Андрей Тихомиров
From the history of Orenburg region
However, real life increasingly demanded literate, trained people. The government and society had to respond to the demands of the time. In 1786, the "Charter of the National Schools of the Russian Empire" was approved, which assumed the opening of the main and small national schools in provincial and regional cities. In accordance with this charter, at the end of the XVIII century (in 1789), the main national school was opened in Ufa, and small national schools were opened in Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Menzelinsk. Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Menzelinsk were then part of the Orenburg province, now they are the territories of Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk region and Tatarstan. In 1797, due to the transfer of the provincial center from Ufa to Orenburg, the small national school in Orenburg was transformed into the main national school, and the main national school in Ufa, in turn, into the small national school. The work of public schools took place in difficult conditions. Classes were conducted in adapted rooms. The dropout rate was high, especially from the senior classes of the main school. The local authorities were engaged in the material equipment of these educational institutions. The financial situation of schools and teachers has traditionally been difficult for Russia. The composition of the students was quite diverse. Among them were representatives of different social strata, which indicates the interest of these strata in education.
In 1804, a new charter of educational institutions was approved in Russia. In accordance with it, all educational institutions of the country were divided into four categories: parish schools (1 year of study), county schools (2 years of study), provincial schools (otherwise – gymnasiums, 4 years of study) and universities. The curricula of educational institutions of all four categories were designed so that the parish school served as a preparatory step to the county, the county to the provincial, and the provincial school to the university. At the same time, the school of each category was supposed to provide a complete education for those who did not have the opportunity to continue it further.
To manage educational institutions, it was decided to divide the entire territory of Russia into six educational districts. In each district, educational institutions were to be managed by a trustee and a local university. Gymnasiums were subordinated to the university, county schools to the directors of gymnasiums, parish schools to the supervisors of county schools. The territory of the Orenburg province was assigned to the Kazan Educational District. The city of Kazan was designated as the seat of the trustee of this district, and Kazan University was opened there.
In accordance with the newly approved charter of educational institutions, parish schools became the initial stage of education. From that moment on, in the province, in various localities, the opening of primary schools began more actively, and above all, according to the programs of parish schools. These programs included literacy, the first steps of arithmetic, the main principles of the Law of God and the study of law. The financing of such schools was mainly entrusted to local authorities.
In 1817, Buzuluk and Menzelinsky public schools received the status of county schools, in 1818 a similar status was assigned to the Ufa School. The Orenburg National School was also transformed into a county school in 1822. The school year in these schools lasted eleven months. The term of study was two years in the college itself and a year in the preparatory class. In 1830, 515 students studied in five county schools of the province. In 1837, 2,189 people were trained in the Orenburg battalion, the Troitsk and Verkhneuralsky semi-battalions and the Zverinogolovskaya company (Mirsaitova S.G. Public education in the Southern Urals in the first half of the XIX century. Yekaterinburg, 2000).
Garrison schools for the education of children of employees and retired soldiers, established by government decree of 1797, were widely known in the Orenburg province at the end of the XVIII – first half of the XIX century. At the beginning of the 19th century, these schools were transformed into military orphan departments subordinate to the military department, and their pupils began to be called cantonists.
The number of pupils of garrison schools included soldiers' children from the age of 10. Military orphan departments were opened in all the largest, significant fortresses of the province, such as Orenburg, Verkhneuralskaya, Troitskaya, etc. In their internal activities, they obeyed the commandants of the fortresses. Cantonese graduates were sent to army regiments and military institutions for use, depending on their success in training as clerks, students of regimental paramedic schools, non-commissioned officers, and ordinary soldiers. Schools of military cantonists ceased their activities around the middle of the XIX century.
The composition of teachers who worked in educational institutions of the province in the XVIII – early XIX century was extremely heterogeneous in terms of their general education and professional training. Only a small part of the teachers had university education. The majority of teachers, at best, received professional training in theological schools, seminaries or additional pedagogical classes at gymnasiums, main public schools. The positions of teachers in the most numerous parish schools were filled either by graduates of county schools, or by persons who had passed the exams for the title of teacher, or by recent graduates of the parish schools themselves.
