Under the Convent’s Care: History of the Buildings of Ekaterinburg Diocesan Female School (1838–1919)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history of educational and dormitory buildings of the Diocesan School for women, which existed in Ekaterinburg from 1838 to 1919. The beginning of women’s education in the Ekaterinburg diocese was laid in September 1838, with the opening at the Novo-Tikhvinsky convent of a school-orphanage for girls of clerical rank, mostly orphans and children of poor parents; here the basics of reading and writing, household works and handicraft were taught free of charge. From the 1865–66 academic year, the school was converted to a four-year school, and the range of subjects was enlarged by the explanatory course of the Divine Worship, Church History, a brief course of Civil Russian history and General history, as well as Geography, a continuation course of Arithmetic and Church Singing. Since 1866, the school was housed in a separate building not far from the monastery. In April 1880 the four-year monastery school was transformed into a six-year and renamed the Trans-Ural Diocesan Women’s School, and from July 1885 it became known as the Ekaterinburg Diocesan Women’s School. On January, 10 of 1917, the consecration of the new school building with the church in the name of the great martyr Catherine took place. Thus, the most favorable conditions for the introduction of women’s education in the Ekaterinburg diocese and providing social assistance to girls from low-income families of clergy and clergymen had been created; however, the revolutionary events of October 1917, which brought about radical changes in the state attitude towards the Church, did not allow these activities to continue. Obviously, the 1918 occupation of Ekaterinburg by the White army somewhat delayed the implementation of Bolshevik anti-church measures here, but in 1919, immediately after the final approval of Soviet power in the Urals, the Ekaterinburg Diocesan Women’s School ceased to exist, as, in fact, all other educational institutions of the religious department on the territory of this country. After that, its three main buildings actually continued to be used for their intended purpose, only not by church, but by secular educational institutions, and this state of affairs has been maintained for more than 100 years. The process of returning buildings and other religious property to the Russian Orthodox Church (the so-called restitution of church property), which is currently taking place in the country, creates conditions for the transfer of buildings of the Ekaterinburg Diocesan Women’s School to their rightful owner — the Ekaterinburg diocese. However, in this case it remains a matter of an unspecified future.

Keywords

• ekaterinburg diocesan women’s school
• buildings of the diocesan school
• dormitory of the diocesan female school
• novo-tikhvinsky convent
• mother superior magdalene