Higher education differs from school education primarily in its fundamental nature - a different teaching methodology, a different scheme for assessing a student's knowledge - and, of course, a completely different life of the students themselves, who have long ceased to be children, but they cannot be called completely adults either. Was this how things were a century or two ago, and what did the very first universities look like? Where did they originate and what was customary to study then?
The very first university - Constantinople
Traditionally, the history of universities is usually counted from the 12th century - and considered in the context of the Western European tradition. However, the very first educational institution that can fully correspond to the university level appeared in the middle of the 9th century - this is the Constantinople, or Magnavra school, which lasted until 1453.
This university was founded on the basis of an even earlier school and taught philosophy, rhetoric, medicine and jurisprudence. By the time of its closure, most universities already existed in Western Europe, which are still operating today.
The first universities in Western Europe
In Western Europe, higher education institutions were not at all the same as they are now, at the time of their inception - which, by the way, cannot be precisely established, since universities initially had a very distant relation to education (rather, they were communes formed on a linguistic or other basis) - much more these social groups and settlements were like religious brotherhoods, craft and merchant guilds. This evolutionary process naturally took place around individual cathedral and monastic schools at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries.
Principles for the formation of the first universities
This is how, for example, the University of Paris arose in 1200 (it grew out of a theological school, which was later joined by medical and law schools), Naples in 1224, Oxford in 1206, Cambridge in 1231, Lisbon in 1290 year. The official birth of the university was confirmed by privileges - special documents that were signed by popes or high-ranking nobles. These documents defined university autonomy - its own court, local government, the right to grant academic degrees.
Students were exempted from military service and certain other forms of duty. Universities began to appear very quickly - if in the 13th century there were only 19 of them throughout Europe, then a century later they added 25 more. Opening a university was quite simple: sometimes the city community simply indicated the minimum number of students, in the presence of which they agreed to pay for a hired professor, and then the subsequent ones. On the benches of the Sorbonne, at different times, one could see men of completely different ages and classes from different countries, sometimes the lecture room was an ordinary barn, and the audience freely settled down on straw instead of benches.
Church and universities
During the Middle Ages, the church tried to keep university education under its patronage, theology remained the main subject for a very long time, and the teachers were mainly representatives of monastic orders - nevertheless, the situation reigned very democratic, so education was more secular.
Universities could move - if epidemics of a dangerous disease arose in the vicinity, famine or a war broke out, the entire university simply moved to a neighboring city or even country.
Vagantes and Gaudeamus
The procedure for enrolling in universities was quite arbitrary, students rented closets nearby, begged, wandered - by the 14th century, a special category of students constantly wandering from place to place (and from university to university) arose, who were called vagants, minstrels, or goliards. Many of them turned into real robbers and lost their moral character, but a lot of devotees of education and science grew out of them.
Since teaching at the first universities was conducted in Latin for a long time, itinerant students were fluent in this language and could communicate with each other quite calmly. The Vagantes gave birth to a whole culture of poetry and songs - in particular, the famous hymn "Gaudeamus" belongs to some anonymous pen of one of them, which is sung by students of all universities in all countries of the world for centuries. This hymn celebrates youth and the triumph of freedom: “Let us then rejoice while we are young! After a pleasant youth, after a painful old age, the earth will take us” - and then seven verses in this approximately spirit. The hymn has been transmitted orally for several centuries, therefore it has several variants.
Emergence of faculties or colleges
Initially, both students and teachers united in national communities - nations or colleges, which in the second half of the 13th century were transformed into faculties or colleges. Representatives of the faculties - deans - chose the official head - the rector, often this position gave annual powers. Later, democracy gradually ended and the main officials began to be appointed by local authorities.
Faculties awarded academic degrees—sometimes graduates, like knights, loudly called titles like “count of law.” The content of education was determined by the seven free sciences. For example, at the Faculty of Arts, Aristotle's writings on logic, physics, ethics and metaphysics were read - some works were translated on the go from Arabic and Greek and were vigorously discussed in the process.
University specialization
Gradually, the specialization of higher educational institutions also increased - for example, the University of Paris willingly produced connoisseurs of theology and philosophy, Oxford University was famous for teaching canon law, while Orleans - civil law. At the University of Montpellier there was a very strong teaching of medicine, at the universities of Spain there were very serious mathematical and natural science schools, and at the universities of Italy Roman law was studied in detail and in depth.
