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Vizantiysky vremennik - Vizantiysky vremennik. Institute
of General History of
the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow.
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- Voprosy Istorii. Russian academic journal for historical
studies. The Institute of Russian History of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. Moscow.
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- Voprosi Literatury. Writer’s Union of the USSR.
Moscow.
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- Voprosy filosofii. Russian Academy of Sciences.
Moscow.
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yuridicheskiye nauki, kul’turologiya i iskusstvovedeniye.
Voprosy teorii i praktiki. Tambov.
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Organization Scientific for Information
“IDOSI
Publications” UAE. Dubai.
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- Zapiski Vostochnogo otdeleniya Russkogo
arkheologicheskogo obshchestva. Archaeological Society.
Saint Petersburg.
ZDMG
- Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen
Gesellschaft. Berlin Magazine of the German East
Society. Berlin.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
Terra Sebus: Acta Musei Sabesiensis,
Special Issue, 2014, p. 31-44
THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL
SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA (19TH-21ST CENTURIES):
AN ETHNOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Veronika Jur’evna ARESTOVA
Analysis of the establishment and development of rural schools in Russia
requires a clear understanding of rural education from a historical
perspective, in order to reveal the reasons behind the specific characteristics
seen in them today, and from there identify opportunities for further
prospective changes.
The challenge of rural schooling has been an important problem
throughout the history of the Russian education system. It is well-
established that all reformations in rural schools depended not only on the
political decisions of government, but also on the ethnocultural traditions of
the community where the schooling being was organised.
The first attempts to create public schools were made in 1714 by
Peter the Great, who decided to create schools for basic education in
mathematics and geometry for children (boys) of certain estates.
1
These
arithmetical schools did not exist for long, as they gradually merged with
garrison, religious and metallurgy schools and in 1744, after passage of the
Senate decree On consolidation of arithmetical and garrison schools in provinces into
one place, they disappeared.
2
Peasant children were not trained in arithmetical
schools, so this particular case does not have great
relevance to the question
of rural education. However, it should be noted that peasant children were
sometimes able to learn to read and write thanks to the initiative of their
parents, who employed fellow-villagers, retired soldiers, exiles, clerks or
vagrant teachers to train their children. Peasants also organised so-called
The research is conducted with financial support of the Ministry of Education and
Science in Russian Federation within athe basic scope of the governmental project
Ethnocultural Education as a Foundation for Civilian and International Concord in Russian Society,
project no. 2473.
The Chuvash I. Yakovlev State Pedagogical University, Russian Federation; e-mail:
areveronika@yandex.ru.
1
The social estates of the Russian Empire (sosloviye) defined four major demographic
groups: the nobility, the clergy, urban dwellers and peasants, as well as more detailed sub-
cateogries, such as priests and monks, merchantry and guilded craftsmen.
2
Frumenkova 2003, p. 136.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
V. J. Arestova
32
“Spontaneous Schools.” Sometimes clergymen
or other church members
(former peasants) took the initiative to organise a school for peasant
children.
3
It is well known that some nobles (such as Sheremetev, Yusupov,
Golitsyn and Orlov) taught some of their serfs. According to the census of
1858, the peasantry represented 34% of the overall population of the
country.
4
In 1802, in the days of Emperor Alexander the First, the Ministry of
Public Education was founded, and in the following years a new system of
public education was implemented with a remit to make education free,
continuous and available to all estates. These changes made education more
available to the rural public, meaning the children of peasants could learn in
parochial schools. But the number of schools established by landowners for
the children of serfs did not increase after this change; indeed, following
abolition of serfdom numbers started to decrease. However, the
establishment of zemstvos (local governments) in 1864 enabled the
government to establish and develop schools through the rural zemstvos
system.
5
Documents issued by the Ministry of Public Education, such as the
Regulations for public elementary schools of 1864 and 1874 regulating the legal
relationships and the zemstvo school management system, tell us much
about these systematic reforms.
6
Also around this period, a number of
documents were created in which the disadvantages of zemstvo schools
were analysed and recommendations on issues of educational processes
were given. For example, in 1906 N. F. Bunakov published Shkol’noye Dyelo
in which he analysed education from 1872 to 1902. He wrote that the native
language should be the most important subject in school because it enables
the child to “think and feel in the spirit of the people that created that
language.”
7
Bunakov also emphasised the importance of nurturing love for
one’s neighbour and seeking truth, kindness and moral beauty.
8
The 19
th
century is of particular relevance to this article, because at
that time the concept of a national character was emerging in education. For
example, a report from the Minister of Public Education S. S. Uvarov to
Emperor Nikolay the First (19 November 1833) explains the idea of
“Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” as a defining principle of public
education, stating that in actions related to public education, a true national
3
Gromyko 1991, p. 171.
4
Ibid., p. 5.
5
Veselovskiy 1909, p. 449.
6
Katuntsev 2005, p. 116.
7
Bunakov 1906, p. 3.
8
Ibid., p. 156.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro