czartoryski, józef twardowski, and the reform of vilna university, 1822-1824

Czartoryski, Józef Twardowski, and the Reform of Vilna University, 1822-1824Author(s): Mark O'ConnorSource: The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Apr., 1987), pp. 183-200Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4209468 .

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SEER, Vol. 65, No. 2, April 1987

Czartoryski, Jozef Twardowski,

and the Reform of

Vilna University, I822- 824 MARK O'CONNOR

THE circumstances surrounding the selection of Jozef Twardowski as rector of Vilna University provide an opportunity to investigate the nature of the counter-reform efforts undertaken during the last decade of the reign of Alexander I by the Golitsyn ministry of education. In this period of the 'dual ministry' (education and spiritual affairs), efforts at educational reform were directed at a motivation of hearts as well as minds. Such reforms, with their emphasis upon religious instruction and observance, were seen as necessary to counteract the forces of irreligion unleashed across Europe by the Napoleonic conflicts, forces which the Holy Alliance was dedicated to suppressing. Golitsyn and his subordinates in St Petersburg feared in particular the instructional and moral influence of German universities which had, after all, played a crucial role in providing professors to staff the six imperial universities from the time of Alexander's original educational reforms in I803. This climate of irreligion at the German universities seemed a product of the content of instruction. The various outbreaks of rebellion by German students convinced Russian authorities how dangerous such teaching could be. Protecting the Russian universities, their faculties and students, from the 'contagion' (as it was often termed) of irreligious ideas became a major objective of the Golitsyn ministry of education.1

As Imperial Russia's westernmost university, Vilna represented a key challenge to the ministry, because Russian officials considered it as a 'Polish' institution, particularly susceptible to this sort of contagion. Vilna could constitute a 'borderland' through which radical ideas might pass into the heart of Russia itself. From the perspective of the

Professor Mark O'Connor is Assistant Director, A & S Honors Program, Boston College, Massachusetts.

I While the prospect for reform under Alexander I has been a favourite topic for historians (see, for example, Allen McConnell, TsarAlexander I: Paternalistic Reformer, New York, 1970), no general comparative study of the university reforms, and counter-reforms, undertaken during his reign has yet been published. For Vilna University in particular, see Daniel Beauvois, Lumieres et soci6t6en Europe de l'Est: l'Universitide Vilna et les icoles polonaises de 1'Empire Russe (1803-1832), 2 vols, Paris, I977 (hereafter Beauvois, Lumieres). For the period of counter-reform here under consideration, see Mark O'Connor, 'Czartoryski and the Goluchowski Affair at Vilna University' (jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, 3', Munich, I 983, pp. 229-43; hereafter O'Connor, 'Goluchowski').



I 84 MARK O CONNOR

Polish officials who administered the university, it was important to demonstrate their fidelity to the Russian Empire's educational policy. The complex loyalties of a Polish servitor within the Russian Empire are apparent in the long and varied career of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, who among his many responsibilities acted as curator of the Vilna educational district over a span of two decades.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the manner in which the chief administrative officers responsible for Vilna University, its curator Czartoryski, and its rector Twardowski, responded to the government's concern that Western radical ideas could undermine the loyalty of the educational district's students. What steps did they take to convince the authorities in St Petersburg that Vilna University was being strictly administered, and that the content of instruction was suitably moral? In which ways did their own agenda for academic reform differ from that of St Petersburg? The basic elements of the Golitsyn ministry's counter-reform were increased religious instruction and better institutional safeguards against subversive ideas. Thus the Twardowski affair may serve as a case-study of the degree to which these policies were - or were not - carried out at a borderland, 'Polish' university.2

Golitsyn's appointment in i8i6 brought to a close an extended period of inertia and confusion at Vilna. This disorder, apparently the outcome of forces unleashed by the War of I812, was in reality the product of the distrust felt by the minister of education, A. K. Razumovsky, for the university's rector, Jan Sniiadecki. Razumovsky judged Sniiadecki guilty of treasonous complicity with the French. He

2 The source materials on which this paper is based are the following: the relevant documents concerning the policies of the curator Czartoryski and the rectors Malewski and Twardowski, as well as Czartoryski's correspondence with Golitsyn and Grand Duke Constantine, and Czartoryski's apologia for his conduct as curator (with regard to the issue of student secret societies) 'Sur l'esprit des ecoles', may be found at the Czartoryski archive in Cracow, both in the public archive and in the special 'ewidencja' collection. Czartoryski's dispatches to Malewski may be found in B.Cz.MSS. 2993 IV; those of Malewski to Czartoryski in B.Cz.MSS.EW 3172. Czartoryski's letters to Golitsyn are contained in B.Cz.MSS.EW 2074 and B.Cz.MSS.EW 2075. Czartoryski's 'Sur l'esprit des ecoles' is in B.Cz.MSS.EW 3287. Concerning Novosiltsov's attitude toward the role of religion in educational reform, some documents which have been helpful to this discussion are to be found at the Bibliotheque Polonaise de Paris, B.P.MSS. 340 (cahier nr. Io). The following are published sources (NB: where applicable the original, but now outdated, Polish orthography has been retained in these citations): J. Ogoniczyk, comp., Ksi4is Adam Czartoryski i J6zef Twardowski, Korespondencja i82s-i824, Poznan, I 899 (hereafter cited as Corresp.). The relevant documents regarding the new discipline code are to be found in Szeliga [J. Bielinski], ed., 'Reforma Uniwersytetu Wilen'skiego', Archiwum do dziejow literattry i oiwiaty w Polsce, ix, pp. 1-74 (hereafter cited as Archiwum). Regarding the Bojanus committee, see Z. Wasilewski, ed., 'Promienisci, Filareci, i Zorzanie. Dokumenty urzVdowe, dotycz4ce towarzystw tajnych na Litwie (I822-27)', Archiwum, IX, pp. 136-207. For documents relating to the Novosiltsov inquest, see Szeliga [J. Bieliiiski], 'Proces Filaret6w w Wilnie. Dokumenta (sic) urzfdowe z "Teki" rektora Twardowskiego' Archiwum, vi, pp *170-332.



