Russian universities professors financial prosperity in late 19th - early 20th centuries

The article is devoted to the problem of material support of the teaching corps of Russian universitiesin the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The article addresses the issue of revenue sources, methods and forms of itscompletion; professors budget, traces the authorities policy on financial security of university professors and teachers in the late 19th - early20th centuries. For the majority of professors and teachers the main source of wealth was bureaucratic salaries, received from the Ministry ofEducation, as well as revenues from other professional activities. Most of the period fixed salaries of professors and teachers of Russian universitieswere as follows: ordinary professor received 3000 roubles, extraordinary - 2000 roubles, lecturer - 1000 roubles per year. Some universities,in determining the salary, had raising factors. In addition to basic salary, incomes of professors and teachers of most universities werehigher due to the so-called honorarium system imposed by the statute in 1884. The essence of this system is that students made additional contributionsto the university treasury for listening to lectures. It was believed that the lecturer, who teaches best, would have more listeners andmore fees. Professors of Moscow and St. Petersburg University received highest fees, amounting to several thousand roubles a year, and, therefore,comparable to the size of the annual salary, because of a large number of students. Rare, but not unique cases were when some professorshonorarium exceeded 10,000 roubles. In order to judge about the quality of life of university teachers, we must take into account the purchasingpower of the rouble in late 19th - early 20th centuries, and the understanding of the expenditure budget of an average family of a professor. Thisissue is also addressed to in this article. Salaries were .5 times increased in 1916. Incidentally, the increase could hardly cover all the expensesthat invariably grew due to inflation during the First World War. Thus, if the incomes of many professors allowed them to live a life of a prosperouscity-dweller, the income of junior faculty staff - associate professors (at the University of Warsaw and the University of Yuriev), lecturersand assistant professors could not provide for the vital needs of a family man. However, often professors salary was not enough to makelong-term savings, scrape up a fortune. Lack of financial support of faculty staff, on the one hand, caused problems with hiring of universitystaff, and, on the other hand, evoked criticism of the authorities in the teaching environment.

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