Alexander 2: education reforms (briefly). Reasons, significance, pros and cons of the education reform of Alexander 2

Conducted during the reign of Alexander 2 transformations had important consequences for Russia of those times. Not only descendants, but also contemporaries of the emperor noted as a positive value of Alexander's reforms 2 For the development of statehood, and negative.

The inevitability of reforms

Immediately after assuming the throne in February 1855 - the day after the death of Emperor Nicholas II's father 2 - Alexander 2 let his citizens understand that he perfectly understands at what time he will have to rule and in what condition the country got him. He stated this in his first speech as an emperor to the members of the State Council. The socio-political situation in Russia was far from stable and progressively developing at that time. It was necessary to resolve a number of rather complex internal and external political issues in a short time to bring the country out of the crisis.

The failed Crimean War led to the breakdown of the financial system and the complete international isolation of Russia. There was growing discontent among the nobility and the peasantry by the rule of the highest officials and proteges of the emperor in the provinces. The people understood that change was necessary and was ready to follow any leader if he promised to give them. The spread of the terrorist movement was accepted in the society as a protest against an obsolete monarchy. Educational reform of Alexander 2, the beginning of which Was laid in the first years of his reign, for a while calmed the flushed minds of the progressive youth, but not for long. In the end, the emperor fell victim to the conspiracy of the People's Will, despite all his good intentions.

The excitement of students before the reform

In the last years of the reign of Nicholas II in the student community, tired of the rigid regime of learning and life, the first signs of a future mass insubordination were already outlined. But the change of the ruler, the subsequent slight relaxation in the life of students, the new leadership in the universities of both capitals partially extinguished the grumbling of the dissatisfied. The reasons for Alexander's reforms, 2 including educational, were not only in this or that spontaneously flared event - there were a number of circumstances.

The small student riots marked by Moscow in 1858 were caused by the tactlessness and ignorance of the police, firmly fixated on a stable and sluggish present, while the progressive youth quickly tore into a dynamic future. The politics of the skirmish with the police in those years had nothing to do and the emperor was acquitted - Alexander blamed all the guilt for the guards, but by the early 1960s, the opposition mood of Russian society had been captured by the universities. The reform of the education of Alexander 2 became a response to the obstinacy of the student's environment. It can be briefly described as follows: the old charter, which has been in effect since 1835, was replaced with the new, Nikolayev's proteges, the appointees of Alexander sat in the rector's chairs of universities.

Education for All

At the beginning of 1861, there were some important events for the country, which largely determined the course of the new emperor's administration: the abyssal catastrophe, new student riots for the death of the peasants, police provocation, ambiguity with which even the most insignificant events in the country are perceived by society. The initiator of the majority of reforms, which began in the early years of the 1960s, was Alexander himself. 2. The reforms of education had to significantly change the rules of teaching in universities, real schools, and enable peasant children to learn to read and write. Enlightenment transformations were happily accepted by the female half of the country's population - it became evident that educational institutions would soon be opened for them as well. Prior to the reign of Alexander, 2 girls from noble families received the necessary education at home, in merchant, middle-class and peasant houses about such trifles as the ability of children to read and write, cared only for rare parents.

Drafting of the future Charter

By the autumn of 1861, university rules approved by Alexander several months earlier had to be earned. With the future Charter they had nothing in common and were designed for temporary implementation, while the Ministry of Education worked on the projects of the expected large-scale transformations.

The reform of the public education of Alexander 2 was carried out in a balanced and thoughtful manner. Russian professors studied the orders and forms of education in the best European universities, where they were sent out specifically for these purposes. All their developments have been discussed by officials, prominent scientists and prominent politicians for several months. The project was sent to educational institutions not only in Russia, but also in some Western countries. A wide discussion was also held in the press, which Alexander himself favorably accepted. 2. Educational reforms, the pros and cons of which provoked heated discussions, were nevertheless adopted and implemented throughout the country. Their signing took place on June 18, 1863.

