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Educating the Russian Peasantry: The Elementary School Reforms of Count Dmitrii Tolstoi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Allen Sinel
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Extract

Throughout the nineteenth century the Russian government brooded over the part it should play in education. On the one hand, no great power could now maintain itself without a literate, well-trained population; on the other, schools provided the intellectual equipment, and sometimes even the stimulus, to criticize the social and political structure of Russia. Thus, the more the autocracy encouraged the spread of education essential to the well-being of the state, the more it contributed to the growth of antistate elements. This paper will analyze the efforts of Count Dmitrii Tolstoi, Minister of Education 1866-80, to resolve this problem in the field of elementary education.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 1968 , pp. 49 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1968

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References

1 “Izvlechenie iz vsepoddaneishogo otcheta Ministra Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia za 1866 god” (hereafter cited as “Izvlechenie MNP” followed by year of report), Zhurnal Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia (ZhMNP), CXXXVII (Jan. 1868), Otdel I, 54.

2 “Izvlechenie MNP 1870,” ZhMNP, CLX (March 1872), Otdel I, 61; Ministerstvo Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia (MNP), Sbornik postanovlenii po Ministerstvu Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia (SP), Vol. IV : 1865-1870 (1871).

3 MNP, Obzor deiatel'nosti Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia i povedomstvennykh emu uchrezhdenii v 1862, 6) i 64 godakh (St. Petersburg, 1865), “Prilozhenie,” pp. 320-27.

4 “Mery i predpolozheniia otnositel'no gimnazii i nachal'nogo obrazovaniia,” ZhMNP, CXXXHI (Jan. 1867), Otdel III, 17; “Izvlechenie MNP 1866,” p. 54.

5 “Izvlechenie MNP 1866,” pp. 41-46; “Mery,” pp. 15-18; “Pedagogicheskaia khronika,” Vestnik Evropy, I, No. 2 (June 1866), Otdel IV, 12-13.

6 Miropol'skii, “Voskresnaia shkola i pedagogicheskii kurs pri khar'kovskoi seminarii,” ZhMNP, CXXXVIII (May 1868), Otdel III, 217, 221, 223-43.

7 See, for example, “Izvestiia o deiatel'nosti i sostoianii nashikh uchebnykh zavedenii,” ZhMNP, CXL (Oct. 1868), Otdel III, 138-41; S. Miropol'skii, “Khar'kovskaia voskresnaia shkola v 1868/69 godu,” ZhMNP, CL (Aug. 1870), Otdel IV, 227-28. la. V. Abramov, however, concluded that most seminary Sunday schools achieved little, the major exceptions being those directed by Miropol'skii (Nashi voskresnyia shkoly : Ikh proshloe i nastoiashchee [St. Petersburg, 1900], pp. 85-90).

8 V. I. Chamoluskii, “Nachal'noe obrazovanie vo vtoroi polovine XIX stoletiia,” Istoriia Rossii v XIX veke (St. Petersburg, n.d.), VII, 127; Nachal'nyia narodnyia uchilishcha i uchastie v nikh pravoslavnogo dukhovenstva (St. Petersburg, 1865), p. 176.

9 SP, Vol. Ill : 1855-1864 (ad ed., 1876), No. 610, dated July 14, 1864, art. 19, cols. 1346, 1395-96.

10 “Izvlechenie MNP 1866,” pp. 47-48.

11 “Izvestiia o deiatel'nosti i sostoianii nashikh uchebnykh zavedenii,” ZhMNP, CLI (Sept. 1870), Otdel IV, 66-68; “Po povodu summ, assignovaemykh zemskimi sobraniiami na nachal'noe narodnoe obrazovanie,” ZhMNP, CXLVIII (March 1870), Otdel IV, 1-2; “Vnutrennoe obozrenie,” Vestnik Evropy, V, No. 10 (Oct. 1870), 912.

12 B. V. Veselovskii, Istoriia zemstva za sorok let, I (St. Petersburg, 1909), 452-53, 459; I. Kornilov, “O summakh, assignovannykh po smetam na 1868 god zemskimi uchrezhdeniiami na narodnoe obrazovanie,” ZhMNP, CXLV (Jan. 1873), Otdel IV, 1-69.