REFORM OF VILNA UNIVERSITY I85

therefore summarily dismissed Sniadecki and appointed the professor of anatomy, Jan Lobenwein, to replace him. Lobenwein's foremost proof of loyalty was that he had lingered in the tranquil environs of St Petersburg during the hostilities in Vilna. In this, and in subsequent dealings, Razumovsky followed his by then well-established practice of ignoring Vilna's chief administrative officer, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Czartoryski, as curator of the university and the schools of its district since I803, ostensibly served as liaison between the ministry and Vilna. When Golitsyn assumed control of the dual ministry of education and spiritual affairs, he reconfirmed his close friend as curator, thereby allowing Czartoryski once again to involve himself directly in the university's affairs.3

Czartoryski's first significant action was a long overdue inspection in June I 8 I 7. At this time he delegated several projects for revitalizing the university to its newly elected rector, Szymon Malewski. Malewski was a close associate of the former rector, Snfiadecki. He had already served the school as both an instructor and administrator since its establish- ment as an imperial university. Indeed, Malewski's position dated back to Vilna's days as a 'main school' under the Polish Republic. Malewski, however, had not been Czartoryski's choice for the job as rector, and the curator became increasingly frustrated with his performance.4 Malewski's length of service associated him with the older faculty members whom Czartoryski had criticized in one of his first reports to Golitsyn for being too well ensconced. These professors were augmenting their salaries by merging departments of study. 'This is why', Czartoryski wrote to Golitsyn, 'many departments today are badly staffed, respect for the university diminishes, the most distin- guished professors limit themselves to public lectures, and are disinclined to serve the faculty council, where privileges, personal animosities, and indifference to the progress of the common cause manifest themselves more and more.'5

The curator viewed Malewski's failure to employ permanent faculty to staff fields of study such as philosophy, agriculture, history, and literature - disciplines which Czartoryski regarded as crucial to the intellectual life of the university - as an indication that the rector's loyalties lay principally with his former academic colleagues and not with his curator. Administrative tensions grew. Czartoryski put pressure on Malewski, who, in turn, provided his excuses. Czartoryski

3The best recent overview of Czartoryski's role as curator of Vilna University is Daniel Beauvois, 'Adam Jerzy Czartoryskijako kurator wilenskiego okrfgu naukowego' (Przeglad historyczny, LXV, no. I, Warsaw, I974, pp. 6I-85).

4 Czartoryski's choice for rector was ProfessorJ. Frank of the medical faculty. For Frank's letter of refusal, see B.Cz.MSS. 5454 Iv.

5 B.Cz.MSS.Ew 2074, Czartoryski to Golitsyn, i8i6, no date.



i86 MARK O CONNOR

began to think vaguely about the need to find a replacement, but nothing was done. In I 820 Czartoryski was in Paris, and Malewski was re-elected with only token opposition.

Upon returning from abroad, Czartoryski took up in earnest the matter of replacing Malewski. Czartoryski was unhappy to discover that meetings of large groups of university students had taken place. These public gatherings occurred under the aegis of the secret student society of Philomaths, which had existed at the university since October I8 I 7. While secret, the organization was not conspiratorial. It consisted of a few students, Adam Mickiewicz among them, who were linked by their interest in literature. Subsequently, in I 820, one of their members Thomas Zan created a public organization which he called 'The Society of Friends of Positive Amusements', or, as they came to be known, 'The Radiants'. Zan was deeply interested in current notions of magnetism and hypnosis. He conceived a theory of poetics around a hypothesis regarding 'rays', which like magnetism radiated from individuals as a force. 'Goodness', for example, emanated in varying intensities from each individual. Zan decided to organize spring outings which would give him a chance to propagandize his ideas. The other Philomaths greeted his notions with considerable scepticism.6

Their attitude changed when Zan's scheme attracted large numbers of students willing to meet at six o'clock in the morning-.The remaining Philomaths recognized an opportunity to expand their goals beyond mutual help to promoting universal education-throughout the Vilna region. When over one hundred students turned out for the third meeting of 'The Radiants' the rector Malewski's tolerant attitude changed to disapproval. Explaining that he was worried about outsiders becoming involved, Malewski informed Zan that all such meetings would have to cease immediately. The Philomaths had no intention of obeying the rector's order. They gave Zan the task of compiling a list of students from among the membership of the Radiants who could be recruited for a secret society. Since the I820 academic year was then nearing a conclusion, the work was done cautiously over the course of the summer in anticipation of the next academic year. The new organization was to be called the Philarets, that is, 'lovers of virtue'. A constitution for the Philarets was drawn up, principally written, ironically, by Franciszek Malewski, son of the rector. The constitution talked of promoting 'learning, morality, and religion' through 'mutual friendly supervision, admonition, advice'. The Philarets were to be divided into a number of small groups- initially six, later seven - so as not to attract the attention of

6 For Zan's explanation of the origin of the Radiants, and his theories on 'rays', see 'Zeznania T. Zana przed komisya sledcza, dotyczace historyi maj6wek studenckich w r. I820, spisane I maja I 822 r.', Archiwum, ix, pp. 153-57.




authorities. The Philomaths/Philarets existed from approximately December I 820 until January I822.

