From Saint-Petersburg to Petrograd University: capital university corporation in focus of the press (July - September of 1914)

In the article based of the analysis of the full range of legal press are made suggestions about the things, which bothered the Russian society, and how its position affected the University life in the beginning of the First World War. In particular, illustrated with example of Petersburg/Petrograd University, it is showed, how the war essentially changed the public discourse about the higher school - university space, which previously in public conscience was considered to be a battlefield, became a zone of stability and real absence of conflict. According to the author’s observations, the liberal and centrist press pretended to create an image of academic stability and order, supported at the Russian higher school in spite of the war. University Corporation was actively involved in the patriotic campaign of building “enemy image” on the pages of periodical press. However, it is also important that the doctrine of inner peace didn’t imply a willingness to sacrifice the academic stability, and the issues of the university life reorganization in the connection with the war on its initial stage were not even discussed. At the same time the new “loyal” image of the Russian universities, established in the society during the first months of the war, soon -from the beginning of the 1915 allowed the power to take a decisive step from the traditional confrontation to the dialogue with the Russian higher school.