First university in Russia
In the Russian Empire, the first university appeared 600 years after the opening of Bologna - in 1755. For some strange reason, although very close - in Prague, Lvov, Krakow - universities flourished, it never occurred to any of the kings to take care of higher education. This was only possible for the self-taught Mikhail Lomonosov, who came on foot, in bast shoes, from God knows where, and convinced the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna with his enthusiasm and concrete initiative and plan.
The decree of the reigning person was signed on January 25, on the Day of St. Tatyana, who became the patroness of all Russian students. It was planned to create three faculties, ten departments and two gymnasiums. The term of study was then only three years, and the university itself was under the jurisdiction of the Senate. Now Moscow University bears the name of its founder - Lomonosov, today it is an educational institution that is one of the hundred most powerful universities in the world.
In Moscow, on April 26 (May 7), 1755, the first university in our country was opened, more precisely, on that day a part of the university was opened - a gymnasium, but three months later classes began at the university itself. The opening of the university was solemn. The only newspaper in Russia at that time said that about 4 thousand guests visited the university building on Red Square that day, music blared all day, illuminations were blazing, “there were an uncountable number of people, through the whole day, even until four in the morning.
The need for a university
The economic and socio-political development of the Russian Empire in the middle of the 18th century required a significant number of educated people. Petersburg Academic University, military educational institutions and professional schools could not satisfy the state's needs for domestic specialists. Among the most enlightened people in Russia, the idea of the need to create a classical state university was ripening, where not only nobles, but also raznochintsy could study.
In 1741, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna took the Russian throne. It contributed to the development of domestic science and culture, brought educated people closer to itself. Her official policy in the field of education was to continue the work begun by her father, Emperor Peter I. He dreamed of a university that would become a center of science and culture.
Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov
An important role in the implementation of the educational policy of Russia was played by the favorite of the Empress, the chamber junker I.I. Shuvalov. In the 1750s, Shuvalov had a noticeable influence on the domestic and foreign policy of Russia, promoted the development of Russian science and art, and provided patronage to scientists, writers and artists. Among other things, he supported many of the undertakings of M. V. Lomonosov. Under his patronage, Moscow University was founded in 1755 (Shuvalov became its first curator), and in 1757 the Academy of Arts was established (Shuvalov was its president until 1763). A young, charming, patriotic nobleman significantly influenced the development of domestic science and culture, patronized Russian scientists, writers, poets, and artists. Thanks to the commonwealth and cooperation of Count Shuvalov and Academician Lomonosov, the idea of creating a Moscow University was born. Count Shuvalov had no doubt that if Russia was given education, it would "compete in education" on an equal footing with all the developed peoples of Europe. These thoughts and aspirations brought him closer to M.V. Lomonosov, whom Count Shuvalov valued as an outstanding Russian scientist.
The idea of creating a university was embodied in the project of I.I. Shuvalov, written jointly with M.V. Lomonosov, which the Empress approved on January 24, 1755 by a personal decree “On the establishment of Moscow University and two gymnasiums”. But more common is the assertion that Moscow University was created thanks to the care of the great Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov, whose name it bears.
Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov
Moscow University was not the first university in Russia, but it was the first university that accepted all young people without exception, regardless of what class they belong to. From a young man entering the university, one thing was required: that he be talented and want to study.
There has never been such a university in Russia. True, in 1725 the Academy of Sciences with a university was opened in St. Petersburg. Despite the fact that the most advanced scientists of Russia taught there: M.V. Lomonosov, S.P. Krasheninnikov, G.V. Richman, they never managed to turn the St. Petersburg Academic University into an all-Russian center of education. Foreign academics sought to maintain their exclusive position in Russia, so foreign students and teachers were preferred instead of “discovering” domestic talents in Russia.
In the winter of 1753, Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov left St. Petersburg for Moscow, where at that time the court of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was located, and began to work hard to establish a university here. He developed a draft, which outlined the main provisions of the structure and activities of the first national university, and presented it to I.I. Shuvalov. Thus, Count I.I. Shuvalov became the second person to whom Moscow University owes its discovery.
