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ure. His critical take on Russian classical works,
published in
Walks with Pushkin
and
In Gogol's
Shadow,
triggered considerable controversy. With
his wife, Mariya Rozanova, he founded and
edited the journal
Sintaksis
and held a professor-
ship at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. He first
returned to the Soviet Union in 1989 for Yuli
Daniel's funeral, and even though he lived in
France, he continued to comment on the intelli-
gentsia in the post-Soviet years. Two of his later
works were published in English,
Soviet Civiliza-
tion: A Cultural History
(1990) and
The Russian
Intelligentsia
(1997), based on lectures he gave at
Columbia University.
speeches in St. Petersburg and Paris that stirred
nationalistic feelings and embarrassed a govern-
ment that had recently renewed the Three
Emperors' League with Germany and Austria.
Skobelev voiced support for Bosnians in their
rebellion against Austria and spoke of an
inevitable war between Germans and Slavs, a
prominent theme in pan-Slav writings of the time.
In the context of his public comments, his sudden
death a few months later in July 1882 in a drink-
ing binge at a brothel gave rise to unfounded
rumors that he had been assassinated.
Slavic-Greco-Latin Academy
(1687-1814)
Founded in 1687 during the regency of
SOPHIA
Alekseevna, the Slavic-Greco-Latin Academy
was the first establishment of higher education
in Russia proper, and as such played an impor-
tant role in the spread of education in 17th-cen-
tury Russia. The academy was founded on the
initiative of Simeon Polotsky and his pupil Sil-
vestr Medvedev on the model of the influential
Kievan Academy, which they had attended. The
academy grew from the Bogoiavslensky Acad-
emy, founded by Polotsky and Medvedev in
1682, and was initially devoted to the prepara-
tion of educated students for the ecclesiastical
and civil apparatus of the Muscovite state. Its
somewhat cumbersome name reflected a pro-
found controversy over whether its intellectual
orientation should be Greek or Latin. The first
directors and instructors of the academy were
two Greek scholars from Constantinople, the
Likhud brothers, Joakini and Sofroni. In 1694
they were removed at the insistence of the Patri-
arch of Jerusalem (Dosifei) and replaced with
Russian scholars. In the early 18th century, fol-
lowing a reorganization of the academy by S.
Yavorsky, Greek gave way to Latin as the main
language of instruction. The main subjects of
instruction were those of traditional medieval
scholastics: grammar, rhetoric, sciences, as well
as Slavonic, Greek, and Latin languages. In its
heyday the academy was the leading center of
Skobelev, Mikhail Dmitrievich
(1843-1882)
general
A popular general of imperialist, pan-Slav views,
Skobelev was one of the architects of Russian
expansion into Central Asia. He first drew notice
during the conquest of Kokand in 1875-76
when he led a cruel, punitive campaign against
anti-Russian rebels. Once Kokand had been
annexed by Russia and renamed the Fergana
territory, Skobelev served as military governor of
the region (1877-78). Like
CHERNIAEV
, Skobelev
exemplified the activist military leader who took
advantage of the hesitations of St. Petersburg
officials to present them with de facto conquests.
In the Balkans during the
RUSSO
-
TURKISH WAR OF
1877-78
, Skobelev further built the image of the
“White General,” wildly popular among his sol-
diers, even though there was more style than
substance to the image. Home from the Turkish
war, he returned to Central Asia and in 1880-81
he participated in the Akhal-Tekin expedition to
the steppes of Turkmenia, and led the capture of
Gheok Teppe in January 1881. British diplomats
interpreted this and successive campaigns as part
of a Russian design on British India, but Sko-
belev, who had earlier detailed plans for an inva-
sion of India, now argued against it, having
experienced the hardships of these campaigns.
In early 1882 he delivered two anti-German
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