13 SP, Vol. Ill, No. 610, arts.16, 19, 24, 29, 33, cols. 1345-50.

14 Ibid., Vol. VI : 1874-1876 (1878), No. 70, dated May 25, 1874, cols. 248-50; Nicholas Hans, History of Russian Educational Policy (ijoi-ipiy) (London, 1931), p. 132; “Prilozhenie ko vsepoddaneishemu otchetu Ministra Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia za 1867 god” (hereafter cited as “Prilozhenie MNP” followed by the year of report), ZhMNP, CXLIII (June 1869), Otdel I, 62-68; “Prilozhenie MNP 1868,” ZhMNP, CXLVII (Feb. 1870), Otdel I, 180-81; “Prilozhenie MNP 1869,” ZhMNP, CLV (May 1871), Otdel I, 46-47.

15 SP, Vol. Ill, No. 610, arts. 13, 14, 19; cols. 1344-46; N. A. Korf, “Itogi obshchestvennoi deiatel'nosti po pol'zu narodnogo obrazovaniia v Rossii,” Vestnik Exrropy, XI, No. 6 (June 1876), 906-7.

16 Tolstoi, D. A., Rechi i stat'i grafa D. A. Tolstogo (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 181.Google Scholar

17 “Izvlechenie MNP 1869,” ZhMNP, CLIV (March 1871), Otdel I, 35-38.

18 SP, Vol. IV, No. 418, dated May 26, 1869, col. 1222.

19 Ibid., Vol. V : 1871-187) (1877), No. no, cols. 530-32.

20 S. Miropol'skii, “Inspektsiia narodnykh shkol i eia zadachi,” ZhMNP, CLXI (May- June 1872), Otdel III, 5-15, 24-46, 57-103; CLXII (July 1872), Otdel III, 1-32.

21 SP, Vol. VI, No. 70, cols. 250-57, 317-18, 327-36; Tolstoi, pp. 184-85. Russia was divided into large education districts (okruga), each administered by a curator, the Minister's direct and chief representative in the provinces.

22 SP, Vol. VI, No. 70, cols. 248-50, 275-79.

23 Ibid., cols. 295-98; “Izvlechenie MNP 1870,” p. 53; SP, Vol. Ill, No. 501, dated March 13, 1863, cols. 968-71.

24 Tolstoi, pp. 171-78; P. A. Monthaye, L'instruction populaire en Europe et aux Etats-Unis d'Amdrique (Bruges, 1876), I, 17, 45-49, 85-87; II, 11-12, 91-94, 182-84, 363-68, 373-74. 395. 4io.

25 Tolstoi, p. 172.

26 SP, Vol. VI, No. 70, col. 239; Valuev, P. A., Dnevnik P. A. Valueva, Ministra nykh Del, ed. P. A. Zaionchkovskii (Moscow, 1961), II, 285–86Google Scholar; Miliutin, D. A., Dnevnik D. A. Miliutina, ed. P. A. Zaionchkovskii (Moscow, 1947-50), I, 115–16.Google Scholar

27 Quoted in S. S. Tatishchev, Imperator Aleksandr II : Ego zhizn’ i tsarstvovanie (St. Petersburg, 1903), II, 101-2.

28 SP, Vol. VI, No. 70, arts. 10, 11, 18-21, 24, 27, 29-32, 39-42, cols. 343-48; ibid., Vol. Ill, No. 610, arts.10, 16-18, 24, cols. 1344-48.

29 Ibid., Vol. VI, No. 70, cols. 221, 236-37, 242-44, 257-58; arts. 17, 31, 37, cols. 227, 231, 232; arts.19, 8i, 38, cols. 345, 348, 349.

30 Ibid., No. 411, cols. 1479-97.

31 P. Annin, ed., Svod glavneishikh zakonopolozhenii i rasporiazhenii o nachal'nykh narodnykh uchilishchakh i uchitel'skikh seminariiakh (St. Petersburg, 1878-79), I, 11-12; SP, Vol. VI, No. 320, dated Nov. 22, 1875, cols. 1288-95; MNP, Sbornik rasporiazhenii po Ministerstvu Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia (SR), Vol. VI : 1874-1876 (1901), No. 158, dated Sept. 7, 1874, cols. 335-37.

