Kazan University: Western Concepts, Imperial Power and Urban Transformations in a 19th Century Russian Provincial City Introduction

Abstract

The first university in Russia ‘based on the example of the European universities’ was opened in 1755 in Moscow. Between 1802 and 1804, a system of universities covered the entire country and six imperial universities became the centres of educational districts. The emergence of the universities in Russia is related to the country’s cultural orientation on the values of European civilisation. Established by the supreme power, the university concept was first seen as an instrument for the Europeanisation of the population. It was an educational project supported entirely by the state and aimed at the upbringing of a new type of imperial subject who would think in the European way. In the 19th century, German universities served as the model for Russian schools of higher education after the reform of the University of Göttingen, and thereafter based on the development of the so-called classic university modelled on Humboldt’s concept.1 Russian universities should ‘do their best to make sure Russian science is on a par with the science in other