The Sign Environment of the Imperial Russian Universities of the XIXth – early XXth Centuries (on the Issue of Coherence of the University Tradition)

Abstract

The article investigates the process of formation and evolution of the sign environment of the Russian Empire’s universities, which were founded on the territory of modern Ukraine. An impact of the university traditions of Western Europe on construction of the sign environment of the imperial Russian universities is retraced. University is considered not only as a social institution, but also as a cultural community, whose existence is appreciably conditioned by certain rituals and symbols connected with these rituals. It has been shown that symbols and emblems, which point out state status of the imperial Russian universities, predominate over its other symbols. At the same time, the periods are singled out, when corporate symbols solely were developed.