Timofey Granovsky

[1] He studied at the universities of Moscow and Berlin, where he was profoundly influenced by Hegelian ideas of Leopold von Ranke and Friedrich Carl von Savigny.

Due to the strict censorship of the period, Granovsky assumed that lecturing provided a surer way of disseminating Western ideals in Russia than writing.

His readings in the Moscow University were immensely popular and brought him in touch with other Westernizers.

One of these, Alexander Herzen, described Granovsky's lectures as "a draught of freedom in Nicholas I's Russia".

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Possessed features a character, Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky, that is partly based on Granovsky.