The Russian Empire, as you know, was the best country in the world, where happy high school students shone with a blush, leaving in the morning to study, pray and dream of giving their lives for the tsar. Of course, there were also minor problems (associated with outside influence or with troublemakers, which are always enough), for example, the total illiteracy of the rest of the people. But in 1908, as the "white patriots" now say, the tsarist government adopted a program of universal education for the children of Russia - everyone could get an education, regardless of gender, nationality and class! It was conceived to implement the program in 20 years, those very "quiet years" that Stolypin once asked, after which we would "not know the country."
And if, the admirers of the tsarist era tell us, the bloody Bolsheviks had not destroyed a prosperous and kind to children empire, then the time of universal and compulsory education would have come earlier - in 1928, and not, as in the USSR, in 1934, when universal literacy.
Perhaps someone believes in these tales of a beautiful kingdom, but today, when Russia is celebrating the centenary of the October Revolution, for the sake of diversity, let us turn to facts.
In 1908, no general education program was adopted. It was just a bill that the commission on public education considered for two more years, and after the document wandered around the tables in the Duma, in the State Council, after fruitless discussions among officials, a wonderful dream became that very mythological daddy, which for stability serves as a support to the closet in one from high offices. In 1912, the bill was rejected by the State Council.
Citizens inclined to idealization of the tsarist past, meanwhile, from high departments continue to assert that the opportunity to get an education and make a career for a poor peasant or farm laborer even during the reign of Alexander III was very high, and that the people remained dark and poor is his own choice., and even a consequence of sinfulness. Well, and in the reign of the last emperor, the possibilities became even greater. Especially with the theoretical general education, which was discussed above. Speakers, even if they mention in parentheses that this law was not adopted, they always forget to clarify what kind of this education should have been, and we will mention that Stolypin was not talking about secondary education, but about universal primary education.
In developing the program, the officials took the parish schools and their subject list as a basis.
"In the pre-revolutionary elementary school, the following subjects were taught: the Law of God, reading, writing, the four actions of arithmetic, church singing, initial information from the history of the church and the Russian state, and also always - crafts and handicrafts." (Rustem Vakhitov, "The Revolution That Saved Russia").
It was these items that were required for the transition of a huge agrarian country to a new technological level following other states that had already stepped over the industrial revolution, it was the Law of God and the four actions of arithmetic that were supposed to provide the prosperous Nicholas Russia with a "big breakthrough" and full-scale industrialization, however, only through 20 years. If these 20 years were "calm". And they would not have been calm and, probably, could not have been - everything was heading towards a redivision of the world and even a world war.
It is important to note one more point. Primary education was not a stepping stone to secondary education, as we are all used to. Even after graduating from elementary school, it was impossible to approach secondary education. Secondary education was provided by the gymnasium, and gymnasium education was available only to the privileged class: children of noblemen, officials and the rich became high school students. Here we return to the image of the beautiful and strong Tsar Alexander III, in which, according to the admiring "white-patriots," allegedly, social elevators rushed back and forth at the speed of light. It was Alexander who denied access to the children of commoners in the gymnasium - we are talking about the circular of the Minister of Education Delyanov from 1887, which was popularly called "the decree on cook's children." Naturally, it's all about money - those students were eliminated, whose parents obviously could not bear all the hardships of paid education, buying a uniform, and so on.
Secondary education in tsarist Russia was not for everyone, it was also paid, everyone was just thinking about the universal primary. What about the highest? Gymnasium students could already think about entering universities. Secondary technical education was given by real schools, graduates were allowed to enter technical and trade universities, but not universities. In 1913, on the eve of the war, there were 276 real schools in Russia, where 17 thousand people were trained, while there were about 45 million schoolchildren. But in a year the country will face an external threat and will feel the need for skilled workers more than for philosophers and writers. The new century made a request for engineers, technicians, industrialization builders. The education system in tsarist Russia, with all the desire, without a change in the way that took place in 1917, could not provide an industrial breakthrough in either 20 or 200 years.
Yes, the tsarist government did not skimp on funding education: schools were built and universities were created, but the system did not change in any way and did not improve the life of 80% of the country's population. And that very "rapid growth" of appropriations for education lasted for a very short period. Then, as we know, the war broke out, and government funds went to other concerns.
Today we are told that the industry developed at a rapid pace, no less rapid than the construction and development of schools for children. Nevertheless, it was in tsarist Russia that there was a huge percentage of children directly involved in industry.
What did 80% of children do if they did not study?
Child labor is very profitable and therefore in the capitalist system, aimed at obtaining as much profit as possible, it was extremely common. This category of citizens could be paid significantly less. Of course, the situation in the rest of the world was not much different.
