Vladimir Guerrier
Encyclopedia
Vladimir Ivanovich Guerrier was a Russian
historian, professor of history at Moscow State University
from 1868 to 1904. As the founder of the "Courses Guerrier", he was a leading instigator of higher education
for women in Russia.
He was also a member of the Moscow City Duma, the State Council of Imperial Russia
and the Octobrist Party.
Guerrier's name is sometimes transliterated from the Cyrillic
into the Roman alphabet
as Ger'e, but he himself preferred Guerrier. When publishing works in German
, he used the form W. I. Guerrier (the W representing Wladimir).
, a suburb of Moscow
, Guerrier was descended from immigrants to Russia who had moved from Hamburg
. An uncle, Jean François Guerrier, otherwise Frantz Ivanovitch Guerrier, had arrived in the time of Catherine the Great
to work as a millwright
. Guerrier lost both parents as a small child and was brought up by relations as a Lutheran
. He received his secondary education
in Moscow at the parish school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peter and Paul on Kozmodemyansk Street, now Starosadskiy Lane. In 1854 he entered the historical-philological faculty of the Moscow State University, where he was a student of Granovsky
. Upon completing this course, he was retained by the university to prepare for a professorship, and at the same time he became a teacher of literature and history to the first Moscow Cadet Corps. In 1862, he defended his master's
thesis: The struggle for the Polish throne in 1733, and then travelled abroad, spending three years in Germany
, Italy
and Paris
. In 1865 he was elected a professor in the department of general history at Moscow University and began teaching there. Guerrier was a life-long friend of the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov
.
A strong campaigner for the independence of universities, in an article in Vestnik Evropy
in 1876, Guerrier expressed the opposition of most Russian university professors in attacking proposals by Liubimov to transplant important features of the German system of university education into Russia. In 1879, Count Dmitry Tolstoy
abolished the professors' disciplinary courts, but the subsequent University Statute of 1884 proved unworkable and had to be repealed.
Guerrier was not considered an impressive public speaker. One writer has called him "prolix, fairly boring", contrasting him with a riveting performance by Kovalevsky
.
Guerrier wrote in Russian
, German
, and French
. His study of Mably
and Jacobinism
appeared in French in 1886 and was published in Paris
, while a major work on Leibniz
appeared in German. Critics have suggested that he turned to the French Revolution
"to stigmatize opponents of the Russian monarchy".
Guerrier died in 1919 and is buried in Moscow at the Pyatnitskaya cemetery.
His daughter Elena Vladimirovna Guerrier (1868-1943), who became a schoolteacher, worked also as a translator.
In Moscow, in 1872, with the consent of Count Dmitry Tolstoy, the Russian Minister of Education, Guerrier founded the Higher Courses for Women (vysshie zhenskie kursy, or "Courses Guerrier"), and headed them until 1905. In his lifetime, the courses developed into the Second Moscow State University.
Guerrier's concern for the education of women was primarily with training good conversationalists, mothers, and schoolteachers, and he advised one new class to avoid politics. He showed a paternalistic attitude towards women, long after they had shown they could master university-level courses. However, after Tolstoy had refused to give graduates of the courses teaching rights, in 1876 and 1877 Guerrier petitioned the minister to change his mind, arguing that a growing number of unmarried women were without families to support them, so that there was an economic imperative for employment rights for such women.
At one point there was controversy about Guerrier among the kursistki, as the female students were known. The cry went up "Let's catcall Guerrier!" after it had been alleged that as director of the Higher Courses he had treated women "like an Oriental despot". This charge, described in Guerrier's defence as "an absurd and malicious slander", caused a bitter division between two rival groups of women known as the 'politicians' and the 'academics'.
, but he began his academic career as a liberal
. After the assassination
of Alexander II
on , he became a conservative
, with the German historian Hecker calling him "a conservative-liberal Westernizer". In 1905, he joined the Octobrists.
In the 1870s, Russian liberals like Guerrier and Chicherin
accused Karl Marx
of being narrowly concerned with the proletariat
and indifferent to the entrepreneur
's more important "psychic labour".
From 1876 Guerrier was active in the Moscow City Duma, making social welfare his special field of expertise. He was seen as a member of the "educated" group of members, and on one occasion remarked witheringly on the petty bourgeois
members' habits of "bowing humbly to eminent merchants", "preferring silence in debates", and "voting as their leaders told them". He was a member of the Grot Commission on help for the destitute and a founder of 'Guardianship of Work Relief'. In 1894 he was elected to chair a committee responsible for the welfare of the poor.
