Russian geographical society in 1840-s: “buttles” for the Charter

Abstract

The paper considers the history of drafting the statutes of the Russian Geographical Society in 1845-1849, i.e. in the years after the con rmation of the Society's Temporary Statute to the moment when Nicholas I approved the nal version of the Statute, which was active till 1892. The paper demonstrates that the heated debates among the leaders of the Russian Geographical Society over the wordings of the Statute re ected the social transformation in the Society that drifted away from a narrow circle of academics and bureaucrats from the upper and middle ranks of the state administration towards a much more inclusive organization open for amateur enthusiasts from all walks of life. That transformation often irritated the founding members of the Society and even put them in a dif cult position vis-a-vis their royal patrons. The paper also compares the statute of the Russian Geographical Society with similar programmatic documents that governed the functioning of the geographical societies in Paris, Berlin and London