А.V. Balakhonov
Saint Petersburg State University
Faculty of Medicine
Physiology Department
History of Society
The First Russia-wide Congress of Naturalists and Doctors held in the Assembly Hall of Saint Petersburg Imperial University in December 1867 – January 1868 recognized a pressing task to educate learned societies in natural science. It was the idea of a chairman, famous zoologist, principal of Saint Petersburg University in 1867-1873 and professor Karl Fedorovich Kessler to form the societies under all Russian universities which would have become an important precondition for nature research in all regions of Russia.