The author asserts that teaching of political economy at St.Petersburg University has started in 1804, when St.Petersburg Pedagogical Institute was founded. The argumentation is the following: when the Central Pedagogical Institute was transformed into St.Petersburg University in 1819, all its professors, teachers and students were merged to the University, and a number of teaching courses as well as three-department structure have not been changed. The article deals with some documents which show a negative influence of so-called "University cause" on teaching of political economy at St.Petersburg University.