Sergey Uvarov

Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov (Russian: Серге́й Семёнович Ува́ров) (25 August (5 September) 1786, Moscow – 4 (16) September 1855) was a Russian classical scholar best remembered as an influential imperial statesman under Nicholas I of Russia.

Uvarov, connected through marriage with the powerful Razumovsky family, published a number of works on Ancient Greek literature and archaeology, which brought him European renown. A confirmed conservative, he was on friendly terms with Alexander Humboldt, Madame de Stael, Goethe, Prince de Ligne, Nikolay Karamzin, and Vasily Zhukovsky. From 1811 to 1822, he curated the Saint Petersburg educational district.

In 1832, Uvarov was appointed Deputy Minister of National Education, succeeding his father-in-law Count Aleksey Kirillovich Razumovsky. He was elected an Honorable Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1811 and was the president of that venerable institution from 1818 until his death. In the wake of the Decembrist revolt of 1825, the tsar moved to protect the status quo by centralizing the educational system. He wanted to neutralize the threat of foreign ideas and what he ridiculed as "pseudo-knowledge." However, Uvarov quietly promoted academic freedom and autonomy, raised academic standards, improved facilities, and opened higher education to the middle classes. By 1848 the tsar, fearing the political upheavals in the West might cause uprisings in Europe, ended Uvarov's innovations.

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