Uvarov S.S. (1786-1855), statesman

Categories / Capital/Personalia
UVAROV Sergey Semenovich (1786, St. Petersburg (?) - 1855), Count (1846), statesman, Full Privy Councilor (1838), senator, Member of State Assembly (1826), Fellow of the Russian Academy (1831). Educated at home. From 1801, he served for the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. In 1810, he became Procurator of the St. Petersburg Educational District, a position he held until 1821. the State Pedagogical Institute was founded during his tenure as Procurator (transformed into St. Petersburg University in 1819). Meanwhile, in 1812-33, he was Assistant Director of the Imperial Public Library. Uvarov presided over the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences from 1818. A member of the Gathering of Lovers of the Russian Word, he was among the initiators of the Arzamas Literary Society (1815). His circle of close acquaintances included Alexander Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky, J.W. Goethe, and W. Humboldt. As for his political views, he gradually switched from moderate liberalism to conservatism. From 14 November 1824 through 1826, Uvarov was a member of the Third Admiralteyskaya Part Aid Committee for Victims of the St. Petersburg Flood. In 1831, he took over the post of Trustee of the First Admiralteyskaya Part, adopting measures against cholera in St. Petersburg. In 1832, Uvarov assumed the functions of Deputy Minister of Public Education, becoming de facto Minister of Public Education in 1833, with his final appointment as Minister confirmed in 1834. In 1833, he invented the expression, "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationalism"; the expression was adopted by Moscow historian M.P. Pogodin. Later the formula was used in Uvarov's coat of arms. In 1835, he introduced the New University Regulations, which actually annulled universities' self-government. During Uvarov's time, the Archaeographic Commission was instituted, and the Pulkovskaya Observatory was built. He retired in 1849. Uvarov owned stone buildings at 21 Malaya Morskaya Street, on the Moika River Embankment, at the corner of Fonarny Lane (building not preserved), a wooden building at Bolshaya Zeleynaya Street (present-day Bolshaya Zelenina Street; not preserved), and a summer residence on Aptekarsky Island. Uvarov was also a co-founder of the Society for Building Steamers for the Volga River (1823). In 1855, his son, archaeologist A.S. Uvarov, instituted the Uvarov Prize as a tribute to the memory of his father, S.S. Uvarov. The prize was awarded by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

References: Виттекер Ц. Х. Граф Сергей Семенович Уваров и его время. СПб., 1999.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Goethe Johann Wolfgang
Humboldt Wilhelm
Pogodin Mikhail Petrovich
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Uvarov Sergey Semenovich
Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich
Bolshaya Zelenina Street/Saint Petersburg, city
Fonarny Lane/Saint Petersburg, city
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 21
Moika River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Виттекер Ц. Х. Граф Сергей Семенович Уваров и его время. СПб., 1999 State Assembly
Main Pedagogical Institute
Russian National Library
Russian Academy of Sciences
Conversations for Lovers of the Russian Word , Literary Society
Arzamas, Literary Circle
Archaeographical Committee
Pulkovo Observatory