a detailed picture of university life in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, which opens up a path for further studies of university history.

As far as foreign historiography of the topic is concerned, it should be noted that the formalised approach within which the research is limited exclusively by state borders is less desirable.

First, there is a separate group that includes works by Polish, Ukrainian, and Estonian researchers since some universities of the former Russian Empire are located in these countries. With a few exceptions, historians from these countries focus on the past of “their” universities (Warsaw, St. Vladimir, Novorossiysk, Kharkov, and Yuryev), with rare research on the universities of the Russian Empire as a whole. Within the above-stated group, Ukrainian research framework was the closest to that of Russian historiography, at least until recently. Most of Ukrainian works were written in Russian. A number of them have already been described in this paper (see the works by A. Ya. Bazhenova Anna Bazhenova can be called a Ukrainian-Polish researcher; her main research interest is connected with the analysis of the professional community of historians of the Warsaw University., M. A. Baly- shev, S. A. Zhelyaskov, Yu.A. Kiseleva, V. V. Levchenko, S. I. Posokhov and others).

Estonian and, in particular, Polish historiographies are rather indifferent to the history of “Russian universities”. For quite long, Polish historiographers of higher education treated the imperial period of its development as secondary. Only since the 1980s, Polish researchers have begun to gradually and then systematically include the history of Imperial University of Warsaw in the paradigm of their research on history of science and higher education in Poland Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 1807-1915 / ed. by S. Kieniewicz. Warszawa, 1981; Historia nauki polskiej / ed. by B. Suchodolski. T. IV. 1863-1918. Cz. III. Wroclaw, 1987..

Although contemporary Polish historiography acts on a well-founded assumption that the main mission of the University of Warsaw was the Russification in the western part of the Empire, an increasing number of researchers choose to carry out a comprehensive and multifaceted investigation of the university activities in the University of Warsaw at the time when it was not truly Polish. In this regard, I should mention the works by J. Schiller-Walicka Schiller J.: 1) Profesorowie Cesarskiego Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego wobec wydarzen rewolucji 1905 roku // Rozprawy z Dziejow Oswiaty. 2008. T. xViI (XLII). S. 75-97; 2) Aleksandr Lwowicz Blok (1852-1909) -- portret niespelnionego czlowieka i uczonego // Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki. 2009. No. 1. S. 11-33; Shiller-Valicka I. Proekty reformy rossijskih universitetov konca XIX -- nachala XX veka // Istoriya i istoricheskaya pamyat'. 2013. No. 7-8. P 191-207., particularly her monograph Universitas Rossica. Koncepcja rosyjskiego uniwersytetu 1863-1917 (Universitas Rossica. The Concept of Russian University in 1863-1917) Schiller J. Universitas rossica. Koncepcja rosyjskiego uniwersytetu 1863-1917. Warszawa, 2008.

709 s., where she goes beyond the Polish set of problems to discuss how the idea invested in the University by the Russian government related to the realities of the second half of the 19th -- early 20th centuries.

In addition, it should be pointed out that by far the majority of Polish works on university history focus on the development of certain branches of university science, with much less attention paid to the professoriate as a social group.

The 200-th anniversary of the University of Warsaw caused the intensification of research, which brought about many publications, including biographical dictionaries of professors. Of particular interest among them is a substantial scholarly monograph Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. 1816-1915 (History of the University of Warsaw, 1816-1915) Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. 1816-1915 / ed. by prof. Wojciech Tygielski. Warszawa, 2016., which was not a jubilee informational and advertising edition as it was a serious summarizing work on pre-revolutionary university history, with three chapters devoted to the period under study. Two of these chapters describe scientific development and the student body, yet the most interesting is the third one -- “Cesarski uniwersytet Warszawski: Midzy edukacjq a politykq. 1869-1917” (Imperial University of Warsaw: Between Education and Politics, 1869-1917). In spite of an expected emphasis on the relationship between the official Russian university and the Polish component and attempts by some professors to gain the right to teach in the Polish language, the authors create a complex and ambiguous picture of the university life in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, thus demonstrating that contemporary Polish historians have managed to avoid stereotypically negative assessments of the past.

Modern Estonian historians of university history are Lea Leppik and Sirje Tamul, to name just a few. L. Leppik's areas of research interest include social mobility of professors of the Dorpat (Yuryev) University Leppik L.: 1) Tartu Ьlikooli teenistujate sotsiaalne mobiilsus 1802-1918. Tartu, 2006; 2) Social Mobility and Career Patterns of Estonian Intellectuals in the Russian Empire // Historical Social Research. 2008. No. 33 (2). P 42-62; 3) Tartu ьlikool ja meditsiiniteenuste turg 19 Sajandil // Eesti Tervisekaitse seltsi 54. konverentsi ettekannete kogumik. Tallinn, 2008. L. 28-29; 4) Kalefaktoripojast professoriks. Tartu ьlikooli teenistujate sotsiaalne mobiilsus 1802-1918. Tartu, 2011., while S. Tamul focuses more on the student body of the University of Yuryev, university charity, the influence of WWI on the university in the Baltic region Tamul S.: 1) Ьber die Studentenschaft der russifizierten Tartuer Universitдt (1883-1918) // Universitдtsgeschichte in Osteuropa, Stuttgart, 2001. S. 102-111; 2) Donatsioonid Tartu ьlikoolile aastatel 1802-1918 // Ajalooline Ajakiri. 2002. S. 177-192; 3) Die Bedeutung des Krieges fьr die Universitдt Jurev: SchlieЯungsabsichten und EvakuierungsmaЯnahmen (1915-1918) // Kollegen -- Kommilitonen -- Kдmpfer. Europдische Universitдten im Ersten Weltkrieg / Hrsg. von T Maurer. Stuttgart, 2006. S. 223-238..

Unlike Russian, the so-called “western” historiography was not so discrete by nature in the 20th century and remained almost the same in the “post-Soviet” stage.

As for narrowly specialized research, the internal development of Russian universities received little, if any, attention in Western historiography until present. In most cases, Russian universities were studied as part of the socio-political history of Imperial Russia. According to St. Petersburg historiographers, Western researchers treat this topic as secondary for the university history of the West, which is why Russian universities are more interesting for specialists in the history of Russia rather than historians of education Rostovtsev E. A., Barinov D. A., Krivonozhenko A. V., Sidorchuk I. V. Akademicheskaia korporatsiia stolichnogo universiteta v fokuse istoriografii // Klio. 2012. No. 7. P 55..