Russian students at the universities of Northern Netherlands in early modern period — an exploration

Abstract

The universities in the Northern Netherlands, to start with the first Calvinist academy of Leiden in Holland (established 1575), earned in a relative short time great fame all over Europe. They gathered within few decades very many students from many European countries: from Sweden over German lands till France — and from Scotland till Russia. The students who by the enrolment gave their nationality as ‘Russus’, were of course not that many as students from other European countries — still, it is interesting to observe their presence in Holland or Friesland in the early modern times. This article is an attempt to sketch the presence of Russian students in this period. Among more than hundred names of students from Russia (mostly from Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also from Vyatka — today’s Kirov, or from Astrakhan) who in the 17th and, much more intensive, in the 18th centuries came to study in the Northern Netherlands, one can find as important figures as Alexander Kurakin, Boris Golitsyn or Vassily Kolokolnikov.