Here are data from the American Labor Office in 1904, the average earnings of a laborer in terms of rubles per month was equal to:
in the United States - 71 rubles. (at 56 working hours per week);
in England - 41 rubles. (at 52.5 working hours per week);
in Germany - 31 rubles. (at 56 working hours per week);
in France - 43 rubles. (at 60 working hours per week);
in Russia - from 10 rubles. up to 25 rubles. (at 60-65 working hours per week).
And the labor of minors and women was valued even lower, according to the table of the researcher Dementyev, in the Moscow province, men received 14.16 rubles, women - 10.35 rubles, adolescents - 7, 27 rubles, and young children - 5 rubles. and 8 kopecks.
In Russia, according to data from open sources, there were 11 children of 12-15 years old of both sexes in metalworking for every thousand workers, in the processing of nutrients - 14, in paper processing - 58, minerals - 63, in fruit, grapes, vodka factories - 40, tobacco factories - 69, match - 141. Also, child labor was used in the processing of wood, animal products, chemical and fibrous substances, in oil refineries, distilleries, breweries, sugar beet and vodka factories.
But one should not think that the tsar was not at all worried about child labor and the position of the child in the industrial system, they were not in mines and hazardous industries, and, for example, in glass factories, children were allowed to be put on night work only for 6 hours - very humane decision.
As you know, most of the industry in the Russian Empire belonged to foreigners who had to meet halfway and adjust the harsh laws against children in favor of making a profit. Historians note that, yes, the state was forced to limit the rights of minors.
There were attempts to legislatively regulate at least working conditions - to prohibit the work of children under 12 years old, to limit work for children to 8 hours, but industrialists were in no hurry to embody the weak attempts of the state to become humane - after all, this is a matter of income. And if inspections in big cities improved a child's life at least a little, then in the hinterland, exploitation continued until 1917, until the labor code was adopted, which for the first time in the world guaranteed an 8-hour working day FOR ALL and prohibiting the use of children at work until 16 years old.
It was only after the 1917 revolution that other countries were forced to take care of workers' rights and think about the prohibition of child labor.
Kitty, kitty, sell the child
Child labor was used not only by foreign industrialists in factories and factories. Merchants brought the children of the poor and peasants to St. Petersburg from the outskirts as "live goods", which were very popular - along with firewood, game and hay.
The sale of children, the purchase and delivery of cheap labor became the specialization of individual peasant industrialists, who were called "cabbies" in everyday life. Buyers paid parents 2-5 rubles. and took their 10-year-old child to a better life, if, of course, the child did not have time to die with other children during the difficult journey.
In history, there are folklore monuments of these "business projects" (very similar to the slave trade in the American south of the early 19th century, only instead of blacks - children), such as the game "Kitty, kitty, sell the child."
The cabman "sold" the children to shopkeepers or craftsmen, the new owner could dispose of the child at his own discretion - in return providing shelter and some food. It is worth noting that the children were not "sold" because of a good life, because they need extra hands on the farm, and then an assistant grew up - and give him away? The fact is that at home the child was most likely doomed to starvation. And even under such conditions, many children fled from their owners, talked about beatings, violence, hunger - on foot they returned home ragged or left homeless, then found themselves "at the bottom" of life in the capital. Some were more fortunate - and they could return to their native village in new galoshes and a fashionable scarf, this was considered a success. Nevertheless, this "social lift" was not regulated by the state in any way.
October
“Here, the monarchists tell us what kind of an educated country Russia was. But I have only one single question - are the Bolsheviks completely idiots, or what? Why did they even create an educational program? They had no other tasks, or what? think - let us come up with some kind of problem! Oh, let's teach literate people to read and write! Well, how to understand this? Indeed, the young generation of subjects of the Russian Empire was more or less literate, who managed to go through the system of parish and partly zemstvo schools. But these zemstvo schools were like islands in the ocean , - the historian, advisor to the rector of the Moscow State Pedagogical University Yevgeny Spitsyn comments on the transformation of the revolution in an interview with the correspondent of Nakanune. RU.
The principles of the future education system were formulated back in 1903 in the RSDLP program: universal free compulsory education for children of both sexes under 16; elimination of class schools and restrictions on education based on ethnicity; separation of school from church; teaching in the native language and more. On November 9, 1917, the State Commission on Education was established.
In October 1918, the authorities approved a regulation on free, joint education of school-age children. A year later, a decree on education was signed, and now the entire population of the country, aged 8 to 50, who could not read or write, was obliged to learn to read and write in their native language or Russian - at will. The education system went through various stages, like the state itself, historian Andrei Fursov tells Nakanune. RU:
"After the experiments of the 20s, in which there were attempts to negate the Russian classical system (in the early 20s they were banned as bourgeois disciplines: Greek, Latin, logic, history), but in the mid-30s, all this was restored as follows the same as the concept of “Soviet patriotism.” And November 7 ceased to be a holiday of the world revolution, but became the day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. So, the Soviet system developed what was inherent in the Russian classical education system. education, as it was in the 1970s, in the 1980s, was the best - it is recognized all over the world. The Soviet system was the best - now the Norwegians and Japanese are copying it."
