Cultural-Educational Policy of Tsarism in the Dnipro Ukraine (the second half of the 19th and early 20th century)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the cultural and educational policy of tsarism in the Dnipro region of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries clarifying the role and significance of entrepreneurs in this process. In the modern Ukrainian economy there are transformation processes that are aimed at ensuring sustainable development of the country. The Dnieper region of Ukraine plays an important role in this transformation. Culture and education of the population are an important component in the formation of a highly developed industrial society. After the peasant reform – the liquidation of the feudal system, the tsarist government carried out a series of reforms that were supposed to accelerate capitalist transformations. Modernization in the country required raising the level of culture and education of the population. The tsarist government tried to root out Ukrainian culture, mother tongue. According to the census of 1897 in the Russian Empire, the number of illiterates in the Ukrainian provinces amounted to 83.6 %. In schools and high schools only 30% of children studied. In the 60's and 90's, special institutions of higher education were opened in the Dnipro region of Ukraine: in Odesa, Kyiv, Nizhyn, Kharkiv and Katerynoslav. The tsarist government understood the need to open new schools and improve education, but reluctantly allocated resources for the maintenance of schools and gymnasiums. For example, in the Kherson province in 1883, the tsarist government allocated only 2.7 % of the money from the total, while the rest was allocated by zemstvos, organizations and private individuals. Entrepreneurs, intellectuals and private individuals donated significant amounts to education and culture and played a significant role in spreading and supporting culture and education in the Dnipro region of Ukraine.