On January 12 (25), 1755, on Tatyana's Day, the Empress signed a decree on the founding of Moscow University, curators of which were I.I. Shuvalov, L. Blumentrost (life physician), and director - A.M. Argamakov.
The first professors were mostly foreigners, only two of them were Russians: N.N. Popovsky in literature and philosophy and A.A. Barsov in mathematics and literature, as well as a teacher of Russian and Latin languages F.Ya. Yaremsky - they were students of St. Petersburg Academic University.
Although Lomonosov did not attend the opening of the university and did not teach there, he took an active part in the development of Moscow University: he made sure that lectures at the first Russian university were given by Russian professors and in Russian. His efforts were crowned with success only 3 years after his death. According to the Decree of Catherine II, "for the better dissemination of sciences in Russia, lectures began in all three faculties by natural Russians in the Russian language."
The Apothecary House was chosen as the building for Moscow University, located next to Red Square at the Kuryatnye (now Resurrection) Gates. It was built at the end of the 17th century. and resembled in its design the famous Sukharev tower. On August 8, 1754, the Empress Elizabeth signed the decree on the transfer of the Apothecary House to the Moscow University, which was being opened.
Organization of the educational process
Initially, three faculties were formed at Moscow University with a staff of 10 professors. The Faculty of Philosophy was supposed to have four professors: philosophy, physics, eloquence and history. Three professors worked at the Faculty of Law: general and Russian jurisprudence, as well as politics. It was planned that the Faculty of Medicine would have three professors: chemistry, natural history and anatomy (there were vacancies here for several years).
Scheduled classes at the faculties were held five days a week. Students were required to attend all public lectures, and those who wished could also listen to additional courses. In addition, all students participated in monthly debates, which were led by full-time university professors. A week before the next debate, its topics and the names of the speakers from among the students were announced. At the end of each semester, open debates were organized at the university with the participation of professors, all students and admirers of science from among the inhabitants of Moscow. Preparation for debates helped students in their studies. The formation of Moscow University was difficult. The number of students grew slowly - in 1758 there were only 100 of them.
Only 30 students received from the treasury a salary of 40 rubles. a year, and the rest lived on their own means. In the minutes of the university conference dated July 2, 1759, there is the following entry: “One of the reasons that prevented the success of classes was the lack of textbooks, which state-owned students could not acquire due to poverty.”
At the end of 1757, Count I.I. Shuvalov ordered that money be spent on shoes and dresses in order to adequately dress the students. At the same time, it was ordered to issue state-owned cash "in addition to the salary for food, half a month each." The instruction to the director of the university (§22) forbade students to enter the classrooms in shearling fur coats, gray caftans and bast shoes, which was considered the clothes of the poor. During the life of Lomonosov, Moscow University was not yet Imperial: the educational institution was directly subordinate to the Governing Senate, and its professorship was not subject to any court, except for the university. The activities of the university were regulated by the "Highly Approved Project on the Establishment of Moscow University". Only under Alexander I, in 1804, was a new charter of His Imperial Majesty Moscow University adopted, according to which the rector was annually elected by the professorial assembly and approved personally by the emperor. From that time until 1917, the university was called the Imperial Moscow University.
Badge of a graduate of the Imperial Moscow University
Strengthening discipline among students, encouraging their diligence in their studies, was rewarded with small swords, which gave personal nobility. For special merits, the best students received early military ranks ahead of schedule. Studying at Moscow University was equated with military service. Finishing the full course of the university, the student received the chief officer rank (military rank of junior reserve officer).
From spring in the evening, students and university gymnasiums were involved in military training. Students and gymnasium students formed a university amusing battalion, its review was held every autumn by the Moscow military commandant or one of the chiefs of the regiments stationed in the city.
Initially, students were not charged tuition fees, but state appropriations only partially covered the needs of the university, so in the future, poor students began to be exempted from fees. The university management had to find additional sources of income, not excluding even commercial activities. Huge material assistance was provided by patrons (Demidovs, Stroganovs, E.R. Dashkova, etc.). They acquired and donated to the university scientific instruments, collections, books, established scholarships for students. Do not forget your university and graduates. At a difficult time for the university, they raised funds by subscription. According to the established tradition, professors bequeathed their personal collections to the university library. Among them are the richest collections of I.M. Snegireva, P.Ya. Petrova, T.N. Granovsky, S.M. Solovyova, F.I. Buslaeva, N.K. Gudzia, I.G. Petrovsky and others.
