Birthday anniversary of legal scholar Ivan Efimovich Andreevsky

On March 13 (25), 1831 was born a legal scholar, professor, chancellor of St.-Petersburg University, the Editor in Chief of ‘Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary’ Ivan Efimovich Andreevsky. His father, Doctor of Medicine Efim Ivanovich Andreevsky, was a founder and the first president of the ‘Russian Doctors Society’ in St.-Petersburg.

Ivan Andreevsky graduated from the first St.-Petersburg school and then studied at law faculty of St.-Petersburg University. In 1854 he defended a thesis and obtained a master’s degree. The subject of his thesis was ‘About the rights of foreigners in Russia in the first half of the 15th century’. In 1855 Andreevsky, being a docent of Petersburg’s University, began to deliver lectures on the constitutional and police law. In 1864 he defended a doctor’s thesis ‘On deputies, voivodes (generals) and governors’. In the preface the author spoke about the beneficial impact of the recently introduced ‘Statute on Zemstvo institutions’. He believed that the self-government would change for better the governors’ rule. His work ‘The Russian constitutional law’ issued in 1866 was the first known effort to explain the historical basis of our constitutional law and enlighten it from the viewpoint of the Western Europe science.

In 1855 Andreevsky began to lecture in the University and got a chair in Encyclopedia and History of the Russian law in the Science of law school. He also published a course on ‘Police law’.

In 1883 the St.-Petersburg University Council elected Ivan Andreevsky a chancellor.

Andreevsky paid a special attention to Zemstvo and municipal self-government, in particular the social government of the capital which repeatedly asked Andreevsky for advices especially in regards of sanitary sector and workhouses organization.

In 1885 Andreevsky was assigned the Director of Archaeological Institute and take an active part in study and preservation of the Russian antiquity. On this post Ivan Efimovich was the direct follower of the Institute founder N. V. Kalachov.

During the last two years of his life Andreevsky spent a lot of time editing the Encyclopedic Dictionary. He considered this work the most reasonable and necessary for the epoch. However a sudden and untimely death of Ivan Efimovich cut short his plans.

Ivan Efimovich Andreevsky died on May 20 (April 1), 1891 and was buried in Novoderevensky cemetery. Among numerous wreaths laid on his grave there was one that stood out: it bore a heartfelt inscription made by Petersburg University students running ‘To the ideal chancellor, beloved professor and honest man Ivan Efimovich Andreevsky’.

Lit.: Андреевский Иван Ефимович [Электронный ресурс] // Биография.ру. 2006-2013. URL: http://www.biografija.ru/show_bio.aspx?id=3569; Андреевский И. Е. О призрении бедных. СПб., 1861; Андреевский И. Е. О наместниках, воеводах и губернаторах. СПб., 1864; Андреевский И. Е. Курс полицейского права. СПб., 1866-1870; Андреевский И. Е. Русское государственное право. СПб-М., 1866; Андреевский И. Е. Реформа исполнительной полиции в России // Сборник государственных знаний. Т. 1. СПб., 1878; Андреевский И. Е. История русского права. СПб., 1885; Андреевский И. Е. Наука об архивах. СПб., 1887.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Андреевский И. Е. О правах иностранцев в России до вступления Иоанна III Васильевича на престол Великого княжества Московского Андреевский. СПб., 1884;

Андреевский И. Е. О договоре Новагорода с немецкими городами и Готландом, заключённом в 1270 году. СПб., 1885;

Лешков В. Н. Полицейское право, г. Андреевского, профессора С.-Петербургского университета, Т. I. Полиция безопасности, 1871 г. Полиция благосостояния, 1873 г. М., 1873.