Fuchs, Karl Fedorovich

Karl Fuchs was born on September 18 (6), 1776 in Herborn ( Nassau , Germany ). In addition to him, the family had 20 children.

He received his primary education in his parental home. In 1793, Fuchs entered the Gerborn High School (Academy) , in which his father, Johann Friedrich Fuchs ^[2] , was a professor of theology and rector. There he begins to listen to lectures on various medical sciences, but a more complete acquaintance with them occurs during a two-year stay at the University of Gottingen .

In 1798, he received a doctorate in medicine and surgery from the University of Marburg , defending a dissertation on the presentation of the scientific works and merits of Andrei Cezalpinsky , a famous natural philosopher of the Renaissance . In it, he argued that it was impossible to be a good doctor without a thorough and broad general education ^[3] .

After defending his dissertation, Fuchs spent two years practicing medical practice at home, and in 1800 he went to the Russian Empire and for some time was a regimental doctor in St. Petersburg .

In 1801, Fuchs undertook a long journey to eastern Russia with natural-scientific, mainly botanical purposes ^[4] .

According to the rector of Kazan University, Nikolai Nikitich Bulich , who personally knew Karl Fuchs and compiled his detailed biography, he, besides his native German, was fluent in English, French and Italian and was fluent in Russian ^[5] .

Upon returning to St. Petersburg in the fall of 1805 , Fuchs was appointed professor at the newly created Imperial Kazan University . This appointment was made on the recommendation of the Minister of Education and Trustee of the Moscow School District M.N. Muravyov , who was in constant relations with the Göttingen scholars, among whom the name of young Fuchs was already well-deserved fame ^[3] . According to another version, Fuchs, having visited Kazan, returned to Petersburg himself with a request to appoint him to a new university ^[2] .

In December 1806, becoming a professor of natural history and botany at an open university, Fuchs soon managed to arouse interest in natural science in his students. Thanks to the study of the Russian language, he attracted students (at first there were many foreign professors at the university, and lectures were given mainly in German, French and Latin). The teaching was initially conducted in French, but already in the Russian translation of the Guide to Natural History of his Göttingen professor Blumenbach . The Fuchs lecture program included walks with students to collect plants and insects in nature ^[3] .

S. T. Aksakov , for example, describes in detail and with enthusiasm in the “Family Chronicle” and “Memoirs” how he, together with his university friend V. I. Panayev, caught butterflies and learned to straighten them and dry them under the guidance of Fuchs ^{[6] [7]} .

Then Fuchs was defeated at the University of the Botanical Garden ^[8] .

Since 1812, Fuchs also opened medical practice. Knowing that commoners were prejudiced against pharmaceutical medicines , he treated them whenever possible with home remedies and had a large supply of medicinal herbs for this (the supply was constantly replenished with the offerings of his peasant patients, the expression of “gratitude” from which he allowed only in the form of a fee medicinal plants he needs) ^[3] .

In 1818, MP Barataev was admitted to Kazan as Freemasonry , and was a member of the Simbirsk lodge, "The Key to Virtue."

After the death of the first elected rector of Kazan University, Ivan Osipovich Brown , a professor of medical sciences, in 1819 , Fuchs was entrusted with the department of pathology, therapy and clinic, and the next year he was additionally entrusted with lecturing in anatomy , physiology and forensic medicine .

From 1820 to 1824, Karl Fyodorovich Fuchs was elected dean of the medical department (prototype of the medical faculty), and then from 1823 (with a break) he was the rector of the university , in which position he remained until August 25, 1827 , when N. was elected rector . I. Lobachevsky , one of his first graduates.

This period is characterized by the decline of the educational institution due to the activities of the trustee of the Kazan educational district Mikhail Leontyevich Magnitsky , who actually managed, albeit remotely, the university after the revision of 1819 to 1826 , and dismissed most of its professors.

At the same time, in 1824 the rector’s house was rebuilt, and in 1825, the architect P.G. Pyatnitsky erected a new university building (now it is the main building of the university). At the initiative of Fuchs in 1829, a land plot was purchased near Lake Kaban for laying a larger botanical garden with an area of ​​6.7 hectares ^[8] . Today it is the Kazan zoobotanical garden .

In 1833, the 56-year-old Karl Fuchs resigned.

When the local committee of the Imperial Philanthropic Society opened in Kazan in 1816 , Fuchs was elected to its board of trustees. He pledged to pay 50 rubles annually to the cashier and treat all the poor who are in charge of guardianship for free. According to the testimony of N. N. Bulich ^[5] :

With his extensive practice, with the universal respect that he used for his knowledge of the case and the actual many happy cases of cure, Fuchs could have made a great fortune, but he belonged to rare and unselfish doctors at that time, he did not spare his time for the poor, and the pay, which he often reluctantly took from wealthy people, he distributed to the poor.

From his very arrival in Kazan, Karl Fuchs draws attention to her sanitary situation and initiates the study of the Volga region in medical and topographical terms. In 1812, he began to print short notes in the Kazan Izvestia edited by him on the readings of the barometer and thermometer, on the direction and properties of the winds, on the diseases prevailing in Kazan, as well as his observations on the arrival of birds, the appearance of butterflies, and vegetation.

No less important scientifically research Fuchs in the fields of ethnography, archeology and the history of the Volga. He studies religious rites, holidays, customs and family life of the peoples of the Kazan province .

Being respected in Tatar society and greatly influenced as a doctor in the homes of Tatars ^[9] , he was present at such rites, the spectacle of which is usually not accessible to outsiders. He is the only one who, contrary to religious beliefs, was admitted to sick Tatar women. The highest expression of trust was his medical seal with the inscription "Tabib Fuchs" ("Doctor Fuchs") ^[2] . Fuchs presented the results of his studies of the Kazan Tatars mainly in two monographs: A Brief History of the City of Kazan (begins to be published in Kazan Izvestia in 1817 , separate prints of various versions of this book were published until the middle of the 19th century ) and Kazan Tatars in the Statistical and ethnographic relations ”(Kazan, 1844).

Count M.M. Speransky , passing through Kazan from Penza to Siberia , where he was appointed governor-general , visited Fuchs and left in his diary the following description:

Professor One, Fuchs is a Miracle! The diversity of his knowledge. Passion and knowledge of Tatar medals. His knowledge in Tatar and Arabic. A pious and moral person. Very active. His great influence on the Tatars in medicine.

- The Life of Count Speransky, 1861. ^[10]

In the study of the Chuvash and Cheremis ( Mari ), his wife ( A. A. Fuchs ), traveling around the Chuvash and Cheremis villages, helped to collect the necessary materials. He told her what to ask, what to pay attention to, and he later supplemented his wife's work, Notes on Chuvashs and Cheremis, with notes compiled on the basis of literary sources, personal observations, and statistical materials.

Fuchs also studied Votyaks ( Udmurts ) and Mordovians . Having the opportunity to observe votyaks during frequent trips to his wife’s aunt’s estate, he probably prepared an article about them for publication, but did not have time to write it; there were only letters from his wife, "A trip to the robots of the Kazan province." To get acquainted with the Mordovian life, Karl Fuchs traveled to Chistopol County . He printed his Mordva notes in the Journal of the Ministry of the Interior in 1839 .

Studying the contemporary life of the Tatars and writing down their traditions, Fuchs paid attention to material monuments, and therefore began to collect coins and manuscripts .

In a short time, Karl Fuchs acquired a wonderful collection of ancient oriental coins. The well-known Orientalist Fren , shortly before his departure from Kazan, was engaged in the study and putting in order of this meeting, which, according to him, was compiled “with a commendable zeal and with success unusually happy” ^[3] .

Since 1819, Fuchs was preparing to publish the first book on Russian coins, “A Brief Description of Russian Coins in the Mints Cabinet of Doctor and Professor Fuchs,” but after the publication of the book by A. D. Chertkov in 1834, he abandoned this intention ^[11] .

In 1823, the Fuchs numismatic collection was purchased by Kazan University for the museum formed under it. In the following years, Karl Fuchs continued to collect rare coins and tirelessly replenished the mineralogical, botanical and zoological (mainly entomological) collections of the museum, both with his own works and extracting various objects from abroad. In 1850, the numismatic collection of the university museum was exported to St. Petersburg .

In 1823, Fuchs traveled to the Urals . The result of this trip, in addition to the collection of minerals, was several articles published in the Kazan Herald . They talk about the topographic features of the region, its plant and "inexhaustible" mineral wealth and the organization of the Ural mining. In his work “On the Diseases of Ural Mining Workers,” Fuchs was one of the first to talk about the need to study and treat occupational diseases and improve the social conditions of workers.

In his vast library, almost all the works of foreigners traveling in Russia were collected, as well as many works on Russian history, topography and ethnography. He managed to acquire a significant number of not only Russian and Tatar manuscripts, but even schismatic ones , thanks to the proximity to the schismatic commander and various elders of the skete .

According to N. N. Bulich:

He collected their manuscripts, old printed books, having no other purpose than a scientific curiosity. Moreover, in those dark years, when the schismatics were suspiciously persecuted, Fuchs was probably the only intercessor in the province for them. Using the respect of the authorities, he repeatedly interceded for them and helped them, even in their vital matter. We know this from the letters of Fuchs before us.