In I82I Czartoryski arrived in Warsaw from Paris and became aware of the threatening atmosphere which now engulfed the Polish educational system. He shared the fear that the 'contagion' of student rebellion in Germany might spread to the Russian Empire by way of the Congress Kingdom. The Grand Duke Constantine's alarm was evident when he wrote, 'It seems to me that this infection of minds is general and significant not only here [i.e. Warsaw] but everywhere else'.7 Arresting the spread of contagion became the responsibility of Senator N. N. Novosiltsov, the tsar's representative to Constantine's court in Warsaw. In June I 82 I Novosiltsov informed Alexander that a large international student conspiracy, based in Breslau, had infil- trated the universities in Warsaw and Cracow.8 With Metternich's blessing - 'the matter could not be in better hands'9 - Novosiltsov initiated a series of reforms intended to strengthen the authority of the government over thejagiellonian University and Cracow area schools. That December Novosiltsov received similar permission from the tsar to constitute a committee which would carry through educational reforms within the Kingdom of Poland.

Czartoryski was concerned enough by this chain of events to send a confidential dispatch on 3 November to Malewski in which the curator strictly forbade any meeting involving large numbers of students, and especially secret societies. He ordered Malewski to make sure that students wore their uniforms - a requirement Czartoryski instituted in i8i 7. The prince curator also prohibited students from appearing at public functions in the city to prevent confrontations with the civilian and military authorities.'0 Malewski responded within two weeks. He assured Czartoryski that he had worked diligently 'for some time now' to protect Vilna's students from the 'German contagion'."1

In March I822 Czartoryski made an inspection tour of the university in anticipation of the arrival of Alexander and Constantine the next month. Two incidents involving officers of the Semyonovskiy regiment and university students produced just the sort of altercation with the local authorities which Czartoryski had wished to avoid. Neither case led to formal charges, but this did not make a propitious beginning to

7 Quoted in A. Pogodin, 'Vilenskiy uchebnyy okrug, I803-I83I', Sbornik materialov dlya istorii prosveshcheniya v Rossii, vol. 4, St Petersburg, i goi, p. xxxii.

8 Frank W. Thackery, 'N. N. Novosil'tsov, The Polish Years' (The Polish Review, xxviii, no. i, New York, I983, p. 38).

9 Wanda Bobkowska, ed., Korespondencja Metternicha w sprawie Uniwersytetu Krakowskiego, i82o-i829, Cracow, 1935, Metternich to Novosiltsov, 27 February 1822, p. 120. 10 Adam Czartoryski, Alexandre ler et le Prince Czartoryski; correspondence particuliere et

conversations, I8oI-I823, Paris, i865, p. 338. 11 B.Cz.MSS.EW 3172, Malewski to Czartoryski, I7 November I82I.



i88 MARK O CONNOR

Czartoryski's inspection. Matters soon grew worse. Through conversations with the academic staff Czartoryski discovered that a large-scale student society had recently existed at the university. The incensed curator immediately established a committee of three professors, Bojanus, Klqgiewicz, and Lobojko to investigate this society of 'Radiants'.12 The committee met seven times between 28 April and 6 May. It began its investigation by interrogating Zan, Mickiewicz, and Teodor Lozinski, three individuals who were considered to have been especially involved in establishing the Radiants. When the committee questioned Zan, he maintained that the organization was not a secret society because the rector knew about it. Zan testified that when the rector had retracted his permission at the beginning of summer vacation, the Radiants had ceased meeting. Lastly Zan emphasized that from the start the organization's only motive was to promote academics, to which Lozin'ski added that the name 'Radiant' came simply from the subject matter they were studying, since it dealt with the physical properties of certain elements. The gatherings were open and public; anyone could attend. Malewski, in his report to Bojanus, confirmed the students' testimony. He said that he had allowed the organization to continue for a time because it seemed to have a salutary effect on the student body. Church attendance had become frequent, and the classroom more tranquil. Eventually fear of outsiders becoming involved in the meetings as well as the discussion of 'rays' had prompted the rector to forbid further outings.13

Although some potentially damaging papers were discovered in Lozin'ski's possession (the most important was a student register with notations such as 'phil.' beside certain names), Bojanus, Klq;giewicz, and Lobojko did not uncover the existence of the Philarets. After examining the papers of Zan and Lozinski the committee concluded that it had found 'absolutely nothing' which could provoke 'even the slightest suspicion'. In their secret report to Czartoryski, the three faculty members stated that there was not the least indication that the Radiants continued to exist after they were forbidden by the rector. The committee observed that meetings of more than one hundred persons with the rector's approval could hardly be called secret. Finally, the conduct of those involved had been exemplary: the students 'had drunk milk and nothing but milk'. 14 Czartoryski's response to the report was a letter of rebuke to Malewski for first having permitted the Radiants,

12 'Zalecenie ksi,cia kuratora, dane professorowi, radcy stanu i kawalerowi Bojanusowi dnia 28 kwietnia I822 r.', Archiwum, VI, p. 224. 13 'Zeznania Tomasza Zana z d. I maja I 822 r.', Archiwum, ix, pp. 149-5 1. 'Reponse de Mr.

le Recteur S. Malewski a Mr. le prof. Boianus, datee 2 mai 1822, Nr. 223.', Archiwum, ix, p. I58.

14 'Raport du comite secret a Mr. le Prince A. Czartoryski, Curateur, le 7 Mai 1822',

Archiwum, IX, I 58-62.




and later having withdrawn his approval, without in either case informing higher officials. Any student organization established on the rector's authority was to be immediately dissolved. Zan, Lozin'ski, and Mickiewicz were to be put under surveillance.

