History of the Russian Empire education in the 17th century. Spreading literacy and education

In the 17th century The number of literate (able to read and write) people is increasing. Thus, among the townsfolk population there were 40% literate, among merchants - 96%, among landowners - 65%. Business writing expanded significantly, and qualified paperwork was carried out not only in central orders, but also in zemstvo institutions, and even in estates. Handwritten books were still widespread. And from 1621, a handwritten newspaper “Chimes” began to be produced for the tsar, consisting mainly of translated foreign news. Along with handwritten publications, printed materials produced at the Moscow Printing Yard increasingly came into use. Already in the first half of the 17th century. About 200 books of various titles were published. Libraries began to be collected by private individuals. In 1672, the first bookstore opened in Moscow. Book printing made it possible to publish manuals on grammar and arithmetic in large quantities. The primer (“ABC”) by Vasily Burtsev, published in 1634, was subsequently reprinted several times. At the end of the century, an illustrated primer by Karion Istomin appeared in 1882. - printable multiplication table. “Psalters” and “Books of Hours” were also published for “educational purposes.” Literacy was usually taught either in families or by clergy, sextons and clerks. However, the need for organized training became increasingly urgent. Already in the 40s, on the initiative of one of the prominent statesmen F.M. Rtishchev, a school was organized in the Moscow St. Andrew's Monastery. In 1665, a school for training clerks was opened in the Zaikonospassky Monastery, in 1680. - a school is founded at the Printing Yard. The first schools prepared the opening in 1687 of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (originally a school) led by the Greek brothers Ioannikios and Sophronius Likhuds.

The Academy set as its goal the training of “grammar, literature, rhetoric, dialectics, philosophy... theology” of people of “every rank, dignity and age.” The training was designed for the preparation of the highest clergy and civil service officials. As for scientific knowledge, its practical side developed mainly and its theoretical basis was almost unaffected. For example, mathematical knowledge was associated with the practice of describing land, trade and military affairs. Thus, the “Charter of Military, Cannon and Other Affairs Relating to Military Science” (1621) provided practical information on geometry, mechanics, physics, and chemistry.

Medical knowledge was based on folk healing traditions, as well as on the experience of translated foreign healers and “herbalists.” The Pharmacy Order concentrated specialists who knew how to manufacture medicines; Pharmacists and doctors were also trained here. In 1654, the order trained 30 archers, who were then sent to regiments “for treatment” of military men.

Knowledge about the surrounding nature and world is accumulated and developed: astronomical and geographical. In the middle of the 17th century, works introducing the heliocentric system of Copernicus penetrated into Russia.

Geographic maps were compiled back in the first half of the century. For example, in 1627, the “Book of the Great Drawing” was produced in the Rank Order; in Novgorod, the “Drawing... of Russian and Swedish cities to the Varangian Sea” was created.

The expansion of geographical ideas was facilitated by materials from expeditions to explore Siberia (Stadukhin, Poyarkov, Dezhnev, Khabarov, Atlasov). After 1683, “Description of new lands, that is, the Siberian kingdom” arose. It and previous descriptions and drawings were prepared by S.U. Remizov’s work “Drawing Book of Siberia”.

Architecture, painting, art and life. The 17th century is one of the most difficult and controversial periods in medieval Russian history. No wonder it was called “rebellious” - it exploded with the “Copper” and “Salt” riots. Popular discontent resulted in uprisings led by Ivan Bolotnikov and Stepan Razin. This is also a time of great change in the Russian Church. Patriarch Nikon's reforms led first to theological polemics and then to a schism in the church, which shook the spiritual life of late ancient Russian society.

At the same time, due to changes in the economic sphere, with the publication of manufactories, and a certain rapprochement with Western Europe, a decisive break in the traditional social worldview is taking place. The craving for science, the interest in real subjects in literature, the growth of secular journalism, the violation of iconographic canons in painting, the rapprochement of religious and civil architecture, the love of decor, of polychrome in architecture, and in all the fine arts - all this speaks of a rapid process secularization of the culture of the 17th century. In the struggle between old and new, in contradictions, the art of new times is born. The 17th century marks the end of the history of ancient Russian art, and it also opens the way for a new secular culture.

Active construction began immediately after the expulsion of the interventionists, in the 20s. Three stages can be traced in the architecture of this century: in the first quarter of the 17th century. or even in the first 30 years there is still a strong connection with the traditions of the 16th century; mid-century - 40-80s - the search for a new style that corresponded to the spirit of the times, and its flourishing; the end of the century - a departure from old techniques and the establishment of new ones, testifying to the birth of the architecture of the so-called new time.

Church buildings from the beginning of the century differ little from the churches of the 16th century. Thus, the Church of the Intercession in the royal village of Rubtsovo (1619-1625), erected in honor of the liberation of Moscow from the Poles, the end of the “Troubles,” is a pillarless temple covered with a closed vault, similar in internal and external appearance to the churches of Godunov’s time. The building stands on a basement, is surrounded by a two-tier gallery, has two aisles, and three tiers of kokoshniks run from the main volume to the small dome. Tent construction continues.

A church was erected in Medvedkovo (estate of Prince D. Pozharsky, 1623, now Moscow), and a “Wonderful” church in Uglich. The tent also rose above the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower when, in 1628, they began to restore its walls and towers that had been damaged during the intervention (other towers received their tent-like completion only 60 years later). In the 30s, the largest secular building on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin was built - the Terem Palace (1635-1636, architects Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov; later remodeled several times). The palace was built on a basement of the 16th century, has an upper walkway, an “attic”-teremok and a gilded hipped roof. The Terem Palace, created for the royal children, with all its “multi-volume” residential and office premises, multi-colored decor (the “grass” ornament of the exterior carved on white stone and the rich painting of Simon Ushakov inside) resembled a wooden mansion.

In the 40s, a typical for the 17th century took shape. style - with a picturesque, asymmetrical grouping of masses. Architectural forms become more complex, the structure of the building is difficult to read through the decor that covers the entire wall, most often polychrome. The tent-roofed architecture and the verticalism of its entire volume gradually loses its meaning, for churches appear in which there are two, three, sometimes five tents of the same height, as in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Putinki in Moscow (1649-1652): three tents of the main volume, one above the chapel and one above the bell tower. In addition, the tents are now blank and purely decorative. From now on, the phrase “And so that the top of that church should not be a tent roof” appears more and more often in the patriarchal documents for the construction of a church.

