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Perspectives of Science & Education
International Scientific Electronic Journal ISSN 2307-2334 (Online)
Available: psejournal.wordpress.com/archive20/20-03/ Accepted: 4 March 2020 Published: 30 June 2020
V. B. Pomelov
The activities of the educators in Russia in the first half of the XVIII-th century
Today's educational situation in Russia is characterized by active efforts of native teachers and officials to improve national educational system. Hence are numerous attempts of the creative rethinking of all those valuable successes, that had been reached by predecessors. In this regard, educational reform of the first quarter of the XVIII-th century is of considerable interest for modern educators. This reform was carried out by the Emperor Peter I and his associates. Peter I has undertaken a number of progressive steps in order to establish various types of schools in the cities as well as in provincial towns and villages. First libraries, typographies, Academy of sciences were established due to his decrees. The article presents the progressive educational efforts of the Bishop Lavrenty Gorka (1671-1733), the founder of the first Slav-Latin school in the town of Hlynov, in the Vyatka province. The article is aimed to show in what way the initial phase of the process of enlightenment in rural Russia was carried out. Much attention in the article is devoted to the characteristic of socio-political conditions which influenced the initial stage of the process of the enlightenment, and to the role of the Emperor Peter I in the process of education in Russia, as well as to the description of difficulties which the first educators had to overcome. The Vyatka province was a remote region of the Russian Empire in the XVIII-th century, and as well as all the other Russian regions of that time, it has suffered heavily from the illiteracy of its population. Gorka had to face a lot of difficulties: lack of textbooks, teachers, finance, facilities, etc. But the most difficult obstacle was the stubborn resistance of the local clergy; practically all the local priests were almost illiterate, and they didn't want to get well educated young rivals. Gorka made straightforward preparations for opening the first school in the Vyatka province. He succeeded in inviting well-educated teachers to Hlynov. A school library was established. Gorka was successful in gathering 400 pupils. He paid much attention to the rational organization of the school routine. After his death the succeeding Vyatka Bishops Veniamin Sahnovsky, Varlaam Skamnizky and Antony Illiashevich promoted the development of education in Hlynov. These were the first educators of the Vyatka province.
Key words: The XVIII-th century, the Emperor Peter I, the Vyatka province, Lavrenty Gorka, the Hlynov Slav-Latin school
For Reference:
Pomelov, V. B. (2020). The activities of the educators in Russia in the first half of the XVIII-th century. Perspektivy nauki i obrazovania - Perspectives of Science and Education, 45 (3), 412-425. doi: 10.32744/pse.2020.3.30
_Introduction. The urgency of the problem
he modern period of the development of the Russian society is characterized by active attempts of native teachers and officials in seeking ways to improve the national education. In order to achieve the goal the modern researchers apply to the experience of the best teachers of the XVIII-XX-th centuries. They strive to study and to rethink creatively all that valuable, that was accomplished by their predecessors in other historical periods and in different social surroundings [13, pp. 145-146]. In this regard, Russian educational reform in the first quarter of the XVIII-th century is of considerable scientific interest for modern researchers. This reform was actively carried out by the Emperor Peter I and his associates.
In the Russian and foreign pedagogical literature the study of the content of this reform is focused exclusively on the process of the creation of an educational institutions only in two major cities in Russia, namely in Moscow and St.-Petersburg. At the same time an implementation of educational decrees of Peter I in the Russian province remains unexplored up to now.
The study of the content of the educational process in the Russian province seems to us even a more important research task in comparison with the study of the nature of this process in these capital cities because the province included over 90% of Russia's population. That is why the study of the history of the development of education in the Russian province represents a particular scientific interest, especially since it is namely in the provincial territories the process of education met with large difficulties.
Introduction of education on the vast Russian territories was, in many ways, the truly merit of a number of prominent Russians and foreign educators, as well as a large number of local teachers.
The history of Russia of the first quarter of the XVIII-th century attracts the attention of native scholars up to now. The time of the Emperor Peter I is the turning-point of the Russian history. Just in this period Russia as a state has made the first steps to be an influential European empire. Considerable achievements have been reached in the sphere of education, including the rural population.
Our research is aimed on the example of some Slav educators, namely the Bishop Lavrenty Gorka, his colleagues and companions, to show in what way the initial phase of an enlightenment in the remote Vyatka province was carried out. That is the problem of the article.
The methods and materials
To achieve the aim of the research some scientific methods have been used. These are retrospective analyses of the educational activities of the first Russian enlighteners, actualization of positive examples of their efforts in establishing the first primary and high schools in the Russian province on the example of the Vyatka territory. The author has used also statistic, typological and biographical methods in order to express his scientific view as a much distinctly as possible. It expresses itself in the detailed description of deeds of the bishop Lavrenty Gorka and his like-minded persons. The amount of sources was also used by solving the problem. They are represented in the references.
