Duke Konstantin Friedrich Peter (Prince Petr Georgievich) of Oldenburg was a Russian military man and statesman, a member of the Russian imperial house, a grandson of Pavel I, infantry general, senator, member of the State Council and chairman of the department of civil and spiritual affairs, Chief Head of the IV department of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery, Honorary Guardian and Chairman of the St. Petersburg Board of Trustees, Chief Head of the Women’s Educational Institutions of the Empress Mary’s Office, founder and trustee of the Imperial School of Law, St. Petersburg Commercial School, Imperial Lyceum named after Alexander, Honorary Member of various scientists and charitable societies, Chairman of the Russian Society rights, trustee of the Kiev charity house of the poor, patron of the Eye Clinic.
The main pet project of Prince Petr of Oldenburg was the School of Law. During his five years in Russia, the prince became convinced that the country sorely lacks officials with legal education. There was simply no special institution for training such personnel. Then Petr Georgievich himself developed the project of the school and, having direct access to the emperor, reported the idea to him. At the same time, the prince decided to finance this project himself. For more than 1 million rubles, he bought a building on the corner of the Fontanka embankment and Sergievskaya street, which was converted for the needs of the educational institution. The prince became the trustee of the school and took care of it until his death.
Over the entire period of its existence, the school has trained more than two thousand lawyers. Among them there was a whole galaxy of outstanding statesmen and lawyers such as Nikolai Arseniev, Ignatiy Zakrevsky, Konstantin Palen, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Ivan Shcheglovitov and others. But not only outstanding lawyers came out of the walls of that institution.
Versatile education received by students allowed them to develop their natural talents. Composer Aleksandr Serov, poet Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov, critic Vladimir Stasov, poet Alexei Apukhtin, composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky are among famous graduates of the school.