However, as already mentioned, tents remained one of the favorite forms and in cities they were preserved mainly on bell towers, porches, and gates, and in rural areas, hipped churches were built in the 17th and even the 18th centuries. Let us also note that in the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery in Istra near Moscow, built in the 50-60s by Patriarch Nikon, which seems to replicate the temple in Jerusalem, the western volume of the building (rotunda) ends with a tent. A certain type of temple is spreading - pillarless, usually five-domed, with decorative side drums (only the central one is illuminated), with an emphasized asymmetry of the overall composition due to different-scale aisles, a refectory, porches, and a hipped bell tower. An example is the Trinity Church in Nikitniki (1631-1634, another date 1628-1653), built by the richest Moscow merchant Nikitnikov and reminiscent of mansion construction with its whimsical forms and decorative multicolor (red brick, white stone carvings, green tiled domes, glazed tiles). The richness of architectural decoration is especially characteristic of Yaroslavl. Founded back in the 11th century. Yaroslav the Wise, this city experienced something like a “golden age” in art in the 17th century. The fire of 1658, which destroyed about three dozen churches, three monasteries and more than a thousand houses, caused increased construction in the second half of the century. Large five-domed churches are built here, surrounded by porches, walkways, chapels and porches, with the obligatory hipped bell tower, sometimes with tents on the chapels (for example, the Church of Elijah the Prophet, built at the expense of the Skripin merchants, 1647-1650), always in perfect harmony with the landscape (church St. John Chrysostom in Korovniki, 1649-1654, some additions were made in the 80s, its hipped bell tower is 38 m high, with multi-colored decorative decoration made of glazed tiles; Church of St. John the Baptist in Tolchkovo, 1671-1687, the five-domed main volume of which is supplemented by 10 chapters two aisles, all this together forms a 15-domed, spectacular silhouette). Church hierarchs did not remain indifferent to the decorative richness of the architecture of that time.

Metropolitan Jonah Sysoevich is building his residence in Rostov the Great on a large scale on the shore of Lake Nero (metropolitan chambers and the House Church), usually called the Rostov Kremlin (70-80s of the 17th century). The elegance of the towers, galleries, porches, and gates is not inferior to the splendor of the church buildings themselves; both religious and civil architecture seem to compete in the festiveness of the image. And how else, if not a victory of the secular principle, can one call the architecture of the Gate House of the Krutitsa Metropolitan Metochion in Moscow (1681-1693, another date 1694), the entire facade of which is decorated with multi-colored tiles?! It was built by O. Startsev and L. Kovalev.

In recent decades, or rather even in the 90s of the 17th century, a new style, a new direction has appeared in Russian architecture, which is conventionally called “Moscow” or “Naryshkin Baroque” - apparently because most of the churches of this style were built in Moscow by order of the noble boyars Naryshkins, mainly the queen's brother Lev Kirillovich. Centricity and tiering, symmetry and balance of masses, known separately and earlier, developed in this style into a certain system - quite original, but, taking into account the applied order details, close (in external design) to the style of European Baroque. In any case, this is exactly the name that was assigned to the architecture of this direction (although it is not Moscow, because it spread outside Moscow, and not Naryshkin - it is even more narrowed). Some researchers, for example B. R. Vipper, consider it inappropriate to use the term “Baroque” at all, because this is “not a change in worldview, but a change in tastes, not the emergence of new principles, but an enrichment of techniques.” The architecture of the “Naryshkin baroque” is only “a mediator between old and new artistic ideas”, a kind of “harbinger of the romantic beginning in new Russian art.

But at the same time, it is quite obvious that it lacked courage, radicalism, true innovation” to be called a style (see about this: Vipper B.R. Architecture of the Russian Baroque. M., 1978. P. 17-18, 38-39). Typical examples of “Naryshkin baroque” are churches in the estates of the nobility near Moscow. These are tiered buildings (octagons or octagons on a quadrangle, known for a long time) on a basement, with galleries. The last octagon in front of the head drum is used as a bell tower, hence the name of this kind of churches “churches like bells.” Here, in a modified form, Russian wooden architecture made itself felt fully, with its pronounced centricity and pyramidality, with a calm balance of masses and organic fit into the surrounding landscape. The most striking example of the “Moscow Baroque” is the Church of the Intercession in Fili (1693-1695), the estate church of L.K. Naryshkin (“a light lace fairy tale”, according to I.E. Grabar), the verticalism of an elegant, openwork silhouette finds analogies in tented and pillar-shaped churches. White stone profiled columns on the edges of the edges, the framing of windows and doors emphasize this aspiration of the entire architectural volume upward. No less beautiful are the churches in Trinity-Lykovo (1698-1704) and in Ubory (1693-1697) - both creations of the architect Yakov Bukhvostov. The regularity of construction, the use of a floor order, the concentration of decorative elements in the framing of openings and in the cornices make these structures similar. In the Church of the Sign in the estate of B. Golitsyn Dubrovitsy (1690-1704), according to the plan similar to the Church of the Intercession in Fili, there is a departure from the principles of Old Russian architecture and a rapprochement with Baroque European buildings.

The architecture of the 17th century is characterized by its geographical scale: active construction is carried out in Moscow and its environs, in Yaroslavl, Tver, Pskov, Ryazan, Kostroma, Vologda, Kargopol, etc.

The process of secularization of Russian culture is especially clearly manifested at this time in civil architecture. Features of regularity and symmetry can be seen in the chambers of V.V. Golitsyn in Moscow in Okhotny Ryad, in the house of boyar Troekurov with its magnificent outdoor decoration. Many public buildings were being built: the Printing (1679) and Mint (1696) courtyards, the Prikazov building (pharmacy on Red Square, 90s). Sretensky Gate of the Zemlyanoy City, used as a premises for the garrison, and under Peter it became a “navigation” and mathematical school and better known as the Sukharev Tower (1692-1701, architect Mikhail Choglokov). Thus, in the pronounced national architecture of the 17th century, with its picturesque asymmetry, polychromy of rich decor, cheerfulness and inexhaustible folk imagination, the features of regularity, some techniques of Western European architecture, and the use of order details are strengthened - elements that will be developed in subsequent centuries.

Perhaps in no other form of art, as in painting, were all the contradictions of the turbulent 17th century reflected with such clarity. It was in painting that the process of secularization of art was particularly active.

Turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. marked in the fine arts by the presence of two different artistic movements. The first is the so-called Godunov school, so named because most of the works were performed by order of Boris Godunov. Artists of this movement sought to follow the monumental images of Rublev and Dionysius, but, in essence, it was archaic and eclectic. The second is the “Stroganov school,” conditionally named so because some icons were commissioned by eminent people the Stroganovs. Not only Stroganov’s Solvychegodsk icon painters belonged to it, but also Moscow, royal and patriarchal masters. The best of them are Procopius Chirin, Nikita, Nazarius, Fyodor and Istoma Savina, etc. The Stroganov icon is small in size, it is not so much a prayer image as a precious miniature, designed for an art connoisseur (it is not for nothing that it is already signed, not anonymous).

