PROFESSORS OF LIFE SCIENCES DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE 1850S – 1860S AND THE “SECOND IMPORTATION” OF SCIENCE

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this article is systematizing data on the internships ofprofessors of natural sciences and the introduction of the laboratory method in teaching related to the “second import” of science to Russia.
 Methodology. The main methods are the methods of analyze and synthesis, the comparative and historical genetic methods.
 Results. The importance of voluminous internships for professorial fellows at the turn of the 1850s-60s for preparing professors after the critical situation in universities after the “gloomy seven years” and the simultaneous aging of the professors’ corporation, which was caused by the reforms of S.S. Uvarov, is well known. However, it should be noted that in the field of natural sciences, the role of internships is even more significant since they should be associated with the the “second importation” of science to Russia. The fact that such an import took place was written by K.A. Timiryazev at the end of the 19th century. Althoughhe called it "the awakening of natural science". Even him, who was an adherent of leftist views criticizing the government, he could not help but admit that in the case of the turn of the 1850-60s science developed with the assistance of the state. And it was precisely this assistance that provided such a significant number of professors who completed internships in the most famous scientific centers in Europe. That was significant for the widespread dissemination of the laboratory teaching method and the adaptation of the German idea of Wissenschaft in Russia.
 Conclusions. Changes in the teaching of natural sciences at universities in the 1860s were a direct consequence of the voluminous internships of professorial fellows, most of whom were practicing in Paris and Heidelberg. And as we can associate with Paris the very principle of working in a laboratory for specialists with a certain experience and level of knowledge, then it is Heidelberg and other university cities in Germany that were in charge for transferring of the laboratory method of teaching students included those ones who just started their education.