_The results. The main content
I. The first Russian Emperor Peter I and his reforms in the educational sphere
First steps in the development of public education in Russia are traditionally associated with the activities of the outstanding reformer, the Russian Emperor Peter the Great in the first quarter of the XVIII-th century. Peter I Alekseyevich, of the Romanov Dynasty, named the Great (May 30 [9 June] 1672 - 28 January [8 February] 1725) was the last Tsar of all Russia (1682) and the first Russian Emperor (1721). He was proclaimed the King at the age of 10, but he really began to reign in the year of 1689. The formal co-ruler with Peter was his feeble brother Ivan (until his death in 1696).
At the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Peter the Great the Russian state faced heavy political, economic and cultural crises. The backlog of Russia from the leading European countries in these spheres of life was simply tremendous. Peter I was clearly aware of the need of education for the Russian people. He has undertaken a number of decisive measures. On the 14 (25) of January 1701 in Moscow the school of mathematical and navigational sciences was opened. Artillery, engineering and medical schools have been established in Moscow, as well as the school of engineering and maritime academy in St.-Petersburg, mining colleges in the Olonets region and in the Ural factories (1701-1702). Russia's first gymnasium was opened in St.-Petersburg (1705).
In the year of 1714 the so called «cifimye» (i.e. cipher) schools in some provincial towns were established. They had to serve to the tasks of mass education, i.e. «children of any rank to teach literacy, figures and geometry» [22, p. 28]. Peter I intended to create two cipher schools in each province. This type of school was supposed to be free of charge for all pupils. Overall, 42 cipher schools with 1389 pupils have been opened up until 1723 [22, p. 29]. Peter I established also schools for soldiers' children; these were the so called garrison schools. In 1724 Peter I adopted the statutes of the Academy of sciences and the University gymnasium which were opened a few months later after his death. In 1721 the creation of a network of spiritual (or Bishop, Eparchial) schools for the training of priests has begun; in 1725 the number of these schools reached45 with a total of approximately 3000 pupils [22, p. 34].
Compulsory education of the rural nobility and clergy was introduced, but a similar measure for the urban ones has met fierce resistance and was canceled. Children of city nobles were required to study geometry, trigonometry, geodesy, navigation, architecture, astronomy, fencing, music and dance. The best of them were sent to continue their studies abroad, mainly to Holland and Germany [10, p. 165].
To say in a nutshell, as it was said by one of the prominent Russian historian, «Peter the Great tried to grow up active, self-motivated people with a sense of personal responsibility in the atmosphere of hard tzar despotism, nor one of the prerogatives of which he did not want to give up. He wanted to grow up slaves with the professional qualities of free men» [6, p. 6].
Peter the Great made an attempt to create a system of schools, in which children of various strata of society, but serf peasants, should learn together. But his early death put an end to these human intentions. The idea of mass primary education in Russia was postponed for more than a century.
Peter I created a first state typography, in which in 1700-1725 1312 titles of books were printed, i.e. two times more than in the entire previous history of the Russian book printing. Thanks to the rise of printing paper consumption has increased from 4-8 thousand sheets
at the end of the XVII-th century up to 50 thousand sheets to 1719. The first libraries were opened in Moscow and St.-Petersburg. They were in the public domain and free of charge for readers [20, p. 590].
Considerable changes have taken place in the Russian written and oral language. New orthography was introduced. Some obsolete letters were excluded from the Russian alphabet. A new, civilian alphabet was appointed, instead of the outdated Church-Slav one. The orthography itself has become civil, not Church-Slav any more. The Russian language borrowed more than 4.5 thousand new words from the European languages.
The first Russian textbooks appeared gradually. Especially known was the book by Lavrenty Filippovich Magnitsky (1669-1739) «Arithmetic is the numeral science» (1703), which was reprinted later on a lot of times and was used in all Russian schools for more than a century. Education was in Russian, in general, secular. A religious element was, at the same time, an inevitable part of education, because books for reading were mostly of clerical content [7, p. 11].
The school reform of Peter the Great met the needs of the social and economic development of Russia. In the process of its accomplishment the accumulated experience of upbringing in Russian and other European nations, as well as pedagogical creativity of best native and foreign teachers have been taken into account.
Peter I had negotiations with some prominent Wet-European scientific figures of the time. Thais statement may be proved by the letters of G.W. Leibniz and his talks with Czar Peter I. The program of introducing the education in Russia suggested by the German thinker met the needs for social development of the time and found partial realization in the reforms of Peter I, so that to a certain extent the Russian system of education can be traced back to Leibniz's project. On the part of Leibniz, this program was aimed at establishing a contact between the civilizations of the West and the East on the basis of a further expansion of Christianity. In this plan Russia was to play the role of a mediator as part of the European cultural field, which meant a certain transition from the Western conception of Russia as a barbaric country to the one of an ally [8, p. 560].
