"For the benefit of common life": how the Moscow University was created
January 25, 1755 Tatiana's Day became a student holiday in Russia. A university was opened in Moscow "for the glory of the Fatherland". How it was, remembered "Izvestia".
First attempts
The first secular higher education institution in Russia was the Moscow Slavic-Greco-Latin Academy, opened in 1678 on the initiative of Simeon Polotsky, an outstanding educator of the XVII century. Then came the time of Peter's reforms. One of the last plans of the great emperor was the Academy of Sciences, which was to be engaged not only in research, but also in spreading enlightenment.
By Peter the Great's decree in January 1724 in St. Petersburg was founded not only the Academy of Sciences, but also a university and an academic gymnasium. Since January 1726, education there began in three "classes" - mathematics, physics and "humanities". In 1758-1765 the rector of the Academic University was Mikhail Lomonosov. The efforts of the great enlightener not only improved the life of students, but also began in the academic walls of the classes on the Russian language and national history. Still, Lomonosov believed that a real university, which would become the all-Russian center of science and education, should be opened in Moscow, in the historical center of Russia, away from the court bureaucracy.
A portrait of Peter the Great made in the 1720s by the famous Russian artist Ivan Nikitich Nikitin (1680s - 1741).
In those days, the Mother See was much more accessible to residents of most Russian provinces - it was simply easier to travel there. Lomonosov's arguments were heeded by his patron and friend Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, a favorite of the Empress and, most importantly, an influential, selfless and enlightened man. Together they created a very substantial "Project on the Establishment of Moscow University". Both Lomonosov and Shuvalov were well aware of the European university tradition, primarily German. But they did not imitate other people's ideas, creating something new and unprecedented.
The project of Lomonosov and Shuvalov
Their concept of the university was original and thoroughly thought out. Lomonosov and Shuvalov proved that "science is necessary and useful everywhere, and as a way of that enlightened nations are exalted and glorified over people living in the darkness of ignorance, in what the visible evidence of our century from God given, to the well-being of our empire of our parent sovereign Emperor Peter the Great proves, which divine his enterprise fulfillment had through science, his immortal glory has left in eternal times, reason surpassing deeds, in such a short time the change of manners and customs and ignorance, approved by a long time, the construction of cities and fortresses, the establishment of the army, the establishment of the fleet, the correction of uninhabited lands, the establishment of waterways, all for the benefit of the common life of man".
The State Historical Museum on Red Square in Moscow
On the Empress this project made a strong impression: she sought to continue the enlightenment policy of his father. In the words of Shuvalov and Lomonosov, she saw Peter's scope and signed their project with her own hand. January 25, 1755, on the Day of St. Tatiana according to the Orthodox calendar, Elizabeth Petrovna signed a decree on the founding of Moscow University. In the late spring of 1755, the first 100 students started classes in the university auditoriums. Among the professors of the Moscow University, who dealt with students that year, stood out Lomonosov's pupils - mathematician Anton Alexeyevich Barsov and Nikolai Nikitich Popovsky, a teacher of philosophy and elocution (eloquence).
The university was given a building on Red Square, on the site of the present Historical Museum. The first Moscow pharmacy was located there. The decree stated: "The dilapidations existing in the pharmacy house should be examined and what should be corrected and made again, and the inventory, plan and estimate should be sent to the Governing Senate immediately". The architect Dmitry Ukhtomsky, the famous builder of the bell tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, was engaged in the reconstruction of the old buildings for the university needs. It turned out to be cozy, although, taking into account the library and laboratories, the premises were not enough.
"That student is more honorable, who has learned more"
The university opened three faculties: philosophical, legal and medical. At first, all students began to study at the philosophical faculty, where they received fundamental training in both natural sciences and humanities. Education could be continued by specializing in law, medicine, or the same philosophical faculty. Unlike European universities, the Moscow university did not have a theological faculty. This was thought to be because Russia already had a well-developed system of educational training for church ministers. But there was another reason. Both Shuvalov and Lomonosov feared excessive tutelage on the part of the Holy Synod.
A group of 5th year students of the Faculty of Biology and Soil in the laboratory of Moscow State University
The founders of the university did everything to prevent it from becoming an elitist class "nursery". Lomonosov wrote: "In the university that student is more honorable, who has learned more; and whose son he is, there is no need in that". All students were divided into those with their own pockets and those with state pockets. The former paid for their education themselves, the rest - students from poor families - were kept at the expense of the state. There were few of them, though. But the founding fathers believed that in Russia "enough national worthy people in the sciences, which requires a lengthy ... empire to various inventions of things hidden in it and to the fulfillment of initiated enterprises and to the establishment of Russian professors' colleges in noble cities from now on".
