A history of Russia

measure, and deprived of hope - crushing conditions lead only to blind and fruitless rebellions - but when there is growth, advance, and high expectation, hampered, however, by an archaic and rigid established order. Such a situation existed in Russia in the early twentieth century: in economic and social matters as well as in politics.

XXXIII

RUSSIAN CULTURE FROM THE 'GREAT REFORMS' UNTIL THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1917

There is only one evil among men - ignorance; against this evil there is only one medicine - learning; but this medicine must be taken not in homeopathic doses, but by the pail and by the forty-pail barrel.

PISAREV

The three points where the new man thought he had made himself most secure were: first, his liberation from all the values and institutions of the status quo; second, his complete faith in human reason and the principles it made known to him; and finally, his assurance that he was the personal instrument of the historical process… They were convinced that they had found the path to a state of personal engagement which could sustain them in their struggle with the tsarist system, because they believed in the justice of their assault and in the inevitability of its ultimate issue. But if we view it critically we note that it rested on an 'adjustment' that was composed in large part of hostility to existing institutions, and in equally large part of commitment to a world that had not yet come into being. Described so, its precariousness becomes obvious.

MATHEWSON

Various forces were at work in the 1890's in opposition to the Gorky-Andreyev school, and particularly to the dominance of social significance and nihilistic thought in literature. There was a definite turning away from civic morality to aestheticism, from duty to beauty, and cultural and individual values were stressed at the expense of political and social values. Most of the participators in this movement were brilliant intellectuals, and their efforts represented a lofty degree of cultural refinement that had never been achieved by any literary group in Russia hitherto.

SIMMONS

The decades that elapsed between the emancipation of the serfs and the revolutions of 1917 constituted an active, fruitful, and fascinating period in the history of Russian culture. Education continued to grow at all levels, in spite of obstacles and even governmental 'counterreforms'; in the twentieth century the rate of growth increased sharply. Russian science and scholarship, already reasonably well-established at the time of Nicholas I's death, developed further and blossomed out. In a word, Russia became a full-fledged contributor to and partner in the intellectual and academic efforts of the Western world, its new high position in that respect antedating

by decades the October Revolution. Russian literature continued its 'golden age,' although primarily in prose rather than in poetry and largely through the achievements of several isolated individuals, such as Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. Later, when the giants died or, as in the case of Tolstoy, stopped writing fiction and the 'golden age' came to its end, Chekhov, Gorky, and some other outstanding authors maintained the great tradition of Russian prose. Moreover, the very end of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth witnessed another magnificent literary and artistic revival, designated sometimes as the 'silver age.' In literature that renaissance meant the appearance once again of superb poetry, especially Alexander Blok's, the introduction of a wide variety of new trends, and the emergence of exceptionally high standards of culture and craftsmanship. The 'silver age' also extended to the theater, music, ballet, painting, and sculpture, and in effect to every form of creative expression. It proved especially beneficial to the visual arts, which had produced little of distinction in the age of arid realism, and it scored perhaps its most resounding successes in the ballet and the theater. In the history of ideas, as well as in literature and art, the period can be divided into two uneven parts: from the 1860's to the end of the century and indeed to the revolutions of 1917, the creed of radicalism, utilitarianism, and materialism first proclaimed by left-wing Westernizers dominated student and other active intellectual circles, finding its best expression in nihilism, different forms of populism, and Marxism; yet with the turn of the century and the 'silver age' in culture members of the intellectual elite began to return to idealistic metaphysics and religion. The First World War and later the revolutions struck when Russian intellectual and cultural life was exhibiting more vitality, diversity, and sophistication than ever before.

Education

The death of Nicholas I and the coming of the 'great reforms' meant liberalization in education as in other fields. The university statute of 1863 reaffirmed the principle of university autonomy, while Nicholas I's special restrictions on universities were among the first regulations to disappear in the new reign. The zemstvo reform of 1864 opened vast opportunities to establish schools in the countryside. In towns or rural areas, the increasing thirst for knowledge on the part of the Russians augured well for education in a liberal age. However, as already mentioned, official liberalism did not last long, and reaction logically, if unfortunately, showed a particular concern for education. As a result, the growth of education in Russia, while it could not be stopped, found itself hampered and to an extent deformed by government action.

After Dmitrii Tolstoy replaced Alexander Golovnin in 1866 as minister

of education, the ministry did its best to control education and to direct it into desirable channels. As in the days of Uvarov, high standards were used in universities and secondary schools to keep the number of students down, hindering especially the academic advancement of students of low social background. In secondary education, the emphasis fell on the so-called classical gymnasia, which became the only road to universities proper, as distinct from more specialized institutions of higher learning. These gymnasia concentrated on teaching the Latin and Greek languages, to the extent of some 40 per cent of the total class time. Largely because of the rigorous demands, less than one-third of those who had entered the gymnasia were graduated. In addition to the natural obstacles that such a system presented to 'socially undesirable' elements, ministers of education made direct appeals in their circulars to subordinates to keep 'cook's sons' out of the gymnasia, as did one of Dmitrii Tolstoy's successors, Ivan Delianov, in 1887. In general, the government tried to divide education into airtight compartments that students as a rule could not cross. Under Alexander III and Pobedonostsev, Church schools received special attention. Following the statute of 1884 concerning Church-parish schools, an effort was made to entrust elementary education as much as possible to the Church, the number of Church-parish schools increasing from 4,500 in 1882 to 32,000 in 1894. While inferior in quality, these educational institutions were considered 'safe.' By contrast, advanced education for women, barely begun in Russia, came to be increasingly restricted. And in all schools and at all levels the Ministry of Education emphasized 'conduct' and tried to maintain iron discipline.

Yet, in spite of all the vicissitudes, education continued to grow in Russia. The impact of the zemstva proved especially beneficial. Thus, according to Charnolussky's figures, the sixty provinces of European Russia in 1880 possessed 22,770 elementary schools with 1,141,000 students, 68.5 per cent of the schools having been established after the zemstvo reform of 1864. In addition to the exclusive classical gymnasia, Realschule, which taught modern languages and science in place of Greek and Latin, provided a secondary education that could lead to admission to technical institutions of higher learning. Other kinds of schools also developed. In addition to the activities of the ministries of education, war, navy, and of the Holy Synod, Witte promoted commercial schools under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, establishing some 150 of them between 1896 and 1902, and well over 200 altogether. In 1905 these schools were transferred to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Moreover, after the Revolution of 1905 schools in Russia profited from a more liberal policy as well as from an increasing interest in education on the part of both the government and the public. As