Moscow University played a prominent role in the dissemination and popularization of scientific knowledge. The lectures of university professors and student debates could be attended by the public.
In April 1756, a printing house and a bookshop were opened at Moscow University on Mokhovaya Street. This marked the beginning of domestic book publishing. At the same time, the university began publishing twice a week the first non-governmental newspaper in the country, Moskovskie Vedomosti, and from January 1760, the first literary magazine in Moscow, Useful Entertainment. For ten years, from 1779 to 1789, the printing house was headed by a pupil of the university gymnasium, the outstanding Russian educator N.I. Novikov.
For over 100 years, the university library was the only public library in Moscow.
In the 19th century, the first scientific societies were formed at the university: Testers of Nature, Russian History and Antiquities, and Lovers of Russian Literature.
The combination of the tasks of education, science and culture in the activities of the Moscow University turned it, in the words of A.I. Herzen, into the "center of Russian education", one of the centers of world culture.
Tatyana's Day
There is a version that I.I. Shuvalov presented Elizaveta Petrovna with the Decree on the University precisely on January 25, in order to please his mother, who had a birthday that day. Since then, the celebration of Tatiana's Day, first of all, as the day of the founding of the University, has become traditional and loved by everyone who was lucky enough to study in this temple of science.
Holy Martyr Tatiana. Icon
Holy Martyr Tatiana
The Holy Martyr Tatiana was born into a noble Roman family - her father was elected consul three times. He was a secret Christian and raised a daughter devoted to God and the Church. Having reached adulthood, Tatiana did not marry and gave all her strength to the Church. She was made a deaconess in one of the Roman churches and served God, caring for the sick in fasting and prayer and helping those in need. Tatiana's righteousness was to be crowned with a crown of martyrdom.
When sixteen-year-old Alexander Severus (222-235) began to rule Rome, all power was concentrated in the hands of Ulpian, the worst enemy and persecutor of Christians. Christian blood flowed like a river. Deaconess Tatian was also captured. When she was brought to the temple of Apollo to force her to sacrifice to the idol, the saint prayed, and suddenly an earthquake occurred, the idol was blown to pieces, and part of the temple collapsed and crushed the priests and many pagans. Then they began to beat the holy virgin, gouged out her eyes, but she endured everything courageously, praying for her tormentors that the Lord would open their spiritual eyes to them. For three days she was tormented, but she did not renounce Christ. All the tortures of the tormentors were exhausted, she was sentenced to death, and the courageous sufferer was beheaded with a sword. Together with her, as a Christian, the father of Saint Tatiana, who revealed to her the truths of the faith of Christ, was also executed.
From the beginning of its foundation, the holiday was not celebrated magnificently and included a prayer service in the university church and small celebrations. However, in the 60s of the 19th century, January 25 became an unofficial student holiday, which was divided into official and unofficial parts. Official celebrations included: lunch in the dining room, a prayer service in the university church on Mokhovaya, the rector's address to students and the presentation of awards, as well as walks around the university premises: auditoriums and libraries.
After that, an unofficial program began. Students had fun and walked around the center of Moscow in groups, singing songs. The police treated the noisy students with understanding, and in the morning the police wrote the address with chalk on the backs of the students who went too far and took them home. On this holiday, all differences were erased: teachers walked with students, the rich had fun with the poor. Wealthy students dressed in a simple way and had fun with the rest of the students on the street. University graduates also celebrated this holiday with great pleasure. Thus, the founding day of the university has become a favorite holiday for all students in the country.
The holiday was so cheerful that everyone who could join and walk on this day, and a university graduate A.P. Chekhov once said about the celebration of Tatyana’s Day: “Everyone drank that day, except the Moskva River, and that was due to the fact that it was frozen ... Pianos and grand pianos crackled, orchestras did not stop. It was so fun that one student, out of an excess of feelings, bathed in a tank where sterlets swim.
After the celebration of the centenary in 1855, a tradition arose to arrange an annual meeting of graduates of Moscow University on Tatiana's Day as a regular celebration.
