Royal Russia. Higher education for women

September 20 (October 2), 1878 in St. Petersburg in the building of the Alexander Gymnasium on Gorokhovaya Street, the grand opening of the first higher educational institution for women in Russia took place.

Their organizers were well-known public figures A.P. Filosofova, N.V. Stasova, O.A. Mordvinova, V.P. Tarnovskaya, N.A. Belozerskaya, E.I. professors of St. Petersburg University A.N. Beketov, D.I. Mendeleev, I.M. Sechenov, A.M. Butlerov, K.N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin. The first director of the courses was the historian K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, later this institution was named after him.

814 people signed up for the courses (regular students and volunteers). Bestuzhev courses were private educational institution, Ministry of Public Education and St. Petersburg City Duma allocated only 3 thousand rubles a year, mainly the courses were maintained at the expense of the Society for the delivery of funds to the Higher Women's Courses.

In 1885, for the Higher Women's Courses on the 10th line of Vasilyevsky Island, their own building was built according to the design of Academician of Architecture A.F. Krasovsky with the participation of V.R. Kurzanov. In the future, the VZhK building began to grow due to the addition of outbuildings and buildings to the main building.

There were three faculties at the courses: history and philology, physics and mathematics (originally divided into physics and mathematics and special mathematics departments) and law (opened in 1906).

After the revolution of 1905, the courses received autonomy. The board of professors was allowed to choose a director from among themselves. The educational process was also reorganized. At the Bestuzhev courses, a new system was introduced, called the subject system, which allowed students to choose lecture courses at will, and teachers to diversify and expand the system of practical classes and courses. In 1910, the State Council recognized the St. Petersburg Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses as a higher educational institution with a volume of teaching equal to a university. Certificates of completion of the VZhK were equated to university diplomas.

Bestuzhev courses lasted 40 years, from 1878 to 1918, and in 1918 the courses, as the Third Petrograd University, were connected with the First Petrograd University. Higher women's courses entered the history of Russian education as the only higher educational institution for women that survived the reforms of the 1880s (the rest were closed from the mid-1880s, and at the beginning of the 20th century only a few of them were able to revive).

Bestuzhev courses in Russian culture are a unique phenomenon. For 32 issues - (1882 to 1916) 6933 people graduated from the Higher Women's Courses. The largest number were educated at the Faculty of History and Philology (4311 people), 2385 people graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics and 237 from the Faculty of Law. high school, many became employees of libraries and other educational institutions. Bestuzhev courses brought up many outstanding scientists, writers, and leaders of the social movement.

Bestuzhev courses entered the history of Russian education as the first higher educational institution for women of the university type.

Arrangement of stresses: HIGHEST WOMEN'S COURSES

HIGHER WOMEN'S COURSES - higher women's educational institutions in pre-revolutionary Russia. Arose under the influence of the revolutionary-democratic. movements of the 60s. 19th century

In 1863, in response to a request from the Min-va nar. Enlightenment, the majority of high fur boots, with the exception of Moscow and Derpt, spoke in favor of granting women the right to higher education. Despite this, according to the university charter of 1863, women were not allowed access to the university.

Many Russian women received higher education in Zurich (Switzerland), where, since 1867, women were admitted to the un-t and polytechnic. in-t. The tsarist administration, alarmed that women who had received higher education in Switzerland "cannot return back except with ideas and directions that do not correspond to the order," created a commission to discuss the question "of the measures caused by the ever-increasing influx of Russian women to the University of Zurich and some unfortunate phenomena in their midst",

V.'s organizations. to. in Russia was preceded by more than a decade of struggle for the creation of women's high fur boots, in which wide circles of Russians took part. the public.

The first V. with the permission of the pr-va were opened in 1869 (Alarchinsky in St. Petersburg and Lubyansky in Moscow). One of the stages in the struggle for a women's university was the organization in St. Petersburg in 1870 of systematic "Public lectures" for men and women. These lectures were called "Vladimir courses" after the name of the Vladimir school, where they were placed. to. supervision was established.

In 1872, the Higher Women's Medical School was opened. courses at Medico-surgical. Academy in St. Petersburg and V. Zh. Ph.D. prof. Moscow University of V. N. Guerrier in Moscow. Opened in 1876 in Kazan and in 1878 in Kyiv V, Zh. K. had 2 f-that: physical and mathematical and historical and philological. In 1878, in St. Petersburg, a circle of progressive intelligentsia headed by the scientist and public figure A. K. Beketov founded the Bestuzhev V. Zh. K. (named after Professor of Russian history K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who, at the request of the Ministry of National Education, was their official founder and headed the courses in 1878 - 82).

