Preface
The unresolved problems of the university in the eighteen-eighties of the eighteenth century were put back on the agenda.
Beginning on June 24, 1801, the "meetings of the Secret Committee, as with other most important state affairs, devoted themselves to the establishment of a system of national education in Russia, with the aim of spreading widely in Russia such ideas as "education", "people's happiness", "human rights and civil rights", which had been formed in the West.
From a historical point of view, the reform of national education was carried out at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, on the track of liberal reforms. But unlike the other two major reforms in Russia, the emancipation of the peasantry and the introduction of a constitutional form of government, in the field of national education, the reforms of Alexander's government made great achievements.
This university reform was the most elaborate and thorough of all the state reforms of the first decade of the 19th century in Russia.
In 1802 the Ministry of National Education was established to direct the activities of various types of schools in Russia
The creation of independent state institutions for the unified management of all types of Russian schools, instead of passing the buck to each other in various departments, is of special significance for the creation of a scientific state education system. Thus, the reform of the university was linked to the general reform of the state apparatus of Imperial Russia, including the creation of the Ministry of National Education.
This institution was established in the system of the Russian ministry of Alexander I, which was inconceivable in the system of the yamen of Peter I, which was based on the principle of practical reason. The advocate for the establishment of the Ministry of National Education was Lagarp, a teacher of Alexander I.
He remained in Russia in a private capacity and took an active part in the activities of the secret committee, including the discussion of national education. On September 16, 1801, he visited the Tsar with a secret document proposing the creation of a special institution of higher education, a committee or department headed by a ministry, to administer all schools in Russia from primary to university.
Pointing out that, despite the fact that in 1786 Catherine signed the Decree on National Schools in the Russian Empire IV, drafted by the National Schools Council, the relevant institutions did not implement the decree on the establishment of corresponding national schools in the counties and sub-county administrative divisions, and further warned that it was dangerous to interrupt the establishment of rural schools for the entire population by establishing only a few "star" schools.
In his essay, Lagarp elaborated: "It is good to have big cities have their own universities, secondary schools and national schools, but also for rural residents to have their own schools. There they can at least learn to read, write, and calculate. You know, it was this that gave the Netherlands, Protestant Germany, Great Britain and the United States a huge advantage......"
Lagarpe combined the achievements of educational reform with the gradual emancipation of the peasants from the dependent status of serfdom. He had always believed that the issue of national education should go hand in hand with a broad legal reform to establish the "rights and status of the individual".
In a letter to Alexander I dated 16 October 1801, Lagarp stressed that Russia was faced with two urgent reforms - national education and the development of a code of civil law, adapting education and law to the needs of the empire.
The impact of M.H. Muravyev's reforms on the 1804 Statute
Mikhail Nizhigin Muravyev (1757-1807), who was appointed inspector of the Moscow school district in 1803 and was also deputy minister of the Ministry of National Education, played a special role in the reform of the university.
It is worth noting that Muravyev and Lagarp were both teachers of Alexander I. As a wholehearted supporter of the cause of education, Muravyev believes that education is the main basis for the happiness of the people, and that scientific freedom is not only a necessary condition for the development of education, but also for the improvement of national morality, and the improvement of the moral level of the individual is the criterion for evaluating various sciences".
However, unlike Lagarp, he did not detach himself from reality and rigidly adhered to Western ideological dogmas, but organically integrated with the overall development of Russian culture during Catherine's time, and strived to put his educational ideas into practice under the actual conditions of Russia. It can be said that through Muravyev's efforts, the University of Moscow has become a model of university reform, thus promoting the half-century-old tradition of the University of Moscow into a unique center of pedagogy and research.
Drawing on the ideas of Meniels, Polages and other Western national education activists, as well as his own understanding of the concept of education, Muravyev did a great deal of work in the development of the new university charter. The two draft constitutions of the Russian Ethnographic Library, which were recently found in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian National Library of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, were drafted by Muravyev in the first half of 1803-1804.
Muravyev's program is a synthesis of the ideas of many scholars in the past. The idea of the Faculty of Philosophy was put forward in 1786 by the Austrian scholar Φ I. Kolejemmann, a member of the Catherine Committee of the National School; The ideas of the Department of Theology were led by B. H. Karatsy was developed in the program of the Kharkov University, proposed in the autumn of 1802; The Preparatory Department existed as early as 1755 in the Statutes of the University of Moscow; Beginning in 1779, graduates of the Normal School affiliated to MSU could receive bachelor's degrees, and Crème Darijie suggested that the highest degree should be awarded to university graduates immediately on the German model.