After the revolution, the Bolsheviks considered the holiday too violent. In 1918, the university church was closed, and a reading room was set up in it. The holiday "Tatiana's Day" was replaced in 1923 with the "Day of the Proletarian Students", and the celebration of Tatiana's Day was banned. In 1992, after Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichy took office as rector, the tradition of celebrating Tatyana's Day at Moscow University was renewed.
Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov is older and larger than all other universities in Moscow. It is rightly called the center of national science. It consists of 40 faculties and a little over 300 departments. Approximately 50,000 people study at the Moscow State University at a time, of which 10,000 are enrolled in preparatory courses, 36,000 are students, and about 4,000 are graduate students. The teaching staff consists of about 4,000 people. And where did it all begin?
background
In 1741, the daughter of Peter I, Elizaveta Petrovna, came to the Russian throne. She set herself the goal of creating a special form of government in the Russian Empire: an enlightened monarchy. Bringing the most educated people of her time closer to her, she strongly encouraged the development of the sphere of science and the spread of culture.
Formally, the first Moscow University cannot be called the first in the country. In St. Petersburg, at that time the capital, the Academy of Sciences was opened a quarter of a century earlier. However, teaching there was predominantly done by foreign academics, who preferred foreign students. In addition, only representatives of the nobility could get an education there. All this did not allow the Academy of Sciences to become the basis of Russian education.
At the same time, the need of the Russian Empire for its own specialists was constantly growing. In the ranks of the advanced people of that time, an idea appeared - to create a higher educational institution in which, in addition to the nobles, persons of other classes would study. The history of Moscow University began with this idea.
The role of Lomonosov in the organization of the university
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov is one of the initiators of the creation of the State University in Moscow. He developed the structure of a new type of educational institution, and also made plans for its development in the early years of its existence. In particular, he sought to ensure that Russian teachers taught in Russian, and not in Latin, as was customary before, the language. After all, as Lomonosov believed, Moscow University should become the center of Russian science. True, it was not possible to realize this immediately, it was necessary first to grow cadres.
The merits of I. I. Shuvalov in the matter of education
Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov - a favorite of the Empress, an educated and influential person, took care of scientists and representatives of creative professions. He supported various ideas of M. V. Lomonosov, and approved the proposal to create a university for all classes. The opening of Moscow University was celebrated on a grand scale. After that, Elizabeth appointed I. I. Shuvalov as his curator. He followed the course of the educational process and provided all kinds of assistance to the university at the stage of its formation.
On January 25, the day of the Holy Great Martyr Tatyana, Elizabeth signed a project on the organization of a new university. Today this day, later called Student's Day, is celebrated by students throughout the country. And even then, in 1755, it was celebrated on a grand scale. Music played all day long, the building shone with bright lights. Thousands of people gathered for the celebration and did not disperse until late at night.
Formation of the material and technical base
The opening of Moscow University rallied people around a common cause. Funding for its development came from various sources. The Empress allocated about 15,000 rubles, a huge amount at that time. The money went to the formation of library funds, the creation of laboratories with all the necessary devices. A significant contribution was made by patrons, primarily the Demidov and Stroganov families. They provided funds for books, equipment, and student scholarships.
Subsequently, the collection of money for the needs of the university was also carried out by its graduates, who never forgot their alma mater. Among the professorial staff, it has become a good tradition to bequeath to the educational institution their books, monographs, manuscripts and other objects valuable for science from personal collections.
Buildings and structures of Moscow University
Initially, a building was allocated for the university, located in the very heart of the city, on Red Square (now the Historical Museum occupies this territory). At the end of the 18th century, it was moved to Mokhovaya. This building burned down during the fire of 1812 and was restored only after 7 years. Today there is the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Alexander I changed the structure of the university government by his decree. The post of rector was introduced, who was elected at a meeting of the Council of Professors and approved by the emperor himself. Since then, the university has become known as the imperial university.
After the revolution, the word "imperial" was changed to "state". And in the middle of the 20th century, during the celebration of the 185th anniversary of the opening of the university, it was named after the outstanding scientist of the 18th century, who stood at the origins of Russian science - M.V. Lomonosov. Lomonosov Moscow University has gone through such a path of development.