It is characterized by careful, very fine writing, sophistication of design, richness of ornamentation, abundance of gold and silver. A typical work of the “Stroganov school” is the icon of Procopius Chirin “Nikita the Warrior” (1593, Tretyakov Gallery). His figure is fragile, lacking the masculinity of the holy warriors of the pre-Mongol era or the time of early Muscovite art (remember “Boris and Gleb” from the State Tretyakov Gallery), his pose is mannered, his legs and arms are deliberately weak, his outfit is emphatically refined. It must be admitted that what was undoubtedly new among the masters of the “Stroganov school” was that they were able to convey the deeply lyrical mood of a poetic, fabulous landscape with golden foliage of trees and silvery, finely drawn rivers (“John the Baptist in the Desert” from the Tretyakov Gallery). Created rather for collectors, connoisseurs, and amateurs, the icon of the “Stroganov school” remained in Russian icon painting as an example of high professionalism, artistry, and sophistication of language, but at the same time it testified to the gradual dying of the monumental prayer image.

Schism in the 17th century church. became more and more social in nature and influenced cultural life. Disputes between schismatics and the official religion resulted in a struggle between two different aesthetic views. At the head of the new movement, proclaiming the tasks of painting that led, in fact, to a break with the ancient Russian icon-painting tradition, stood the royal isographer and art theorist Simon Ushakov (1626-1686). He outlined his views in a treatise dedicated to his friend Joseph Vladimirov, “A Word to the Careful Icon Painting” (1667). Ushakov introduced his understanding of the purpose of the icon into the traditional idea of ​​icon painting, highlighting first of all its artistic, aesthetic side. Ushakov was most interested in the issues of the relationship between painting and real life, we would say, “the relationship of art to reality.” For the defenders of the old tradition, led by Archpriest Avvakum, religious art had no connection with reality. An icon, they believed, is an object of cult; everything in it, even the board itself, is sacred, and the faces of saints cannot be a copy of the faces of mere mortals.

An excellent teacher, a skillful organizer, one of the main painters of the Armory Chamber, Simon Ushakov was faithful to his theoretical conclusions in his own practice. His favorite themes - “The Savior Not Made by Hands” (State Russian Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, State Historical Museum), “Trinity” (State Russian Museum) - show how the artist sought to get rid of the conventional canons of icon painting that had developed in centuries-old traditions. He achieves the flesh tone of faces, almost classical regularity of features, volumetric construction, emphasized perspective (sometimes directly using architectural backgrounds of Italian Renaissance painting). Despite its compositional similarity to Rublev’s “Trinity,” Ushakov’s “Trinity” (1671, Russian Russian Museum) no longer has anything in common with it in the main thing - it lacks the spirituality of Rublev’s images. The angels look like completely earthly creatures, which in itself is meaningless; the table with the cup - a symbol of the sacrament of sacrifice, atonement - has turned into a real still life.

In the middle of the 17th century. The Armory Chamber became the artistic center of the entire country, headed by one of the most educated people of his time, boyar B.M. Khitrovo. The masters of the Armory painted churches and chambers, renovated old paintings, painted icons and miniatures, and “flagmen” (i.e., draftsmen) created designs for icons, banners, church embroidery, and jewelry. All the outstanding artistic forces of Rus' gathered here, foreign masters also worked here, and orders for numerous paintings, easel and monumental works in a variety of techniques came from here.

Fresco painting of the 17th century. with great reservation can be called monumental. They painted a lot, but differently than before. The images are shredded and difficult to read from a distance. There is no tectonics in the fresco cycles of the 17th century. Frescoes cover the walls, pillars, and frames with one continuous pattern, in which genre scenes are intertwined with intricate ornaments. Ornament covers architecture, human figures, their costumes; landscape backgrounds grow from ornamental rhythms. Decorativism is one of the distinctive features of fresco painting of the 17th century. The second feature is festivity and constant interest in man in his everyday life, the emphasis in the plots of the Holy Scriptures on the beauty of nature, human labor, that is, life in all its diversity. We do not call this quality of 17th century painting. everydayism, as it often sounds in works on art of the 17th century. Not a dull protocol recording of the little things of everyday life, but the true element of a holiday, a constant victory over everyday life - this is what mural painting of the 17th century is all about. The Yaroslavl frescoes of the artel of Gury Nikitin and Sila Savin or Dmitry Grigoriev (Plekhanov) are the most striking example of this. In the 17th century Yaroslavl, a wealthy Volga city, is becoming, as already mentioned, one of the most interesting centers of not only vibrant social, but also artistic life. Merchants and rich townspeople build and decorate churches. A master from the Armory, the already mentioned Guriy Nikitin, nominated by Simon Ushakov for the title of “compensated” master in 1679, with a large team painted the Yaroslavl Church of Elijah the Prophet in 1681, Dmitry Grigoriev-Plekhanov with his team - the Church of John the Baptist in Tolchkovo . The themes of the Holy Scriptures are transformed into fascinating short stories, their religious content remains, but acquires a different, sharper shade, painted in the optimistic colors of the people's worldview. Engravings of the famous Piscator (Fisher) Bible, published in Holland and which served as a model for Russian masters, form the basis of many frescoes in Yaroslavl churches, but they were presented in a strong revision, both semantic and stylistic. A well-known example of the depiction of the harvest in the scene of the healing of a youth by a saint: with undisguised delight, the mural painter depicts how reapers in bright shirts reap and bind rye into sheaves in a golden grain field. The master does not forget to depict even cornflowers among the rye. As one of the researchers (V.A. Plugin) correctly noted, the man in the paintings of the 17th century. rarely appears as a contemplative, a philosopher, people in the painting of this time are very active, they build, fight, trade, plow, ride in a carriage and on horseback; all scenes are quite “crowded” and “noisy”. This is typical both for Moscow churches (the Trinity Church in Nikitniki, painted back in the 50s), and for Rostov and especially for Yaroslavl, which left wonderful mural monuments of the 17th century.

Secular paintings are better known to us only from the testimony of contemporaries, for example, the painting of the Kolomna Palace, fabulous, like its appearance, and the painting of the Faceted Chamber that has come down to us, performed by Simon Ushakov together with clerk Klementyev.

Finally, the portrait genre becomes a harbinger of the art of the future era. The portrait - parsuna (from the distorted word “persona”, Latin “persona”, personality) - was born at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. Images of Ivan IV from the Copenhagen National Museum, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (GIM), Prince M.V. Skopin-Shuisky (Tretyakov Gallery) are still close to the icon in terms of the method of implementation, but they already have a certain portrait resemblance. There are also changes in the language of the image. For all the naivety of the form, linearity, staticity, locality, there is already, albeit a timid, attempt at light and shadow modeling.

In the middle of the 17th century. some parsuns were performed by foreign artists. It is believed that the portrait of Patriarch Nikon with the clergy was painted by the Dutchman Wuchters. Parsuns of the steward V. Lyutkin, L. Naryshkin of the end of the 17th century. can already be called portraits.