In 1903, Guerrier and a colleague named Popov, as members of the City Duma, proposed that binding regulations were needed to control the exploitation of waiters and other catering staff by their employers.
After the Russian Constitution of 1906
came into effect, six members of the State Council
of Imperial Russia
were to be elected to it by the Russian Academy of Sciences
, and Guerrier was one of those the Academy appointed that year.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
historian, professor of history at Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
from 1868 to 1904. As the founder of the "Courses Guerrier", he was a leading instigator of higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
for women in Russia.
He was also a member of the Moscow City Duma, the State Council of Imperial Russia
State Council of Imperial Russia
The State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia.-18th century:Early Tsars' Councils were small and dealt primarily with the external politics....
and the Octobrist Party.
Guerrier's name is sometimes transliterated from the Cyrillic
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
into the Roman alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
as Ger'e, but he himself preferred Guerrier. When publishing works in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, he used the form W. I. Guerrier (the W representing Wladimir).
Life
Born in 1837 in KhovrinoKhovrino District
Khovrino District is a district in Northern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia, located along the Likhoborka River. It borders with Khimki on the west and Mikhalkovo on the south....
, a suburb of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Guerrier was descended from immigrants to Russia who had moved from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. An uncle, Jean François Guerrier, otherwise Frantz Ivanovitch Guerrier, had arrived in the time of Catherine the Great
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
to work as a millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
. Guerrier lost both parents as a small child and was brought up by relations as a Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
. He received his secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
in Moscow at the parish school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peter and Paul on Kozmodemyansk Street, now Starosadskiy Lane. In 1854 he entered the historical-philological faculty of the Moscow State University, where he was a student of Granovsky
Timofey Granovsky
Timofey Nikolayevich Granovsky was a founder of mediaeval studies in the Russian Empire.Granovsky was born in Oryol, Russia. He studied at the universities of Moscow and Berlin, where he was profoundly influenced by Hegelian ideas of Leopold von Ranke and Friedrich Karl von Savigny...
. Upon completing this course, he was retained by the university to prepare for a professorship, and at the same time he became a teacher of literature and history to the first Moscow Cadet Corps. In 1862, he defended his master's
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
thesis: The struggle for the Polish throne in 1733, and then travelled abroad, spending three years in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In 1865 he was elected a professor in the department of general history at Moscow University and began teaching there. Guerrier was a life-long friend of the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov
Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)
Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov was a Russian philosopher, poet, pamphleteer, literary critic, who played a significant role in the development of Russian philosophy and poetry at the end of the 19th century...
.
A strong campaigner for the independence of universities, in an article in Vestnik Evropy
Vestnik Evropy
Vestnik Evropy was the major liberal magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia; it lasted from 1866 to 1918....
in 1876, Guerrier expressed the opposition of most Russian university professors in attacking proposals by Liubimov to transplant important features of the German system of university education into Russia. In 1879, Count Dmitry Tolstoy
Dmitry Tolstoy
Count Dmitry Andreyevich Tolstoy was a Russian statesman, a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia . He belonged to the comital branch of the Tolstoy family....
abolished the professors' disciplinary courts, but the subsequent University Statute of 1884 proved unworkable and had to be repealed.
Guerrier was not considered an impressive public speaker. One writer has called him "prolix, fairly boring", contrasting him with a riveting performance by Kovalevsky
Maksim Kovalevsky
Maksim Maksimovich Kovalevsky was a sociologist and professor of Legal History at the University of St Petersburg.He studied at the University of Kharkov under Dmitri Kachanovsky....
.
Guerrier wrote in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. His study of Mably
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably
Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , sometimes known as Abbé de Mably, was a French philosopher and politician. He was born in Grenoble of a legal family, and, like his younger brother, the well-known philosopher, Étienne Bonnot de Condillac , took holy orders...
and Jacobinism
Jacobin (politics)
A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...
appeared in French in 1886 and was published in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, while a major work on Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
appeared in German. Critics have suggested that he turned to the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
"to stigmatize opponents of the Russian monarchy".
Guerrier died in 1919 and is buried in Moscow at the Pyatnitskaya cemetery.
His daughter Elena Vladimirovna Guerrier (1868-1943), who became a schoolteacher, worked also as a translator.
