Between the Scylla of Obedience and the Charybdis of Independence: The Conflict of Professors of the Imperial Tomsk University P.M. Bogaevsky and N.Ya. Novombergsky During the Autumn-Winter of 1911-1912

On the materials of archival documents and periodicals, the article studies the causes, circumstances and "behind-the-scene" aspects of the conflict between two professors of the Imperial Tomsk University P.M. Bogaevsky and N.Ya. Novombergsky during the autumn-winter of 1911-1912. The conflict unfolded during the period when the post of the minister of public education was held by L.A. Kasso, known for his policy of limiting academic autonomy. The starting point of the academic confrontation was the non-approval of the two elected deans of the Faculty of Law, I.A. Malinovsky and M.I. Bogolepov, in the 1910/1911 academic year. The discussion of the situation on the sidelines of the university in September 1911 became public when, allegedly, Professor Bogaev-sky's words on the issue of the election/appointment of the dean were published in the local newspaper Sibirskaya Zhizn'. The desire to protect his honor and dignity led Bogaevsky clash with Professor Novombergsky, who was suspected in publishing what was said in the professors' restroom and at a meeting of the Council of the Faculty of Law. Bogaevsky's attempt to solve the conflict through the mediation of M.N. Sobolev, the acting dean, and I.A. Bazanov, the rector of the university, turned into a public accusation of denunciation, which was published in two newspapers of the capital. Ultimately, the conflict resulted in a criminal trial, held in December 1911. The academic confrontation, which attracted the attention not only of professors but also of the wider circles of the inhabitants of the provincial town, is seen through the prism of a theatrical performance with its backstage life, scandal effect, and public aspects. It is emphasized that, despite the efforts of Bazanov, Kasso, and L.I. Lavrentyev, a trustee of the West Siberian School District, to reconcile the parties, the confrontation continued after Novombergsky withdrew his charges from the justice of the peace and the process ended in January 1912. It is concluded that the conflict was developed between the official corporate and democratic ethics within the corporation of pre-revolutionary Russia's professors. To resolve the conflict, Bogaevsky was either to take on the charges of denunciation or to go against the administration. This ethical dissociation made this conflict insoluble, and the objective moral contradiction of the internal academic life was not the least reason that made Bogaevsky leave Tomsk in the autumn of 1912.

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