About the First Composition of the Students of the Mozdok Ossetian School

Abstract

One of the well-known documents on the history of the origin of school education in Ossetia of modern times is the Vedomosti of 1767, published many times in various scientific collections, compiled in the office of the Kizlyar commandant with a list of students of the first Mozdok school. The information presented in this document remains practically the only source of information for researchers on this topic. In the scientific Ossetian literature, the composition of the students has not received additional identification to date. This is especially true for schoolchildren represented by the Narsk district, they remain known under the surnames given to them by the patronymics of their fathers in 1767 “Peter Pariyev, Pavel Davydov, Khariton Khristoforov.” The paper attempts to identify students and their parents represented by the Narsk district. A more complete identification of the first schoolchildren of 1765–1766 gives us the opportunity not only to clarify their family affiliation, but also to reveal the socio-political significance of the establishment of the school and show the desire of the Ossetian elites to connect the future of Ossetia with Russia. The new generation, having found the opportunity to receive a school education within the walls of a Russian educational institution in Russian, received, in turn, a reliable basis for further development and entry into Russian military and secular structures. The initial task of both the Russian authorities and the Ossetian elites at this stage of relations, of course, was to fill the staff of the Ossetian spiritual commission with natural Ossetians who received the appropriate education and were prepared to work not only in the commission, but also in the civil administration. The recruitment of students to the school for Ossetian children established in Mozdok by the Russian government in 1764 goes, according to sources, in the first two years of the school’s operation in close connection with the activities of the minister of the Ossetian spiritual commission, Gregory, who became archimandrite as a result of his services in this matter.