Suppressing the revolutionary-democratic. movement of the 70s, the royal government in 1881 predetermined the closure of all V. Zh. to. In 1886, by order of the Min-va Nar. education admission to V. Zh. k. was discontinued, and a little later they were closed. Renaissance V. Zh. to. associated with the revolutionary movement of the late 19th - early. 20th century In St. Petersburg and in Moscow, some V. were restored. to., new ones began to open, but with a number of restrictions. In St. Petersburg in 1904, the Stebutov Higher Women's Agricultural Schools were opened. courses, in 1906 - Women's Polytechnic, Historical, Literary and Legal. women's courses Raeva, Yuridpch. Peskovskaya's courses, Lokhvitskaya's natural science courses. In Moscow were organized: Historical and philological. and legal Poltoratskaya courses, Higher female ped. courses, higher female honey. courses, Higher women's agricultural courses. During 1905 - 16th century, the camps were created in Odessa, Kharkov, Kyiv, Warsaw, Derpt, Kazan, Tiflis, Novocherkassk, and Tomsk. The courses were not funded by the government and existed on charitable funds and tuition fees.

Guerrier's courses, and especially the Bestuzhev courses, played a significant role in the development of women's education in Russia. Guerrier's general education courses were at first two-year, from 1879 a three-year, and then a four-year period of study was introduced. They taught at the courses of Professor Mosk. un-ta, including outstanding Russian. scientists V. O. Klyuchevsky, F. A. Bredikhin, F. I. Buslaev, D. N. Anuchin, and others. Although the courses gave knowledge in the amount of historical and philological. f-ta un-ta, graduates were not assigned any title. Like other V. Well. K., Guerrier's courses in the late 80s. were closed. In 1900 they opened as part of three f-ts: historical-philological, physical-mathematical and especially mathematical; in 1906 honey was created. Ph.D.

Bestuzhev courses were the first women's university in Russia. The courses included 3 faculty: verbal-historical, physical-mathematical, and specially mathematical; in 1906, the 4th faculty, legal, was opened. The term of study in courses until 1881 was 3 years, and then 4 years. Lectures were read by professors of St. Petersburg University, in particular D. I. Mendeleev, I. M. Sechenov, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovskiy, O. F. Miller and others. establishments associated with the guardianship of Min-va nar. education courses had the opportunity to apply advanced teaching methods based on independent work listeners. In 1886 - 89 admission to the courses was discontinued, but they were the only V. Zh. which continued to work during these years thanks to broad public support. In 1889, the pr-in was forced to allow a new admission of students to the courses, but deprived them of the autonomy that they enjoyed in the early years; tuition fees were raised, students were allowed to live only with relatives or in a hostel, etc. After 1905, a subject-based system of education was introduced at the courses. The number of students at the Bestuzhev courses in the year of their organization is over 880 people. (including 348 volunteers), in 1914 - approx. 7 thousand graduates of the courses received the right to teach in women's cf. uch. institutions and in the lower grades of men's cf. schools.

On V. many activists studied revolutionary movement, for example, at the Bestuzhev Courses - N. K. Krupskaya, A. I. Elizarova-Ulyanov, P. F. Kudeli, K. N. Samoilova, a participant in three revolutions L. A. Fotieva, one of the organizers of the Bulgarian Communist Party N. Blagoeva and others. Many female students participated in the Narodnaya Volya movement and in the first Marxist circles. From among listeners V. Zh. many remarkable figures of science and art came out, including full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences P. N. Poluboyarinova-Kochina, corresponding member USSR Academy of Sciences V. Pigulevskaya, writer A. Karavaeva and others.

After Vel. Oct. socialist. revolution, when women gained wide access to all universities, V. Zh. as a special type of university ceased to exist.

Lit .: Likhachev., Materials for the history of women's education in Russia, [book] 2. St. Petersburg, 1893; Nekrasova V., From the past of women's courses, M, 1886; Higher courses for women in St. Petersburg Brief istorich. note 1878 - 1903, 3rd ed., [St. Petersburg], 1903; Mizhuev P. G., Women's issue and women's movement, St. Petersburg. 1906; Kudryavtseva A. A. and Tsvetaeva E. M., Higher Women's Golitsin Agricultural Courses, "Bulletin high school", 1958, No. 10, Bobrova L. A.," Higher Women's Courses prof. Guerrier" in Moscow (1872 - 1888), in the book: Proceedings of the Moscow Historical and Archival Institute, M., 1961, No. 16.