"On January 2, 1825, in Orenburg, after a lot of preparatory work carried out by the governors of the region, G.S.Volkonsky and P.K.Essen, to find financial resources and develop the concept of a new educational institution, the first secondary educational institution was opened – the famous Neplyuevsky military School, transformed in 1844 into the Neplyuevsky cadet corps. From this moment on, along with primary education, the stage of development of complete secondary general and secondary vocational education begins in the Orenburg province. The main task of the cadet corps was to train officers and administrative personnel for the needs of the Orenburg Region and adjacent border territories. The students of the corps were recruited mainly from the children of officers and civil servants, some of the places were occupied by representatives of the wealthy strata of the foreign population, primarily Kazakhs. In all the curricula of the corps in different periods of its existence, programs for the study of foreign languages, especially oriental ones: Arabic, Turkic, Persian, were widely presented" (Bolodurin V.S. Education and pedagogical thought in Orenburg region. Orenburg Book Publishing House, 2001, pp. 21-22).
On May 29, 1887, the second cadet corps was opened in Orenburg on the basis of the school of military cantonists to teach children of officers and officials serving in the Turkestan Military District and the Transcaspian region.
In 1828, the first gymnasium was opened in the Orenburg province in Ufa. It was named after the name of the province – "Orenburg Gymnasium". The gymnasium has begun successful work on training educated youth to work in administrative bodies or further study at universities. It was mainly attended by children of officials, rich merchants and burghers. The name "Orenburg" remained with the gymnasium until 1865.
On December 6, 1832, the "department of the Neplyuyevsky military school for the education of girls" was established in Orenburg – a special girls' institute, transformed in 1848 into the Orenburg Women's Institute named after Emperor Nicholas I. The Institute entered the system of special women's educational institutions of the Empress Maria's department. A boarding house was organized under him, where most of the pupils lived. Throughout the XIX century, the curricula and study programs at the institute were repeatedly changed, the material base was strengthened, and the number of pupils was constantly growing.
The English newspaper "The Illustrated London News" dated January 25, 1868, reports that a Russian military school for 200 students was established in Orenburg, on the borders with Turkestan, 120 of whom were chosen from the sons of Tatar and Kyrgyz leaders. One of the first graduates of this school was the famous Kazakh educator and the first Kazakh teacher, later the inspector of public schools of the Turgai region, Ibrai Altynsarin, who devoted his life to the development of education and dissemination of knowledge among the Kazakh population.
1868 was the year of the opening of the first men's classical gymnasium in Orenburg. During the second half of the XIX – early XX century, it was the leading civil secondary educational institution in Orenburg and the Orenburg province. The gymnasium had a solid library, good equipment for natural classrooms. The gymnasium building had its own church with a rich church decoration. The most qualified teaching staff worked here, positive feedback on the work of which was invariably given by the inspectors of the Kazan and then Orenburg educational districts.
The gymnasium was famous for its literary evenings. Her high school students took part in all the solemn events of the city. In July 1891, during his return from Japan, the gymnasium was visited by the future Emperor of Russia Nicholas II.
On December 3, 1868, a women's school of the 1st class was opened in Orenburg, which in 1871 was transformed into the first women's gymnasium.
"In the mid-60s of the XIX century, the first industrial establishments appeared north of the Old Settlement, they were built in the area of Goncharnaya and Shafeeva streets. This land was considered an urban pasture and did not belong to the settlement. The buildings on this site are first designated as "glue and pottery establishments", and then "rented places", because their owners or just tenants began to settle near the enterprises. Hence the expression to live "on Rent". The construction of rented places at the beginning of the XX century reaches almost to the modern streets of 1st Semaphore and Burannaya" (In Orenburg: handbook, Yu.D. Garankin, V.V. Dorofeev, A.N. Zhilin. Chelyabinsk, South Ural Book Publishing House, 1985, p. 15).
The space between Kuracha Street (Kurach Pavel Seliverstovich (1894-1937) – a participant in the Civil War, commander of the First Orenburg Soviet Cavalry Cossack Labor Regiment) and the slope remained undeveloped and from the end of the XIX century became known as Ardatovskaya Square.
