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Technical Training in Russia under Peter the Great

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Max J. Okenfuss
Max J. Okenfuss*
Affiliation:
Washington University, St. Louis
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Extract

The Origins of modern Russian education are transparently clear. Old Muscovy had only religious schools of little consequence. Peter the Great traveled to Western Europe and upon his return to Russia, imported teachers and books, opened the first modern schools, and abandoned the older traditions. The hallmark of the new Petrine educational policy was a fanatical emphasis on technical training. Reinhard Wittram, author of the finest biography of Peter the Great, contrasted the religiocentrism of Muscovite education with the practicality of the great reformer in the simple phrase, ‘Mathematick statt Katechismus,’ which suggests the radical secularization of the new schooling. James Billington merely echoed the conclusions of generations of earlier historians when he wrote that

[Peter the Great's] efforts to advance Russian learning were almost completely concentrated on scientific, technical or linguistic matters of direct military or diplomatic value. “To Peter's mind, ‘education’ and ‘vocational training’ seem to have been synonynlous concepts.” … Peter the Great was important not for introducing foreign technical ideas into Russia, but for making them the basis of a new state-sponsored type of education.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , Winter 1973 , pp. 325 - 345
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 by New York University 

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References

Notes

1. Wittram, Reinhard, Peter 1. Czar und Kaiser (Göttingen, 1964), II, p. 199.Google Scholar

2. Billington, James, The Icon and the Axe (New York, 1966), pp. 213, 214.Google Scholar

3. Clarkson, Jesse D., A History of Russia (New York, 1961), p. 216.Google Scholar

4. See my article, “The Jesuit Origins of Petrine Education,” The Eighteenth Century in Russia, Garrard, John, ed., (Oxford, 1973), pp. 106–130. This article is the companion piece to the present essay, dealing with the classical educational tradition in Russia during the Petrine period.Google Scholar

5. Raeff, Marc, Peter the Great Changes Russia 2nd ed., (New York, 1972), pp. 122–137. The selections are by Miliukov and Rozhdestvenskii.Google Scholar

6. The dismissal of these “schools” as informal training camps follows the tone of the anonymous Istoricheskoi obozrenie 2-go Kadetskago Korpusa (St. Petersburg, 1862), pp. 1–79. Soviet historians insist that the schools were more permanent; see for example, Beskrovnyi, L. G., Russkaia armiia i flot v XVIII veke (Moscow, 1958), pp. 171–179.Google Scholar

7. Danilov, M. V., Zapiski artillerii maiora … Danilova (Moscow, 1842). He attended the school in 1735, and his memoirs are frequently cited as evidence of the brutality, incompetence and drunkenness of the teacher.Google Scholar

8. See for example, the following: Belokurov, S. A. and Zertsalo, A. N., O nemetskikh shkolakh v Moskve v pervoi chetverti XVIII v. (Moscow, 1907), pp. i–iii, 35–42; Viktorov, A., Opisanie zapisnykh knig i bumag starinnykh dvortsovykh prikazov 1613–1725 (Moscow, 1883), II, 465–466, 476, 481–482 and passim; and Suknovalov, A. E., “Pervaia v Rossii voen-no-morskaia shkola,” Istoricheskie zapiski, XLII (1953): 301–306. Google Scholar

9. Descriptions of the school are numerous; basic to all authors are the works of Veselago, F. F., Ocherk istorii morskago kadetskago korpusa (St. Petersburg, 1852), pp. 5–34, and his Ocherk russkoi morskoi istorii (St. Petersburg, 1875), I, pp. 590–598; the basic documents are in the Materialy dlia istorii russkago flota, especially Vol. III (St. Petersburg, 1866).Google Scholar

10. Hans' works include, “The Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation (1701),” Slavonic Review, XXIX No. 73 (June, 1951): 532–536; New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1951), pp. 213–219; “H. Farquharson, Pioneer of Russian Education, 1698–1739,” Aberdeen University Review (1959): 26–29. Hans neglected to mention that the Christ's Hospital school was itself a dismal failure. See Watson, F., The Beginnings of the Teaching of Modern Subjects in England (London, 1909), pp. 312–313. For the influence of another English naval school at Wapping, see Boss, Valentin, Newton and Russia. The Early Influence, 1698–1796, (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 29–32. Google Scholar

11. Martynov, A. A., Russkiia dostopamiatnosti. Vyp. I. Sukhareva bashnia v Moskve (Moscow, 1862); Sergeev, V. K., “Moskovskaia matematiko-navi-gatskaia shkola,” Voprosy geografii, XXXIV (1954): 154; Veselago, , Morskoi istorii, I, p. 596; Materialy … flota, III, pp. 291–293. Google Scholar

