Церковно-приходские школы в 60–80-е годы XIX века: динамика численности в связи с изменениями политики в сфере начального народного образования (на примере Донской и Новочеркасской епархии)

Abstract

The article reflects the results of the analysis of legislation and archive documents in the 1860-1880s, which made it possible to link the change in the number of “free schoolsˮ at churches (parish or parochial schools) of the Don diocese with certain changes in the national and regional policy, both directly aimed at the primary education system and indirectly affecting its development. A short-lived increase in the number of “free schoolsˮ at churches in the early 1860s coincides with the increasing administrative pressure on the clergy by the church authorities, who, following the secular authorities, obliged the clergy to organize schools for the children of parishioners. The reduction in the number of parochial schools from 1863 until their almost complete disappearance by the end of the 1870s was the result, first of all, of the activity of the Don Cossaсk Host, as well as the weakening of the requirements for the clergy from the church hierarchs regarding their participation in the organization of “free schoolsˮ. The clergy, burdened with numerous extra-liturgical duties and not receiving regular financial support, hardly carried out the organization of schools at churches. It is also shown that parish schools received impulses for development during the reign of Alexander III, and since 1884 the number of parish schools in the Don diocese began to grow again.