“...of those Whose Behaviour is Unacceptable”: Upbringing of the Masculine Behaviour Patterns in Kyiv All-boys Gymnaziums (1830s–1870s)

Abstract

This article draws attention to masculine studies in history of yet under-developed studies in Ukrainian historiography. Based on the theoretical frameworks of western historiography, the author attempted to analyze the construction of normative masculinity/ies in the 19th-century all-boys education. As the sources, the author used the documents on the organization of control over the behavior of pupils in two Kyiv gymnasiums between the 1830s and 1870s. Since the 1830s are considered to be the period of unification and broader establishment of the educational system in the Russian Empire, the author suggests that the narrowing of gender norms along with masculine norms must have been the element of the mentioned educational policy. Based on the limited previous sources, the author made an assumption that such control over ‘manliness’ became systematic during the 1840s. Investigating the administrative attitude toward different behavioral practices, she spotted those which were deemed as the “grey zones”, such as smoking, which were a common male practice and part of male socialization, and therefore forgettable, in contrast to those which were regarded as a taboo, such as masturbation, which due to the medical and moral prejudice of the period, should have been eradicated. Moreover, such actions were explained by the ‘beasty’ nature of boys or by the influence of the outside world, which displays the school board’s vision of the school as a ‘correctional’ institution. At the same time, this ‘correction’ of the ‘bad’ habits and expressed ideas on the ‘norms’ referred to the notion of the perfect servant of the Fatherland. This made the author suggest that the construction of gendered subjects in the Russian Empire was inseparable from the establishment of the imperial identity. Since this article is not complete research on the problem, the author has made only previous assumptions on the construction of masculine norms in Kyiv gymnasiums and pointed out that the topic needs further research.Manuscript received 19.03.2020