On the whole, although Muravyev's proposal was taken into account in the establishment of the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, the structure of the department adopted by the statute of 1804 was in fact different from his proposal. In the second half of the twenties of the nineteenth century, the proponents of natural philosophy, Φ Schelinger and Okun, mentioned the integration of the faculties of philosophy and the natural sciences into one department in many of the proposals for the reform of university education.
In addition to formulating a plan, M· H. Muravyev made an important contribution to the establishment and development of the University in many ways, and had a significant influence on the development of the Statute of 1804.
The effect of the Statutes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of 1803 on the Statutes of 1804
The Academy of Sciences and the University are equal institutions in the system of the Ministry of National Education. The Statutes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of 1803 (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations of 1803) require the Academy of Sciences to maintain contact with all universities.
With the establishment of the network of independent autonomous universities, the universities and secondary schools attached to the Academy of Sciences were abolished, and the Academy of Sciences inevitably lost its educational function and retained only the scientific function. However, it is the duty of the Academician of the Academy of Sciences to lead young scholars in scientific research in order to supplement the position of Academician of the Academy of Sciences with Russian scholars over time.
In this sense, the regulations of 1803 promoted the development of the university. In granting the Academy of Sciences the right to freely elect members of the Academy of Sciences, the 1803 Regulations stipulate that Russian scholars should be preferred if they have the same superiority as foreign scholars. Similarly, in the selection of professors, Article 62 of the Statutes of 1804 provided that preference was given to Russians of specialized knowledge and good character.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Academy of Sciences and the University were given a certain autonomy. The Assembly of the Academy of Sciences (composed of members of the Academy of Sciences) is the highest body of the Academy of Sciences and is responsible to the University Committee (composed of professors). Discussion of scientific research issues at congresses and committee meetings (discussion of pedagogical issues in universities), election of new members of the Academy of Sciences and university committees, election of honorary members from among outstanding national and foreign scholars.
But unlike the election of the rector of the university, the president of the Academy of Sciences was appointed by the tsar from among the nobility, as before.
The rules for admission of academicians and associate members of the Academy of Sciences are about the same as those for professors and associate professors to enter universities, but the corresponding number is different: the Academy of Sciences has 18 full members and 20 associate members; The number of full and associate professors at universities is reversed: 28 full professors, 12 associate professors, supernumerary academicians and supernumerary professors, respectively, in transitional positions of academicians and professors, and their number is not limited.
Academicians, professors, associate academicians, and associate professors are granted the corresponding ranks according to the official ranks, and the Academy of Sciences and the University are freed from the censorship of books and periodicals by the authorities, and acquire the right to elect book inspectors from among the academicians and professors of the Academy of Sciences to be responsible for the content of the publications of the Academy of Sciences and universities. Like all members of the Academy of Sciences, students, professors and university staff are free to stay and enjoy their own jurisdiction.
The 1803 statute and the 1804 statute are very close in their orientation to linking theory with practice. Article 1 of the 1803 statutes provided that the task of the Academy of Sciences was to improve science, to enrich it with new discoveries, and to promote the practical application of theories and useful results of experiments and observations.
The university's statutes require professors not only to lecture on their own subjects, but also to keep the attendees informed of the latest scientific discoveries at home and abroad, and to strive to integrate theory and practice in all disciplines.
There has been a substantial change in the structure of the faculties and courses in the Faculty of Sciences, from 8 to 14 courses: three separate scientific fields - zoology, mineralogy and physiology - - were separated from natural history, and certain humanities were introduced, including political economy and statistics.
Through the series of departments established by the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, it can even be said that the disciplines of the Academy of Sciences have been interpreted for more than 30 years at the university, since zoology and mineralogy were taught separately only in accordance with the statute of 1835. This has played a positive role in the development of departments and disciplines in the university.
By statute of 1804, the university began to administer administrative and economic affairs. The Subsidiary Management Committee of the Academy of Sciences, headed by the President (and in the case of the University, the President), is the prototype of the University Council, and both members of the Academy of Sciences and officials (in the case of the University are the heads of departments and permanent jurors) can participate in the Council's committees.
By contrast, it is not difficult to see that the 1804 Statute was indeed heavily influenced by the 1803 Imperial Academy Statute in many ways.