Iogann Filipp Gustav Evers

(also Johann Philipp Gustav Evers). Born July 4, 1781, in Westphalia; died Nov. 8 (20), 1830, in Dorpat (now Tartu). Russian historian. Honored member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1826; corresponding member, 1809).

The son of a peasant, Evers graduated from the University of Göttingen in 1803. In 1810 he became a professor of Russian geography, history, and statistics at the University of Dorpat. In 1816 he published his study History of the Russians, which was written in German. In 1818, Evers became the rector of the University of Dorpat. In 1826 he published his important work Ancient Russian Law in Its Historical Development.

Evers regarded society as developing from the family to the clan and then from the tribe to the absolute state. This view had some influence on the statist school in Russian historiography. Evers’ political views were reactionary.