Pre-Revolutionary School in the Urals. A review of the book: Yegorova M. (2008) Povsednevnaya zhizn’ uchashchikhsya i uchiteley Urala v XIX — nachale XX v. [Everyday Life of Students and Teachers in the Urals in the 19th — Early 20th Centuries]. Moscow: Pamyatniki istoricheskoy mysli.

Abstract

By analyzing the research devoted to secondary educational institutions in the Urals, the author speculates on the preferred structure of historical books intended for mass consumption. He believes that this oeuvre provides clear examples of literacy tests for teachers, their financial situation, their relationship with the government, as well as activities of teachers’ corporations, children’s living conditions, their life in and out of school, life of school employees, and other aspects of school education in the Urals a century ago. The conclusion that comes from the historical evidence provided is quite unambiguous: teaching activities of the time were characterized by attention towards students’ individual needs and qualities, by care about their physical and emotional health, and by a savor of good nature and patriarchal cordiality engrained in the whole gymnasium system. Regional specifics of Ural secondary educational system is studied through experts’ evaluations, as there are almost no relevant historical materials left. In terms of social differentiation, the student body in the Urals was largely homogeneous, which was quite in line with the overall historical trend of speedy secondary school democratization across the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th century. The author argues that the picture revealed by this study is unbiased and in accord with the real state of things, and that it will help the reader learn more about life in the Russian Empire viewed by most people through Soviet-inherited prejudice instead of direct knowledge.