Nikolay Gretsch

He introduced the Lancasterian system of education into Russia (1820), organized several innovative schools for soldiers and penned a number of textbooks for them.

At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia Gretsch started publishing The Son of the Fatherland, a periodical that expressed liberal views that had much in common with those of the Decembrists.

[2] During Nicholas I's reactionary reign he crossed over to the conservative camp and joined forces with Faddei Bulgarin in feuding with Pushkin's circle.

[2] Gretch and Bulgarin were the editors of Northern Bee, a popular political and literary newspaper that championed the Official Nationality theory.

According to Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, the newspaper "strikes a modern reader as deficient in interpretation, weak intellectually, and devoted almost entirely to factual, quasi-official summaries of events".