By the end of the reign of Peter I, there were 233 plants, including more than 90 major factories established during his reign. The largest of them were the St.-Petersburg shipyard with 3.5 thousand workers, sailing and ironwork manufactories, etc. The biggest Ural factories had 25 thousand employees. There were a number of other enterprises employing from 5 to 10 thousand people [21, p. 348].
These positive economic changes couldn't be achieved without putting into practice the educational reform.
Education, as an important part of Peter's reforms, was brought to life by important socio-political and economic reasons, such as the political leadership of the nobility, the strengthening of economic positions of merchants and industrialists, the creation of a new, better equipped army, the transformation of the public administrative system and the emergence of a large number of officials.
The new Russian leaders of the post-Peter's epoch - Peter the Great's widow, the Empress Elisabeth I (1725-1727), then his grandson, the Emperor Peter II (1727-1730), and the niece of Peter I Anna I (1730-1740), - can't be counted as true supporters of the idea of public education. The establishment of a network of schools after the death of Peter I was brought to a stop. The greater part of cipher schools was transformed into state schools for the training of clergy. But, nevertheless, during the reign of Peter I the reliable foundation for the spread of education in Russia was laid.
The opening of schools of different types required literate, educated people who were extremely scarce in number at that time in Russia. In addition, first native educators and enlighteners had to overcome many formidable obstacles. Among them was the shortage of everything, and first of all - of teachers, finance, books and tutorials. But the most difficult problem was the misunderstanding of the importance of education among the greater part of the population, especially in the remote local communities. The reluctance of people to perceive «a book reading» was practically universal in Russia. The same situation was in the beginning of the XVIII-th century everywhere in the Russian empire. The number of primary schools could be counted by some dozens, and practically all of them were situated in the western part of the country, and in some well-known cities, namely Kiev, Vladimir, Moscow and St.-Petersburg. That wasn't enough for the whole country, enormously large in territory and population! The problems of reforming the education in the province couldn't be fulfilled effectively by the persons, who dealt only due to the strict orders of their superiors, and had a distaste for educational innovations at the same time. Peter's time itself had claimed spiritual preachers of quite other type, who were the fierce supporters of Peter's reforms, the real enlightenment fighters.
II. The Vyatka province as the place of educational activities of the Bishop Lavrenty Gorka
The educational efforts of the first Russian enlighteners are delivered here on the example of Lavrenty Gorka and his successors, who implemented their activities in the typical Russian region, namely in the Vyatka province. The Vyatka province was the remote region of the Russian Empire in the XVIII-th century. It was situated at a distance of 1000 miles to the north-east from Moscow. Nowadays this territory is named the Kirov oblast. It is called after Sergei Mironovich Kirov, one of the Communist leaders of the USSR in the 1920-1930-ies. The Vyatka province has got its name owing to the river Vyatka. The main town of the province was Hlynov; it was named after another river which passed the town - Hlynovitsa, hence the name of the town - Hlynov. Hlynov was the historically first name of the town (1374-1780), Vyatka - the second one (17801934), since 1934 - Kirov.
The Vyatka province, as well as all the other Russian regions of that time, has suffered heavily from the illiteracy of its population. But at the end of the first quarter of the XVIII-th century the Vyatka province has gained, at last, its first great enlightener, - the Vyatka Bishop Lavrenty Gorka. The enlightenment activities of Lavrenty Gorka have given a powerful stimulus to the development of education in the Vyatka province. His short in time (17331737), but, at the same time, very fruitful work left a noticeable positive mark in the local history and it became one of the main regional cultural events of the XVIII-th century. The education itself in the Vyatka province has started with the school, which was opened by Lavrenty Gorka!
The creation of the progressive educational institutions in the time of Peter the Great was a rather typical phenomenon for the large Russian cities, - Moscow, St.-Petersburg and Kiev. The Russian provincial territories, the Vyatka province inclusive, still reigned the backwardness and the illiteracy. The regional educational environment practically didn't exist at all, because the greater part of the local population had not shown much interest to education. At the same time, in accordance with the requirements of the so called «The Spiritual Regulations» (1721), which had been compiled by an outstanding public and religious figure of the Peter's epoch Feofan Prokopovich, the provincial Bishops had been obliged to create the spiritual schools, though only for clergy's children.
Two features predetermined the peculiarities of creating and the development of school facilities at that time. On the one hand, these were Russian schools. The process of education in such schools was carried out only in Russian. The learning included very strong elements of the Orthodox religiosity. The religious outlook remained to be dominant in the public consciousness of the Russian society. On the other hand, school «founders» had to take into account the contemporary trends of the modern social development. That's why they had to include the so called «European science» (Latin, mathematics, history, geography, natural science, etc.).This dual nature of schools in Russia was clearly visible in the educational activities of the first Vyatka educators, and above all in the enlightenment efforts of the outstanding Vyatka Bishop Lavrenty Gorka.
