PUBLICISM OF THE NEWSPAPER «KIEVLYANIN» ABOUT THE PROBLEMS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN KRAI (60–70s OF THE XIX CENTURY)

This article discusses the formation of primary school education in the South-Western Territory (Kyiv, Volyn, Podolsk provinces) during the reforms of 60–70s in the XIXth century. The materials for the article are data from the Russian State Historical Archive, the Manuscripts Department of the Russian National Library, the Manuscripts Department of the Institute of Russian Literature and Art, as well as articles from various periodicals. Given the relevance and practical significance of this issue, as well as the lack researchers’ attention to local periodicals, the author quite reasonably refers to the journalism of the newspaper Kievlyanin — the leading “news letter” of the South-Western Territory of the reform era. By the beginning of the 60s of the XIXth century a key role in primary school education in the three southwestern provinces belonged to the Orthodox clergy and parochial schools. The pedagogical failure of parochial schools forced the government to turn to the Ministry of Public Education with a request to start establishing public schools. At the same time, attempts were made to subordinate parochial schools to the Ministry of Education. However, the political reaction followed put an end to such trends. This not only complicated relations between the Ministry of Education and the spiritual department, but also resulted in stagnation of school education. It is noted that the publicists of Kievlyanin have repeatedly reported about the crisis tendencies in the public school development. This research is devoted to studying the variety of views of the Kyiv newspaper editors on public education, attitude towards parochial schools. The main directions of the policy for the development of primary school education in the South-Western Territory were also discussed.