32 Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” ZhMNP, CCV (Oct. 1879), Otdel I, 141-42.

33 SP, Vol. VI, No. 411, col. 1485; “Obzor deiatel'nosti Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia za 1879, 1880 i 1881 gody,” ZhMNP, CCLIV (Nov. 1887), Otdel I, 133 (hereafter cited as “Obzor 1879-81“).

34 See, for example, Johnson, William H. E., Russia's Educational Heritage (Pittsburgh, 1950), pp. 151–52 Google Scholar; Chekhov, N. V., Narodnoe obrazovanie v Rossii s 6o∼kh godov XIX veka (Moscow, 1912), pp. 51, 66Google Scholar; N., Karyshev, Zemskiia khodataistva 1865-1884 gg. (Moscow, 1900), pp. 62–66; Charnoluskii, pp. 168-69Google Scholar; Hans, although he does not criticize the inspectors, devotes most of his discussion of elementary education to zemstvo activities (pp.131-38).

35 Veselovskii, 1, 460, 586; Hans, pp. 134-35.

36 Nicholas, Hans, The Russian Tradition in Education (London, 1963), p. 147 Google Scholar; Smirnov, V. Z., Ocherki po istorii progressivnoi russkoi pedagogiki XIX veka (Moscow, 1963), P. 239.Google Scholar

37 SP, Vol. VI, No. 70, arts.20, 21, col. 228; “Raz“iasnenie,” Vestnik Evropy, XIV, No. 5 (May 1879), 329-30. See, for example, accounts of V. P. Vakhterov's activity in Smolensk and of the work of Lenin's father in Simbirsk : Vakhterova, E. O., V. P. Vakhterov, ego zhizn’ i rabota, ed. F. F. Korolev (Moscow, 1961), pp. 81–83 Google Scholar; Iakovlev, I. la. [Salembek], Simbirskaia uchitel'skaia shkola i ee rol’ v prosveshchenii chuvash (Cheboksary, 1959), pp. 49–73 Google Scholar.

38 N. Kh. Vessel', “Nasha sredniaia obshcheobrazovatel'naia skhola,” Russkii vestnik, No. 283 (Feb. 1903), p. 597; V. Z. Smirnov, Reforma nachal'noi i srednei skholy v 6o-kh godakh XIX v. (Moscow, 1954), p. 154.

39 The district school's six-year course offered an advanced elementary education without language study or much science.

40 SP, Vol. IV, No. 298, col. 765; SR, Vol. IV : 1864-1870 (1874), Prilozhenie to No. 367, cols. 991-96.

41 M. N. Katkov, Sobranie peredovykh statei “Moskovskikh vedomostei” 1868 (Moscow, 1897), No. 22, dated Jan. 27, 1868, pp. 52-54. See also A. Zabelin, “Opyt uchitel'skoi seminarii v severno-zapadnoi Rossii i ego ukazaniia,” ZhMNP, CXXXIII (Feb. 1867), Otdel II, 394-432; M. Ivanovskii, “Po povodu stat'i g. Zabelina, ‘Opyt uchitel'skoi seminarii v severno-zapadnoi Rossii, ’ “ ZhMNP, CXXXVII (Jan. 1868), Otdel II, 143-70.

42 “Izvlechenie MNP 1868,” ZhMNP, CXLVII (Jan. 1870), Otdel I, 35-36; A. Ivanov, “Nuzhnyi li v Rossii v nastoiashchee vremia uchitel'skiia seminarii?” ZhMNP, CXLIII (June 1869), Otdel III, 95.

43 SP, Vol. V, No. 63, cols. 161-62, 165, 168; No. 136, dated Dec. 7, 1871, cols. 598-600, 611.

44 Ibid., Vol. IV, No. 528, dated March 17, 1870, cols. 1542-47; and Vol. V, No. 63, cols. 161-62; SR, Vol. V : 18J1-18J3 (1881), No. 145, dated March 23, 1872, arts. 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 16, 18, 19, 21, 24-26, cols. 397-403.

45 The famous pedagogue K. D. Ushinskii had expressed similar views in an 1861 Zhurnal article on normal schools : “Proekt uchitel'skoi seminarii,” ZhMNP, CIX (Feb.- March 1861), Otdell, 118-40, 191-212.