It is known that Fuchs appealed to the governor B.A. Mansurov for permission to write off copies of letters and acts that are in the Kazan provincial government , but was adopted very rudely and did not receive any definite answer. In September 1815, a severe fire occurred in Kazan, during which the archive of ancient acts died, because the authorities did not order to take it out in advance (the archive burned down on the third day of the fire) ^[3] . Some historians claim that this story happened during the fire of 1842 .

In 1830 , during the " first cholera, " Fuchs treated very successfully both in Kazan and in other cities of the Volga region. He published in the Kazan Bulletin his observations on the course of the disease and on the methods of its treatment used both by him and other doctors, on sanitary measures and on everything that could serve as material for further research on this issue.

As the dean of the medical department of the university, he wrote several manuals on practical medicine in Russian and Tatar languages ^[2] .

In 1821, 44-year-old K.F. Fuchs married the Kazan noblewoman Alexandra Andreevna Apekhtina (c. 1793-1853), the niece of the poet G.P. Kamenev .

A. A. Fuchs , a well-known poetess, author of short stories and ethnographic essays, was the mistress of the literary salon in Kazan for a quarter of a century. She was familiar with E. A. Boratynsky , I. V. Kireevsky , N. M. Yazykov , E. P. Pertsov and M. D. Delary .

Thanks to diverse and educational activities, the Fuchs family soon becomes the center of intelligent Kazan ^[12] . Scientists and writers visited their house: visiting scientists in Kazan: A. Gaksthausen , M. A. Castren , A. Humboldt , A. S. Pushkin ^[3] .

For his work in the professional field and “acts of humanity,” Karl Fuchs was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree in 1819 by Alexander I , and the Order of St. Anna of the 2nd degree in 1824 , and the diamond in 1826 - with diamond decorations on the order of St. Anne ^[13] .

In 1842 , shortly after the big fire that started near Fuchs' house and greatly excited him, Fuchs received the first apoplexy blow , and in the spring of 1846 he became seriously ill.

The death of Karl Fuchs, which followed on April 24 (12), 1846 , interrupted his extensive work. The news of her quickly spread throughout the city. As contemporaries testify, a huge mass of people went to see off Karl Fedorovich on the last journey:

“Not only on the street, but also in the windows of houses, on fences and roofs, people were visible who watched the funeral procession. Particularly attention was drawn to the dense crowds of Tatars who walked without hats. ”

The burial was attended not only by the governor, the entire university administration with a trustee at the head and students, but also by a huge number of diverse residents of Kazan ^[3] .

April 24, 1896, 50 years after the death of Karl Fuchs, the Kazan City Council decided to perpetuate his memory ^[14] . A tombstone was erected on the grave of K. F. Fuchs in the Lutheran part of the Arsky cemetery , and on May 11, 1896 on the high bank of the Kazanka (“Goat Hill”) the “ Fuchs Garden ” was laid ^[13] . In December 1896, Transverse Tikhvin Street, located next to the German Lutheran parish , was renamed Fuchsova at the highest command of the emperor ^[15] .

In Soviet times, Fuchs Street was named after Gorodetsky, and the name of the garden was forgotten.

In 1996, Kazan celebrated the 220th anniversary of the birth of Karl Fuchs. From October 2, his name was returned to Kazan Street, as well as to the square ("Fuchsovsky Garden") on the banks of the Kazanka River, where on December 11, 1996 a monument was erected in his honor (sculptors: Andrei Balashov , Igor Kozlov ).

In 1997, the house of Professor Fuchs , located at the crossroads of modern Moscow and Galiaskar Kamal streets, was recognized as a monument of history and architecture, an object of cultural significance of the Republic of Tatarstan ^{[16] [17]} . It is considered a historical landmark of Kazan, but until now it is in disrepair ^[18] . In June 2011, another fire broke out in it ^[19] , after which the townspeople began raising funds to restore it.

According to the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan, a memorial plaque was installed on the Fuchs house in 1996 in Tatar, Russian and German ^[20] :

"Bu yortta 1812-1846 hellard Kazan shәhәreneneң maktauly keshes, Kazan universities atkazangan professors KARL FUKS yashәde hәm iҗat itte"
“In this house in 1812-1846. lived honored professor of Kazan University, honorary citizen of Kazan KARL FUKS "
"Hier lebte und wirkte von 1812-1846 KARL FUCHS Verdienter Professor der Kasaner Universitat Ehrenburger der Stadt Kasan"

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