Mobilization of Science: St. Petersburg University during the Crimean War

Abstract

The attitude of university intellectuals to the events of the Eastern War of 1853–1856 and the degree of involvement of the university community in helping the front are discussed based on archival sources and published memoirs. Back at the very beginning of the war, military formation training was introduced in higher education institutions and gymnasiums in Russia, and lectures on artillery and fortification began at St. Petersburg University. The memoirs of F.N. Ustryalov and the diary of A.V. Nikitenko convey the reaction of representatives of the “learned class” to the events in the theaters of war, as well as to the forced transformation of the educational process. The materials of the university and departmental records contain information about the size and forms of material assistance of educational institutions to the front, such as collecting donations to the “heroes of Sevastopol” and the widows and families of the victims. According to sources of personal origin, the dynamics of sentiments in the university environment can be traced—from patriotic enthusiasm and readiness of the students to join the army to public pessimism caused by the military defeat of the Russian Empire. Let us add that in the summer and fall of 1854, St. Petersburg and Moscow universities were used as a place to accommodate British sailors captured in the Black Sea, who were considered by Nicholas I as mediators in search of a diplomatic settlement or mitigation of the conflict.