From theory to practice of students’ everyday life at Moscow State University (18th–19th centuries)

Abstract

The history of Moscow University has been studied in detail and comprehensively enough for 270 years of its existence. One of the aspects neglected by researchers is the everyday side of the university existence, including that related to the problems of nutrition. At the same time, it occupies an important place in the university world, and not only naturally physiological, but also has a great culture-forming significance. Suffice it to recall the beautiful tradition of making and distributing mead, which became a kind of symbol of the renewed university of the new time. Or the image of the eternally hungry student, which is an integral part of the Russian culture of the 19th century. There are numerous sources, the most important of which, perhaps, are memoirs and recollections of former students of the university, which give a rather vivid and diverse picture of the daily life and everyday life of Moscow students, and both the general tendencies uniting different epochs and the differences caused by the course of history can be traced quite clearly. They allow us to outline with a high degree of reliability the peculiarities of the culture of everyday life of students, including in matters of food. The article discusses M.V. Lomonosov’s proposals on the organisation of students’ meals, the peculiarities of the daily life of the state-paid students who were on full state support until the middle of the 19th century, the problems of the self-paid students who lived and provided themselves with food on their own, and the spirit of camaraderie, which was the main feature of the everyday life of students.

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