12. The classic account of old Russia's mathematics is Bobynin, V. V., Ocherki istorii razvitiia fiziko-matematicheskikh znanii v Rossii XVII stole-tie, 2 vv. (Moscow, 1886, 1893). See also lushkevich, A. P., “Matamatika i ee prepodavanie v Rossii XVII-XIX vv.,” Matematika v shkole (1947) No. 1: 26–39, and his Istoriia otechestvennoi matematiki (Kiev, 1966), I, pp. 72–141; and Rainov, T., Nauka v Rossiix I-XVII vekov (Moscow-Leningrad, 1940), pp. 278–288. For the tension between the art and the skill of arithmetic in contemporary French tracts, see Artz, F. B., The Development of Technical Education in France 1500–1850 (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), pp. 18–23. Google Scholar

13. The most recent biography is Denisov, A. P., Leontii Filippovich Magnitskii 1669–1739 (Moscow, 1967). He and Vucinich, Alexander, Science in Russian Culture (Stanford, 1963), p. 54, argue that Magnitskii was educated at the Academy; the lack of evidence for this assertion is discussed in Prudnikov, V. E., Russkie pedagogi-matematiki XVIII-XIX vekov (Moscow, 1956), pp. 13–16. Google Scholar

14. Viktorov, , Opisanie, II, 468. Bobynin, V. V., “Ocherki razvitiia fiziko-matematicheskikh znanii v Rossii,” Fiziko-matematicheskiia nauki v ikh nastoiashchem i proshedshem, VII (1888), No. 3, 207; Galanin, D. D., Leontii Filippovich Magnitskii i ego arifmetika (Moscow, 1914), I, 43, concluded that the school actually opened only in 1703 when the text was available. Google Scholar

15. Materialy … flota, III, p. 303.Google Scholar

16. Krotkov, A., Morskoi kadetskii korpus (St. Petersburg, 1901), p. 24 and passim .Google Scholar

17. Magnitskii, Leontii, Arifmetika, sirech nauka chislitelnaia (Moscow, 7211/1703), introductions.Google Scholar

18. Ibid.; for Western examples compare Comenius, John Amos, The Great Didactic, Keatinge, M. W., ed., (London, 1896), pp. 412, 420, 426–427, with Locke, , The Educational Writings of John Locke. A Critical Edition, Axtell, J. L., ed., (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 289–292. See also Watson, , Beginnings, pp. 254–350, Artz, , Technical Education, 1–111, and Nietz, John A., Old Textbooks (Pittsburgh, 1961), pp. 140–146. Google Scholar

19. This practical consideration, rather than “the comparatively high level of mathematical knowledge” implied by the Tables (Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture, p. 53), is the significance of the publication; see Viktorov, , Opisanie., II, 471, 475. Likewise to call the book a “translation” (Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture, pp. 53, 54), is misleading since there was no text translated; Vlacq's introduction was omitted because instructions on the use of the tables was included in the Arifmetika. Other books are described in Bykova, T. A. and Gurevich, M. M., Opisanie izdanii grazhdanskoi pechati 1708-ianvar' 1725 g. (Moscow-Leningrad, 1955). Google Scholar

20. Figures from the following: Materialy … flota, III, pp. 292, 295–300, 305–315, 325; see also Veselago, , Morskoi istorii, p. 593; Sergeev, , “Moskovskaia …”, p. 154, 159; Ak. Sk., “O nachale morskago korpusa,” Zapiski gidrograficheskago departamenta morskago ministerstva, IV (1846), Otdelenie II, p. 318; Veselago, F., “Morskaia uchilishcha pri Petre Velikom,” Zapiski gridrograficheskago departamenta morskago ministerstva, VI (1848), Otdelenie II, pp. 353–354. Fluctuations are due to periodic recruitment and reassignment of students; bracketed figures are the statutory contingents; the largest figure, 719 in 1715, represents recruiting for the Naval Academy about to open in St. Petersburg; the final figure shows the size of the Moscow School after the Academy was opened. Approximately 1200 students attended between 1701 and 1715. Google Scholar

21. Materialy … flota, III, pp. 295–300, 302, 305–306, and passim; Veselago, , Kadetskago korpusa, pp. 8–9. Krotkov, , Morskoi, pp. 20–21, shows that only 15% of the student contingent of 1705 were within the statutory age limits: 85% were legally too old. His figures are based on their ages in 1705, not at the date of admission to the school. Google Scholar

22. Veselago, , Kadetskago korpusa, pp. 11–12; Veselago, , Morskoi istorii, p. 591. Recent citations include Hans, “Moscow School,” Slavonic Review, p. 534, and Sergeev, , “Moskovskaia …,” pp. 152–153, neither providing a reference. See also Barbashev, N., K istorii morekhodnogo obrazovaniia v Rossii (Moscow, 1959), p. 9. Google Scholar

