Article is devoted to the life and work of prominent Russian statistics and economist K.F.Herman (1767-1838). His name is associated with the St Petersburg University, where he held the Department of Statistics and was dean of the Faculty of History and Philology. He made a significant contribution to the formation and development of statistics in Russia as a science, and also took an active part in the development of Russian state statistics, leading in 1811 the Statistical Office under the Ministry of Police. Thanks to the work of Herman, there was a departure in the statistics from classical state studies (the German descriptive school), a close interconnection of statistics and political economy was shown. Through the works of Herman, new and progressive ideas from the West penetrated into Russia, as evidenced by the publication of the «Statistical Journal» (1806-1808). Refs 47.