Faddey Gregorovich as the Pioneer of Penitentiary Law Doctrine at the Kazan University: His Fate and Legacy

This article traces the life of Faddey Vladislavovich Gregorovich, a prominent professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Procedure at the Imperial Kazan University who has almost faded from the memory of most scholars today. The documents from the State Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Kalvaryja Cemetery in Minsk are analyzed. New documents that give a picture of F.V. Gregorovich’s family circle, which influenced his choice of profession, and solve the dispute on the exact date of his death are introduced and discussed for the first time. These new documents not only fill in some gaps in F.V. Gregorovich’s biography but also reveal how the scholar developed a strong passion for the theory of criminal law throughout his life. The myth about a conflict between F.V. Gregorovich and A.A. Piontkovsky is proven to be groundless. The cause of F.V. Gregorovich’s early retirement is identified: he was diagnosed with a nervous disease, and it led to his negative image in historiography. Since F.V. Gregorovich took part in the V International Prison Congress of 1895, it means that the academic community of the period under study recognized the establishment of prison studies as a special branch of jurisprudence at the Kazan University.