Scientists of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences and Their Families as Part of Non-Orthodox Communities (Based on the Materials of the Church Registers, 18th Century)

Based on the church registers of non-Orthodox communities, the authors uncover the system of social (religious), consanguineous and spiritual kinship relations in which foreign scientists of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences took part in the 18th century. The article pays special attention to anatomist and physiologist Jean George Duvernois, mathematician Leonard Euler, library director Johann Daniel Schumacher. The history of their families shows that the academic environment was not only a sphere of professional communication, but also an area of matrimonial relations, where foreigners acquired conjugal ties. In Russia of the 18th century, the scientists of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences were mainly Protestant Reformers and Lutherans. They united into kindred and spiritually related clans that existed in the world of interconnected Protestant communities, isolated from the Russian Orthodox society. The authors conclude that the godfathering of foreign academicians and professors (not excluding the nepotism) could indirectly influence the life of the Academy of Sciences. The article provides a lot of new information about the life in Russia of such employees of the Saint Petersburg Academy as Johann Amman, Gottlob Friedrich Wilhelm Juncker, Christian Nicolaus von Winsheim, Johann Georg Leutmann, Martin Schwanwitz, Johann Schreiber, etc. This article is based on archival materials from the funds of the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg and the Russian State Historical Archive.