Sources:

1. Pedagogical encyclopedia. Volume 1. Ch. editor - A.I. Kairov and F.N. Petrov. M., "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1964. 832 column. with illustrations, 7 sheets. ill.

Having received education in institutes and gymnasiums, the girls wanted to study further. This desire was quite clearly manifested in the early 1860s, when female students appeared in university auditoriums. But soon their admission to higher education was terminated. The winners were those who believed that higher education for women was not only unnecessary, but also harmful. However, the women were not going to give up. After all, only education could give them a true piece of bread, independence and the opportunity to take part in public life.

Women demanded the right to higher education, the public and scientists supported their aspirations.
However, the ministry could not resolve this issue with a single decree on the admission of girls with secondary education to higher educational institutions, because the programs of women's schools were lower in level than the programs of men's gymnasiums that prepared applicants for institutes.

Thanks to the efforts and initiative of individuals, since the 90s of the last century, private gymnasiums began to open in St. Petersburg, the programs of which included subjects taught in male gymnasiums, and where worthy teachers were invited.
The gymnasium M.A. Lokhvitskaya-Rock, the mixed gymnasium Radovitskaya-Timofeeva, the gymnasium Prince. Obolenskaya, as well as the gymnasium M. N. Khitrovo, E. P. Schaffe, M. S. Mikhelson, the gymnasium of M. N. Stoyunin was especially famous. Girls who aspired to knowledge of languages ​​were attracted by the well-known Petrishule and Annenshule, as well as the Reformed School with an excellent staff of teachers.

Those wishing to continue their education went abroad, although it was not at all easy. Sometimes, in order to leave, it was necessary to enter into a fictitious marriage in order to obtain the necessary exit permit.
The social movement in defense of women's education pushed the government to allow the establishment of higher educational institutions for women in the country.

The 1870s were marked by the opening of the Higher Courses for Women, first in Moscow, and then in Kazan and Kyiv. Petersburg and other cities.

Fate Bestuzhev Courses with three departments: verbal-historical, physical-mathematical (natural) and mathematical was complex. Founded on September 20 (October 2), 1878, for a long time they were not legally equated with the university, despite the fact that their professors were the same and the programs were no different from university ones.
Out of sympathy for the female students, some professors gave lectures free of charge, among them Sechenov, Beketov, Lesgaft, Bestuzhev-Ryumin himself, who headed the courses. Professors of St. Petersburg University A.M. Butlerov, A.N. Veselovsky, N.I. Kareev, D.I. Mendeleev, E.V. Tarle and others also taught. Education was conducted according to the traditional course system with the mandatory passing of transfer exams at the end of the academic year.

Bestuzhev-Ryumin

Persons at least 21 years old who submitted a certificate of graduation from an educational institution in the amount of 8 classes of a female gymnasium, certificates of political reliability and the consent of parents or guardians were admitted to the courses (to overcome this, some again had to resort to a fictitious marriage).
The fee was: 50 p. per year for the listener and 5 p. for a subject for the volunteer. These were considerable sums for that time. which conditioned the establishment in 1878" Society for the delivery of funds to the St. Petersburg Women's Higher Courses".

Higher education was given to many listeners at the cost of great sacrifices: savings in housing and food, the search for additional income. But this did not stop, nor did it frighten them that after 4 years of study at the courses they did not enjoy any special rights. The number of women seeking higher education has been on the rise.

The ministry persisted, and in response to the too active speeches of female students, which were already taking on a political character, admission to the courses was discontinued. But after a three-year break in admission, it turned out that women striving for higher education poured abroad, to the universities of Paris, Zurich and other cities. An alarm arose at the top: talented minds were leaving Russia. Moreover, returning to their homeland, they brought freedom-loving ideas from Europe.

The Ministry was forced to give in and finally recognize the Bestuzhev Courses as a higher educational institution with a volume of education equal to a university. The number of those going abroad immediately decreased, and even foreigners appeared among the students, in 1901 there were already twenty-five of them.
At the opening of the courses, they enrolled 468 regular students and 346 volunteer students, and by September 1881 they already had 938 regular students and 42 volunteer students. By 1912, the number of listeners reached almost 6,000 people, of which 39 were foreigners.

