From the History of the Development of Public Education in the Russian Empire in the Late 19th - Early 20th Centuries (Illustrated by the Example of Altai)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the history of the development of public education in Altai in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The authors focus on the process of establishing primary and secondary schools and vocational education institutions in the region. Economic processes (the decline of mining production in Altai, the intensification of resettlement processes in the region) and sociocultural changes in the country and the region - the growth of the number of educated people in Siberia and democratization of the education system in the Russian Empire as a whole - are considered as objective conditions for the development of education. The authors show the role of the public in the formation of primary schools in Altai. Speaking about the development of primary education in the region, such as the resettlement process, the authors of the article referred to the analysis of the activities of schools in the context of changing ethnic and religious composition of students and to the characterization of the educational policy of the State with regard to migrants of non-Russian origin. Studying the process of formation of gymnasium education in Altai, the authors focused on the opening of a men's gymnasium in Barnaul, considering that this event became a landmark for the development of the city. According to the authors’ opinion, studying the process of opening this gymnasium makes it possible to understand the dialectic of relations of the state and the society, the center and the regions. The article gives special attention to studying the impact of the military situation on the activities of educational institutions, for solving new tasks operating in wartime. In the end of the article, it was concluded that power institutions pursue utilitarian goals in the implementation of educational policy in remote regions.