There are many everyday scenes and portraits in Old Russian graphics of this time. For example, the famous Gospel of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich of 1678 contains 1200 miniatures. These are figures of fishermen, peasants, rural landscapes. In the handwritten “Titular Book” (“Big State Book”, or “The Root of Russian Sovereigns”) we find images of Russian and foreign rulers (1672-1673; TsGADA, RE, RNL). The development of printing contributed to the flourishing of engraving, first on wood and then on metal. Simon Ushakov himself participated in the engraving of “The Tale of Varlaam and Joasaph” together with the engraver of the Armory Chamber A. Trukhmensky.

The desire to convey real earthly beauty and at the same time fabulous fantasy is characteristic of all types of artistic creativity of the 17th century. In the Terem Palace, the walls, vaults, floors, tiled stoves, dishes, fabrics, people's costumes - everything was covered with thick grass patterns. The facades, window frames, and porches of the wooden Kolomna Palace were decorated with carved ornaments. The iconostases and royal doors in churches were decorated with the same abundant carvings (and more and more in high relief) with gilding. The love for ornamental patterns was also reflected in stone carving. The gilding of the carvings, the polychromy of the tiles, and the red color of the bricks created a festive and decorative architectural image. The art of glazed tiles and architectural and decorative ceramics reaches perfection. Tiles of different shapes, colors and patterns either completely covered the walls with a patterned carpet, as in the already mentioned Krutitsky Teremka, or played the role of inserts or decorated the windows along the perimeter, as in the Yaroslavl churches of St. John Chrysostom or St. Nicholas the Mokroy. The making of the tile was reminiscent of folk wooden carving of gingerbread boards, which has long been familiar to Russian people, and its color scheme was reminiscent of embroidery, printed cloth, and lubok.

In the 17th century, round sculpture, almost completely unfamiliar to previous eras, increasingly asserted itself. The desire for emphasized plasticity and volume also affected metal products: chased gold and silver robes of icons, and various forms of utensils, both church and secular. The love for multi-colored patterns caused a new flowering of the art of enamels, in which Solvychegodsk and Ustyug masters became especially famous. In the Solvychegodsk workshops of the “famous people Stroganovs” the “Usolsk enamel work” is developing: Usolsk enamel is distinguished by the painting of floral patterns on a light background. In the Volga region cities, the art of printed material was developed: colorful patterns are printed on canvas from carved wooden boards.

In the designs decorating the embroidery, there is an obvious shift from painting to jewelry: the main emphasis is on the shine of gold and silver, the sparkle of precious stones and pearls. Gold sewing reached particular subtlety and perfection in the Stroganov school of sewing in the middle of the century. The gold seamstresses of the Tsarina's Chamber Workshop were famous for their decorative sewing. But even in the applied arts, where the canons were adhered to the longest, an interest in life is manifested; here, as in painting, there is clearly a tendency towards increased decorativeness and lush ornamentation. Everything testifies to the victory of new artistic tastes, a new worldview, and an impending turning point at the turn of two centuries.

The great ancient Russian art was formed in the closest connection with religion. The Christian Orthodox worldview gave rise to special forms of temples and monastery buildings, and developed a certain system and technique of monumental painting and icon painting. Medieval thinking gave rise to certain canons in art, which is why in Ancient Rus' patterns played a huge role in both architecture and painting.

Old Russian art, naturally, developed and changed over more than 800 years of existence, but its forms and traditions did not die and did not disappear without a trace with the advent of modern times; they still had a long life ahead, albeit in a modified form, in the art of subsequent centuries

Noticeable shifts in all areas of Russian culture had little effect on the overall cultural panorama of the country.

New trends in everyday life affected only the top of the city - the royal court, the boyars, and rich townspeople. Gradually, the European model of life penetrated into the financially secure Russian environment. The main feature of these innovations was concern for comfort. Cutlery and napkins appeared at the table. Tablecloths and individual dishes were used. A separate room was allocated for each family member. People used individual toiletries. Rich families used earthenware, tin and copper dishes. Drinks were abundantly presented at the feast - beer, kvass, berry honey, imported wines.

In the large stone houses of the boyars Golitsyn, Naryshkin, Odoevsky, Morozov and others, the walls were covered with expensive wallpaper, fabrics, leather, and carpets. Mirrors and paintings hung in the walls. The rooms had beautiful furniture. Chandeliers and many candles illuminated the rooms. Separate rooms were allocated for libraries.

The clothes of the owners and servants of such houses were in the Western style, short and light, made of expensive fabrics, decorated with gold and silver embroidery and precious stones. European dress was supposed to become the norm for Russian society, but this trend did not gain its strength immediately; it had to make its way through the strong foundations of the age-old traditions of the people. However, pan-European fashion, dictated by the generally recognized leader - Paris, in the first half of the 18th century. was already accepted by the privileged classes of Russia.

The carriages were light, on springs, with servants at the back. Concerts, various entertainments, and chess became elements of the everyday life of rich people. In a game of chess, the Russians easily beat the Europeans. Europeanized people did their hair, shaved their faces, and some used wigs.

Representatives of the townsfolk elite lived more modestly (cloth clothes, modest furniture and dishes). But among them there was also a desire for comfort.

In the 17th century The royal way of life changed. The king's guard numbered up to 2000 people. Special sleeping servants, stablekeepers, falconers, and carriage servants helped him throughout the day. Royal palaces in the 17th century. were distinguished by great splendor. Permanent summer residences appeared - Kolomenskoye and Izmailovskoye.

Paintings, clocks, and mirrors appear in the rooms. The main halls are used to receive guests. At feasts, tables were often set for several thousand guests. The king's main entertainment was hound and falconry.

The mansions of the nobles were a copy of the royal chambers in miniature. They consisted of a complex of wooden and stone structures. There was a stove in the center. Mica, or fish bladders, were inserted into the windows. The furniture was made from carved wood. The floors were made of wood and often covered with carpets. The dishes were gold and silver. Glassware was rare.

The life of the townspeople was more modest. The farmstead included a residential building and outbuildings. The basis of the furniture were tables, benches, and chests. The main decoration was considered a red corner with icons. In the 17th century townspeople began to build brick houses, but only wealthy townspeople could afford such housing.

The peasant yard included a hut, a stable, and a barn. The huts were heated in black, stoves were rare. A torch was used for lighting. The furniture included tables and benches. We slept on the stove and beds near it. The dishes were wooden and clay. The basis of nutrition was grain crops, rye, millet, oats, wheat, and peas. Meat was prepared for major holidays. In the north and in the Center they collected mushrooms and berries. The family consisted of no more than 10 people. Boys were married at the age of 15, and girls at the age of 12. Marriages could take place up to 3 times. Since the 17th century Church weddings became mandatory. Clothes were made from homespun canvas and animal skins. Shoes were bast bast shoes or leather morshni.

All new phenomena of everyday life were a drop in the ocean of old Russian customs. Millions of people lived in smoking huts, with a torch in the common room. Peasant and townsfolk families ate from a common bowl with wooden spoons. They wore clothes made of homespun canvas or coarse cloth, bast shoes in summer, felt boots in winter, and slept on benches in common rooms. On rare days of rest, people enjoyed dressing up, doing fortune telling, dancing with pleasure and singing songs and ditties.

