ИСТИНА

Physical anthropology as a scientific discipline concerned with biological aspects of human beings and strongly associated with Darwin’s theory of evolution emerged in the second half of the 19th century. During that period the first professional associations, periodicals, and chairs in anthropology were established in Europe. Similar processes developed in Russian science. Even though Russian authorities considered new anthropological ideas politically unreliable and ideologically harmful, in 1864 the first anthropological association was founded in Russia by the effort of professor of zoology of Moscow University Anatolii Bogdanov (1834–1896) and his Society of Friends of Natural Science (since 1867 – Society of Friends of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography – OLEAE). Surprisingly enough this happened in traditional and loyal Moscow but not in westernized St.Petersburg, where main national scientific institutions of the period, including Academy of Science, resided (Russian anthropological Society in St. Petersburg was founded only in the late 1880s). Later Bogdanov managed to establish a chair in anthropology in Moscow University (1876) and to organize Ethnographic (1867) and Anthropologic (1879) exhibitions in Moscow. He was a unique and considerably underestimated figure in the history of the 19th century Russian science. According to Dmitrii Anuchin, “if Bogdanov starts something he will achieve his aim and do what would be unthinkable to any other”. The present paper deals with the analysis of his administrative and scientific decisions, and his tactics, which helped him to overcome political and ideological obstacles, to establish anthropological community in Russia and to make the word anthropology well-known to Russian public.