When the tsar arrived in Vilna in late April, Czartoryski received Alexander's permission to remove Malewski. Czartoryski had already informed Golitsyn that a change of rector was imminent. With Alexander's approval in hand, Czartoryski quickly responded to Golitsyn's request that the curator justify such a drastic step. His prolonged absence from the district had made the curator impatient to dominate the academic direction of the university. To Czartoryski, Malewski's feeble attempts to co-operate mattered little when weighed against his own eagerness for thorough reform. Czartoryski wanted to make certain that Golitsyn would interpret Malewski's resignation not as an indication that there were major disturbances at the university, but as proof that the curator would respond promptly to even the most trivial provocations.15

Czartoryski, therefore, used the opportunity to make a broad defence for his curatorship since reassuming the position in i8i6. First, he argued that Malewski had not been dismissed, but had asked to resign. That was technically true. Next Czartoryski described what he had in I8I6 regarded as the university's most pressing needs: re-establishing peace amongst a feuding faculty and putting the educational district's financial affairs in order. 'Mr. Malewski seemed to me the most suited for realizing these goals.' This, of course, was not even technically correct. Malewski was the faculty's choice, not Czartoryski's. At the time of Malewski's re-election Czartoryski had been abroad, and for that reason, he wrote Golitsyn, had removed himself from the election process. Here, too, Czartoryski's version of events was not completely accurate. While the prince by that point was clearly dissatisfied with Malewski's performance, sojourning in Paris he was in no position to affect the outcome of the election, and was not about to inconvenience himself over the matter. Czartoryski therefore wrote to Malewski to emphasize that he must stay on as rector. In the curator's opinion, no one could do the job as well as Malewski.16

However, when Czartoryski finally did return to the university on his inspection tour in March I822, he quickly became convinced that Malewski could remain rector 'only to the great detriment of the university'. Czartoryski did not refer directly to the chief reason why he wanted Malewski replaced immediately, the discovery of the Radiants. Instead, he wrote in general terms that, as 'evil happens quickly and 15 The argument which follows is based upon B.Cz.MSS.EW 2075, Czartoryski to

Golitsyn, 3 May I882. 16 B.Cz.MSS. 2993, IV, Czartoryski to Malewski, I I March I820.



I90 MARK O CONNOR

spreads easily', under Malewski's lax hand a whole series of 'small abuses' had ensued, and 'a slackening of discipline and of zeal which could have led to graver improprieties'. Czartoryski attributed this laxness to advancing age, asserting that Malewski's moral and intellectual faculties had seriously deteriorated in the past year. As someone who had served for thirty-five years, Malewski should be allowed to retire quietly, but quickly. But who would replace him? That individual must be 'cautious and energetic, as enlightened as [he was] vigilant'. He must be someone equally competent to deal with the content of instruction and with administration. He should enjoy both an unblemished reputation and well-earned respect. In Czartoryski's opinion no member of Vilna University's current present academic staff measured up to those standards. They were too old, too young, or were removed from consideration as foreigners, who lacked the requisite Polish to administer effectively.17

The reasons Czartoryski gave for Malewski's professional 'demise' and the arguments against a faculty replacement were as self-serving as the rest of Czartoryski's letter to Golitsyn. The following year Czartoryski approved Malewski's accepting a sensitive and complex assignment, an act which suggests that Czartoryski still respected Malewski's abilities.18 What Czartoryski unequivocally wanted at this juncture, however, was someone from outside faculty ranks who would willingly combat vested interests, someone whose loyalty lay with Czartoryski alone. So it was consistent that after 'much investigation and very difficult consideration' Czartoryski had found such a man. His name was Jozef Twardowski. Twardowski, the curator informed Golitsyn, was a wealthy landowner from the Minsk (sic) gubernia,19 a former university student who had graduated from Vilna in i 807 with a doctorate in mathematics. Twardowski's subsequent work in this subject placed him, according to Czartoryski, in the 'first rank' among mathematicians in Lithuania. As inspector of schools for the district of Pinsk (sic) he had demonstrated zeal, ability, and a genuine concern for the public welfare. His involvement in local public affairs demonstrated his attachment to the government. Czartoryski asserted that since returning from abroad he had been gathering information about Twardowski. The results had reinforced his first impressions. In short,

17 B.Cz.MSS.EW 2075, Czartoryski to Golitsyn, 3 May 1822. 18 Malewski served as censor forJ6zefGoluchowski's philosophy course in I823/24, when

the course was being investigated by Novosiltsov, and when the new rector Twardowski and Czartoryski were deeply concerned about censoring Goluchowski's course material to the government's satisfaction. See O'Connor, 'Goluchowski', pp. 237ff. 19 Perhaps Czartoryski had not so thoroughly investigated Twardowski after all, since the

biographical data the curator passed on to Golitsyn was backwards: Twardowski was actually a wealthy landowner in Pinsk, who had served as school inspector for the Minsk guberniya.



REFORM OF VILNA UNIVERSITY I9I

Twardowski 'offers every possible security', and Czartoryski assured Golitsyn

He appears to me to join solid and extensive knowledge to strict, highly consistent, active principles which are opposed to the exaggerations and to the mysterious, suspect tendency of German universities. He is extremely persuaded of the absolute necessity of protecting the young. I am convinced that he will be well-informed by means of a proper severity and through constant surveillance, to anticipate and stifle all germs of this sort among our students, and link that praiseworthy ardour to labours which are useful and lead to results approved and desired by the government.20

While making his case with the minister, Czartoryski also moved to deflect faculty opposition to Twardowski's appointment as rector. The first step was Twardowski's selection to occupy the university chair in mathematics, thereby ensuring that, as a faculty member, he was eligible for election.21 Next was Malewski's resignation, and assistant rector Fr. Kl4giewicz's appointment as interim. The curator also began assiduously to canvas the faculty; later he even wrote to each in turn. In his letter to the most influential, the former rector, Jan Sniiadecki, Czartoryski employed all his powers of persuasion. The prince emphasized to Sniiadecki that these were not easy times; that they demanded prudence, zeal, and 'real unity'; that it was necessary for the university in its own best interest to place complete trust in its curator; finally, that if, as curator, Czartoryski was not always able to accomplish what was most desirable, he at least had managed to avoid 'the greater evil'.22 Czartoryski's personal intervention, with its alarmist message, worked. On i8 September I822 Twardowski was elected with only a single dissenting vote. The prince now had the rector who he believed would implement his long-frustrated reforms.