Elite education and systemic scientific knowledge inextricably linked with it came to Russia only in the era of Peter I, when the Academy of Sciences was created on the royal initiative. After some time, the Academy of Arts appeared, and there it was not far from the first university. But how did people in Rus' study before that, and what places in Moscow are connected with pre-Petrine educational institutions? MOSLENTA decided to find out this question.
The Riddle of Voluntary Isolation
The first university in Europe appeared in 1088 in Bologna. After about 70-80 years, they already appeared in Paris and Modena, and by the end of the 13th century their number numbered in the tens. In Russia, the first institution of higher education appeared only five centuries later. This is one of the mysteries of national history, the unambiguous answer to which does not exist. There is only a certain chain of facts and related questions.
Of course, it can be assumed that we were cut off from the West and did not have the opportunity to learn from this experience. But after all, in Constantinople, from the 5th century, there was Athenaeus (or Athenaeus), and in 855 the Magnavrian High School appeared. They studied arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine, grammar, rhetoric and philosophy, not only Orthodox, but also Plato and Aristotle.
Why, having borrowed Byzantine Christianity, did Rus' not take their scholarship from the Greeks?
After all, we do not know anything about the scientific and educational institutions of the pre-Mongolian period, in addition to monastic, that is, purely religious ones. So there is no need to blame the invasion of the Tatars, especially since they were definitely not interested in such problems.
Meanwhile, since the 15th century, Rus' has been lagging behind the West in scientific and technical terms. Suffice it to recall at least the story of the construction of the Kremlin, when our masters could not cope, and it was decided to invite architects from Europe. After all, Aristotle Fiorovanti not only built the Assumption Cathedral, he also built two brick factories, otherwise the Kremlin would have nothing to build from. And then he built a mint and gun yards. Why, using the skills of Frovanti, Pietro Antonio Solario, Marco Ruffo and other hired masters, did the Russians not try to create a school with their help, so that home-grown masters would adopt their knowledge? No, all the architects worked, received a reward and left, except for those who did not live to see the end of the contract.
Ivan the Terrible also invited foreign specialists, primarily the military: officers, gunners, foundry workers. However, the attitude towards them did not fundamentally change - as before, they did their job, but did not leave behind knowledge.
Only Boris Godunov tried to change the situation, who sent 18 young people to study in Europe - by the way, more than a hundred years before Peter I.
It is not known for certain how the experiment ended: in Rus', "troubles" began, in which the traces of the departed "students" were lost.
In the 17th century, we see the same picture - foreign masters of various specialties are invited, but no schools are created. Education takes place at home and at churches, where it is limited to the primary basics of writing and counting, and purely religious subjects. But the trouble is that if you can learn to read and write at home, then developing science is unrealistic.
Among the Russian elite there were educated people, such as the uncle of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Nikita Romanov, the tsar's educator and brother-in-law Boris Morozov, the roundabout Fyodor Rtishchev, the boyar and diplomat Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin, the boyar Artamon Matveev, Sophia's favorite Prince Vasily Golitsyn, but there were very few of them .
By the way, even then, many boyars began to hire foreign teachers from Europe for their children, most often from western Belarus and Poland, then the Commonwealth. Many members of the elite spoke foreign languages, ordered books from abroad, and created libraries.
- But there was no education system: the state did not participate in this, and the church even interfered.
Perhaps the church influence is the main reason for cultural isolation and such, to put it mildly, strange attitude towards science that developed in medieval Rus'.
This situation was even in the army, where tsars Mikhail Fedorovich and especially Alexei Mikhailovich began to actively hire foreigners. In the "regiments of the new system", which by the end of the 17th century accounted for up to half of the regular army, the officers were mostly foreigners, while the recruited Russians had to comprehend military wisdom. Training took place in practice within the regiments and was unsystematic, which could not but affect its quality. At the same time, not a single military school was created, although, it would seem, there were enough foreigners capable of transferring knowledge.
The perniciousness of isolationism and the need for change were obvious, it was in the air. This is confirmed by the reform attempts of Alexei Mikhailovich and his heirs Fyodor and Sophia. They lacked the decisiveness of their brother Peter, but they were the forerunners of great reforms. In the field of education, there were also pioneers who were ahead of their time, and this happened, first of all, in the capital of the Russian state, Moscow.
