ACTIVITIES OF THE ZEMSKA LIBERAL FROND OF NORTHERN UKRAINE IN THE FIELD OF PRIMARY EDUCATION (1880S)

Abstract

The publication highlights the activities of the Zemstvo Liberal Front of Northern Ukraine in the field of primary education in the 1880s. The author came to the conclusion that despite the unfavorable domestic political circumstances that took place in the Russian Empire in the 1880s during the Counter-Reforms of Emperor Alexander III, the activities of representatives of the Zemstvo Liberal Front of Northern Ukraine in the field of primary education can still be considered an example of reformatory asceticism aimed at the formation of an educated society of the state. The analysis of historical primary sources, the absolute majority of which are being introduced into international scientific circulation for the first time, convincingly demonstrated the undeniable modern nature of the work of members of the opposition aristocratic Front of the Northern Left Bank in the educational sphere. The Zemstvo Liberals did everything in their power to protect hired employees – Zemstvo teachers from arbitrariness and unfair treatment by law enforcement agencies and state institutions; systematically took care of increasing the financial support of teachers by allocating bonuses, supplements and allowances, including by introducing the institution of educational qualification for teachers, the level of which depended on the financial situation of the zemstvo employee. Representatives of the liberal party developed and initiated the adoption of several reform projects, the essence of which was to ensure equal access to the benefits of education for all segments of the country’s population, regardless of social origin, status, financial capabilities. In this way, the opposition aristocrats planned to form a single educational standard for the entire network of zemstvo primary schools, eliminating the conservative-reactionary principle of caste and class in the educational system and neutralizing the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Representatives of the zemstvo opposition insisted on the creation of a single collegiate body for managing the primary education system – district and provincial education councils, executive and appellate bodies, which were to be elected from representatives of local progressive figures and delegates of zemstvo institutions. At the level of rural communities and volosts, it was planned to establish specialized educational care, headed by guardians elected by the zemstvos, who were to coordinate the procedures for providing primary schools with everything necessary. We should also note the gender aspect of the progressives’ transformational initiatives. The opposition members petitioned the supreme authorities to open female teacher’s seminaries and pedagogical courses in the region, that is, to actually allow women to engage in pedagogical activity. It should be especially emphasized that the liberal zemstvos fundamentally defended the rights and freedoms of salaried employees-teachers, including in the context of preserving an important social preference – deferral from military service, the creation of a regional branch of the state pension fund for teachers, and the rejection of instructional requirements in the educational sector by Church structures.