In anticipation Czartoryski had already sent a detailed list of projects to Twardowski. The first order of business was to put the rector's bureaucratic house in order by reforming the chancellery. Czartoryski wanted most of the current chancellery officials removed for incompetence. He also wanted to use this shake-up to convey a sense that a stronger hand was directing the internal affairs of the university. For this reason he stressed to Twardowski, 'If in this matter [i.e. the dismissals] you were somehow now to show leniency, you yourself in the long run would suffer the most before higher authority.'23 Czartoryski knew that the value of decisiveness in Twardowski's

20 B.Cz.MSS.EW 2075, Czartoryski to Golitsyn, 3 May 1822. 21 Just how much of an outsider Twardowski was is suggested by Czartoryski's injunction

to spend time in Vilna 'looking and listening' prior to assuming the rector's position. Corresp., p. i I, Czartoryski to Twardowski, 20 October I822. 22 Archiwum, VI, p. I 75. Czartoryski tojan Siiiadecki, 15 September I 822. 23 Corresp., p. I4, Czartoryski to Twardowski, I4 November I822.



192 MARK O CONNOR

dealing with his chancellery was mainly symbolic. None the less, for Czartoryski, it was crucial to convince his superiors in St Petersburg and Warsaw that a firm, reliable administrator was now in charge of Vilna University. The case needed to be made especially in the area of student discipline. If the 'contagion' of student conspiracies were to be avoided, Czartoryski had suggested that a more severe code governing student conduct would be an effective means. Czartoryski had made such a reform the basis for illustrating his own, and his protetge Twardowski's, effectiveness to Golitsyn.

Accordingly, one of Czartoryski's first public orders to Twardowski emphasized, for the benefit of the entire university community,24 the rector's responsibility for maintaining order in the university and in the schools of its district.25 The most important obligation in fulfilling the trust placed in public education was to provide careful and constant attention to the morality of the students. Czartoryski stressed how essential it was that none of the youth of the Vilna district be guilty of any wrong-doing which could reflect badly on the university and thereby anger the government. He alluded to the incident the previous March involving soldiers and students and emphasized that a repeti- tion must be avoided. The curator noted as well several lesser incidents in the lower schools. Such episodes, while minor, did indicate that the efforts of school officials must be redoubled. Thus all existing rules should be enforced with precision, especially those dealing with registration for courses and conduct in the classroom. Czartoryski ordered the rector to require the four faculty deans to sign a monthly statement confirming a thorough examination of enrolments and attendance. Twardowski was to formalize this and other procedural changes in a reformed code of discipline. In the meantime, Czartoryski felt sure that the 'zeal' of the deans would make good the temporary lack of a written arrangement.

Czartoryski also detailed specifically what he wanted from Twar- dowski by way of direct student surveillance: observers in the classroom monitoring behaviour, taking class attendance if the professor for 'lack of time' failed to do so; bedels - one for each faculty - who should be chosen from the oldest, most industrious, most moral university students, whose job it would be to monitor closely the day-to-day conduct of each student, and who would submit daily reports. Since nothing, in Czartoryski's estimation, built character better than 'constant application', it was essential to see that all the students' free time was well-employed and not wasted in idle amusements. Each

24 Czartoryski emphasized the point in his private correspondence with the rector. Corresp., pp. I 8- 9. Czartoryski to Twardowski, 2 I November I 822.

25 'Kopija zalecenia JO. XiVcia Czartoryskiego kuratora wydzialu naukowego wilenskiego danego zast,pcy rektora Imperatorskiego Uniwersytetu JWmu Twardowskiemu z dnia 9/ 21 listopada 1822 roku nr. 8o6', Archiwum, Ix, pp. 5-9.




student, therefore, was to supply his dean monthly with a daily schedule of activities by the hour. If the dean were then supplied with evidence to the contrary, the student was subject to expulsion. No student should ever appear before the rector, dean, 'even before a professor', except in uniform. Most importantly, all large gatherings of students, especially those having even the slightest appearance of being clandestine, were expressly forbidden. If students needed to gather for some sort of review session they were to receive permission from the assistant rector or from the dean of their respective faculties. They were to state the subject, number of participants, place and time.26

Twardowski proved to be just the sort of efficient bureaucrat Czartoryski desired. His first four weeks Twardowski devoted to reorganizing the chancellery. While these efforts prevented the rector from undertaking the reform of student discipline immediately, Twardowski nevertheless wrote, at the end of November i822, that the curator's justified concerns' were being addressed.27 By December Twardowski had formed a faculty committee with a mandate to establish the new discipline code, and submitted the following questions for consideration: Were the students fulfilling their religious obligations? Could the committee be sure that no sort of forbidden meetings were taking place, that no secret societies existed? Had the students encountered any sort of morally offensive knowledge through the lectures? Were the students attending class and working diligently? Twardowski was equally concerned with initiating what he regarded as more positive measures to improve student conduct. To that end, the rector wanted religious education to be compulsory for all students, and Czartoryski agreed. High on the list of the rector's priorities therefore was the need to attract first-rate clerics for faculty positions. Twardowski moved with dispatch in other areas as well. As a successful, innovative landowner, he shared Czartoryski's often- expressed desire for an institute of agronomy. Twardowski also discussed with the curator how best to restructure the medical department to hold down its cost.28

26 Archiwum, Ix, pp. 5-9. 27 Corresp., pp. 25-26. Twardowski to Czartoryski, 13 December I822. For the relevant

documents detailing the reform of the chancellery, see Szeliga [Bielinski], 'O urz;4dzeniu kancelaryi Uniwersytetu Wilenskiego', Archiwum, ix, pp. 75-I06.

