Mikhail Stasyulevich

Mikhail Stasyulevich was born in Saint Petersburg to the family of a doctor. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg University's Philology faculty in 1847. In 1852 he was invited to teach the children of the Russian monarch's family and in 1860-1862 was a personal history tutor for tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. In 1856-59, Stasyulevich toured Europe, meeting many members of the Russian emigre community, such as the Utin family, who would later become heavily involved in revolutionary activity back in Russia, and Alexandr Herzen, the famous editor of Kolokol, a progressive paper that was illegal in Russia. He actively participated in the academic life of Western European universities, intending to bring the European modes of pedagogy to Saint Petersburg University. One of his fellow professors at the university, P.V. Ostrogorskii, described him as a "brilliant lecturer-popularizer" who "showed us for the first time history's significance and explained the profound meaning of civilization." In April 1859, he married Liuba Utin, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, the sister of his colleague Boris Utin. In 1861, in a time of student unrest in Saint Petersburg in response to repressive laws passed by the tsarist government, Stasyulevich and four Saint Petersburg University colleagues - Konstantin Kavelin, Alexander Pypin, Włodzimierz Spasowicz, and Boris Utin - attempted to reform the institution, but were unsuccessful.