New trends remained elitist. They only emphasized the huge gap between the life of the broad masses of the people (peasants and townspeople) and the extremely narrow layer of representatives of the upper classes of society who were drawn to education and culture. And yet the temples and houses stood in plain sight, the entrance to the churches was open to all parishioners. This left a civilizational stamp on the appearance of the people’s consciousness.

Compared to the 16th century, the 17th century had at least some changes in everyday life. Indeed, in the 16th century, the life of various strata of the people changed slowly. Life in the vast expanses of Russia remained traditional, as it had been many centuries ago. The same long and heavy clothes remained. The same smoking huts, the same wooden dishes, the same entertainment. Only in large cities did some changes occur. In some places mica and glass windows appeared instead of the previous ones, covered with bullish bubbles.

History of pedagogy in Russia in the 18th century. is divided into two periods: the first and second half of the century. The first period is characterized by reforms in the field of education and upbringing; there is a tendency to develop the education system according to the pan-European type. Class society is being replaced by civil society, which has made education more accessible to the general public. The political and economic systems are undergoing significant changes, and therefore there is an urgent need for educated people. A person is increasingly perceived as a separate person.

During the period of the late XVII - early XVIII centuries. There is a turn towards school and pedagogy of the New Age. State schools provide knowledge in modern sciences, while they differ in their own specialization. One of the schools created by Peter I was called the school of mathematical and navigational sciences. Its curriculum included arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, astronomy, and mathematical geography. Discipline was strict, for example. Escaping from school was punishable by death. In 1715, on the basis of the senior classes of the navigation school in St. Petersburg, the Naval Academy was organized, which is a military educational institution. In Moscow, engineering and artillery schools were opened in 1712, and a surgical school in 1707; in 1721, mining schools were created at Siberian factories. An advanced school with intensive study of foreign languages ​​(Greek, Latin, Italian, French, German, Swedish) was opened in 1705, led by Pastor Ernst Gluck. However, by 1716 the only school with advanced training was the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.

In 1714, a decree was issued obliging children of the nobility, clerks and clerks to receive elementary education. To fulfill these obligations, elementary mathematics schools - digital schools - were created. Schools of this type met active resistance from parents of potential students, who preferred bishops' schools. By 1744, digital schools ceased to exist. Bishop's schools were distinguished by a combination of religious and secular education. The activities of such schools were determined by the “Spiritual Regulations”. In addition, the Regulations prescribe the opening of various educational institutions for the clergy, for example academies with seminarias. The students had to live in them permanently and at first there was no way out.

In Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. training was carried out in Russian. The Russian alphabet was improved, and a comparative analysis of the Slavic, Greek and Latin languages ​​was carried out. New textbooks on various school subjects were created in Russian. A feature of the pedagogical development of this period are the reforms of Peter I in the field of education, associated with an increased role of the state not only in teaching, but also in upbringing. People's dissatisfaction with these reforms was brutally suppressed. During Peter's reforms, educational institutions of a new type were created. One of them was the Academy of Sciences, which became an important scientific and educational center of the state. The academy included a university and a gymnasium. A closed educational institution was opened - a cadet corps. In 1759, under Empress Elizabeth, an elite educational institution was created - the Corps of Pages in St. Petersburg. The state sought to increase the level of education of the nobility, which ultimately led to the realization by the bulk of the upper class of the need to obtain an education. Active figures in this direction were Fyodor Saltykov, who developed a plan for the creation of academies in each province, Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, who opened several mining schools, Feofan Prokopovich - an ardent supporter of secular education according to the European model, Ivan Tikhonovich Pososhkov, a supporter of classical education and at the same time Peter's reforms. Among the figures of the Russian Enlightenment we can also include the German scientist and philosopher G.V. Leibniz, who developed his own school reform project, characterized by a practical orientation of education. The Russian scientist and encyclopedist Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711–1765) is of particular importance in the development of Russian education and pedagogy in general. He was the first to give lectures to students in Russian and insisted on the scientific nature of teaching. Adhered to the position of conscious, visual, consistent and systematic learning. M.V. Lomonosov was one of the initiators of the creation of Moscow University and determined its intellectual basis, as well as the direction of development. The second half of the 18th century is characterized by increased interest in educational issues. This was largely determined by the reign of Catherine II, a European-educated person. During this period, there are heated debates and discussions on pedagogical topics, and many essays appear with discussions on the topics of education and training. In general, the predominant tendency is towards the importance of public education, embarking on the path of European education while preserving Russian traditions.

The Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, which offered classical education, was losing prestige and, therefore, was irrelevant in the conditions of the period under review. Moscow University in its activities largely relied on the needs of the nobles for Western European education and familiarization with the cultural achievements of Europe. The desire of the social elite for culture and art undermines the mechanism of systematic scientific education at Moscow and St. Petersburg universities. The number of students dropped sharply, professors lost interest in teaching. To revive the university and establish the pedagogical process, foreign and domestic scientists were invited. They created and translated teaching aids and textbooks on many subjects into Russian. During this period, the harmonious development of the individual, which includes physical, intellectual and moral education and improvement, becomes important. In 1766, a charter was issued modernizing the training program for the cadet corps; it was now divided into three parts: sciences that guide the knowledge of subjects needed civil rank; useful or artistic sciences; sciences “guiding the knowledge of other arts.”

Many noble families sent their children to private schools; the higher nobility preferred to raise their children at home with the assistance of tutors. At the beginning of her reign, Catherine took a keen interest in the pedagogical achievements of various states and pursued an active policy of developing and expanding education in Russia. In 1763, Ivan Ivanovich Betsky (1704–1795) became her main adviser on educational issues. Betsky created many works on pedagogical topics and contributed to the opening of many educational institutions for boys and girls, including the first female educational institution of secondary education - the Smolny Institute. The institute's program differed from the program for boys in the additional courses of home economics and politics. There were numerous attempts to develop education for the lower classes in rural and urban areas. However, due to the lack of funds, they were not successful. Created by Catherine in 1782, the “Commission on the Establishment of Public Schools,” designed to work to improve the general level of education in Russia, published in 1786 the “Charter for Public Schools of the Russian Empire.” According to this document, small and main public schools began to open in cities. Small schools were schools of elementary basic education, the main ones offered the study of sciences, including pedagogy. Towards the end of her life, Catherine began to be more concerned about state political issues, the outstanding Russian educators Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov (1744–1818) and Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev became victims of such priorities (1749–1802). For the same reason, many educational institutions have lost their positions.

During the 17th century, significant changes took place in the area education.