III. The biographical data of the Bishop Lavrenty Gorka
Lavrenty (born Andrew) Gorka was born in 1671 in a small town called Lavrov, near the city of L'vov. He graduated from the Kiev-Mohyla Theological Academy, the most prominent educational institution in Russia at that time. He studied together with his friend Feofan Prokopovich (1681-1736). Both scholars have been working for some years in the Academy as teachers. Gorka had the courses of poetry («piitika») (1706-1707) and rhetoric (1708-1710). He wrote a tragicomedy «Joseph» (1708) on the traditional biblical plot. He also compiled the course of poetry («Idea artes poeseos», 1707). Prokopovich and Gorka admired Virgil, Horace and Ovid, and they expressed their love to the best works of the ancient literature by including passages from Latin and Greece authors into their textbooks [16, p. 46].
F. Prokopovich was later the Rector of the Academy (1711), and subsequently - the vice-President of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (Peter I was the President). Prokopovich was one of the most prominent supporters of Peter's reforms. He consecrated in his sermons secular themes, such as the glorification of the victories of the Russian army, - the victory by Poltava over Sweden, and he praised the Emperor as reformer.
In 1710 Lavrenty Gorka approved the Vydubitsky Abbey in Kiev. In 1722 he became the Archimandrite of the Voskresensky Abbey on the river Istra, near Moscow. In the same year on the request of F. Prokopovych he was given a new assignment, - the chief priest of the Russian army and navy. L. Gorka earned the special favor of the Emperor and on the 8-th of September 1723 Gorka was appointed the Bishop in Astrakhan, where he served until 1727. He was later the Bishop in the towns of Veliky Ustyug (1727-1731), Ryazan (17311733) and, finally, in Hlynov (1733-1737), the main town of the Vyatka province. On the 25-th of September 1733, the Empress Anna I Iohannovna signed a decree on moving the Ryazan Bishop Lavrenty Gorka to Hlynov. The previous Hlynov Bishop Alexey Titov was sent to Ryazan. The episcopacy in Ryazan, located near Moscow, was considered to be more honorable, while the town of Hlynov was already a place of exile at that time. L. Gorka was the supporter of Peter the Great, and now the latter was dead. The Empress Anna I Iohannovna tried to get rid of the supporters of Peter's reforms and sent them to remote provinces. L. Gorka was among them.
IV. The educational activities of the Bishop Lavrenty Gorka and a strong opposition to his innovations
Lavrenty Gorka came to Hlynov on the 29-th of September, 1733. The solemn meeting of the new Bishop has occurred in the Church of All Saints. The citizens of Hlynov were surprised by the quick arrival of Lavrenty, that followed on the fifth day after the departure of the previous Bishop Alexey from Hlynov. Lavrenty Gorka was the Bishop of quite a different
type in comparison with his predecessors. «The citizens of Hlynov have been accustomed to quiet and measured movements and speeches of the old Russian Bishops, and now they saw a typical Pole. They were amazed by his dexterity, an extraordinary liveliness of his speeches and gestures», said the Vyatka historian A.S. Vereshchagin [1, p. 56].
L. Gorka has made quick preparations for opening the school, the first in the Vyatka province. He had to face many difficulties at that: lack of textbooks, teachers, finance, facilities, etc. But the most complicated obstacle was the stubborn resistance of the local clergy. Practically all the local priests were almost illiterate themselves, and they didn't want to get well educated rivals in the nearest future. The Bishop had to remove from office those of them, who hindered the work of the school, and in some cases the penalty was put by the Holy Synod in St.-Petersburg; Gorka was forced to resort to its help. So, L. Gorka has met a strong opposition among the obsolete part of the clergy, though the latter was entitled to help to the Bishop in his educational innovations. The employees of the first educator in Hlynov were mostly rude and ignorant people. They had become his fierce enemies. The persons, standing at the head of the Hlynov clergy, such as the Archimandrite of the Uspensky Trifonov monastery Alexander Korchemkin, the Archpriest of the Trinity Church Artemon Shubin, the sacristan Nikita Zotov and some others have expressed a direct protest against the enlightenment activities of their Bishop. They left Hlynov without a permission of L. Gorka and went to the Holy Synod with calumnies on him. The enemies of L. Gorka have made complaints against the Vyatka Bishop throughout the whole period of his work in Hlynov [17, p. 76].
An important part of activities of the Bishop L. Gorka consisted in improving the economic situation of the Bishop House, which at the time of his arrival to Hlynov was deplorable. His predecessor didn't leave a single penny, but he has left the duty of 529 rubles 34 kopecks [3, p. 242]. However, the new Bishop has initiated the establishment of the school without any delay. In order to have the money for its opening, he has sent out a decree to all Hlynov priests to come to him «immediately». L. Gorka asked them in detail about their income and then he determined the amount of sums of money, that each of them unquestioningly had to give to him for the school maintaining. He demanded that all monasteries would deliver with «no little delay» into the Bishop's House the twentieth share of «bread» (it meant -income). However, no order of the Bishop was adopted to follow up quickly and eagerly. Nobody brought bread and money for the needs of the school.