28 Concerning Twardowski's orders to the faculty committee on discipline, see 'Do komitetu wyznaczonego od Rady Uniwersytetu dla utozenia przepis6w dozoru Uczni6w Uniwersyteckich i szkolnych', Archiwum, ix, pp. 9-io. Regarding the institute of agronomy, see Corresp., pp. I9-2I. Czartoryski to Twardowski, 28 November 1822. For the general context, see W. Bobkowska, 'U ir6del wiedzy rolniczej na Litwe', in F. Ruszczyc, ed., Ksiega pamigtkowe ... Uniwersytetu Wileniskiego, vol. i, Vilnius, 1929, pp. 209-38. Concerning Czartoryski and Twardowski's common desire to increase the quantity and quality of religious education, see, for example, Corresp., pp. 5o-51. Czartoryski to Twardowski, i9 January I823: 'I wholeheartedly agree to the proposition of introducing religious studies for all university youth'.



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By September I823 Twardowski reported to the curator in glowing terms about what had been accomplished during his first academic year with regard to tightening student surveillance and discipline. Things were going so well, he wrote in this official report, that from the beginning of his rectorship there had not been so much as a single complaint about university student behaviour. The faculty committee formed to elaborate the new student discipline code had completed a portion of its work, 'Rules for University Students'. The report also mentioned that the committee had not been able to finish its work and draw up similar guidelines for the district schools because of 'the incident' at the Vilna Gymnasium the previous May.29

The episode to which the report had merely alluded turned out to be of far greater importance. In the end, that disturbance at the gymnasium - the scribbling of a slogan supporting the Polish Constitution of 3 May 179I - proved to be the undoing of Czartoryski and Twardowski. The positive tone of this official dispatch was quite unlike what Twardowski had written privately to Czartoryski that previous May. Twardowski had been badly shaken by the hostile reaction of the local military governor, Rimsky-Korsakov. To be sure, Twardowski was accountable for what happened at the gymnasium, since by statute, as university rector, he served as chief administrator for all the schools of the Vilna educational district. Yet Twardowski found Rimsky-Korsakov's hostility difficult to fathom, as the incident at the gymnasium seemed minor, and the rector felt he had conducted a thorough investigation and had co-operated fully with the local constabulary. Twardowski was astonished that the occurrence merited the personal investigation of Constantine's aide-de-camp, Count Nesselrode. The rector advised Czartoryski that the university badly needed someone with Constantine's trust to answer the complaints. Unaware that Constantine had forbidden Czartoryski to go to Vilna while the Nesselrode inspection was in progress, Twardowski began to panic at the absence of his patron.30 He wrote long, detailed letters recounting what had happened, attempted to justify his personal conduct, and pleaded with the prince curator not to abandon him.31 In desperation Twardowski began to cast around for a new protector who

29 'Kopija przedstawienia rektora Uniwersytetu wileiiskiego do Ksiecia Kuratora dnia io wrzesnia i823r. za nr. 340.', Archiwum, ix, p. io. Related documents are contained on pp. I o-63; the school regulations are on pp. 53-63. The context for Twardowski's report was his implementation of the new university student regulations, at Novosiltsov's request, in conjunction with the start of the academic year. 30 Constantine's order is quoted in Beauvois, Lumieres, vol. I, p. 46. 31 Corresp., pp. 130-33. Twardowski to Czartoryski, ii May I823. The letter indicated just

how unsettled Twardowski was by what had happened. It ends with, 'List ten cala noc pisalem'.




could intervene on his behalf with the Grand Duke. Twardowski knew that he needed immediate support because, in a report to Constantine, Rimsky-Korsakov had castigated Twardowski for not conducting a thorough investigation of the gymnasium incident. When Twardowski forwarded his own report about the gymnasium affair to the ministry, he also sent a copy to someone of influence with the Grand Duke, someone whose estate he had recently visited socially, who had then seemed favourably inclined to Twardowski - Senator N. N. Novosil- tsov. 32

Twardowski's fears, and hopes, werejustified. He was imprisoned on i8 May I823 and remained incarcerated until 9 July, when Novosil- tsov, who had arrived in Vilna two days before, arranged his release. Against this background, the positive note struck in Twardowski's September report on student discipline may seem unwarranted. Yet Twardowski's major concern in the report was to affirm that the integrity of the university itself remained intact. Before being imprisoned, Twardowski received a letter in which Czartoryski stressed that considering the attention given the incident, it was obvious that the real target of the investigation was the university. Czartoryski urged Twardowski to punish the guilty severely. Czartoryski wanted a new, much stricter gymnasium director who would enforce tighter discipline and thereby avoid disturbances which could be 'a cause of shame for the university'. After his release Twardowski had written confidentially to Czartoryski that the inquest would uncover nothing which could incriminate the university. Twardowski in his reports to the military governor and to the ministry stressed that the investigation initially conducted by local officials had shown conclusively that university students were in no way connected with what had occurred at the gymnasium.33

By thle end ofJuly I823 Twardowski was confident that the furore over the gymnasium affair had run its course, and believed that the investigation would rapidly draw to a close. Twardowski was eager to demonstrate his reliability to Novosiltsov. The rector acknowledged that the most important matter for the coming academic year was to finish formulating policing regulations for the schools of the district, and, to the same end, to establish close relations with the police department. Thus it came as something of a shock to Twardowski to discover only a few days later that his recent benefactor Novosiltsov thought the Vilna educational district badly contaminated with the spirit of rebellion. Novosiltsov informed the rector that were the

32 Corresp., pp. 133-34. Twardowski to Czartoryski, I3 May I823. 33 Corresp., pp. 135-36. Czartoryski to Twardowski, 15 May I823. Corresp., p. 15I.

Twardowski to Czartoryski, 5 August I823.



