serve in the first instance, for conducting observations and experiments on animals and for improving the breeds of domestic ani
mals, secondly, it must serve as a visual educational means for the graphic study of animals in teaching zoology in the univer
sities and secondary schools, and thirdly, it must serve to arouse the interest of the public in science and to spread useful knowledge”. 1
However, all these good intentions were doomed to non-realisation.
In bourgeois-capitalist Moscow, such a scientific, cultural and educative institution as the Moscow Zoo, necessitating continuous capital investments, could not develop. The very first years had
already shown the Zoo that it could expect no assistance whatever from the government or from the Moscow municipal authorities. Covert resistance, or, at best, complete indifference was what the organisers of the Zoo inevitably found on the part of the authorities of tsardom. This new institution soon found itself in a hope
less position. Funds became exhausted, while the income was very
scanty indeed. Easy profit-makers soon began to hover around the Zoological Gardens. The organisers and founders of the Moscow Zoo, those who had sacrificed so much energy, love and initiative in its establishment were removed from their posts. Shady businessmen, speculators, etc. became the real masters here. The ideolo
gical principles pursued by the founders of the Zoo was of no account for such men, who were only interested in the profits they could derive.
Prof. Bogdanov bitterly wrote of this as of a matter usual for the conditions of those days. Quite correctly, he remarked, that having scented the possibility of profits, cunning rogues and rascals artfully wormed themselvps into the confidence of the ideological leaders of this undertaking and then, completely unnoticeably, began to force them out, becoming full masters here.
And it was in just such a position in which the Moscow Zoo found itself. In 1874 the Zoo was leased out to the firm of Ryabi
nin. The four years during which the Ryabinins mismanaged the Moscow Zoo brought it to a state of complete ruination.
In 1878, the Zoological Gardens, or rather the “cemetery of animals” was returned to the jurisdiction of the “Society for Acclima
tisation of Animals and Plants”. And once again Prof Bogdanov resumed his active work, taking charge of his own creation. Everything had to start again from the beginning: collection of dona
tions, drawing-in of the public circles, arrangement of exhibitions, etc. Nevertheless, financial difficulties could not be < vercome. The debts continued to mount while the income diminished. By 1900, the Moscow Zoo owed its creditors, both private persons and vari
1 N. Kulagin. “Material on the History of the Zoological Gardens. 1864—
1899”.