Mikhail Leontevich Magnitskii is probably the most famous, or infamous, of the Russian university curators of the nineteenth century, for his career is such an excellent example of the rise of reaction in the later years of the reign of Alexander I that he is often cited by name in general accounts of the reign and of Russian education, while few, if any, other officials in education are so mentioned.' James H. Billington has provided the best up-to-date analysis of the career of Magnitskii, pointing out that "it was the remarkable figure of Michael Magnitsky who produced the call to battle stations . . . against the armies of godless rationalism. Magnitsky illustrates the new blend of bureaucratic opportunism and philosophical obscurantism that was frequently to reappear in court circles during the remaining century of tsarist rule."2 Magnitskii achieved fame in 1819 when he recommended to the minister of education that Kazan University was beyond hope of reform and so should be closed. As Billington points out, his proposal came as "a real shock." Ever since, the name Magnitskii has been practically synonymous with extreme reactionary obscurantism. Briefly, the well-known story goes something like this: Alexander I in his early liberal years founded a university system based on liberal Western models. In the second half of his reign, however, reactionaries convinced him (and in many ways he convinced himself) that liberalism was dangerous. One of the reactionaries, Magnitskii, was so convinced of the danger of "free thought" to religion and other conservative principles that he went to the extreme of recommending the complete closing of Kazan University. When Alexander proved