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government to close temporarily all the schools of the district, send the students back home to their parents, and use the opportunity for a complete reorganization of the school system, such a step would not be excessive. Twardowski wrote to Czartoryski that these comments were inexplicable, since Novosiltsov was well versed in the discipline reform going on at the university, and the motivation behind it. Perhaps his words were a ploy to bring about a redoubling of effort?34

Such an explanation seemed plausible when Novosiltsov furnished Twardowski with a copy of the police regulations for the schools in the Kingdom of Poland, and ordered him to formulate comparable measures for the Vilna educational district. Twardowski had no trouble acquiescing, a solution was near at hand: the new discipline code which had been drafted at Czartoryski's insistence. Twardowski compared Novosiltsov's Congress Kingdom regulations with the reformed Vilna code according to three main criteria: i) what were the goals and objectives of each; 2) what would each demand by way of implementation; 3) what additional personnel would each demand. Twardowski found the objectives stated in the Congress Kingdom regulations completely suitable for Vilna's new statute, both as explanatory preamble, and in defining the requirements of the various levels of surveillance. Twardowski took note of practical distinctions between the two plans in infrastructure and personnel, and concluded that Vilna's new statute regulations would be equally effective.35

By late August the gymnasium business was settled, but Novosiltsov was not yet finished with his inquiries. He formed a committee to look into three other security matters, one of which was the Society of Radiants. The first breakthrough came when compromising papers were found in the possession of a former Philaret, Jan Jankowski. Under Novosiltsov's relentless- interrogation Jankowski broke down, and on 22 October confessed. He provided a detailed account of the Philaret organization and its membership. Jankowski testified that the Philarets' chief goal was 'to produce a common effort to return Poland to its former glory'.36 After the confession the Novosiltsov inquest took on a life of its own from which Twardowski was barred, except to answer Novosiltsov's frequent queries about the nature of the curriculum at Vilna and the faculty who taught it. The history of the inquest into the Society of Philomaths/Philarets is a complicated matter, all the more complicated because Mickiewicz has endowed it with literary

34 Corresp., pp. I45-48. Twardowski to Czartoryski, 5 August I823. 35 'Kopija przedstawienia rektora Uniwersytetu wilenskiego do Ksifcia Kuratora dnia io

wrzesnia 1823 r. za nr. 340', Archiwum, ix, pp. I 1-15. 36Jankowski's testimony and Novosiltsov's interrogation may be found in Archiwum, ix,

pp. i66-85. 'Zeznanie Jana Jankowskiego przed Komisyq g1edczq z d. 22 pazdziernika i823r.'.




immortality.37 As the months passed, Twardowski continued to make futile appeals urging Czartoryski to come to Vilna. Instead, Czartory- ski took his case direct to Alexander. He did not receive the commitment of support he desired, and in October I823 resigned as curator. Czartoryski never accepted the justice of the inquest, and argued with vigour, eloquence, and bitterness against the conduct of the investigation and the sentences meted out.38

Yet if Czartoryski could rightly question the justice of the inquest, the role the curator himself had played in contributing to the climate surrounding the investigation was considerable. In this regard his simultaneous appeals to Alexander and to Golitsyn to have Twar- dowski appointed rector figured prominently. Czartoryski himself had raised the threat of 'contagion' as a justification for that appointment, and by forcing a change of rectors in mid-term helped to foster the idea that the danger of rebellion was immediate. In reality, Czartoryski took this step in order to create just the opposite impression. He had hoped instead to demonstrate by firm, decisive action that he as curator was loyal, reliable, and in control of affairs at Vilna University. Moreover, Czartoryski was willing to protect the schools of the empire's border- lands with a reform of discipline procedures as draconian as anything Novosiltsov had produced in the Congress Kingdom. Indeed, when Novosiltsov later became Czartoryski's replacement as curator he found the new regulations sufficient without alteration to institute what Vilna students and later, Polish historians, would refer to as Novosil- tsov's reign of terror.

From Czartoryski's perspective such drastic measures were necessary to safeguard what mattered most, the integrity of classroom instruction. Czartoryski cared deeply about academic freedom. At the same time he was charging Twardowski with formulating the new discipline code, the curator was also fighting energetically for the appointment of ProfessorJozef Goluchowski to the university chair in philosophy. Goluchowski was the choice of Vilna's faculty for the position. Czartoryski had supported another candidate. But when Golitsyn and his subordinates at the ministry baulked at the appointment, Czartoryski sent vociferous complaints to St Petersburg in which he pointed out that by statute the faculty were free to choose whomever

37 It is thus perhaps not surprising that, while the voluminous collection of primary materials dealing with the Philarets/Philomaths has been extensively exploited by Polish scholars, these studies mainly explore the literary, not historical perspective. The best recent secondary account of the Philomath society, as well as other contemporary secret societies in Poland, is A. Kaminski, Polskie zwiozki mlodzie4y, I804-3I, Warsaw, I963. The classic study in English of the influence of the inquest upon the literary achievement of Mickiewicz is Wiktor Weintraub, The Poetry ofAdam Mickiewicz, The Hague, I 954. 38 B.Cz.MSS.EW 3287. 'Sur l'esprit des ecoles'. The rough drafts of this document bear

eloquent testimony to the extent of Czartoryski's bitterness.



I98 MARK O CONNOR

they wanted. The curator acted as guarantor for Goluchowski's personal merits in the same manner as he did with Twardowski. Goluchowski, however, had received much of his graduate academic training in Germany, and was a personal friend of Schelling. The ministry therefore thought his appointment unwise; Czartoryski thought it a matter of principle. However, when even the university's largest lecture halls proved inadequate to hold the crowds who wanted to hear Goluchowski, not only the military governor, but the rector Twardowski, too, began to worry about just how 'infectious' Goluchowski's ideas really were. To Novosiltsov a policy of increased surveillance when juxtaposed with the hiring of a 'Germanicized' philosophy professor proved the administration of the Vilna educational district to be muddled, or worse, contradictory.39

Moreover, whatever the intentions of the Philomaths/Philarets, the fact remained that the Philarets came to include nearly one quarter of the student body without any university official discovering the society. Novosiltsov's inquest, therefore, served to discredit the Czartoryski- inspired reforms at Vilna in three ways: first, by suggesting that the curator, however well-intentioned, had not been as vigilant as he claimed; second, by suggesting that, perhaps, as a Pole he could not be; third, by suggesting that Czartoryski's approach to reform was fundamentally inconsistent. At Vilna the shift away from a curriculum based on 'liberal' ideas had begun even before Novosiltsov replaced Czartoryski. Czartoryski with his proposed statute reform had already through Twardowski started to implement measures designed to remove questionable subjects such as political theory and to replace such courses with the study of classical literature and with increased religious instruction. Because Novosiltsov, not Czartoryski, put the curriculum revisions and the strict discipline code into effect, these measures were regarded as Russian attempts at repression brought on by the inquest. In reality, however, Vilna's Polish curator had laid the basis for such 'repression' by policies established before the discovery of the Philomath society.