Higher Courses for Women
Guerrier's concern for the education of women was primarily with training good conversationalists, mothers, and schoolteachers, and he advised one new class to avoid politics. He showed a paternalistic attitude towards women, long after they had shown they could master university-level courses. However, after Tolstoy had refused to give graduates of the courses teaching rights, in 1876 and 1877 Guerrier petitioned the minister to change his mind, arguing that a growing number of unmarried women were without families to support them, so that there was an economic imperative for employment rights for such women.
At one point there was controversy about Guerrier among the kursistki, as the female students were known. The cry went up "Let's catcall Guerrier!" after it had been alleged that as director of the Higher Courses he had treated women "like an Oriental despot". This charge, described in Guerrier's defence as "an absurd and malicious slander", caused a bitter division between two rival groups of women known as the 'politicians' and the 'academics'.
Political life
By his own account, during his student years Guerrier was a radicalPolitical radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...
, but he began his academic career as a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. After the assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
on , he became a conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, with the German historian Hecker calling him "a conservative-liberal Westernizer". In 1905, he joined the Octobrists.
In the 1870s, Russian liberals like Guerrier and Chicherin
Boris Chicherin
Boris Nikolayevich Chicherin was a Russian jurist and political philosopher, who worked out a theory that Russia needed a strong, authoritative government to persevere with liberal reforms...
accused Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
of being narrowly concerned with the proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
and indifferent to the entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
's more important "psychic labour".
From 1876 Guerrier was active in the Moscow City Duma, making social welfare his special field of expertise. He was seen as a member of the "educated" group of members, and on one occasion remarked witheringly on the petty bourgeois
Petite bourgeoisie
Petit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois is a term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
members' habits of "bowing humbly to eminent merchants", "preferring silence in debates", and "voting as their leaders told them". He was a member of the Grot Commission on help for the destitute and a founder of 'Guardianship of Work Relief'. In 1894 he was elected to chair a committee responsible for the welfare of the poor.
In 1903, Guerrier and a colleague named Popov, as members of the City Duma, proposed that binding regulations were needed to control the exploitation of waiters and other catering staff by their employers.
After the Russian Constitution of 1906
Russian Constitution of 1906
The Russian Constitution of 1906 refers to a major revision of the 1832 Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire, which transformed the formerly absolutist state into one in which the emperor agreed for the first time to share his autocratic power with a parliament. It was enacted on April 23, 1906,...
came into effect, six members of the State Council
State Council of Imperial Russia
The State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia.-18th century:Early Tsars' Councils were small and dealt primarily with the external politics....
of Imperial Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
were to be elected to it by the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, and Guerrier was one of those the Academy appointed that year.
Selected publications
- Essay on the development of historical science (1866)
- St WilligisWilligisSaint Willigis was Archbishop of Mainz from 975 until his death as well as a statesman of the Holy Roman Empire.-Life:...
, Officium et miracula Sancti Willigisi, ed. V. I. Guerrier (J. Deubner, 1869) - Leibniz in seinen Beziehungen zu Russland und Peter dem Grossen (St Petersburg, 1873)
- Die Kronprinzessin Charlotte von Rußland: Schwiegertochter Peters des Großen nach ihren noch ungedruckten Briefen 1707-1715 (Bonn, 1875)
- L'Abbé de Mably moraliste et politique: Étude sur la doctrine morale du Jacobinisme puritain et sur le développement de l'esprit républicain au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1886)
- «Понятие о власти и народе в наказах 1789 г.» (The concept of the government and people in the Mandate in 1789) (1884)
- «Идея народовластия накануне революции 1789 г.» (The idea of democracy before the Revolution of 1789)
- «Зодчие и подвижники Божьего царства» (Architects and devotees of God's kingdom)
- «Блаженный Августин» (St Augustine)
- «Апостол нищеты и любви Франциск из Ассизи» (Apostle of poverty and love, Francis of Assisi)
- «Французская Революция в освещении Тэна» (The French Revolution in the light of Taine)
- «Первая Государственная дума» (The First State Duma)
- «Вторая Государственная дума» (The Second State Duma) (Moscow, 1907
- «Второе раскрепощение — закон 9 ноября 1906 г» (The second liberation - the law of 9 November 1906)
- «Значение третьей Думы в Истории России» (The significance of the third Duma in Russia's History) (1912)
- «Речь об Александре и Наполеоне в 1812 г» (Between Alexander and Napoleon in 1812)