ACHIEVEMENTS AND DIFFICULTIES OF THE ORTHODOX CLERGY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE'S EDUCATION DURING THE RULE OF EMPEROR ALEXANDER II (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE VORONEZH DIOCHY)

Abstract

In the second half of the XIX century, the population of the Russian Empire mainly consisted of illiterate peasants. Large-scale transformations of the Emperor Alexander II were aimed, among other things, at increasing the level of literacy among the population. In the Empire, people's Zemstvo schools began to be created everywhere. As of 1870, there were 831,402 students in 22,827 schools in the Russian Empire, which was clearly insufficient in relation to the population. Due to the critical shortage of teachers (according to available data, there were not even two teachers per school on average), the level of knowledge of graduates was low, but in the conditions of total illiteracy of the peasant population, such a level of literacy was considered to have significantly increased. One of the most significant problems in the field of public education in the province, contemporaries called the lack of trained teachers who could help the parish clergy. This article attempts to show the efforts and contribution of the parish clergy of the Voronezh and Zadonsk diocese in the field of public education in the late 60s-early 70s of the XIX century on the basis of archival materials, periodicals of the time studied and published sources. The main difficulties in creating public educational institutions were insufficient material support, lack of support and understanding of the need for education on the part of parents of students. The author comes to the conclusion that the activities of the parish clergy in Russia significantly contributed to increasing the level of literacy among the population.

Keywords

• emperor alexander ii
• great reforms
• voronezh and zadonsk diocese
• public education
• parish clergy
• primary public schools