A Russian College Is Lacking Students
SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia — At this time of year, the halls of the European University at Saint Petersburg, a private liberal arts college in Russia’s second-largest city, would normally be filling with students returning from break.
For the second year in a row, however, the college’s lecture halls are empty and dark. The only action is in the faculty rooms, where the underemployed professors grumble about their forced sabbatical.
The European University has a world- class faculty, a generous endowment and an outstanding reputation as a research institution. What it has lacked since August of last year, when the authorities took away the university’s teaching license, is students.
Lately, however, things have begun to look up. President Vladimir V. Putin’s re- election in March led to a major reshuffling of the Russian government. Aleksei L. Kudrin, one of the most powerful liberal-leaning politicians in Russia, became the head of the Audit Chamber, with the power to send his own inspectors.
Suddenly, with Mr. Kudrin’s appointment, the Russian education regulator failed to find any violations when it surveyed the university, and a teaching license was granted last month. It now plans to reopen to students in October.
But the European University’s struggles may not be over. There have been times over the past year when the school thought its teaching license was about to be restored, and each time its hopes were dashed. The university was caught in the battles waged in the Russian government between reactionary, nationalist forces and more progressive, outward-looking factions.
“The European University’s problem is that it is European,” said Vladimir Y. Gelman, a professor at the school.
The European University was set up in 1994 by a group of enthusiasts to try to prevent the emigration of talent. Its aim was to bring together Russia’s leading scholars in the social sciences and humanities in an institution modeled after Western universities. The school was a success, with students flocking there from around the world. In contrast to most Russian universities, students were forced to think critically, and they were free to choose their own areas of interest.
The Soviet educational system had produced good mathematicians and physicists, but little else.
For Russia’s nationalists, whose influence grew after Mr. Putin’s rise to the presidency in 2000, the university was an intolerable outpost of Western liberalism.
In a complaint filed in 2016, Vyacheslav Y. Dobrokhotov, an activist with a nationalist movement in Saint Petersburg, cited a book by a political scientist at the university that argued that the Soviet social fabric was based on hypocrisy.
“I realized that this organization is harmful to Russia,” he said.
A grievance was also filed by Dmitri Bikbov, who complained about workers unloading new plastic windows near the university’s main building, an 18th- century, marble- clad palace that had been designated a historical landmark.
The complaints created a legal pretext for 11 official bodies — among them the Emergency Situations Ministry, which oversees fire inspection — to conduct inquiries.
In the end, the Saint Petersburg government evicted the university from the palace, forcing it to move.
University officials say they were never clear why the teaching license was revoked.
“I am sure the reason we cannot study has nothing to do with fire safety regulations,” said Roman V. Popov, a student of economics, who had to transfer to another college in Saint Petersburg to receive his degree. “It might be political, or perhaps someone just wanted to have our building.”