Czartoryski pursued such a course because he, similar to Novosiltsov in Warsaw and Golitsyn in St Petersburg, was genuinely concerned about the spread of radical ideas among the empire's student population. Unlike the emergence of reactionary policies pursued by two consummate opportunists, Magnitsky and Runich, at Kazan and St Petersburg universities, Vilna's simultaneous turn to 'reaction' was prompted by sincere motives. There was no attempt to destroy the university, as Magnitsky openly tried to do at Kazan, instead Czartoryski did his best to preserve the university and its district.

39 O'Connor, 'Goluchowski', esp. pp. 232-34 and pp. 237-38.




Czartoryski genuinely believed that the best way to deal with the radical threat was through religion; he was the leader of the local chapter of the Bible Society so favoured by Golitsyn. Novosiltsov, too, had long advocated using religion as a support to social order. Neither, however, ever indulged in the kind of 'Bible Society' obscurantism adopted by curators Magnitsky and Runich in order to impress Golitsyn.40

And while Czartoryski never acknowledged the legitimacy of the investigation, the 'outsider' he chose to implement his reform policy, Jozef Twardowski, eventually did believe that this 'outside' investigation was indeed justified. The rector came to regret, for example, that he had not initially taken more dramatic action against the teachers responsible for maintaining order at the gymnasium. To be sure, Twardowski still thought them more incompetent than malicious. In retrospect, however, he concluded that only swift, decisive action could 'uproot the evil' and keep it from spreading in the district schools. In a letter of March I 824 to Czartoryski Twardowski defined what constituted the evil: a conceit whose source was 'none other than the superficiality of education' coupled with a 'contempt for religious obligations'. The rector maintained that this conceit had long been apparent. Students were taught too many subjects for which they had both insufficient grounding and scant practical application. This sort of education, Twardowski asserted, had given the district's students a false sense that they knew more than they actually did. The rest of their arrogance came from being introduced too early to adult issues, and from reading 'thoughtless books'. All this led young people to an 'egoistic exaltation' of themselves and their ideas.41

Twardowski himself belonged to the first student generation at Vilna University. His university training in mathematics, together with his success as a landowner in bringing about agricultural reform on his own estate, inclined him strongly towards instruction which stressed social utility. The primary purpose of education, therefore, was to produce graduates competent to address the technical needs of Lithuanian society and, by extension, the Russian Empire. Thus, Twardowski was as unsympathetic - after his own fashion - to the 'Polish' literary-philosophical ideas espoused by Mickiewicz and his compatriots of the Society of Philomaths/Philarets as were his Russian superiors in Warsaw and St Petersburg. Czartoryski had expressly

40 On the careers of Magnitsky and Runich, seeJ. T. Flynn, 'Magnitskii's Purge of Kazan University: A Case Study in the Uses of Reaction in Nineteenth-Century Russia' (Journal of Modern History, XLIII, no. 4, Chicago, 197I, pp. 598-6I4), and 'S. S. Uvarov's "Liberal" Years' (Jahrbicherfir Geschichte Osteuropas, xx, no. 4, Munich, I972, pp. 48I-91). 41 For Twardowski's assessment, see Corresp., pp. 231-36. Twardowski to Czartoryski,

9 March I 824.



200 MARK O CONNOR

chosen Twardowski because he was an affluent member of the provincial gentry who would serve as a model of social respectability and loyalty to the existing order. Twardowski's eventual conclusion that the student secret societies in the Vilna educational district were indeed dangerous, and not harmless as Czartoryski consistently maintained, only confirmed Czartoryski's prior judgement that here was a Pole of firm allegiance to the Imperial Russian education system of which the Vilna district was a part. Twardowski believed that the Russian government, having liberally bestowed its munificence upon the Vilna educational district, had a right to expect loyal servitors. The rector summed up well his own attitude,to the ideals which inspired the student secret societies when he wrote that 'to the state, exalted theoreticians are no more useful than dunces'.42

Novosiltsov himself could not have expressed his case against the results of Czartoryski's two-decade-long curatorship any better. When Twardowski attempted to resign, Novosiltsov urged him to stay on. But the rector, still personally loyal to Czartoryski, and in any case, exhausted after two years of constant turmoil, was allowed to resign when the verdict of the inquest was rendered in the summer of I824. Twardowski recommended his own replacement and his choice was apt. W. Pelikan, professor of surgery at Vilna, proved to be as loyal a functionary for Novosiltsov as his predecessor had been for Czartory- ski. Thus in a sense it was Twardowski who bridged what Poles of the Vilna educational district thought an unbridgeable gap between the curatorships of Czartoryski and Novosiltsov. For this 'achievement' Twardowski richly deserved the order (St Anne, 2nd class) which he received for his service as rector of Vilna University.43

42 Corresp., p. 233. Twardowski to Czartoryski, 9 March I824. 43 Twardowski returned to his estate at Welesnica where, understandably, he desired

nothing so much as obscurity. After the rebellion of I 830, he served as marshal of Pinsk for three years. While he later became a patron of local students aspiring to advanced studies, he never again became directly involved with higher education. For biographical data on Twaidowski, see Szeliga J. Bielinski], 'Wiadomosc o zyciu J6zefa Twardowskiego', Archiwum, vi, pp. I 70-79.



czartoryski, józef twardowski, and the reform of vilna university, 1822-1824

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