2 20 .lle.vander Petnmkevitch, Ph.D., 



had as many as one hundred students in 1758. In 1804 a con- 

 stitution was adopted, framed on German model by W. N. 

 Karasin. This constitution recognized the autonomy of the 

 university and was extended to the newly founded universities 

 in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kharkov, Vilno and Dorpat. In 1830 

 the University of Vilno was abolished and that of Kiev opened. 

 In 1835, however, the constitution was modified. The number 

 of students was limited, and the Government appointed special 

 curators to control university affairs. The last traces of aca- 

 demic freedom were obliterated in 1849 when the new constitu- 

 tion framed by Prince Shirinsky-Shikhmatoff was introduced into 

 all universities. All executive officers and all professors were 

 from now on appointed and not elected and "harmful" sciences, 

 such as constitutional law, were forbidden. The liberating and 

 progressive movement at the beginning of the sixties brought 

 with it a change in the universities also. A new constitution 

 prepared by Golovin restored academic freedom, but only for a 

 short period. In 1866 Count Dmitri Tolstoy was appointed 

 Secretary of Public Instruction and began immediately to in- 

 terfere with the work of the universities by means of special 

 decrees. A constitution prepared in accordance with his sug- 

 gestions was introduced in 1884, when Delyanoff was Secretary, 

 and from now on until the revolution of 1905 the universities 

 were entirely under the strictest control of the government. A 

 short breathing space after the revolution, then oppression worse 

 than before; then again a sudden wonderful efflorescence of free- 

 dom in 1917 and now almost complete ruin under the Bolsheviki ! 



Such is the sad history of the Russian universities which 

 played such a glorious role in developing Russian youth, in com- 

 bating" reaction based on ignorance and avarice and in contribut- 

 ing through the patient work of their professors to the store of 

 human knowledge. Only a century of existence, a century of 

 martyrdom ! During that time many thousands of students were 

 never allowed to finish their education, some banished to Siberia, 

 others imprisoned, many killed. And during that time many 

 professors were removed from office, banished, censured, im- 

 prisoned, broken in spirit. And in the aftermath of the revolu- 

 tion some of the best among them have died of starvation, others 

 have been executed and all execrated as enemies of the proletariat. 



Yet even in the darkest hours and years of reaction the uni- 



