Verkhoyansk Secondary School — the Oldest School in the Far North: The Beginning of a Long Journey

Abstract

In this article, the author shares the results of his research on the history of the city of Verkhoyansk — one of the oldest cities in the Far North of Russia. The city was founded by the Russian Cossack Postnik Ivanov in 1638. The school, which was opened two and a half centuries later, has its own history, as interesting as the city itself: it reflects almost all the events that took place in such a distant time in the Arctic coast of the Arctic, in Yakutia, in Russia. Despite the fact that the city is one of the smallest for its population, however, the founders of the school, its teachers and alumni were involved in many historical events, facts that made the fame and pride of place, has contributed to the development of their region, their country. Today we will get acquainted with the earliest period — the time of the Foundation and creation of the school as one of the main points of enlightenment of the vast territory lying to the North of the Verkhoyansk ridges. As it turned out, despite the long-standing interest in this place on the part of domestic and foreign historians, sociologists, and ethnographers, this period still remains a blank spot in history: we still do not know many participants in these events, there is no reliable data about some facts. The author has to be content with fragmentary information, give his own interpretation and explanation.

Keywords

• verkhoyansk
• verkhoyansk secondary school named after m.l. novgorodov
• education
• political exile
• school education
• yakutia