Lomonosov insisted that a gymnasium (and preferably more than one) should be opened simultaneously with the university. Without it, as our first academician believed, "the university is like arable land without seeds". As a result, a gymnasium was opened in Moscow the same year, together with the university. And soon a classical gymnasium, patronized by Moscow professors, was opened in Kazan.
The first director (the word "rector" is more familiar to us) of the Moscow University was Alexei Mikhailovich Argamakov, the son of one of Peter the Great's noble associates. He enjoyed the confidence of the Empress and Shuvalov. Shortly before the opening of the university Argamakov drew up a project to transform the Kremlin Armory into "a repository of ancient precious and curios things worthy of Russian glory".
Among Argamakov's services to the university was the opening of the library, which was headed by 22-year-old Mikhail Kheraskov, in the future a famous poet and curator of the university. The director realized how important it was for the university to have educational expositions to help professors. Mining and industrialist Nikita Demidov gave Argamakov his mineral collection, which became the basis of the university's mineralogical cabinet. In the first months of the university's existence the equipment of the physics cabinet was also started. Argamakov even freed several of his serfs so that they could study or serve at the university.
Reading room of the library of the Philology Department at Moscow State University
Alas, such an energetic and enlightened leader stood at the helm of the university for less than two years. In January 1757, Alexei Argamakov died after a serious and brief illness. But his worthy successor was Ivan Ivanovich Melissino, who had previously been the auditor of the first Russian museum - Kunstkamera, as well as the academic library. He continued all of Argamakov's endeavors.
Very soon the old buildings on Red Square became cramped for teachers and students. In 1757, by decree of Elizabeth Petrovna, who did not forget about her child, the university moved to the spacious estate of Prince Peter Repnin on Mokhovaya Street. Not far from it in 1780s architect Matvey Kazakov built a new university quarter, which today is well known throughout enlightened Russia.
A printing house was opened at the university, which very soon began to publish the best non-state newspaper in Russia - "Moscow Vedomosti". Since 1760 the literary magazine "Useful amusement" was also printed there. For the first time books devoted to the study of culture and languages of the peoples inhabiting Russia were published on Mokhovaya: "Georgian Alphabet" (1758), "Chuvash Grammar" (1770), "Alphabet of the Tatar Language" (1778), "Turkish Grammar" (1778). The temple of enlightenment created by Shuvalov and Lomonosov united the multinational science of the empire.
"Learn to be useful in society"
The university already in the initial years of its existence turned into a real temple of science. Among its first students were many outstanding personalities who faithfully and truthfully served Russian science. They include Dmitry Anichkov, the author of the first Russian course of lectures on ethics, Semyon Desnitsky, the first Russian professor of law, and Semyon Zybelin, a talented physician who later taught a course of theoretical medicine in Russian at his alma mater. He passed on to students the truths he had absorbed from Shuvalov's times: "When your golden youth time was devoted to sciences and enlightenment, try to use it with all your strength for true benefit, stretch yourself in them, learn to be useful in society, happy in the world".
In the XIX century the university became the center of fermentation of minds - free-loving and inquisitive. There they argued about the future of Russia, rebelled and made discoveries. In different years Alexander Griboyedov, Mikhail Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev, Paphnutiy Chebyshev, Nikolai Sklifosovsky, Anton Chekhov were students and free students of Moscow University....
The scientific search was not interrupted even during the Great Patriotic War. In 1944, Academician Nikolai Semyonov organized the Department of Chemical Kinetics at Moscow State University, which he headed for more than 40 years. In 1956 he received the Nobel Prize "for his research in the field of chemical reaction mechanism".
Moscow University still sets the tone for the entire national educational system. And we are still sure that "the sciences nourish young men and give joy to the old". It has been so since Lomonosov's times, and it will continue to be so. Today not hundreds, but tens of thousands of happy young people - future scientists, teachers, engineers, lawyers, professionals in all fields of human activity - receive education at Moscow State University. And each of them holds dear Empress Elizabeth, Ivan Shuvalov, Mikhail Lomonosov and St. Tatiana.
First-year students of the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University
The author is the deputy editor-in-chief of the journal "Historian"
