Runich, Dmitrii

Born Dec. 19 (30), 1778; died June 1 (13), 1860, in St. Petersburg. Russian state figure.

Son of a senator, Runich was director of the Moscow Post Office from 1812 to 1816. He corresponded with N. I. Novikov and I. V. Lopukhin. He was a mystic. From 1819, Runich sat on the Central School Board; from 1821 he was superintendent of the St. Petersburg School District. At the University of St. Petersburg, Runich attempted—in accord with the reactionary policy of A. N. Golitsyn, the minister of public education—to subordinate the teaching of science to religion. In 1821 he accused the progressive professors A. I. Galich, E. Raupakh, K. F. German, and K. I. Arsen’ev of freethinking and staged a disgraceful trial, which ended with their expulsion from the university. Runich’s machinations also led to the dismissal of Professor A. P. Kunitsyn and M. A. Balug’ianskii, rector of the university.

Runich, together with M. L. Magnitskii, drew up the “iron” censorship ustav of 1826. He was retired in 1826 and tried for malfeasance. His memoirs were published, in translation from French, in the journals Russkaia starina (1896, 1901) and Russkoe obozrenie (1890).