The department of Russian history at St. Petersburg University (1821–1917): a group portrait

Abstract

The Russian History department of the Imperial St. Petersburg University was an acknowledged centre of Russian historiography from the 19th to the beginning of 20th centuries. The main aim of this research is to define the characteristics of the collective biography of these Russian historians, on the basis of data which were prepared during the realization of a research project dedicated to the history of higher schools. Presented conclusions demonstrate that Russian history was one of the most progressive and competitive directions of scientific activity. In particular, historians of Russian history had more publications and higher academic status than other professors of the History and Philological faculties. Although historians of Russian history existed as a limited corporative group, their department received specialists from all over the country and at the same time sent historians to the provincial universities. The important fact to note is that historians of the department of history had first been formed as specialists in ancient history (before the rein of Peter I), but later, in the last decade of 19th century, the department opened up a new direction in Russian humanitarian science — Russian History of 18th and 19th Century. In contrast to other humanitarian researchers, professors of the Russian history department for the most part did not leave the country before 1917. But in the 1920s most of them were excluded from university for ideological reasons and were caught under the “Academic Case”. But at the same time loyalty to the profession, to the object of exploration and to the university as a whole ensured the continuity of the St. Petersburg history school in that dramatic period for the country and academia alike. Refs 20.