For many centuries, wary hostility towards Catholicism, which Rus' initially adopted from Byzantium, spread to European “Latin learning.” Even in 1600-1611. the Frenchman Margeret, who lived in Moscow at that time, testified that “the people hated foreign sciences, especially Latin” (“The State of the Russian State”). Nevertheless, the objective need to assimilate European culture and education took its toll. In just a few decades, they not only stopped being proud of ignorance, but it was precisely in it that they began to see the source of the unrest that shook Russia. This is what he wrote in 1660. Paisiy Ligarid: “I was looking for the root... of the spiritual illness that struck the Russian kingdom of Christ... and finally I came up with and found that all the evil came from the fact that there are no public schools and libraries.” Enlightener Yuri Krizhanich in his “Political Thoughts” he saw ignorance as the main reason for Russia’s economic lag.

In the second half of the 17th century, four main approaches to education emerged: Old Believer-teacher(Archpriest Avvakum); Byzantine-Russian(Epiphany Slavinetsky, Fyodor Rtishchev, Karion Istomin); Latinophile(Simeon Polotsky, Sylvester Medvedev); Slavic-Greek-Latin(Likhud brothers). Supporters of Greek saw in it a source of strengthening Orthodoxy in the fight against the Latin heresy, while their opponents saw in Latin the basis of secular culture. The listed approaches largely formed the content of the later (19th century) dispute Westerners And Slavophiles, which has not stopped today.

Already Tsar Alexei the Quiet, not satisfied with the elementary primary education received by his sons, ordered them to be taught Latin and Polish and even called Simeon of Polotsk to be their tutor. Tsar Fedor Alekseevich(1661-1682) sent students to the “German school” to study pharmacy.

During the 17th century, schools and other educational institutions became widespread not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine and Belarus, which were under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian state. In the struggle for liberation, they established fraternities from representatives of the most diverse classes, and on their basis - fraternal schools. Even the charters of Lviv and Lutsk schools have been preserved. " Grammar of the Slovenian language", published in 1618 by the teacher of the Kyiv fraternal school Melenty Smotrytsky(c. 1578-1633), in 1648 it was published in Moscow.

School Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood, which opened in 1615, turned in 1645 into the first higher educational institution in Russia - the Kyiv Fraternal College, which later (under Peter I) received the status of an academy. From its walls came Epiphanius Slavinetsky and Simeon of Polotsk, who organized Greek-Latin schools in Moscow, most of the rectors and prefects of the famous Slavic-Greco-Latin Academy were its students, Peter I relied on the Kyiv Academy in his reform activities.

In Russia itself, one of the first Greco-Latin schools was opened in 1649 at the Chudov Monastery, although not for long, since its leader was exiled to Solovki on charges of unbelief. In the same 1649, the okolnichy, teacher of Tsarevich Alexei Alekseevich Fedor Rtishchev(1626-1673) founded at his own expense a school at St. Andrew's Monastery, headed by Epiphany Slavinetsky. Rtishchev himself became his listener. In the 60s The school of the Spassky Monastery opened, where the government sent young clerks to study Greek and Latin. The first public school of advanced education, Typographical school, opened in 1681 by decree of Fyodor Alekseevich.

In 1687, somewhat delayed due to the death of the Tsar and the unrest of the Streltsy, it was founded in Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. According to S. Polotsky’s plan, only Orthodox Christians and Russians were to be accepted into it. It taught both spiritual and secular sciences (physics, logic, jurisprudence, philosophy, languages). The main teachers of the academy were Greek monks, doctors of the University of Padua, brothers Likhud, Ioannikiy(1639-1717) and Sophrony(1652-1730). They selected teachers and taught logic and rhetoric themselves. Soon the Old Russian clergy achieved their removal and deportation to a provincial monastery. Only five years later the brothers were allowed to settle in Novgorod, where they immediately opened a Slavic-Greek-Latin school, modeled on the Moscow one.

Despite everything, the development of education became irreversible by the end of the 17th century. As historian S. Smirnov writes, thanks to the academy, “Russians came to terms with the idea of ​​​​the benefits of science.”

The spread of education was greatly facilitated by the growth printing. In 1634 the first " Primer» Vasily Burtsev(costing only 1 kopeck, it quickly sold out), in 1648 “ Grammar» M. Smotritsky, in 1687 - " Reading for training" - multiplication table. During the 17th century, the Printing Yard in Moscow (which employed about 200 people in the middle of the century) published 300 thousand primers and 150 thousand religious books (483 titles in total), books of a secular and scientific nature were published, and the publication of handwritten books did not stop. In the 60s In the 17th century, a bookstore opened in Moscow, where one could buy “Merry Polish Stories”, and “The Chronicle of Pseudodorotheus”, and “Books of Military Formation” and “Chronograph”, and bestiaries based on European models, and “Disgrace (that is, a review - V.T.) of the entire universe, or a new atlas,” and new maps of Russia, which greatly expanded during the 17th century.

Historical thought developed, the geography of not only aggressive but also exploratory campaigns expanded. The Yana and Indigirka rivers were discovered, expeditions reached Kolyma and Baikal. In 1648 the expedition Semyon Dezhnev And Fedota Popova passed through the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific, discovering that Asia was separated from America by a strait, in 1647-1651. Erofei Khabarov sailed along the Amur up to the mouth, in 1697-99. Cossack Pentecostal V. Atlasov explored Kamchatka.

In the times of Vasily III, Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ivanovich, literate people could be found mainly among people of the clergy or administrative class; in the 17th century There are already quite a few of them among the nobles and townspeople. Even among the black-growing peasants, partly among the serfs, and even among the slaves, there were literate people - headmen and kissers, clerks and scribes. But, of course, the overwhelming majority of peasants are illiterate people.

Overall, the percentage of literate people in the country was increasing, albeit slowly. Even in the first half of the century, many city governors, due to illiteracy or low literacy, could not take a step without clerks and clerks, their subordinates in the governor’s hut - the center of the district government. The same can be said about many nobles who were sent from Moscow to describe and survey lands, to “search” for fugitives, someone’s omissions, crimes, etc. In the second half of the century, the voivodships were occupied by people who, as a rule, were literate; These are primarily representatives of the Duma and Moscow officials. Among the district nobles there were few literate people.

There were many literate people in the suburbs. Crafts and trade, traveling on business required knowledge of writing and counting. Literate people came from both rich and poor strata. Quite often, it was precisely low income that stimulated the desire for knowledge and literacy. “We have,” said, for example, residents of the Pomeranian Yarensk, “who are the best and subsistence people, and they do not know how to read and write. And those people who can read and write are also dumb people.” In Vologda, for many impoverished people, the ability to write is a way to get their daily bread: “And in Vologda, in a writer’s hut, the impoverished people of Posatsk feed themselves by writing in the area.” In Ustyug the Great, 53 area clerks from the local townspeople obtained their livelihood in this way. Tens and hundreds of the same literate people worked in the squares of other cities. Rogov A.I. School and education // Essays on Russian culture of the 16th century. M., 1977. Part 2. p. 70

Townspeople and peasants learned to read and write from “masters” consisting of priests and deacons, sextons and clerks, and other literate people. Often, literacy training was built on the principles of ordinary craft apprenticeship, according to an “apprenticeship”, and was combined with training in trade or some craft. For example, K. Burkov, a boy from the villages of Ustyug the Great, was given by his mother (at the end of the century) to D. Shulgin, a draftsman of the capital’s Semenovskaya Sloboda, to learn literacy and lace making.