Gracious Husband Fyodor Rtishchev
The first open educational institution in Moscow was private, and it is associated with the name of the "okolnichiy" Tsar Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev. He was a completely unique person who manifested himself in various fields: military, diplomatic, scientific and even charitable. His uncommonness was visible even at a young age. Apparently, home education did not satisfy him, but there was nowhere to continue his education. Then the twenty-year-old "bed" (then he held this court post) Tsar Alexei decided to create a school for himself and others.
It was impossible to do this except through the mediation of the church, and Fyodor Mikhailovich asked Patriarch Joseph for permission to build a “training monastery” in Moscow at his own expense. The permission was obtained, and the construction of the monastery began on the Sparrow Hills in the Plenitsy tract, beyond the Krovyanka River. Initially, it was called Preobrazhensky, and later - Andreevsky, in the name of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called.
At the same time, Rtishchev called about three dozen scholars-monks from the Little Russian monasteries and asked the sovereign to assist in inviting outstanding scientists and educators of that time - Arseny Satanovsky and Epiphanius Slavinetsky. These were associates of the Exarch of the Throne of Constantinople, Metropolitan Peter Mohyla, who helped persuade them to move to Moscow.
The Little Russian Orthodox Church in those days was in a difficult, but at the same time advantageous position compared to the Moscow one.
On the one hand, she had to compete with the Uniate and Catholic, who were in the Commonwealth in more privileged conditions. On the other hand, this made it possible for mutual cultural enrichment, and competition protected from excessive dogmatism.
We are talking about the church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which retained the Kyiv diocese before Moscow began to independently choose the patriarch (1589). The Church of Constantinople preserved the traditions of Byzantine learning and absorbed the best ideas of Western Christianity, including university ones. It is no coincidence that it was under her wing that the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, the oldest Orthodox higher educational institution, was created in Kyiv. Strange as it may seem today, the birth of Moscow education is connected with it.
Having built the Andreevsky Monastery in 1648 and founded a higher school there, Rtishchev himself went to study there. In addition to studying Greek and Latin, rhetoric and philosophy were also studied here. At the initial stage, it was more of a scientific philosophical club than an educational institution in its purest form, but soon the set of subjects expanded, and everyone began to be admitted to the school. It was still financed by Rtishchev.
- The Moscow Church took the school with hostility, calling it heretical and "dissimilar to true orthodoxy."
Philosophy, even Orthodox and Byzantine, was not interesting to her. Fyodor Mikhailovich was saved by the closeness of Fyodor Mikhailovich with Tsar Alexei and the influential Metropolitan Nikon, the future patriarch, and then the tsar's confessor. Having existed for more than thirty years, the school was transferred to the Zaikonospassky Monastery and became the basis for a new, larger institution - the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.
And Andreevsky Monastery remained one of the centers of book literacy and the ancestral home of Russian knowledge. By the way, to this day it still stands in the same place, next to the presidium of the Academy of Sciences, which is very symbolic.
Forerunner of MGIMO
The scientists invited by Rtishchev were not the only ones from the Kiev-Mohyla Academy who ended up in Moscow during these years. They were followed by the famous theologian and poet Simeon of Polotsk.
In 1665, Tsar Alexei instructed him to organize a school for clerks of the Secret Order, where they were taught Russian and foreign grammar. The place for the school was the Spassky Monastery on Nikolskaya Street. In Moscow, this monastery was usually called Zaikonospassky, because if you look from the Kremlin, it was located behind the rows where icons were traded. The monastery was rebuilt under Tsar Alexei already taking into account educational needs, and the voivode Prince Fyodor Volkonsky gave money for the construction.
It was the first educational institution organized by the authorities, but it can rather be called special, even professional.
In addition, there were very few students - only about a dozen. The secret order was in charge of the affairs of the court and relations with foreign countries, its employees often became envoys, therefore they had to speak foreign languages. The teaching of the Latin language, which in those years was considered diplomatic, followed the textbook of the Portuguese Alvarez.
