At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia maintained a system of higher education inherited from the feudal era, when the main purpose of higher education institutions, primarily universities, was to train officials for the state bureaucracy. The same tasks were performed by some non-university educational institutions: the Alexander and Demidov Lyceums, the School of Law, etc. Admission to higher education institutions required not only a certificate of secondary education, but also a certificate of political trustworthiness.
The autocracy in every possible way hindered the access of the masses to educational and educational institutions. "The Ministry of National Education," wrote V. I. Lenin, "is a ministry of police investigation, of mockery of the youth, of outrage at the popular desire for knowledge." 1 In addition, the curriculum of higher education lagged behind the achievements of science. The existing system of higher education in Russia was not able to train a sufficient number of highly qualified personnel necessary for the successful development of the domestic economy and culture, let alone to satisfy the desire of the masses for knowledge.
For the first time, an attempt to create a higher education institution free from bureaucratic official tutelage was made by Professor M. M. Kovalevsky, who in 1901 organized the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences in Paris2 . Its successful activity gave rise to the idea of establishing such an educational institution in Russia itself. The initiator in this matter was retired Major General A. L. Shanyavsky. The son of a poor Polish nobleman, he successfully graduated from the General Staff Academy and served in Siberia, and after retiring, he took part in organizing a company for gold mining in the Amur region 3 . As a representative of the liberal intelligentsia, Shanyavsky rightly believed that the country "needs as many educated people as possible", naively thinking that "they are all our strength and salvation and in their insufficiency the cause of all our disasters and misfortunes and the deplorable situation in which Russia finds itself" 4 . Shanyavsky devoted a lot of effort to organizing various educational institutions: the women's medical institute in St. Petersburg, the agricultural school in Transbaikalia, the transformation of the Blagoveshchensk progymnasium into a gymnasium, etc. "His main dream," Shanyavsky's wife later recalled, " was always to leave all his funds for such a higher educational institution, where they could freely, without the requirements of certificates both men and women, Russians and non-Russians, in short, all those who wanted to study, should learn maturity. " 5
The defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese war and the rapid growth of the revolutionary movement led Shanyavsky to think about the need to quickly create an educational institution, in which he saw one of the ways to spread enlightenment among the people, believing, like a typical liberal, that this would establish class peace in the country and save it from"chaos". He considered it possible to develop the organizational framework on which the People's University would operate through collective discussions. During the summer of 1905, meetings were held in his apartment, as a result of which the draft charter of the new educational institution was adopted. On September 15, 1905, Shanyavsky addressed the Moscow City Duma with a proposal:-
1 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 23, p. 135.
2 See G. G. Moshkovich. Russian Higher School of Social Sciences in Paris (1901-1906). "Proceedings" of the Krasnodar Pedagogical Institute, 1963, issue 33, pp. 135-154.
3 Manuscript Department of the V. I. Lenin State Library (hereinafter - RO GBL), f. 554, kart. 1, d. 1, ll. 1-2.
4 Ibid., d. 10, l. 1.
5 Ibid., d. 1, l. 2 vol.
page 208
I agree to accept as a gift a house belonging to him in Moscow, on the Arbat, with a plot of land for the establishment and maintenance of the national University on the income from it 6 . The application set out the conditions under which this educational institution was created. It was intended to serve the purpose of " spreading enlightenment and attracting the sympathy of the people for science and knowledge." People of both sexes could be admitted to classes there, without distinction of nationality or religion. The fee for listening to lectures was to be set as low as possible, and if subsequent donations provided for the maintenance of the university, it would not be charged at all. The National University provided classes in all branches of knowledge. Lectures were to be delivered not only in Russian, but taught by persons of both sexes with an academic degree or known for their works in science .7 The university would not be affiliated with the Ministry of Public Education. Applicants may not have submitted either a secondary education certificate or a certificate of political reliability. The planned educational institution would have no analogues either in Russia or abroad.
At a meeting of the Moscow City Duma on October 25, 1905, it was decided to accept the gift of Shanyavsky for the establishment of the People's University .8 Due to the deterioration of his health, Shanyavsky made a will on October 26, 1905, according to which his real estate and capital were transferred to the lifelong use of his wife, so that after her death they would pass to the People's University, established under the conditions set out in his application to the Moscow City Duma .9 If the Duma fails to establish the People's University within three years (before October 3, 1908), the property will pass to the St. Petersburg Women's Medical Institute. 10 On November 7, 1905, Shanyavsky died 11 . The organization of the People's University was left to his wife and friends. A special commission developed a draft charter of the University, which was approved on May 30, 1906 by the Moscow City Duma 12 .
