THE DIARY OF K.A. BEREZKIN AS A SOURCE ON THE HISTORY OF GYMNASIUM EDUCATION IN VOLOGDA IN THE MIDDLE OF THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

The article gives an assessment of gymnasium education in Vologda in the middle of the XIX century based on the analysis of the diary written by Kirill Antonovich Berezkin, one of the students of Vologda provincial men’s gymnasium, and other archival documents. The article provides as well a brief description of the archival funds on the history of education kept in the State Archive of the Vologda Region. The role of sources of personal origin in studying the interior life of educational institutions is shown. Biographical information about K.A. Berezkin and the history of finding the diary are described. The plot lines of the diary are analyzed: descriptions of the events of Vologda life, famous personalities of Vologda, assessments of gymnasium teachers. It is interesting that the new source makes it possible to supplement the description of a prominent figure of Russian education, Fedor Nikolaevich Fortunatov, who in 1833–1852 was a teacher and, at the same time, since 1838, an inspector in Vologda gymnasium. The evidence enables to assess the level of the provincial educational system development. By the middle of the XIX century on the territory of Vologda province there was a seminary in Vologda, men’s and women’s uyezd and parish schools, vocational schools, rural and private schools for men, schools of the State Property department, but among them the central place was occupied by Vologda provincial men’s gymnasium.