Abstract: The object of this research is the Russian scientific emigration to the United States. The subjects is the biography of the prominent entomologist Nicholas Obraztsov, who emigrated during the Great Patriotic War from the Soviet Union to Germany, and later the United States. His life journey is an illustration of a challenging fate of the Russian native, who happened to live in a foreign country, and was condemned to oblivion on his motherland. Referring to the scholar’s biography allows filling the gaps in the history of Russian natural science, which appeared due to a longtime suppression of the achievements of Russian emigrant scholars. The biography of N. S. Obraztsov is viewed with consideration of the psychological, sociocultural and thematic-disciplinary aspects. The main results lies in reconstruction of the life journey of the famous entomologist. The author analyzes the scientific contribution made by Obraztsov to the development of morphology and systematics of various groups of insects, publishing of scientific and reference literature, as well as creation of museum collections. The absence in the national historiography of the works and scientific activity of N. S. Obraztsov underlines the novelty of the presented material.

Abstract: The object of this research is the system of non-state higher education in Russia over the period from the late XIX until the early XX century. The subject is the history of organization of the private and public universities in prerevolutionary Russia. The author examines the emergence of educational facilities of the new type that received the title of people’s universities. This article helps to fill the gaps in the history of the national non-state education that emerged due to the long-term neglect in the Russian historiography of the questions regarding the functionality of the private higher education establishments. Moreover, during the Soviet period, multiple positive moments present in the prerevolutionary higher school, were consigned to oblivion. The history of evolution of the non-state higher education is viewed with consideration of the political, economic and sociocultural factors, which helps to understand the causes that affected the spread of such phenomenon in prerevolutionary Russia. The scientific novelty of this work lies in generalization of the historical path experienced by the non-state higher education in Russian over the period from the second half of the XIX until the firs decades of the XX century, involving the new previously unknown archival materials. Despite the insufficient knowledge of the private and public universities of the examined period, many of the scholars and educators had worldwide recognition due to their research in the breakthrough fields of knowledge, using the contemporary to that time methods. The first classical scientific schools originated within the private universities. The knowledge about the system of non-state higher education of prerevolutionary period is extremely relevant today, as over the two recent decades Russia observes the increase in the number of students of the non-state universities.