A Statistical Study on the University Professoriate in the Russian Empire

Abstract

The article is devoted to a statistical analysis of quantitative and qualitative parameters characterizing the professoriate of Russian universities in 1755–1884. The material for such a study was drawn from the prosopographic database compiled on the basis of biographical data on professors and containing more than 1200 names of scientists. The following characteristics have been examined: the social composition; the dynamics of the replenishment of the professor corps; the distribution of professors by different universities and by branches of science; the average age of embarking on the professorial position; the length of the professorial service; the role of “junior” university positions and the importance of the period of teaching as Privatdozent before becoming a professor; the proportion of those who were graduates of the universities where they later taught, etc. These characteristics have been studied in chronological dynamics, depending on the main stages of replenishment of the professoriate, which coincided with the major university reforms in the 19th century. The similarity between some parameters for the entire professorial corps (for example, the average age of receiving professorship) and the evolution of parameters in different periods and differences between universities has been identified. Some phenomena of university life, known in historiography in a number of examples, have received a detailed explanation in the light of statistical analysis. At the same time, the study has demonstrated the potential of quantitative methods in revealing new properties of Russian university professors that cannot be found only through the analysis of narrative sources.