Men were trained. There were very few literate women; they are from the royal house and the upper class, like Princess Sophia and some others. First of all, they taught the elementary alphabet using alphabet books, printed and handwritten. In 1634, V. Burtsev’s primer was published and reprinted several times over the course of a century. In the middle of the century, there were about 11 thousand copies of Burtsev’s primer in the book warehouse of the Moscow Printing Yard. It cost one kopeck, or two money, very cheap at the prices of that time. At the same time, the grammar of Meletiy Smotritsky, a Ukrainian scientist, was published (Mikhail Lomonosov later studied from it). At the end of the century, an alphabet book by Karion Istomin, a monk of the Chudov Monastery of the Moscow Kremlin, was published, as well as a practical guide for counting - a multiplication table - “Convenient counting, with which every person buying or selling can very conveniently find the number of any thing.” Over the second half of the century, the Printing House printed 300 thousand primers, 150 thousand educational psalters and books of hours. It happened that thousands of copies of such manuals were sold out in a few days. Rogov A.I. the same essay. P.71

Many people learned from handwritten alphabets, copybooks and arithmetic; the latter sometimes had very exotic names: “This book, the verb in Hellenic or Greek, is arithmetic, and in German is algorism, and in Russian is digital counting wisdom” (algorism is a name coming from the name of Al-Khorezmi, great scientist of medieval Central Asia, originally from Khorezm).

My reading circle has expanded significantly. From the 17th century A lot of books, printed and especially handwritten, have been preserved. Among them, along with church ones, there are more and more secular ones: chronicles and chronographs, stories and legends, all kinds of collections of liturgical, historical, literary, geographical, astronomical, medical and other content. Many had various manuals on measuring land, making paint, constructing all sorts of structures, etc. Tsars and noble boyars had libraries with hundreds of books in different languages.

Among the thousands of copies of books published by the Moscow Printing House, more than half were secular. The number of translated works increased: in the 16th century. only 26 names are known; in the 17th century -- 153, of which less than four dozen are classified as religious and moral. The rest, more than three quarters, are of secular content.

Scientists from Ukrainians and Belarusians played a significant role in educating Russians. Some of them (I. Gisel and others) sent their works to Moscow, others (S. Polotsky, A. Satanovsky, E. Slavinetsky, etc.) translated, edited books, created their own works (verses, orations, sermons, etc. .), many were teachers in Russia. Rogov A.I. the same essay. P.71

Many foreigners came to Russia, knowledgeable in various fields of scientific and technical knowledge. On the outskirts of Moscow they lived in the German Settlement, which the capital's residents nicknamed Kukuy (Kokuy): whether because its inhabitants cuckoo like a cuckoo is unclear; either because on kokui, i.e. games (evenings with dancing), gather. They looked at them with greedy curiosity (much was unusual for a Russian person: the same dancing, smoking, free manner of communication between men and women) and fear (Latins, after all, are not far from sin!). Among the visitors there were many knowledgeable and conscientious people. But for the most part - all sorts of crooks, seekers of profit and adventure, who do not know their craft well, or are even completely illiterate. From foreigners, Russians adopted knowledge and skills in the field of architecture and painting, gold and silver processing, military and metallurgical production, and other crafts and arts. We studied languages ​​- Greek, Latin, Polish, etc. Ibid.

Studying with the help of teachers at home or self-education no longer meets urgent needs. The question arose about establishing schools. Young people, especially from the capital, were already laughing at their teachers: “They are lying, they have nothing to listen to. And they don’t know a name for themselves, they teach simply; they don’t know anything they teach.”

Okolnichy Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev, a favorite of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, an influential man, in conversations with the Tsar convinced him to send Moscow youths to Kyiv: there in the collegium they would be taught all sorts of learning. He invited learned monks from the Ukrainian capital. They should teach Russians in the St. Andrew's Monastery, which he founded, the Slavic and Greek languages, philosophy and rhetoric, and other verbal sciences. The inquisitive okolnichy spent nights in conversations with the Kyiv elders, studying under their guidance the language of Homer and Aristotle. At his insistence, young nobles took courses in science from visiting professors. Some did this willingly, out of love for knowledge, they studied Greek and Latin, although they had concerns: “there is heresy in that letter.”

Everything described happened in the 40s. Twenty years later, parishioners of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Kitai-Gorod filed a petition with a request to open a school for them at the church, similar to the fraternal schools in Ukraine, and in it “the organization of teaching in various dialects: Greek, Slovenian and Latin.” The authorities agreed: start a “gymnasion”, “so that the hardworking Spudes rejoice in the freedom of discipline and the free teachings of wisdom.”

Perhaps then some other similar schools appeared. It is known that in 1685 there was a “school for teaching children” in Borovsk, near the shopping area. Rogov A.I. School and education // Essays on Russian culture of the 16th century. M., 1977. Part 2. p. 73

In Moscow, on Nikolskaya Street, a special building for a school was built. It was opened in 1665 at the Zaikonospassky Monastery (more precisely, the Spassky Monastery behind the shopping Icon Row). The wisest Simeon of Polotsk was put in charge. They gathered students from young clerks from various orders. Among them was Semyon Medvedev from the Order of Secret Affairs, later monk Sylvester, scientist and writer, author of an excellent historical and journalistic work on the regency of Sophia. At that time, young Semyon and his comrades studied Latin and Russian grammar, because orders needed educated officials - clerks.

Fifteen years later they opened a school at the Printing Yard. When the school opened, there were 30 students taken from different classes and studying the Greek language; in three years - already 56, in another year - ten more. And 166 students comprehended the wisdom and complexity of the Slavic language. 232 students in the school - a lot for the 17th century!

In 1687, a Slavic-Greek-Latin school was opened, later called the academy. According to the “privilege” that gave the education program, it was supposed to become not only church, but general. Here they learned the “seeds of wisdom” from the civil and ecclesiastical sciences, “starting from grammar, literature, rhetoric, dialectics, rational, natural and moral philosophy, even to theology,” i.e. all the scholastic school wisdom coming from the Middle Ages; the entire school cycle from the lower to the higher classes, starting with grammar and ending with philosophy (metaphysical and natural), ethics and theology. The school was both a higher and secondary educational institution. In accordance with the charter, the school accepted people “of every rank, dignity and age.” In the future, only school graduates could obtain government positions, with the exception of the children of “nobles”: their “breed” was considered a sufficient guarantee of successful service in the public sector. Klyuchevsky V.O. Essays. In 9 vols. T. 3. Part III. M., 1998. P.54

Considerable hopes were placed on the school, or academy. And therefore they endowed them with money and all sorts of benefits and immunities: professors and students, with the exception of criminal cases, were subjected to the court of their own school jurisdiction, while the “guardian” (rector) was subject to the court of the patriarch. Orders could not be included in their legal cases and misdemeanors. The school received a library.

