The article analyzes the formal speeches of foreign professors at the Kharkov university given on ceremonial occasions in the early 19th century. Not only were these .speeches. a way for the university community to communicate with the local environment, but they also constituted a means to transfer the university idea. The literature usually associates the emergence of modernized universities with Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Berlin University. However, now the thought that modern traits in European university organization dates back to an earlier period is gaining acceptance. (For the most part, these thoughts originate from the developments in some German universities in the 18th c.) Foreign professors in Russian service, foremost of all Germans, strived to convey their understanding of the essence of a university as well as teach and conduct research,. The formal speeches of certain Kharkov professors, of L.K. Jacob, among others, well exemplify the neohumanist approach to the definition of the basic traits of a university in the modern age.