There were no bad grades among students. The exams were strict, the requirements were high. At the exams in mathematics, the student T. Klochko recalls, two tasks and 2 theoretical questions were given, the presentation of which sometimes took a good 4 large pages. Students who went to the exam unprepared were called "string bags". They did not have authority and did not stay on the courses for a long time.

Examination book "bestuzhevka" R. V. Grigoryeva (R. Arkhangelskaya),
students of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics courses

Of great importance in the life of students played public organizations: fraternities, a comradely mutual aid fund, a labor office, a comradely course cafeteria, a reading room, scientific societies and circles, the work of which was provided by the female students themselves. The work of these organizations was united by a council of elders, which was elected at a general meeting at the beginning of the academic year. The council of elders was abolished in 1911 at the request of the government.
But at the courses, a Central Organ (CO) was created (illegally), which led all spheres of the public life of the courses. The work of the courses would not have been possible without the Society for the Delivery of Funds of the Higher Women's Courses and its Committee. The members of the Society were progressive people of Russia, their labors created the material base of the courses. They also managed to defend the courses in difficult times.

The first member of the Committee included S.V. Kovalevskaya. She remained an honorary member of the Society until her death in 1891. Living in Sweden, she was interested in the affairs of the courses, visited them during her visits to St. Petersburg. In 1890, during her last visit, she attended the exam at the physics and mathematics department and was very pleased with the preparation of the students.

After the Bestuzhev courses for women, doors began to open to other institutions.
Already in 1897, the first in Russia Women's medical institute near the Peter and Paul Hospital.

In 1903, pedagogical courses in St. Petersburg were transformed into the Women's Pedagogical Institute;

in 1906, women began to be admitted as volunteers to universities. In 1905 - the Higher Women's Polytechnic Courses, the programs of which were equated with the programs of technical universities.

There were eleven higher courses in the city in 1913, not counting the most prestigious - Bestuzhev. The Gymnasium Girl's Companion for the 1909-1910 academic years already provides information about 127 higher educational institutions for women, in which girls could continue their education.

In the same autumn of 1906, they introduced the position inspector to monitor the behavior of female students during extracurricular time.

A note from assistant inspector Kursov Yulia Nikolaevna Voshchinina, addressed to the assistant librarian Lidia Ivanovna Voronova, was written so that the two above-mentioned ladies - and now full-fledged bestuzhevs - could receive the books necessary for their studies. The note was written in
custom-made paper, apparently specially intended for such unofficial internal correspondence, with a translucent monogram in the center: S P V Zh K, i.e. St. Petersburg Higher Women's Courses

Many girls who came to the capital from all over the Russian Empire studied at the Higher Women's Courses. The Society for the Delivery of Funds has always tried to help them find inexpensive and comfortable housing, even rented apartments. By the mid 1890s. there was an opportunity to build their own hostel on the site adjacent to the course building: “The house ... is connected by internal passages to the course house. On its 3 floors there are 3 halls, 58 rooms for listeners and an inspector's apartment. All his rooms are bright and high; the heating and ventilation system was adopted, at the direction of specialists, of an improved type; a sewerage system was installed to remove sewage; the yard is asphalted; introduced electric lighting. The cost of construction is 115,600 rubles.

Hostel

Canteen

The price for lunch was very modest: in the first year of the canteen's existence, lunch cost the listeners 30 kopecks; next year the price was reduced to 25 and then to 16 kopecks.
From the first years of its existence, the Society for the Delivery of Funds set the goal of organizing a full-fledged fundamental library in the courses, capable of providing not only the educational process, but also the scientific work of students.

Library

The special pride of the courses was the chemical laboratory, organized in the building on the 10th line of Vasilyevsky Island according to the project and drawings of Professor A. M. Butlerov (funds for the equipment were donated by O. N. Rukavishnikova). Laboratory room - 245 sq. m and 5 m in height - fully consistent with its purpose. On the first floor, a laboratory for quantitative analysis was arranged for 22 places, an office-laboratory of a professor and separate room with cabinets of chemical equipment. A spiral staircase connected this room with the second floor, where a laboratory for qualitative analysis was located in a large hall with excellent fume hoods and in the preparation room.

Laboratory

In 1895, a decision was made to build their own observatory at the courses, and a year later, in 1896, it was opened, and in 1900 a new tower was built.