L. Gorka has got an invaluable assistance of the vice-President (since 1721) of the Holy Synod, the Archbishop F. Prokopovich. Alexander Korchemkin, who fled from Hlynov to Ryazan, was captured and executed. Other clergymen, who indicated a lack of attention to Gorka's orders, were summoned to St.-Petersburg and received a proper «correction» [15, p. 57]. The opposition to the Bishop Lavrenty Gorka was annihilated at last, and conservative clergymen of Hlynov calmed down for some time.
L. Gorka insisted stubbornly on taking from monasteries the twentieth share of their income. A large part of the clergy has contributed the demanded sums of money for the need of the Bishop's school to the year of 1735, and financial sums for the opening of the school have been found. The school was located in the Bishop's House. It was housed in a large two-storey building and three small wooden buildings inside the fence of the House.
V. The first teachers and the first library in the Vyatka province
The search for suitable teachers was also not an easy task. L. Gorka had to write several letters to his Alma Mater - The Kiev-Mohila Theological Academy with the request for
sending some teachers to the Hlynov Bishop's school. Soon he succeeded in inviting the student of the philosophy class, Michael Evstafievich Finizky (1705-1787). He agreed to work in Hlynov with his annual salary of 72 rubles [4, p. 315].
M.E. Finizky has come to Hlynov in April 1734. He can be considered the first teacher of the Vyatka province, as well as L. Gorka - the first educator, the organizer of the first school. In the same year the second teacher has appeared. He was also student of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. His name was Vassily Leszczynsky. The third teacher, a scholar monk, Joakhim Bogomedlevsky, studied in his youth at six (!) European universities. All the teachers, including Gorka himself, were of Polish origin. The founder of the Hlynov Slav-Latin school, the Bishop Gorka and his associates and followers were, as the analysis of their activities in the Vyatka province shows, surely well-educated and talented people. Thus the problem of teachers for the first time has turned out to be solved. The first Vyatka teachers had high education. They were humane and benevolent towards children. Corporal punishment had been excluded at school.
L. Gorka displayed special care on the acquisition of books. He purchased them in Moscow, St.-Petersburg, Kiev, Astrakhan, Ryazan and Veliky Ustyug. The books, that had been ordered by L. Gorka by book-sellers in Moscow and St.-Petersburg, and even abroad, have been coming to Hlynov even a few years after his death. There were works of Homer, Dante, Cicero, Seneca, Horace, Ovid, Petronius, Virgil and other classical authors, as well as the best modern, for that time, tutorials, for example, tutorials of Emmanuel Alvar of the Latin grammar, the so-called «Alvar's rudiments» [14, p. 39].
The opening of libraries in schools was specially stipulated in «The Spiritual Regulations» (1721), which had been written by F. Prokopovich. According to one of its paragraphs, all schools should have special «library branch» for providing teachers and students with books and textbooks. Libraries should have been opened in proper days and hours. 920 grammar books had been sent from St.-Petersburg for Bishop's schools, and it marked the beginning of work of school libraries in Russia. L. Gorka transferred to the possession of the school library all the books of his rich personal collection, at least 355 in number. Two thirds of them were in foreign languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Polish. The third part of the books was of secular content: history, philosophy, philology, rhetoric and geography, law and literature [11, pp. 292-293].
Some manuscripts from the school library have been saved up to our days. They are preserved in the Kirov regional scientific library named after A.I. Herzen. Among them, for example, the edition of writings of Tommazo Campanella, that has been issued in a life-time of the author. The best part of the school library was transmitted in 1741 to the Holy Synod [5, p. 144].
VI. The search for school pupils was a difficult task. Why?
The time has come at last, when the economic welfare of the Bishop's school was provided, as well as the selection of teachers turned out well, and the school library was mostly completed. Then the task was set to find students of «a better priesthood». L. Gorka ordered to bring clergy children to the Bishop's House for teaching them at the Slav-Latin school. He demanded that all priests should have brought their children to him, starting from the age of eight years, «without a slightest slowdown».
In accordance with «The Spiritual Regulations» and a new edict of Anna I lohannovna (1731) Bishops were invited not only to open schools, but they were obliged to recruit children of clergy for them. Initially, however, only a few members of the clergy, and that of
monasteries nearby of the town of Hlynov, have brought their kids to school; «the rest of clergymen in all possible cases tried to escape from school» [19, p. 107]. The most of clergy children sought to avoid school. Clergymen considered sending their children to school as their heaviest duty. But why? The fact is, illiteracy was a most wide-spread phenomenon in Russia at that time, and especially in the province. Common people couldn't understand the significance of literacy, because there was no opportunity to use it in practice. Even a lot of clergymen were illiterate; they learned some prayers by heart and that was all they knew.
