Professor I. M. Shaden from a personal perspective

The subject of the article is personal relationships and behavioral patterns of German professor at Moscow University Johann Matthias Schaden (1731–1797). The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the realities of life and social connections of Shaden. A graduate of the University of Tubingen, Schaden arrived at Moscow University at the dawn of its existence and served it for more than forty years, first as rector of gymnasiums, and then as a university professor. At the university, Schaden zealously and responsibly fulfilled his duties, but he was distinguished by a short temper, which at the beginning of his service resulted in a confrontation with his ideological opponents. At the same time, Schaden was quite actively involved in university processes. The professor spent his free time in the German Settlement, an area of Moscow where foreigners historically prevailed. This research is based on the principle of historicism and the study of written sources: clerical materials, epistolary sources, memoirs of contemporaries. For the first time, two letters directly related to a German professor are introduced into scientific circulation. An analysis of Schaden's activities and leisure allows us to come to the following conclusions: first, the contrast of Schaden's unsightly behavior, described by colleagues who were at odds with him, and the lifestyle of a pedantic professor, cited by one of his students, allows us to suggest an age factor: in his youth, Schaden could behave more at ease than in adulthood. Secondly, in his official relations, Schaden did not divide colleagues into Russians and Germans, but built relationships with them based on his own beliefs and the good of the university. The professor preferred to build off-duty relationships with his fellow countrymen, which was the reason for his choice in favor of the German settlement. And thirdly, Schaden came into contact with the same German scientists in Moscow as himself, and sought to use these acquaintances both for academic and personal purposes.