Pyotr P. Rumyantsev A Memorandum by A.P. Maslov, the First Chief of the Siberian Gendarme District, on the Need to Establish an Institution of Higher Education in the Region (1834)

Abstract

This article presents a memorandum written by Colonel Alexander Petrovich Maslov, the first Chief of the Siberian Gendarme District, arguing for the urgent establishment of an institution of higher education in Siberia. The memorandum was composed during the second year of the District’s existence, when gendarmerie officers were only beginning to familiarize themselves with the region and its population and to identify local needs that might contribute to its overall development. The question of founding an institution of higher education east of the Ural Mountains had repeatedly been raised among government officials and in public discourse during the first third of the nineteenth century. Maslov, although serving in the gendarmerie – a body that formally stood outside the regular administrative apparatus of the state – also sought to draw attention to the importance of establishing a university in Siberia. In his view, such an institution would help address several pressing problems: raising the educational level of the region, training qualified personnel for the local administration, and reducing the outflow of government officials from Siberia. Nevertheless, Maslov’s memorandum did not become a turning point in the development of higher education in the region, since the imperial government at that time showed little interest in pursuing such an initiative. At the same time, the Memorandum is an important historical source because it broadens our understanding of the activities of the gendarmerie and the range of issues it addressed beyond its traditional responsibilities, such as supervising the bureaucracy and society and conducting political surveillance. The full text of the Memorandum is published here for the first time in its original form.

Keywords:

Gendarmerie; Gendarme supervision; Siberian Gendarmerie District; Local administration; Headquarters officers; Siberia; Higher education; University

For сitation:

Pyotr P. Rumyantsev. A Memorandum by A.P. Maslov, the First Chief of the Siberian Gendarme District, on the Need to Establish an Institution of Higher Education in the Region (1834). The Historical Reporter. 2026. Vol. 59. P. 224–237. DOI: 10.35549/HR.2026.2026.59.008

Received 02.03.2026. Revised 02.04.2026. Accepted 04.05.2026.

Pyotr P. Rumyantsev

D.Sc. (History), associate professor, National Research Tomsk State University. Tomsk, Russian Federation.

e-mail: petroom@mail.ru

SPIN-code: 4297-5927

ORCID 0000-0002-0061-0381

References

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