Such a neglection of the Hlynov «better» society to the Gorka school could be explained also by the low level of the spiritual and the material standards of living of the native population, and the lack of the regional educational surroundings. The hostility to the educational reform was much stronger expressed precisely in the remote regions of Russia, than in large towns. There were practically no educated people in Hlynov, who could be supporters of Peter the Great's educational reform. Moreover, the greater part of the population had a very vague idea about it. An important obstacle to the spreading of education was the fact that people in the province didn't see the tangible benefits of acquiring the knowledge.
The Orthodox-Slav school could find more understanding among citizens. But Gorka tried to open namely the Slav and Latin school, and that fact couldn't encourage children of common people, as well as of clergymen, for going to school. However, by 1735, L. Gorka has managed to collect up to four hundred students ranging in age from 7 to 25 years old. He acted not only «by the whip, but also by the carrot», as the Russian proverb says. The Bishop encouraged his pupils by the hope of a better priesthood after graduating his school. In other words, he promised them an appointment to richer churches in future.
VII. The school routine in the Gorka's school
L. Gorka paid much attention to the rational organization of the school routine. He has taken as an ideal model his «Alma Mater» - the Kiev-Mohyla Theological Academy. This manifested itself primarily in the choice of subjects for teaching, as well as by introducing some of its positive features into the educational process in the Hlynov school. Of course, the distinction between these two educational institutions was great. Gorka's school was situated in the remote pre-Ural geographical «hole», in «a bear's corner», as Russians say; the Kiev Academy was practically the first Russian institution of higher education, and the best one at that time. The Hlynov school didn't have two senior classes: philosophy and theology. But, nevertheless, L. Gorka focused his efforts on the best Kiev standards, which he tried to include into his educational institution. L. Gorka had a rigid nature, and, like Peter the Great, he used sometimes barbaric methods of struggle against the barbarism itself. That caused, naturally, the discontent among some local clergymen. However, his educational activities were, of course, progressive in nature, and due to these efforts he received later on the honorable title among the population of Hlynov, - «The Educator of the Vyatka province».
L. Gorka produced an effort to deliver decent entertainments to children. He allowed them to have fun games on certain days and hours, both in the Bishop's house and during walks outside it. In the wintertime, especially before holidays, the spiritual mysteries have taken place at school. Pupils' performances were played; the repertoire included the composition «Joseph» by L. Gorka. Children participated in traditional solemn Church processions as well. The tradition of school performances was continued after Gorka's death in the Vyatka Theological Seminary. The teachers Z.A. Lyatushevich and S.A. Leontiev
organized the so-called «conversations», i.e. peculiar theatrical dialogues about Good and Evil, etc. But this took place later on, in the second half of the XVIII-th century, in the Age of Enlightenment. The basic Latin textbook at Gorka school was the tutorial of Emmanuel Alvar, converted to Russian in the XVII-th century. In Russia it was repeatedly republished, in spite of the fact that, according to the historian P. Pekarsky, namely this tutorial was the worst of all textbooks of Latin grammar [9, p. 242]. Not surprisingly, the lower classes of the school studied Latin from six to eight years, and often without any visible success.
The teachers of the first Bishop's schools were, as a rule, more or less familiar with the best achievements of pedagogical science and practice in European countries, and particularly in the sphere of the class-work system which, as it is written in all textbooks of the history of pedagogy, had been invented by Ya.A. Comenius. However, the class-work system had existed before Comenius, in the communal schools of Ukraine and Poland. These were precisely the territories, where the first Vyatka teachers had spent a significant part of their teacher's work. «The poetry approach» of the Hlynov school was, in essence, of Kiev origin. The Russian poetry then actually simply didn't exist. Some of the most talented teachers of poetry had their own tutorials of this subject.
The system of education and upbringing in his school gave an understanding of literary values to pupils, formed a taste for creation samples of poetry. Pupils copied and translated texts. Some of them created even original verses. Finizky (1741) perfected Gorka's tutorial of poetry. The first part of the tutorial was the discourse to the nature and the purpose of the poetry; in the second, third and fourth parts different genres of poetry were characterized. The statements were accompanied by quotations from Virgil, Horace and Ovid. A lot of verses were written by Gorka himself [17, p. 77].