Above the internal staircase on the roof of the course building “A round brick tower was erected, about three sazhens high, with an iron balcony, intended for observations with the naked eye, and a small spotting scope. The interior of the tower is divided into two parts: the lower one was a small room with a window, the upper one was adapted for installing an instrument.

Observatory

After completing the courses, Vera Iosifovna went abroad for a year, because only there it was possible for a woman to receive an academic degree, and upon her return she was invited to the Higher Women's Courses for leadership practical exercises mathematics. During the first years, V.I.Schiff supervised only practical classes, and later she gave independent lectures on a number of mathematical disciplines. Her excellent problem books on differential and integral calculus and on analytic geometry are well known.

In St. Petersburg, many other courses were organized: general education, historical and literary, pedagogical, architectural, construction.

One of the first in 1869, on the initiative of the Russian teacher I. I. Paulson, were the Alarchinsky Higher Women's Courses in St. Petersburg and the Lubyansky Courses in Moscow. In 1872 the Higher Women's medical courses at the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Since 1878, a Society for the Delivery of Funds to Higher Women's Courses has been operating in St. Petersburg, and branches of the Society for the Promotion of Women's Agricultural Education have been opened in many Russian cities since 1899. In 1878, the Higher Women's Courses were founded in St. Petersburg with three departments: verbal-historical, physical-mathematical (natural), and specially mathematical. Their founder and first director was the professor of Russian history at St. Petersburg University K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the nephew of the Decembrist M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin (the courses were named after him).

For the opening of such courses and the spread of higher education for women in Russia, advanced women of that time fought - A.P. Filosofova, N.V. Stasova, M.V. Trubnikova. The professors of the Military Medical Academy, the Academy of Sciences, and especially St. Petersburg University also contributed to the establishment of courses. The leadership of the pedagogical part of the courses was carried out by the Council, whose chairman in 1882 was appointed professor of botany, rector of St. Petersburg University A. N. Beketov.

In 1872, women's historical and philological courses for the historian V. I. Guerrier were opened in Moscow, with the study of four basic sciences: political history, literature, art history, and natural science. In 1879, courses were opened in Kyiv with a two-year course, and from 1881 a three-year course in the physical-mathematical and verbal-historical departments. In 1879, courses in Kazan were reorganized according to the university program. The active participation of female students in revolutionary and student movements provoked the issuance of a government decree in 1886 prohibiting admission to all higher female courses, and most of them were closed.

But already in 1896 in St. Petersburg, P.F. Lesgaft organized courses for educators and leaders of physical education. In 1900 V. I. Guerrier's courses were restored. In 1905-1910. higher courses for women were restored in Kyiv, Odessa, Kazan, Kharkov, Tiflis, Novocherkassk, Warsaw, Tomsk were opened. In parallel, private courses were created according to the programs of one or two university faculties, for example, historical-literary and legal courses by N.P. Raev, legal courses by E.I. Peskovskaya in St. Petersburg, legal and historical-philological courses by V.A. Poltoratskaya in Moscow and others. Institute-type courses were opened: in 1904 - Stebutov agricultural courses, in 1906 - Women's polytechnic courses. In 1915 they were transformed into the Agricultural and Polytechnic Women's Institutes, respectively.
In spite of high level education, the rights of graduates were limited, they were not awarded any title. It was only in 1911 that the higher women's courses, the programs of which could be recognized as equal to university ones, received the status of universities. In 1912, about 25,000 students studied at the courses administered by the Ministry of Public Education, of which almost 15,000 were in Moscow and St. Petersburg. After 1917, higher courses for women became part of a unified system of higher education.

Among the graduates of the Bestuzhev courses are actresses E. I. Time and O. G. Klementyeva, who taught at the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography, popular children's writers E. M. Prilezheva-Barskaya and T. D. Rousses, O. A. Dobiash-Rozhdestvenskaya is the first woman in Russia to receive a doctoral degree in history, the first Russian female astronomer S. V. Romanskaya, the author of the first textbook on librarianship in Russia, E. V. Balabanova.

On September 20, 1878, the Higher Bestuzhev Courses were opened in St. Petersburg - the first women's university in the country. Revolutionary Nadezhda Krupskaya, writer Olga Forsh, actress Lyubov Blok listened to lectures here. The Bestuzhev courses not only became a mouthpiece for women's education, but also helped to create a new type of woman - determined, active, with the same rights as men.

