Imperiia: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuAboutProjectsDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Teach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Kharkov University
12018-03-06T04:22:01-05:00desmond goodwin8f8889a0403a53b0c51d2955c49c517867d152fb91plain2018-03-10T01:59:30-05:00desmond goodwin8f8889a0403a53b0c51d2955c49c517867d152fbWhen Catherine established Sloboda Ukraine in 1765, Kharkov was already an important cultural and administrative center of the region. In 1726, a seminary and collegium were established that trained priests as well as those planning for secular careers. In 1804, Kharkov University (Ukrainian name) was founded by Russian intellectual Vasily Karazin. The purpose of the University aligned with other Russian universities at the time; it was a vocational school that taught enlightenment ideals. The training at the university prepared men to become bureaucrats and enter into state service, all while instilling enlightenment thought. The faculty who came to Kharkov University to teach were foreign and they brought with them western European ideas of nationalism. Soon the men at the University began to reminisce of the Ukrainian people’s autonomous past, sparking the beginning of the first Ukrainian nationalist movement. By the 1820’s, Kharkov was a center for cultural rival that included the production of the first anthologies of Ukrainian literature, using the name “Ukraine” as opposed to the Russian name for the region. The intellectuals trained at the Kharkov University soon became interested in the region in which they lived and studied, which further promoted the nationalist movement. These actors included folklorists and writers.