46 SR, Vol. VI, No. 130, cols. 661-63, 684-85, 697-98.

47 Ibid., cols. 672, 673-76, 677, 682; “Obzor 1879-81,” p. 123; MNP, Uchebnyia zavedeniia vedomstva Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia (St. Petersburg, 1895), pp. 200-11.

48 F. Paulsen, German Education Past and Present, trans. T. Lorenz (New York, 1908), p. 248; Zabelin, pp. 395-98.

49 SR, Vol. VI, No. 130, cols. 678-79, 684, 686-91, 696-97, 702-4; “Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” p. 133. On the poor quality of seminary entrants, see N. D. Bogatinov, “Vospominaniia N. D. Bogatinova,” Russkii arkhiv, III, No. u (1899), 378-83; and A. Gurladii, “Poretskaia uchitel'skaia seminariia,” ZhMNP, CLXXXIV (March 1876), Otdel III, 4-5.

50 The average salary of Prussian elementary teachers was more than triple that of their Russian colleagues; see A. Voronov, “O soderzhanii uchitelei i uchitel'nits narodnykh uchilishch v Prussii,” ZhMNP, CLXXXIX (June 1875), Otdel IV, 58-59; “Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” p. 153.

51 SR, Vol. V, No. 254, dated Dec. 16, 1872, cols. 886-90; Chekhov, p. 113.

52 SP, Vol. VI, No. 302, dated Nov. 8, 1875, cols. 1208-9; “Obzor 1879-81,” pp. 116, 123- 24; “Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” p. 132. 53“Obozrenie deistvii Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia za 1871 god,” ZhMNP, CLIX (Feb. 1872), Otdel IV, 151; SP, Vol. V, No. 450, dated Nov. 11, 1873, cols. 2188-89.

54 “Prilozhenie MNP 1877,” ZhMNP, CCVI (Dec. 1879), Otdel I, 118-23; “Obzor 1879- 81,” p. 117.

55 “Izvlechenie MNP 1876/’ ZhMNP, CXCIX (Sept. 1878), Otdel I, 4; “Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” p. 127.

56 SP, Vol. VI, No. 222, dated April 1875, cols. 980-81; SR, Vol. VI, No. 100, dated May 17, 1875, cols. 597-98; No. 61, dated May 8, 1876, cols. 973-74.

57 SR, Vol. VI, No. 133, dated July 28, 1874, cols. 271-72; ZhMNP, CCVIII (March 1880), Otdel I, 12.

58 ZhMNP, CLII (Dec. 1870), Otdel I, 26; SR, VI, No. 144, dated Aug. 5, 1875, cols- 733∼ 36, 740.

59 Karyshev, p. 44; Veselovskii, I, 505; Chekhov, p. 115; “Obzor 1879-81,” p. 127.

60 SP, Vol. V, No. 143, dated Dec. 28, 1871, cols. 625-27; SR, Vol. V, No. 307, dated April 29, 1873, cols. 1020-22, 1030; No. 339, dated Sept. 1, 1873, cols. 1262-63, 1271.

61 “Vnutrennoe obozrenie,” Vestnik Evropy, IX, No. 1 (Jan. 1874), 400-401; XIII, No. 4 (April 1878), 842-43; A. Kriukovskii, ed., Alfavitnyi sbornik postanovlenii i rasporiazhenii po s-peterburgskomu uchebnomu okrugu za 1858-1876 g. (St. Petersburg, 1877), pp. 325- 28; Dvadtsatipiatiletie s-peterburgskoi zemskoi uchitel'skoi skholy s 1872 po 189J gg.(St. Petersburg, 1897), pp. 21-23; A. I. Koshelev, Zapiski Aleksandra Ivanovicha Kosheleva 1812-188﹜ gody (Berlin, 1884), pp. 194, 230-31

62 Koshelev, pp. 208, 220-21, 330-31; “Prilozhenie MNP 1874,” ZhMNP, CLXXXVIII (Nov. 1876), Otdel I, 30; “Izvl'echenie MNP 1874,” ZhMNP, CLXXXVI (Aug. 1876), Otdel I, 137; SP, Vol. VI, No. 245, dated July 10, 1875, cols. 1081-86; Veselovskii, I, 503; “Vnutrennoe obozrenie,” Vestnik Evropy, XIII, No. 4 (April 1878), 843.

