Гуманное воспитание как основа исправления: о съездах по проблеме детских правонарушений в Российской империи (вторая половина XIX – начало XX века)

Abstract

By analysing historical sources, the study aims to shed light on the role of congresses of Russian correctional institutions’ representatives in the formation of humane education as the basis for the correction of juvenile offenders in Russian penal colonies in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century. The paper analyzes the problem of juvenile delinquency in pre-revolutionary Russia, which is relevant to the history of pedagogy. The study is novel in that it is the first to present a detailed analysis of the activities of congresses of Russian correctional institutions’ representatives held to discuss significant issues on the education and correction of juvenile offenders. The authors note that the relevant problems of educational and correctional institutions for juvenile offenders were covered at the congresses. Based on the analysis of materials from the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, the activities of the Second Congress, held in 1884, are presented in detail. It is important to emphasize that such events provided an opportunity to solve problematic issues, which had a positive impact on the pedagogical process, making it most effective and efficient. As a result of the study, it was found that the material presented in this paper is important for pedagogical science. This is explained by the possibility of extrapolating from the experience of correctional institutions of the past to the practice of modern educational colonies for juvenile offenders. Based on the ideas of Russian teachers of the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century, the authors emphasize the need to apply educational retro-technologies in penitentiary practice at the present time, referring primarily to humane education as the basis for correcting children who have broken the law.