In total, by 1920, it was possible to teach literacy to 3 million people. Now the school was separated from the church, and the church - from the state, teaching in educational institutions of any creed and performing the rituals of religious worship was prohibited, physical punishment of children was also prohibited, and all nationalities received the right to study in their native language. Moreover, the Bolsheviks were puzzled by the creation of public preschool education. It was a cultural revolution. In Soviet times, for the first time in the history of Russia, almost universal literacy was achieved, close to 100%. The country received a free secondary education and an affordable higher education. The teaching profession was respected. The school did not provide a service for money, but raised the children, devoting time to the moral and ethical aspects of the development of a young person.
High-quality higher technical education made the impossible possible - bridging the industrial gap between the USSR and the countries of developed capitalism. The new approach to education can be called successful, one has only to remember the number of world famous Soviet scientists and inventors.
"Yes, there was a so-called" philosophical steamer "- a number of scientists, philosophers, architects, artists left, but it was minuscule in comparison with the scale of our country. In fact, a great cultural civilization was created anew - from scratch practically. to the colossal achievements of our ancestors: Pushkin, Turgenev, Nekrasov and other classics, writers and artists who faithfully reflected the soul of the people, - says Doctor of Historical Sciences Vyacheslav Tetekin in an interview with Nakanune. RU. - But the technical side was created anew. it is technical education, first of all - not that abstract humanitarian education, which was considered a standard. We created such a weapon that surpassed the weapons created by the whole united Europe. Why was it possible? Because in this very short period of time new technical personnel were created. huge attention, huge investments were made. Education was a state priority. Fundamental science developed rapidly, the USSR Academy of Sciences was a powerful institution, and no one, as now, claimed that officials would "rule" what the Academy of Sciences was doing."
In addition to technical education, in the Soviet system, it is worth noting such pleasant bonuses as a high scholarship, developed preschool and extracurricular education, free nurseries and kindergartens, palaces of pioneers and houses of creativity on a free basis, music schools, sports education and children's recreation camps - in The USSR joked that if there was any dictatorship in the country, it was the dictatorship of childhood.
As for the street children after the Civil War and children left without parents after the Great Patriotic War, the system of orphanages was fundamentally different from the current one, allowing the natives of these social institutions to find their own, often high, place in society, create families, get an education, have equal opportunities. what now we can only dream of.
Development of the republics
"October 1917 is an epoch-making event, and it is difficult to list in a nutshell everything that would not have happened if not for this revolution. Of course, none of us today would have been. And the point is not that dads and moms, grandparents would not have met - the modern look itself is largely shaped by the revolution and the Soviet state that emerged after the revolution. I'm talking here about education, of course, and about a completely different social social order, - a journalist, co-author says in an interview with Nakanune. RU project on modern education "Last Call" Konstantin Semin. - Everyone has something to thank for October. Before the revolution in the national republics of the empire (in Turkestan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan), the literacy rate did not reach 2%. Some peoples - including the indigenous peoples of Russia, as we call them today, did not even have their own written language. Today, they are equal citizens of our country."
Indeed, one of the most important differences between the USSR and the empire was precisely the development of the national republics, the even distribution of education.
"The USSR is a state that has reached heights in almost all spheres of life. Here, of course, science, education, a cultural revolution. The national republics received a great impetus in development. In spite of how the same British Empire or the United States acted in the format of the policy of colonialism and neo-colonialism, the Soviet Union, instead of siphoning money from its outskirts, on the contrary, sent significant funds to ensure that our national republics develop, "recalls Nikita Danyuk, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University.
What did the 1917 revolution give Russia? It was education, which became available to everyone after the change of order, provided the country with the opportunity for a "big leap", industrialization, Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the opportunity to go into space for the first time, it provided us, living today, with protection in the form of an "atomic umbrella".
"What is an atomic bomb? This is a product of the colossal tension of fundamental applied science, this is the creation of hundreds of production enterprises that would ensure the creation of this high-tech weapon in cooperation," says expert Vyacheslav Tetekin. simplification, behind this was the creation of the most powerful fundamental science, which in fact, especially in engineering terms, did not exist in our country until 1917. And we did not have such an industry until 1917. Neither aviation nor automotive."
In modern Russia, as we can see, the Soviet system of universal education is collapsing, elite schools are emerging, higher educational institutions are increasingly switching to a commercial basis, the availability of education is falling as rapidly as the quality.
“A very simple fact testifies to how powerful the education system in the USSR was - for 25 years now, our frantic zealots have been trying to break this system with the money of the IMF. they did not break it, because the foundation is too strong. Our education - both school and higher - is one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet system , - sums up the historian Andrei Fursov.
