Religious schools

Categories / Science. Education/Educational Institutions
Categories / Religion. Church/Reigious Organizations
RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS, general education institutions for working-class children and adults in the second half of the 19th - the early 20th centuries, with classes generally held on Sundays, though many of them held classes on weekdays and in the evenings). The first religious school, M.S. Shpilevskaya Women's School, appeared in 1859. Soon followed the Tavricheskaya School, the Vasileostrovskaya Men's School, and others. As a rule, education was free. Religious schools were prohibited after a revolutionary propaganda campaign in 1862, and some teachers and students were sentenced during the so-called Religious Schools Affair. The work of religious schools resumed in the late 1860s. Their program corresponded to that of primary schools, as was required by the Statute on Public Schools (1864). Religious schools began opening municipal branches in 1879. There were 20 religious schools in the capital in 1898, and by 1916 there were 30 public and 5 private school with a total enrolment of 1.700 pupils. The most famous were four religious schools on the Schlisselburgsky tract, which were opened by factory owner N. A. Vargunin in 1883-85. Among them was the Smolenskaya (Kornilovskaya) Evening Religious School (today 107 Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue), where revolutionary ideas were taught by N.K. Krupskaya (memorial plaque installed), A.M. Kalmykova, and L.N. Knipovich, and where many workers of the revolution studied. Factory owner Thornton opened a religious school at his factory to counter the Smolenskaya Religious School, and brought in students from the Theological Academy to teach. In the 1880s, the Director of the Petersburg Technological Institute founded a religious school for workers, which he directed himself. A transportable Museum of Learning Aid Products, created by teachers, played an important role in the activity of religious schools. After October 1917, religious schools were transformed to adult schools. From the late 1980s, the term " religious schools" has applied to parish schools connected to Orthodox Churches.

References: Ширинский-Шихматов А. П. Воскресные школы в России. СПб., 1863; Бланк А. Вечерне-воскресные школы в Петербурге // Нар. образование. 1960. № 8. С. 113-116.

M. V. Shkarovsky. Kalmykova Alexandra Mikhailovna
Knipovich Lidia Mikhailovna
Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna
Shpilevskaya M.S.
Thornton James
Vargunin Nikolay Alexandrovich
Obukhovskoy Oborony Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 107
Ширинский-Шихматов А. П. Воскресные школы в России. СПб., 1863
Бланк А. Вечерне-воскресные школы в Петербурге // Нар. образование, 1960 Theological Academy
Nevskaya Manufaktura, Factory
Nevskaya Manufaktura, Factory