The first teachers and professors were Greeks: the Likhud brothers, Ioannikios and Sophronius. Students for them were taken from the Printing Yard school. In the first year there were 28 of them, the next - 32. Both the offspring of the Moscow nobility and the children of government businessmen came here. Half a dozen students wore the best; among them is Pyotr Vasilyevich Posnikov, the son of the clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, who became a doctor of medicine at the University of Padua in Italy.

The Likhuds compiled textbooks on grammar, literature, rhetoric, psychology, physics, and other subjects. They themselves taught all the sciences, Greek and Latin. After three years, the best pets translated books from both languages. The training went very well. But the influential detractor of secular education, Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheos, spoke out against the brothers. His intrigues and slander ended sadly for the Likhuds - they were removed from their favorite business. But it was continued by their Russian students, especially successfully F. Polikarpov and I.S. Golovin.

Innovations in the field of enlightenment and education affected Moscow and only partly other cities. Outside the capital, literacy spread in Pomorie, the Volga region and some other regions. The lot of the majority of peasants and planted people remained illiterate. Enlightenment, like many other things, was the privilege of feudal lords, clergy and wealthy merchants. Klyuchevsky V. The same essay. C 54

One of the most striking indicators of the level of development of society is public education. It seems that there is no such difference of opinion on any issue in our history as on the issue of the role of school and the spread of literacy among the population in Ancient Rus'. Some consider the existence of schools before Peter I to be a rare exception, others talk about numerous parochial schools. Some are about widespread illiteracy, others are the opposite.

It is difficult to agree with both points of view; most likely the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In Russia there was a layer of people for whom literacy was a necessity - this, of course, was the clergy, but among them there were many ignorant people, they only memorized the texts of basic services, bypassing the cunning science of literacy. It was believed that literacy could be achieved without schools, you just need to find yourself a “master” (teacher). But, having learned to read, the Russian lover of education found himself in the world of manuscripts and printed books. Then it became clear that literacy alone was not enough; there was a need for grammar, followed by a need for other knowledge.

One thing remains undoubted: the century in question in the field of education has stepped much further than the 16th century thanks to the spread of mass printing. Along with traditional spiritual literature, a number of textbooks are published. Thus, in 1634, V. Burtsev’s primer was published, becoming the first textbook for many generations of Russian people. It was reprinted several times during the 17th century. M. Smotritsky's grammar and a practical guide to counting - the multiplication table - are also published.

Despite the fact that the entire worldview of the Russian people at this time is determined by the Russian Orthodox Church, a rather conservative social institution, the people’s interest in everything foreign is growing. Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, passion for Western culture increased; a German settlement appeared in Moscow, where foreigners lived, many of whom were specialists in various fields of science. But in fairness, it must be noted that along with knowledgeable and educated people, all sorts of adventurers, swindlers, seekers of easy money and simply illiterate people also sought to come to Russia.

At the invitation of the Tsar, the outstanding Belarusian scientist and poet Simeon Emelyanovich Petrovsky-Sitnianovich comes to Moscow. In Russia he became widely known under the name of Simeon of Polotsk. He was favored at court, and he was entrusted with teaching the royal children, since he was considered a model of a home teacher of that time.

Having the most extensive and versatile scientific knowledge, he tried to teach it in an entertaining way, forcing them to teach it jokingly. Knowing the Latin and Polish languages, he collects various kinds of sayings, definitions, anecdotes, and conveys all this in verses and verses (“for this reason, because of the inherent sweetness in the hearts of readers, the essence is most pleasant, if need will drive me to frequent reading and can be supported more conveniently by memory”).

The successes of S. Polotsk at court could not help but offend the old teachers. There were rumors about him that his teaching was not entirely correct, and this was a terrible accusation given the suspicion of new teachers at that time.

Nevertheless, Polotsky, thanks to his dexterity, resisted, but could not help but express his indignation at the unfair accusations. He, as a zealot for enlightenment, in his sermons attacked old teachers and priests, denouncing them of ignorance. In 1664, Simeon of Polotsk became the head of one of the first Zaikonospassky Greek-Latin schools in Russia. Four clerks were appointed students to this school. They had to master Latin and grammar. In fact, Polotsky, in addition to the indicated subjects, taught his students a full course at Kyiv University.

In 1668, this course was completed, and the students were sent to complete their studies in Courland and secretly observe the actions of the Russian ambassadors. The Polotsk school, apparently, ceased to exist at this first graduation. But one of the students, Semyon Medvedev, having become a monk, returned to Moscow and became a zealous propagandist of both the views of his teacher and the very idea of ​​the Latin theological school. The fact is that all scientific publications of that time were published in Europe exclusively in Latin.

Naturally, when they got to Russia, they demanded either a translation or a deep scientific knowledge of this language, as well as the traditions of Western theology. However, his ideas encounter obstacles from the highest Moscow clergy. And this is understandable: for purely Orthodox people, the Latin language meant all Latinism, that is, Catholicism, which is in many ways hostile to the Russian religious tradition.

Despite this, schools were opened much earlier, for example, the first Greek-Latin school was organized in 1649 in Moscow at the St. Andrew's Monastery. Its founder was one of the most cultured people of that time, boyar F.M., close to the tsar. Rtishchev. The second Greek-Latin school at the Chudov Monastery was headed by the famous church writer Epiphanius Slavinetsky, who was one of the first Russian philologists.

In the 70s, Polotsky developed a project to create the first academy in Russia, where people of different classes could study. The choice of teachers for her was entrusted to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

And in 1685, on his recommendation, teachers, doctors of science, brothers Ioannikis and Sophronius Likhud, who received higher education in Padua and Venice, came to Moscow. In 1687, the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was established, which accepted people “of every rank, dignity and age,” but always of the Orthodox faith. The Academy was supposed to become a stronghold of Orthodoxy and at the same time a center for the spread of “Latin culture.” Here they taught Latin and Greek, grammar, literature, rhetoric, logic, psychology, physics, morality and theology, the study of which was supposed to provide students with “seeds of wisdom.” The Academy was endowed with money and various benefits, and received its own library. The Likhud brothers compiled textbooks on grammar, literature, rhetoric, psychology, physics and other subjects. They themselves taught these subjects. The training went well. Within three years, the best students could translate books from Latin and Greek themselves.

But in 1694, Ioannikios and Sophronius were accused of spreading heresy and expelled from the academy.

Patriarch Dosifei, an opponent of secular education, contributed to this. However, the work of enlightenment bore fruit. It partly spread to Pomorie and the Volga region. But education, like many other things, was the privilege of feudal lords, clergy and wealthy merchants. The lot of the majority of peasants and townspeople remained illiterate.

The brothers' students continued to teach at the academy, and many famous figures of Russian culture became its graduates.