The existence of an educational institution that was not part of the Ministry of Public Education seemed blasphemous to tsarist officials. Moscow Mayor A. A. Reinbot suspended the implementation of the decision of the City Duma 13 . The draft statute was submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for approval 14 . From there, he was sent to the Ministry of Public Education. It, in turn, pointed out that the project can be put into effect only if the relations between the People's University and the Ministry are determined, and proposed that the candidate for the chairman of the university board be approved by the Ministry, while the Board of Trustees is obliged to send there for information an annual report on the university's activities, submit lecture programs and face reading 15 . Only under these conditions did the Minister of Public Education P. M. Kaufman decide to ask the Council of Ministers to grant him the right to approve the draft charter of the People's University .16 The Council of Ministers in July 1907 established that the approval of the charter would pass through the State Duma and the State Council .17 Only on November 27, 1907, the draft charter was submitted to the State Duma without changes .18
Meanwhile, the new Minister of Public Education A. N. Shvartz took the next steps to turn the People's University into a regular educational institution. In January 1908, he applied to the Duma with a request to return the draft charter for revision and correction .19 On April 1, 1908, the Moscow City Duma received it with additional comments from the Ministry of Public Education, 20 which again required that only the minister approve the chairman of the Board of Trustees, and the trustee of the Moscow Educational District had the right to approve the chairman of the university Board, the program of lecture courses-
6 TsGIA Moscow, f. 179, op. I, 734, l. 1.
7 See ibid., pp. 1-2.
8 "Journal of the Moscow City Duma", 1905, No. 25, p. 171.
9 TsGIA Moscow, f. 179, op. 11, d. 287, l. 1.
10 Ibid., l. 2.
11 N. V. Speransky. The emergence of the A. L. Shanyavsky Moscow City National University, Moscow, 1913, p. 24.
12 "Journal of the Moscow City Duma", 1906, No. 6, pp. 83-84.
13 TsGIA Moscow, f. 179, op. 11, d. 287, l. 21.
14 Ibid., l. 24.
15 Ibid., l. 50 vol.
16 TsGIA of the USSR, f. 1276, op. 3, d. 819, l. 4 vol.
17 Ibid., l. 46.
18 Ibid., op. 2, d. 140, l. 1.
19 Ibid., l. 12 vol.
20 "Journal of the Moscow City Duma", 1908, No. 7, p. 42.
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21. The Ministry objected to granting the Board of Trustees the right to establish faculties at the university at its own discretion .22 On April 4, 1908, the Moscow City Duma adopted these amendments .23 Thus, one of the basic principles put forward by Shanyavsky - the creation of an educational institution free from government guardianship-was violated.
On June 3, 1908, a new draft charter was considered in the State Duma. The discussion was opened by the Octobrist M. Ya. Kapustin, who defended the changes made at the insistence of the Ministry of Public Education .24 The debate on Kapustin's report became heated. If Schwartz continued to insist on subordinating the university to his department and demanded approval of the programs of its lecture courses by the trustee of the Moscow School District in order to "improve" their content, 25 then the social Democrat T. O. Belousov and liberal-minded deputies defended the idea of a people's university. 26 Belousov showed that the amendments made to the university charter by the Ministry radically changed the organization of work in this educational institution, narrowed the activities of its teaching staff and public initiative. The activity of the Ministry of Public Education was criticized in the speech of the trudovik A. A. Bulat, who noted that it "tries to subordinate itself entirely to the people's University both by appointing persons at its head and by striving to subordinate the organization of teaching in it" 27 . Another speaker said that the draft violated the will of the donor and demanded that the State Duma approve the original version of charter 28 .
The Black Hundreds sharply criticized the draft charter on the right. Thus, Purishkevich saw the People's University as a hotbed of revolutionary propaganda that undermined the foundations of the autocracy, and demanded that the role of the Ministry of Public Education in the activities of the people's University be further strengthened .29 Markov-2 believed that any step aimed at weakening the government's oversight of public education would lead to "the demise of Russia." 30
The article-by-article discussion of the draft charter caused even more heated debates. Representatives of the Social Democratic faction introduced 14 amendments to the articles of the charter, which were aimed at expanding the rights of the People's University and eliminating the guardianship of the ministry. However, the Duma, having allowed the Moscow City Public Administration "to open a people's University with funds donated to Major-Generals Shanyavsky, giving it the name Moscow City People's University named after A. L. Shanyavsky", nevertheless approved the new draft charter by an Octobrist-cadet majority .31
When this document was discussed at a meeting of the State Council on June 18, 1908, the right-wing members of the council also made demands to establish strict control over the activities of the university .32 Although supporters of the university (M. M. Kovalevsky, A. F. Koni, N. M. Anichkov) tried to fight back against the rightists, 33 the State Council approved the bill adopted by the Duma. On June 26, 1908, it was approved by the Tsar of Russia, and on October 1, the grand opening of the A. L. Shanyavsky Moscow City National University took place.
Despite the significant changes made to the text of the charter by the tsarist administration, the democratic public welcomed the creation of a new higher education institution. Later it became one of the centers of Russian advanced science, and the democratic rules of admission to the university helped turn it into a place of active revolutionary work.
21 TsGIA Moscow, f. 179, op. 11, d. 287, l. 103.
22 Ibid., l. 136.
23 "Journal of the Moscow City Duma", 1908, No. 8, p. 51.
24 TsGIA SSSR, f. 1278, op. 2, 53, l. 1.
25 "Verbatim report". State Duma, 3rd convocation, session I, part 3, stb. 1955-1967.
26 " Ibid., stb. 1968-1969.
27 Ibid., stb. 1971-1972.
28 Ibid., stb. 1984-1985.
29 Ibid., stb. 1990.
30 Ibid., stb. 2018.
31 Ibid., stb. 2057.
32 "State Council". Verbatim report for 1907-1908, session 3, stb. 1949.
33 Ibid., stb. 1957.
34 PSZ. T. XXVIII, N 30520.
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