The tutorials of poetry at that time usually contained two divisions. In the first division, the content was usually about the purpose of poetry, and its importance for the education of people. It usually contained quotations from works of great poets. All this was called in Latin «subsidia poeseos». The second division consisted of information about different types of the poetic works (epic, comic, tragic, melancholic, bucolic, satiric, lyric, etc). The bulk of the textbook included information about mythology; it was considered to be a very important part of the poetry. Textbooks contained information about the gods and goddesses of Olympus, nymphs and naiads, mythological heroes (Ahilles) and historical personalities (Alexander the Great). In addition to the definitions and theory, some excerpts from poems of Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Antioh Cantemir, as well as of compilers themselves, were cited. The tutorials included also guidance for compilation poems, especially «gratulacii» (congratulations), i.e. greeting verses, as well as odes in honor of various high-ranking persons. Poetry books contained samples of «snake» («versus serpentari») and «retrograde» epigrams (they could be read not only in the usual way, but from the end to the beginning, as well).
«The crown» of science in the Hlynov Slav-Latin school was the rhetoric. Teachers often practiced their own tutorials at the rhetoric lessons. Especially known were the works of the Vyatka teachers Andrey Svirepov «Regulae Rethorics» («The correct rhetoric») and M.E. Finizky («Regia Tullinae eloquentiae, Wiatcensi benevolae juventuto, per Michaelem professorem Finicky, feliciter procurantem construeta»). Manuals and tutorials usually included discourse («traktacii») about the nature and the purpose of «the rhetorics». They included the description of the idea of «ornamenting» the rhetorical speech. In the section «de arta oratoria in particulari» the guidance was set out on composing letters and speeches of greeting, of welcome, of gratitude, of begging, of farewell, of pardoning, of funeral, etc.
Here one could find detailed recipes as to what terms the student had to contact with parents while leaving the house, and when returning home, for example from school; with the help of which «paths and figures» should he ask money; how to congratulate with the New year, a birthday, a Christian holiday, etc. There were given tips on pronunciation and the rules on how to write and to pronounce «rhetorical prediki», i.e. sermons. An ability to make sermons was very appreciated by L. Gorka. He was the first preacher in Hlynov. He considered, that even the simplest sermon was considered to be weak and «not graceful», if it didn't include «mythological applications». His sermons became the first experience of the live oral speech in the Vyatka province.
The discussion of results. The school after the death of L. Gorka
On the 10th of April, 1737 was the feast of the Holy Easter. In the evening «the best people» of Hlynov rushed to the Bishop's House to bring congratulations to their Lord. But at the door of the Bishop's House they were stopped by two faithful servants of the Bishop. These were Titus and Roman, Kalmyks by origin. They declared that «Lord is resting and should not be bothered». Some hours later the sad sounds of Cathedral bells told people that their Archbishop was dead. Several people, among them an Archimandrite Lavrenty Poltorazky, M.E. Finizky and V. Leszczynski, as well as two priests, have witnessed the death of L. Gorka. The first Vyatka educator Lavrenty Gorka was buried in the Vyatka Cathedral church. In the inscription on the tomb, he was called «the cheerful verbal shepherd of sheep, the lover of wisdom and poetry, an extreme hater of ignorance and superstition» [12, p. 81].
Immediately after the death of the first Vyatka educator an explosion of hate to his school took place. It was organized by fierce enemies of education. A close friend and collaborator of Gorka Archimandrite Lavrenty Poltorazky didn't even dare to appear in Hlynov for a long time, and he didn't attend a memorial service for Gorka. The first Hlynov teacher M.E. Finizky was not allowed to enter the school. Pupils began fleeing from it. Only on the 18th of April, 1737 at least 159 pupils «disappeared». Finizky has written two desperate petitions to the Holy Synod, but it didn't help to restore the order. F. Prokopovich, the great friend of Gorka, was already dead (1736), and other principals of the Holy Synod paid no attention to the situation in the Hlynov school. Most of the Hlynov clergymen believed that the school-idea of «the Pole-Bishop» died together with him. Indeed, the first two months after the death of L. Gorka could be described as time of disruption. However, in mid-June 1737 a decree of the Holy Synod was received in Hlynov. It included the requirement «to contain the school properly, as it was during the life of the Bishop Lavrenty» [18, p. 81].
However, the situation has become more complicated by the fact that the new Bishop Cyprian Scripizyn governed in a very peculiar way. For two years, when he had been taking the post of the Vyatka Bishop, Cyprian never visited Hlynov. He governed the eparchy by sending decrees and edicts from St.-Petersburg. These decrees were frequently ignored by the clergymen in Hlynov. In such a situation more than 300 pupils have given up learning at school. Joakhim Bogomedlevsky and Vassily Leszczynski left the school without permission at the end of 1738.
On the 28th of September, 1739 the new Bishop Veniamin Sahnovsky arrived in the town of Hlynov. He was born in Kosovo. In his youth he moved to Russia. In Voronezh he became a monk, then he served in the Russian Navy as a priest. Later on he was the priest of the Pskov-Pechery Abbey, from 1731, - he was the Bishop of Kolomna. The new Bishop
drew great attention to the state of the frustrated school, and therefore he decided to bring back students to school. Strong measures were taken by the new Bishop. They were taken to caution pupils against «leakage» from school. By the end of the year 1740 there were 450 students at school. In January 1742 Veniamin went to Moscow to participate in the coronation of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and, while being in the capital, apparently, he «sought the promotion» and was soon transferred back to the Voronezh eparchy. He left behindin Hlynov a kind memory as an educator and a spiritual enlightener.