63 In 1877 eleven zemstvo institutes graduated 206 elementary teachers, 27.6 percent of the total produced by all state and private seminaries (“Prilozhenie MNP 1877,” p. 122).

64 “Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” pp. 143-46, 151-52; Hans, History, p. 242. According to a contemporary study, Russia had the least favorable school to population ratio in Europe (Monthaye, II, 418-22).

65 Percentages are calculated from tables in “Prilozhenie MNP 1877,” pp. 100-105, 114- 15, 122-23, 126-29; and in S. V. Rozhdestvenskii, Istoricheskii ocherk deiatel'nosti Ministerstva Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia 1802-1902 (St. Petersburg, 1902), p. 734.

66 The decree of May 26, 1869, assigned 68, 000 rubles a year for elementary school administration; the 1874 statute added 251, 000 rubles; and the State Council voted another 50, 000 for 1877, a total of 369, 000 rubles (SP, Vol. IV, No. 418, col. 1223; SP, Vol. VI, No. 70, cols. 222-23, and No. 411, col. 1479; “Prilozhenie MNP 1877,” pp. 126-28).

67 SP, Vol. IV, No. 418, cols. 1222-23; SR» Vc>1- v” N o - 378” dated Dec. 22, 1873, cols. 1320-22; SR, Vol. VI, No. 59, dated March 23, 1874, cols. 67-69.

68 SP, Vol. VI, No. 155, dated Dec. 31, 1874, cols. 780-81, 782-87; “Izvlechenie MNP 1873,” ZhMNP, CLXXX (Aug. 1875), Otdel I, 166-67; “Obzor 1879-81,” p. 144.

69 SP, Vol. IV, No. 436, dated June 3, 1869, col. 1259; SP, Vol. VI, No. 12, dated Feb. 25, 1874, col. 72; “Izvlechenie MNP 1871,” ZhMNP, CLXVI (March 1873), Otdel I, n; SR, Vol. VI, No. 116, dated June 4, 1875, col. 626.

70 SR, Vol. VI, No. 116, dated June 4, 1875, cols. 623-30, 632-37, 640-41; Prilozhenie to No. 116, cols. 1443-49.

71 Ibid., cols. 623, 630, 637; “Izvlechenie MNP 1874,” pp. 135, 147.

72 “Prilozhenie MNP 1877,” pp. 126-28.

73 Ibid., p. 129; Veselovskii, I, 15; “Ob uchastii gorodskikh obshchestv v pozhertvovaniiakh na delo obrazovaniia,” ZhMNP, CXCVI (April 1878), Otdel IV, 191, 199. These, figures do not include funds spent on teacher preparation or school administration. The Ministry covered the major portion of these costs.

74 “Prilozhenie MNP 1871,” ZhMNP, CLXVI (April 1873), Otdel I, 142-43; “Prilozhenie MNP 1877,” pp. 124-25.

75 “O wedenii obiazatel'nogo obrazovaniia obucheniia v s-Peterburge,” ZhMNP, CLXXVI (Nov. 1874), Otdel IV, 8; “O wedenii obiazetel'nogo obucheniia po khodataistvam nekotorykh zemskikh sobranii,” ZhMNP, CLXXV (Dec. 1874), Otdel IV, 117-30.

76 “Izvlechenie MNP 1875,” ZhMNP, CXCIII (Oct. 1877), Otdel I, 68-69.

77 “Izvlechenie MNP 1876,” pp. 29-30; K. K. Sent Her (Sainte-Hilaire) and Count Speranskii, eds., Materialy po voprosu o wedenii obiazatel'nogo obucheniia v Rossii, Vol.I (St. Petersburg, 1880).

78 Seredonin, S. M., Istoricheskii obzor deiatel'nosti Komiteta Ministrov, Vol. Ill : Komitet Ministrov v tsarstvovanie Imperatora Aleksandra Vtorogo (St. Petersburg, 1902), Part I, pp. 150–52; Part II, pp. 191-94Google Scholar; Zaionchkovskii, P. A., Krizis samoderzhavii na rubezhe 1870-1880 godov (Moscow, 1964), pp. 105–6, 111-12.Google Scholar

79 “Izvlechenie MNP 1877,” p. 154.