23. Materialy … flota, III, pp. 289–321, passim .Google Scholar

24. Sources for this discussion include Materialy … flota, III, pp. 326–355; Krotkov, , Morskoi, pp. 31–50; Veselago, , Morskoi istorii, 598–616; Veselago, , Kadetskago korpusa, pp. 35–77. The ambitious statute for the Academy is published in Danilevskii, V. V., Russkaia tekhnicheskaia literatura pervoi chetverti XVIII veka (Moscow-Leningrad, 1954), pp. 158–162. The list of subjects resembles closely those in the French schools; see Artz, , Technical Education, pp. 52–55. Google Scholar

25. Materialy … flota, III, pp. 329, 346–352.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., pp. 337–338; Veselago, , Morskoi istorii, p. 602.Google Scholar

27. Veselago, , Kadetskago korpusa, pp. 70–75, 95–96; Burov, A. A., “Pervye narodnye shkoly v Rossii,” Sovetskaia pedagogika, No. 6 (1958): 116–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28. Materialy … flota, III, p. 321; for another example, see Pis'ma i bumagi Petra Velikago, IV, part 1, p. 158.Google Scholar

29. The best discussion is still Veselago, , Kadetskago korpusa, pp. 59–77; for the French model, see Artz, , Technical Education, pp. 52–55, 102–106. Google Scholar

30. See the excellent profile of the gardemariny in 1724 in Sokolov, A., “Russkii flot pri konchine Petra Velikago, 1725 goda,” Zapiski gidrograficheskago departamenta morskago ministerstva, VI (1848), Otdelenie II, p. 309.Google Scholar

31. Weber, F., The Present State of Russia (London, 1723), I, p. 180. The passage continues to the effect that they were “taught Languages, Fencing, and other bodily exercises,” but elsewhere Weber contradicted this; referring to the winter of 1716–1717, he noted that the new Academy was functioning under Farquharson, and that its students were “only taught Naviagation [sic] and what belongs to it”; Ibid., p. 129.Google Scholar

32. Materialy … flota, III, pp. 329, 330, 345.Google Scholar

33. For this discussion see Prilezhaev, E. M., “Novgorodskiia eparkhial'-nyia shkoly v Petrovskuiu epokhu,” Khristianskoe chtenie, 1877, March-April, 331–370; Znamenskii, P., Dukhovnyia shkoly v Rossii do reformy 1808 goda (Kazan', 1881), pp. 34–36; Smentsovskii, M., Brat'ia Likhudy (St. Petersburg, 1899), pp. 346, 350–352; and Chistovich, I., “Novgorodskii mitropolit Iov, zhizn' ego i perepiska s raznymi litsami,” Strannik (February, 1861): 61–145. Google Scholar

34. As for example in Miliukov, P., Ocherki po istorii russkoi kul'tury (2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1899), II, p. 280.Google Scholar

35. On the ciphering schools see Rozhdestvenskii, S., Ocherki po istorii sistem narodnogo prosveshcheniia v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1912), with the statutes in the appendix; Miliukov, , Russkoi Kul'tury, Ia. Chistovich, , Istoriia pervykh meditsinskikh shkol v Rossii (St. Petersburg, 1883), pp. xxxii–xxxiii and passim; Demkov, M. I., Istoriia russkoi pedagogii. Chast' II. Novaia russkaia pedagogiia (XVIII-i vek) (2nd ed., Moscow, 1910), pp. 53–59; and Pekarskii, P., Nauka i literatura v Rossii pri Petre Velikom. Tom I. Vvedenie v istoriiu prosveshcheniia v Rossii XVIII stoletiia (St. Petersburg, 1862), pp. 124–126. Google Scholar

36. Chistovich, , Istoriia; Rozhdestvenskii, , Sistem Narodnogo, 136–138.Google Scholar

37. For this discussion, Prilezhaev, E. M., “Iz istorii russkoi dukhovnoi shkoly v pervye gody Sidodal'nago upravleniia,” Khristianskoe chtenie, 1879, No. 1–2, 176–191, esp. pp. 176–180. See also Cracraft, James, The Church Reform of Peter the Great (Stanford, 1971), pp. 94, 270–276, and my article cited in footnote 4 above. Google Scholar

38. Demkov, , Russkoi Pedagogii, pp. 57–58; Miliukov, as cited in Raeff, , Peter the Great, pp. 62–63. Google Scholar

39. For the following discussion see the excellent study by Shcheglov, S. M., “Dve S.-Peterburgskie shkoly v pervoi polovine XVIII veka,” Zhurnal ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia, XXXIX (1912), May, Otdelenie IV, pp. 1–55. Far inferior is the study by Burov, A. A., “Pervye narodnye shkoly v Rossii,” Sovetskaia pedagogika, No. 6 (1958): 113–119. Google Scholar