Ivan Geim
Ivan Geim | |
|---|---|
Иван Андреевич Гейм | |
| Rector of Moscow University | |
| In office June 1808 – February 1819 | |
| Preceded by | Feodor Bause |
| Succeeded by | Anton Antonsky-Prokopovich |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1759 Brunswick, Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel |
| Died | 16 October 1821 Moscow, Russian Empire |
| Education | University of Helmstedt; University of Göttingen (1778) |
| Occupation | Statistician, historian, geographer, lexicographer, librarian |
| Awards | Order of St. Vladimir (3rd class); Order of St. Anna (2nd class) |
Ivan Andreyevich Geim (German: Bernhard Andreas von Heim; also transliterated Heim; 1759 – 16 October 1821) was a German-born Russian statistician, historian, geographer and lexicographer who served as rector of Moscow University from 1808 to 1819. He is chiefly remembered for having organised the university's evacuation and later its restoration following the destruction of its buildings, library and collections in the Moscow fire of 1812.[1][2]
Early life and education
Geim was born in 1759 in Brunswick (Braunschweig), in the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and studied at the universities of Helmstedt and Göttingen, graduating from the latter in 1778.[2][1] He moved to Russia in 1779 to work as a home tutor, and two years later took up a post as lecturer in German, French and Latin and as sub-librarian at Moscow University.[1]
Academic career at Moscow University
Geim served as inspector of the university's Noble Boarding School from 1784 to 1786, and in the same year became extraordinary professor at the philosophy faculty, rising to ordinary professor at the chair of history — encompassing universal and Russian history, antiquities and heraldry — from 1786 to 1804.[1] From 1804 he held the chair of history, statistics and geography of the Russian state in the university's department of verbal sciences, of which he was twice dean (1805–1808 and 1819–1820).[1] He also served as director of the university library from 1815 until his death, having been its assistant librarian since 1781; the librarianship remained his one constant post throughout his career, and books were said to have become the atmosphere of his life.[1]
Geim was among the first Russian statisticians and the author of several substantial works on Russian statistics, geography and history, as well as German–Russian–French dictionaries.[1] He was the first of the university's German professors to learn Russian well enough to lecture fluently in it.[1] In an address to the university's ceremonial assembly in 1799, "On the State of Sciences in Russia," he stressed the practical, useful spirit that he believed animated the institution.[1]
Rector of Moscow University
Geim was elected rector in June 1808, his candidacy helped by his close relationship with the university's curator, Count Alexei Razumovsky, for whom he had catalogued a personal library.[2] On 26 June 1809, at Razumovsky's recommendation, Geim's rectoral term was extended from one to three years, marking the start of the three-year rectoral term subsequently adopted across Russian universities; he went on to be re-elected for a total of four terms under a decree of Emperor Alexander I of 16 September 1809.[1][2] Alexander I became the first Russian monarch to visit Moscow University, doing so in 1809 and again in 1816.[1]
Geim's rectorship coincided with a series of educational reforms under Alexander I, including the creation of the Ministry of Public Education and a general formalisation of university admissions, examinations and certification; the university had around 300 students and auditors during this period.[1] New university-affiliated learned societies were founded by students and staff, including the Moscow Mathematical Society and the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, both in 1811.[1]
The Patriotic War of 1812 and evacuation
Geim's central achievement as rector was the preservation and subsequent revival of Moscow University during and after the Patriotic War of 1812.[1] Although Emperor Alexander I had visited Moscow on 15 July 1812 and ordered evacuation preparations, the university did not receive its own evacuation order until 18 August, when Geim convened an emergency meeting of the University Council.[1] Moscow's commander-in-chief, Fyodor Rostopchin, subsequently instructed the university to prepare only its most valuable items for removal.[1]
Following the Battle of Borodino on 26 August, a first convoy of 52 carts, fewer than the 70 that had been promised, left the university on 30 August carrying museum specimens, scientific equipment and books toward Nizhny Novgorod under the supervision of professors Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim and Mikhail Gavrilov.[1] On the evening of 31 August, Geim reported to the university board that the authorities had refused further carts to evacuate remaining property and people; through his efforts the university nonetheless obtained fifteen horses, and a second convoy of twelve carts departed on 1 September carrying Geim himself, several professors and staff, and thirty state-funded students.[1] The convoy reached Nizhny Novgorod on 18 September, where the evacuees found shelter, already overcrowded, at the town's provincial gymnasium.[1]
Much of the university's collections, library, archive and part of its treasury had to be left behind in Moscow, watched over by Heinrich Ludwig Stelzer and the university's executor, Artemy Artemyev.[1] During the Moscow fire of 4–5 September 1812, all of the university's buildings except the rector's house and the hospital building burned down, destroying its remaining laboratories, museum collections, archive and library; what survived the fire was further damaged by explosions set off by the retreating French army in the Kremlin in October.[1] Geim returned to Moscow himself on 16 December 1812, having placed the university's affairs in Nizhny Novgorod in the care of Nikolai Cherepanov.[1] The end of the evacuation was announced by the Minister of Public Education, Alexei Razumovsky, on 3 May 1813, and the university's property, students and staff returned to Moscow on 25 July 1813.[1]
Restoration of the university
Under Geim's leadership, a Provisional Commission was formed to manage the university's affairs in place of its Council between December 1812 and June 1813, and the first postwar lectures resumed on 17 August 1813 in a rented house between Tverskaya and Nikitskaya streets, where Geim himself continued to teach general statistics.[1] An appeal for book donations to rebuild the destroyed library, published in Moskovskiye Vedomosti in July 1813, drew a response from institutions and private citizens across Russia; by 1816 the library held some 7,100 bound volumes, and its restoration proceeded alongside the wider rebuilding of the university under the patronage of Alexander I, who visited again in August 1816 and pledged support, with the architect Domenico Giliardi engaged for the reconstruction.[1] The university's main building reopened in October 1818, and its full restoration is dated to 5 July 1819, when the first postwar ceremonial meeting of the University Council was held.[1]
Scholarly works
Geim's principal publications included a detailed topographic and statistical description of the Russian state (1789), two textbooks of universal geography (1813 and 1817), and a statistical survey of the leading states of the world (1821), as well as a German–Russian–French dictionary (1796), a three-volume Russian–French–German dictionary based on that of the Russian Academy (1799–1802), and a phrasebook dictionary in French, German and Russian for beginners (2nd ed., 1819).[1]
Death and legacy
Geim died in Moscow on 16 October 1821.[2] He was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, third class, and the Order of St. Anna, second class.[1] Under the terms of his will, his personal library of some 2,000 volumes on history, geography, and Russian and Western European literature, including editions of classical authors, was bequeathed to Moscow University in 1822 and is preserved in the rare books department of its scientific library.[1] The historian Sergei Shevyryov described him as possessing an encyclopaedic range of knowledge that he spent his life continually adding to, while the historian Matvei Lyubavsky recalled him as a genuine university man, deeply respected by colleagues and superiors alike.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 "ЭС: И.А.Гейм" (in русский). Moscow University Chronicle (letopis.msu.ru). Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Гейм, Иван Андреевич" (in русский). Wikipedia (Russian edition). Retrieved 10 September 2026.
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