Features of the University Charter and the consequences of its implementation

For the desire to bring such radical changes to the needs of both the emperor and those submitted at the same time, certain provisions of the Charter only implied the democratization of student society. The created corporation of professors gave them autonomous self-management by the council and faculties, thereby depriving students of the opportunity to legally create their own partnerships, which differed from Western universities. Educational reform of Alexander 2 was designed allegedly in the European image and likeness, but almost nothing they did not resemble.

Undoubtedly, the advantages were the more free attendance of lectures, the admission of students to them, the supervision of the public over the governance of universities. Widely propagandized not only educational, but also the educational component of teaching. But the lack of student self-government, the influx of volunteers who could freely take root in the masses are not always useful freethinking principles, quite often became grounds for new unrest. The reasons for Alexander's reforms, 2 which were based on inefficient rule, were not actually corrected, and this was not only the University Charter.

Reform of secondary education

The expansion of the network of public schools in Russia also falls on the 60s of the XIX century. In addition to transformations that affected the university environment, the reform of the education of Alexander 2 affected all the educational institutions available at that time, involving children from all walks of life. Secondary education could now be obtained not only in classical gymnasiums, but also in real schools, where math and science were more intensively taught. Some contemporaries considered these schools to discriminate the system of education, created only for those from the lower and middle classes, because they did not teach languages, which differed classical gymnasiums. Subsequently, graduates of real schools were actually denied access to universities due to a lack of knowledge of languages.

Did Alexander consider this important? Reforms of education conducted in his reign gave an opportunity to receive secondary education for a much larger number of children than was before him, and this was the main thing at that time.

Education of women before the reforms of Alexander

Strange as it may seem, it was only at the end of the 19th century that in Russia, for the first time, people started talking about the establishment of state schools for girls. Institutions, where they had the opportunity to receive education for the daughters of noblemen, first appeared during Catherine II, but there were few of them, they did not enjoy wide popularity because of the established at that time principles of sexual inequality, in which women were assigned only the role of the mother of the family and only.

Such a state of affairs was changed by the democratic Alexander 2 - the reforms of education, which he considered no less significant than the abolition of serfdom, Spread to girls. Especially since the women's issue, which in those years was spreading more and more in society, was warmly supported not only by emancipated ladies - many representatives of the fair half wanted to feel their public significance. In 1859 almost all Russian cities opened women's schools. The Empress Maria Alexandrovna herself patronized them .

From the abolition of serfdom to the training of peasant children

Emperor Alexander 2 went down in history under the name "Liberator". The abolition of serfdom, which was carried out with him, somewhat eclipsed the rest of his reign, and there were many of them. The same reform of the public education of Alexander 2 - than not An excuse to give him the name "Enlightener"?

Among the intelligentsia, in addition to the women's question, the consequences of the peasants' outcome from the landlords and their further fate were discussed. Ideas about the needs of the organization of primary education for peasant children did not cause disputes - the enlightened minds of the state recognized the need for their education unconditionally. Many as an example brought the genius of Russian science Mikhail Lomonosov, fate Which was so amazing and unique. Deep respect for him experienced and Alexander 2. Education reforms were to open to many peasant children the way to the world of knowledge. A big advocate of enlightenment among the people was IS Turgenev, who proposed his project of creating a literacy committee, which was approved by the emperor.

The historical significance of the reforms introduced into the reign of Alexander

In addition, that Alexander 2 abolished serfdom, adopted and signed new educational statutes, conducted a full enlightenment reform, among his merits there are other important transformations that have affected the entire Russian society. In 1862-1863, the adoption of changes in the management of financial resources of the state, on the 1865th - the law on the press. Reforms - self-government, judicial, military - were adopted by society in different ways, but their need was recognized by all. Although not everything was implemented as planned, but the very fact of the reforms and the positive significance of Alexander's reforms 2 for the further development of the state is difficult not to recognize. Let some of them give different estimates to this day, but Russia became stronger in the era of Alexander 2 both on the domestic and foreign policy arena.