Subsequently, Polotsky was replaced by his student Sylvester Medvedev, while the piit himself went to teach the royal children, by the way, like Rtishchev. But the name “teacher’s” was assigned to the Spassky Monastery, which will play its role: for more than half a century it will become the center of Russian education. Simeon Polotsky himself became the initiator of the creation of a new educational institution - the Academy, by analogy with the Kiev-Mohyla. The charter was written by Sylvester Medvedev, and approved in 1682 by Tsar Fedor Alekseevich. By this time, Polotsky was no longer there, and he could not participate in the creation of his offspring. Medvedev initially participated, but fell into disgrace as a supporter of Sophia and was executed.
From Academy to University
The next story is connected not with the graduates of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, but with the Greeks - the brothers Ioaniky and Sophrony Likhud. The natives of the Ionian island of Kefalonia came from a noble princely family, were related to the Byzantine Monomakhs. They were educated in Greece, Venice and Padua, and were considered prominent scientists and preachers.
When an offer was received from Moscow about the opportunity to participate in the creation of the first Orthodox academy in the country, they agreed and left Constantinople, where they were preaching at that moment, to unknown Russia.
The new institution was first placed in the Epiphany Monastery, but only because the new Collegium had not yet been completed - a three-story building in the Zaikonospassky Monastery, which was supposed to become the base of the academy. In 1686, it was opened through the efforts of Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn, who both helped with money and used the administrative resource: he was then the right hand of Princess Regent Sophia. The Likhuds called the prince their "intercessor, protector, helper, cover and refuge."
Since there were not enough students and competent teachers, it was decided to combine the school of the Andreevsky Monastery and the printing school into a new one, called the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. “By the decree of the Tsars, up to 40 boyar children and a significant number of raznochintsy were soon attached,” and by the end of 1687 there were 76 students at the Academy. Gradually, their number grew to a hundred, then to 600. Textbooks in all subjects were originally created by the Likhud brothers, later the line expanded significantly. In 1701, by order of Peter I, the institution was granted the official status of a state academy.
- Studying at the Academy was designed for 12 years, but it was not necessary to enter the lower “fara” or school.
Enrollment was based on the results of an introductory interview; children of all classes were accepted. Physics, mathematics, logic, history, geography, theology, Latin, Greek and Slavic languages, music, even Hellenic philosophy and culture were studied. Poetry or, as they said then, piitika was considered a separate subject.
There was a theater at the Academy, where edifying performances were staged by students and Muscovites, including those based on the works of Simeon Polotsky and Feofan Prokopovich. Religion was an integral part of the curriculum, but still, first of all, the Academy prepared educated secular people capable of any kind of state service. Among its graduates are the architect Vasily Bazhenov, the poet and diplomat Antioch Kantemir, the founder of the Russian theater Fyodor Volkov, the mathematician Leonty Magnitsky and, of course, Mikhail Lomonosov, the founder of the first Moscow University in Russia.
He was destined for the honor of passing the baton and laying the foundations for a real scientific education, which Russia lacked so much. And the Academy, having given way to new purely secular educational institutions, found its niche - in 1775 it moved to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
In what year the first university was opened, you will learn from this article.
Where was the first university opened?
Education plays a very important role in the life of every person. The first universities were opened for this very purpose. Educational institutions have a long history.
The oldest universities in Europe:
- Italian University of Bologna, opened in 1088,
- English Oxford University, opened in 1100 (pictured),
- English University of Cambridge, opened in 1200,
- French University of Montpellier, opened in 1220.
- German Heidelberg University, opened in 1386,
- American Harvard University, opened in 1636,
- Japanese Ryuge University, opened in 1639
- University of Tokyo, opened in 1877.
But The first university in the world was founded in 372 in the state of Koguryo.. It was called "Taehak" or "Kendan". In 992, the state university "Kugchzhagam" was opened, in which scientists and feudal officials were trained. Today it is known as the university of light industry.
When was the first university in Europe opened?
In Constantinople in 425 opened the first institution of higher education. But it received the status of the first university in 848.
It is also an interesting fact that in 859 Al-Karaun University was founded in Morocco, which has been operating continuously from this year to the present day.
When was the first university opened in Russia?
The first university in Russia was opened on January 12, 1755 by decree of Empress Elizabeth. It was called Moscow University. It is interesting that it was opened on the day of St. Tatiana, so modern students consider her their patroness and celebrate this day as a student's day. For the university, the building of the Aptekarsky House was allocated, which is located near Red Square next to the Resurrection Gate. The founder of Moscow University is a famous scientist