The next Hlynov Bishop Varlaam Skamnizky, a Pole by nationality, served here in 17431745. A deplorable state of school buildings forced Varlaam to look for buildings, and in October 1744 the school was located in the heated cells of the ancient Uspensky Trifonov Monastery. The Bishop Varlaam tried, as far as possible, to take care of improving the content of «food support to students», that consisted of bread, kvass (traditional Russian fermented non-alcoholic drink), cabbage and cabbage soup, grits, peas and porridge, on Sundays and on holidays - beef meat and fish. All this required financial means, and Bishop Varlaam adopted fierce measures to the so called «uteklezy», that is to those students who escaped from school. He sent, in accordance with the decree of the Holy Synod of 1744, a direction to all church men to pay monthly a penalty from 50 kopecks to 2 rubles for each son, if he was out of school. He demanded payment of this fine «without any omissions». He also issued a prescription to those monks whose children were not trained in Slav-Latin school. They were asked «not to trouble themselves» in submitting petitions for occupying better positions in the hierarchy of the local clergy [14, p. 62]. However, a lack of funds for the maintenance of pupils and teachers' salaries continued to be one of the main obstacles, and it reduced educational opportunities of the Church severely. «The twentieth part» was delivered into the Bishop's House from the monasteries and hierarchal estates irregularly. Partly it could be explained by peasants' displease, as they often refused to cultivate the Church land, and the Church, in its turn, refused paying the tribute for maintaining school.
After the long hesitation M.E. Finizky left the school. On the 1st of January, 1745 he got a permission to depart from Hlynov. A graduate of the Kazan Spiritual Academy Peter Glemarovsky was invited instead of him. He took office on the 18th of October, 1744. The Bishop Varlaam also left Hlynov to serve in Veliky Ustyug. (He died there in 1761).
The next Vyatka Bishop was Antony Illiashevich, a Pole, a native of the Vilno Voivodeship. He previously served in the rank of the Archimandrite of the Moscow Novospassky Abbey. He came to Hlynov on the 29th of April, 1748, and he died here on the 16-th of November, 1755. A three-year absence of the Bishop in Hlynov brought the school gradually into disorder. Spiritual consistory «did not try about the benefits of schools» [2, p. 201]. The Bishop Antony found the school in the state of full desolation, without any financial means. He found at school no more than 95 students. He did everything necessary to improve its material conditions. The Bishop acted decisively and he ensured that students could get bread, kvass and other kinds of food staff from the Uspensky Trifonov monastery regularly. They might have to eat in the «meat days» ham, on holidays - fresh meat, buckwheat with oil, on meatless days - peas and cabbage, and sometimes fish. The poorest pupils were given boots and dresses.
In the year of 1751 Anthony sought to withdraw pupils from the dark cells of the monastery and he managed to build a completely new building until summer of the next year. He strived that schoolchildren would have great hunt for learning. He attended spiritual consistory every Wednesday and Friday, and he often visited the school. At school Anthony
was affectionate and available, he listened to complaints and he tried to meet the desires of the students, if he found them reasonable.
In July, 1752 terrible fire devastated the whole town of Hlynov. In the fire many remarkable buildings (the Cathedral, the Bishop's Trifonov House, spiritual consistory, churches and houses) were burned. The newly built school was also lost. Disaster has come and there was no opportunity for studying. With a deep sense of bitterness the Bishop Antony has sent back schoolchildren to their homes and teaching was interrupted for six years. Thus ended the history of the first educational institution in the Vyatka province - the Hlynov Slav-Latin school.
_The conclusion. Closing reflections
The outstanding Russian Emperor Peter the Great «opened» the XVIII-th century, and all the main events in the political, economic and cultural life in the Russian Empire throughout the century in one way or another were connected with his name [10, p. 3].
Among his faith followers were the first Vyatka Bishops. The ascetic life of the first Vyatka educator was the subject of a special study by the historians starting with the second half of the XIX-th century. A valuable contribution was made by the historian A.S.Vereshchagin. In this article we have presented the life way and the impressive deeds of L. Gorka and his successors. The names of L. Gorka and other West-Slav educators are considered to be a symbol of enlightenment and a selfless service to the education of common people. The Slav-Latin school of L. Gorka, shortly after his death, as we have noted, has come into decay, but it was rebuilt relatively quickly and for decades it became one of the most prominent centers of education, not only in the Vyatka province, but also in the entire North-Eastern Russia of that time.
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Information about the author
Vladimir B. Pomelov
(Russia, Kirov) Professor, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Pedagogy Vyatka State University E-mail: [email protected] ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3813-7745