Fear of the "learned" woman

Despite the fact that the nineteenth century is famous for all sorts of reforms on the topic of politics, economics and education, women were still not allowed to the student desk, and, showing a clear interest in science, caused bewilderment and condemnation from the conservative-minded society. The Russian geographer and historian Pyotr Kropotkin recalled that Alexander II was not only distrustful of "learned" women, but was even afraid of them. This was especially noticeable when, meeting a girl with glasses and a Garibaldian cap, he thought that a real nihilist was standing in front of him, got frightened and expected that she was about to “shoot out a pistol at him.”

Be that as it may, attempts to create special courses were made as early as 1869, when the Alarchinsky Courses appeared in St. Petersburg, and the Lubyanka Courses in Moscow. A year later, in St. Petersburg, they tried to organize a semblance of a university, which women could attend on an equal basis with men. The lectures were called the Vladimir Courses (named after the Vladimir School where they were held). In order to give a true color to the permission given by the tsarist government for the establishment of such an institution, it should be noted that police supervision was immediately established over the activities of the courses.

Alexander II was not only distrustful of "learned" women, but was even afraid of them. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Women's first attempts at education

Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin made his contribution to the development of women's education, thanks to which in 1872 courses for the education of trained midwives at the Medical and Surgical Academy were opened in St. Petersburg. The emergence of the academy was a direct consequence of the understanding that without the involvement of women, the severe need for health workers will never be fully satisfied.

Simultaneously with the creation of this institution, the movement for the creation of higher courses for women on the university model was gaining momentum. Scientists Andrey Beketov, Dmitry Mendeleev, Alexander Butlerov, Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, as well as the leaders of the women's movement Anna Filosofova, Nadezhda Stasova, Olga Mordvinova, Varvara Tarnovskaya showed their active participation here.

"Shameless" and "Shameless"

“Cursed student”, painting by N. A. Yaroshenko (1880). The painting depicts A. K. Diterikhs, at the time of writing the picture - a student of Bestuzhev courses. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Having thus prepared the ground for the creation of a worthy institution, on September 20, 1878 in St. Petersburg, in the building of the Alexander Gymnasium on Gorokhovaya Street, the grand opening of the first higher educational institution for women in Russia - the Higher Women's Courses - took place. The first director of the courses was the historian Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who led them for four years. It was in his honor that the courses received the unofficial name "Bestuzhevsky", and the students who attended them became "Bestuzhev". However, it was not without curiosities: among the people, girls who showed a penchant for getting an education were “kindled”, calling them “shameless”.

Since the idea of ​​women's education was not approved by the government, the courses became a private educational institution that was not entitled to count on government subsidies. However, the Ministry of Public Education allocated annually 3,000 rubles for the needs of courses, which, of course, were not enough. The main funding came from the established "Society for the Delivery of Funds to the Higher Women's Courses", the money for which was allocated from tuition fees.

Music and art critic Vladimir Stasov, whose sister, social activist Nadezhda Stasova, who was one of the initiators and creators of the courses, recalled those heroic years when ruble activists raised money to allow the courses to become more than just a disembodied dream: “we began to act, having on the current account a little more than 200 rubles, which are large and small, the whole country gave. What a miracle was needed, what courage was needed in order to start and build a house worth 200,000 rubles with two hundred rubles in your pocket.

Needless to say, the members of the society who taught the courses did not receive a salary and worked, as they say now, "for the interest." Despite such merciless conditions, the courses developed their own school of centenarians who worked despite the lack of funding. So Varvara Pavlovna Tarnovskaya served as the treasurer of the courses for 25 years, who was charged with a diverse list of responsibilities: accounting and financial management of the Courses, starting from collecting fees from students to working with bank mortgages and interest-bearing securities.

By the way, starting from 200 rubles of initial capital and receiving 3 thousand rubles from the government, the courses subsequently proved their necessity and “payback”: by the end of 1903, the material asset of the courses amounted to a million rubles, and by that time it was possible to build three additional buildings, a good library , laboratories and an astronomical tower.

