Evacuation without return: World War I and the Historians of Warsaw Imperial University 1 by Hanna Bazhenova The approaching Bicentennial of Warsaw University has inspired European scholars to delve more deeply into the controversial past of this academic institution. Warsaw’s first university was founded in 1816 after the defeat of Napoleon and the creation of the Kingdom of Poland, a state which was included in the Russian Empire. Unfortunately, this first university did not exist for very long: It was closed after the Polish Insurrection of 1830/31. Within thirty years it was restored as the Main School (Szkoła Główna) and functioned as a university with four departments. Positive changes occurred during the rule of the Russian Emperor Alexander II who was renowned for carrying out a number of liberal reforms, including the noted ‘university reform’. The Main School was very popular among the Polish youth who, instead of being forced to travel to Moscow and other distant cities, finally had the opportunity for a university education in what were considered the Polish lands of the Russian Empire. Approximately 3,000 students, including about 700 graduates, passed through its doors. 2 In 1869, however, the Polish-speaking Main School was transformed into the Russian- language Imperial University. One of the principal motives for this reform was the Polish Insurrection of 1863/64. Interestingly, the faculty and students of the Main School did not openly support the uprising; 3 however, the government authorities decided to ignore this and sought to eliminate all possible centers of dissent in partitioned Poland either by 1 The author wishes to thank the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, for its support during the author’s tenure as a Eugene and Daymel Shklar Research Fellow in Ukrainian Studies from February through June 2014. This publication incorporates much of the research that was undertaken during the author’s fellowship at Harvard. The author also wishes to thank Marciana Rossi (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) for editing the text of the article. 2 Ol’ga S. Kashtanova: Razvitie prosveshchenia i kul’tury v Korolevstve Pol’skom (1815–1830) [De- velopment of Education and Culture in the Kingdom of Poland (1815–1830)], in: Pol’sha i Rossia v pervo˘ ı treti XIX veka. Iz istorii avtonomnogo Korolevstva Pol’skogo. 1815–1830, Moscow 2010, pp. 433 f.; Joanna Schiller: Uniwersytet Warszawski – czy uniwersytet i czy w Warszawie? [War- saw University – whether a University and whether in Warsaw?], in: Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki 3-4 (2005), pp. 25-31; Stefan Kieniewicz: Akademia Medyko-Chirurgiczna i Szkoła Główna (1857–1869) [The Medical-Surgical Academy and the Main School (1857–1869)], in: idem (ed.): Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 1807–1915, Warszawa 1981, pp. 255-266; idem, Warszawa w latach 1795–1914 [Warsaw in the Years 1795–1914], Warszawa 1976, p. 264. 3 Helena Brodowska: Sytuacja polityczna Królestwa Polskiego po 1864 r. Pozytywizm warszawski [The Political Situation in the Kingdom of Poland after 1864. Warsaw Positivism], in: Histo- ria Polski. Opracowanie zbiorowe pod red. S. Arnolda i T. Manteuffla, t. III. 1850/64–1918, cz. I. 1850/64–1900, red. Ż. Kormanowa i I. Pietrzak-Pawłowska, Warszawa 1967, p. 431; Joanna Schiller: Universitas Rossica. Koncepcja rosyjskiego uniwersytetu 1863–1917 [Universitas Rossi- ca. The Concept of a Russian University 1863–1917], Warszawa 2008, pp. 132-151; eadem: Powstanie Cesarskiego Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego w świetle badań archiwalnych [The Estab- lishment of Warsaw Imperial University in the Light of Archival Researches], in: Rozprawy z Dziejów Oświaty 41 (2002), p. 96.