A group of the first figures in the organization of the Bestuzhev courses: (from left to right, standing) O. A. Mordvinova, A. N. Beketov, A. P. Filosofova, P. S. Stasova; (sitting) N. A. Belozerskaya, V. P. Ternovskaya, N. V. Stasova, M. A. Menzhinskaya. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

What was taught at the Bestuzhev courses

Three departments were opened at the Bestuzhev courses: historical and philological, legal, and physical and mathematical (with a chemical course). The minimum period of study was four years, but many students increased the time spent on courses in order to master additional disciplines. Bestuzhevkas attended lectures on theology, psychology, the history of ancient and modern philosophy, the history of pedagogy, the theory of empirical knowledge, the history of literature, Russian, French, German and English. Students of the Physics and Mathematics Department listened to lectures on mathematics, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, mineralogy, crystallography and, physical geography. Also among the optional subjects was Latin and choral singing.

Despite the fact that education was paid (a fee of one hundred rubles was paid per year), there was no end to those who wanted to attend lectures. The order of admission was as follows: girls who were 21 years old had to submit an application by August 1 and attach documents to it: a birth certificate, a certificate of complete secondary education and a certificate of political reliability. The last document was relevant for students who did not enter the year they graduated from school. In cases where applications did not stop coming, and there were not enough vacancies, they organized a competition for certificates. By the way, in order to enter the training, the entrance exams were not passed.

Chemical laboratory of Bestuzhev courses. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

At the same time, the position of the listeners was often not the sweetest. Despite donations from patrons, and despite the fact that by 1885 the courses had acquired a new building, having moved to the tenth line of Vasilyevsky Island, female students from poor families lived hard. Maria Konstantinovna Tsebrikova, a Russian writer, literary critic, and fighter for the equality of women, who attended lectures, recalled: “These damp and cold corners, where three, four listeners are stuffed, often one bed for three, which is used in turn; this plaid in the bitter cold over a wind-lined coat; these dinners of penny kitchen masters, and often sausage with stale bread and tea; those sleepless nights over penny-paid correspondence instead of rest…”.

Police surveillance of students

Also, the policy of Alexander II left a negative aftertaste, which manifested itself in the year of the establishment of the Courses. The emperor demanded that the chief of the gendarmes, Alexander Drenteln, collect information about the political mood among women. The policeman justified the expectations of the king and presented a report from which it followed that the listeners were not content with knowledge alone, but “strive to imitate the regrettable deviations from the right path, which in recent times student youth is different.

The tsar reacted instantly: the Bestuzhev courses did not give their graduates any, even the most illusory, hopes and rights to teach. So, the St. Petersburg Chief of Police Peter Gresser put a special stamp on all the certificates, in which it was written that their owner was a student. Thus, Alexander II controlled that Bestuzhev women were not allowed to teach.

However, the report of the policeman could hardly be considered slanderous. Already in the first academic year for belonging to the "Narodnaya Volya" a group of female students was arrested. The Yushin sisters were detained in the case of the attempt on the life of Alexander II, and according to the calculations of the Police Department, for the years 1880-1885, out of 1988 bestuzhevs, 241 of them attracted the attention of the police, which amounted to 12.07% of the listeners. Thus, in 1886, by the decision of Minister Ivan Delyanov, admission to courses was terminated “until special consideration was given to the issue of higher education for women.

Students of the Bestuzhev courses (from left to right): Nadezhda Krupskaya, Olga Forsh and Lyubov Blok. Photo: Collage AiF

Tough measures

Three years later, the Temporary Regulations on the St. Petersburg Higher Women's Courses were published, from which it followed that the number of students should be reduced, and written permission from parents or guardians was required for enrollment. In addition, the tuition fee was raised to 200 rubles a year. Also, the reception depended on the personal discretion of the director, and the students themselves had the right to live only at home or with relatives: rented apartments were excluded. Former teachers were fired, and some disciplines were excluded from the list of subjects. Oddly enough, the drastic reforms not only did not intimidate the students, but, on the contrary, pushed them to rebellion: if until 1886 not a single female student was involved in a political article, then at the end of the 80s it became an ordinary thing.

The attitude towards the Courses changed when Nicholas II ascended the throne: in 1903, the tsar approved the position of the Board of Trustees on the admission to teaching of persons who had successfully completed the Higher Women's Courses.

Last years

First World War has made its own adjustments to the well-being of Bestuzhevka, which has relatively improved over the past ten years. Funding became unstable, and the building where the courses were located began to be rented out in parts for hostels. However, the problem was not only this. The unsystematic educational process and the deterioration of discipline did their job: in 1918, the Bolsheviks closed the Bestuzhev Courses. In the building where they used to be located, the Third Petrograd University was opened, which, having entered the Petrograd University in 1919, later turned into St. Petersburg State University.