Men’s Gymnasium or Kursk Hogwarts
Introduction
Initially, in 1783–1786, there was a wooden building of a Noble school, arranged by the Kursk nobility for the education of young people of the Kursk. After a fire in 1836, a stone building on the site was constructed. The original project of the local architect Groznov was rejected, and it was reworked by the Professor of the Imperial Academy of Arts A.P. Bryullov, the brother of the famous Creator of “the Last day of Pompeii”.
In 1842, the three-story gymnasium building was consecrated. It was one of the first educational institutions in the city. 184 were sons of nobles, while most of the students (231 people) came from families of landowners and officials. The next largest number of high school students were merchants (21 people) and middle-class children (15 people).
The staff of the gymnasium was small — an honorary Trustee, a Director, an inspector, a law teacher, seven senior and three Junior teachers, an art teacher and a supervisor.
Under their guidance, students received knowledge in the following subjects:
1. The Law of God, Sacred and Ecclesiastical history
2. Russian grammar, Rhetorics, Poetry, Literary History, and Slavic language
3. Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Forestry and Physics
4. General and Russian History
5. Universal and Russian state Statistics
6. Languages of Latin, Greek, French, German and it’s literature
7. Penmanship, Drawing and Painting
Students had a strict regime, both inside and outside the gymnasium. In the “Regulations”, only one single paragraph does not contain the words “the student is forbidden”, and even that was: “When changing classes, the student is allowed to use a few minutes to prepare for the next class.”
They were to be clean and tidy, and “have long or curled hair on your head” was strictly forbidden. Without special permission from the inspector, schoolboys were forbidden to attend all kinds of public meetings, balls, masquerades, theaters, concerts. But special attention was paid to religious education.
The lesson began with a prayer, while others had to “listen and pray with reverence” at this time. Every Sunday, everyone gathered in the gymnasium and went to Church under the guidance of teachers. The “Regulations” specifically stipulated that “every disciple is absolutely obliged to sing, confess, and commune with the Holy Spirit. It was forbidden to leave the city without permission “even in case of extreme necessity”. Summer high-school student was to “be in his apartment” at 8pm, in winter — 6pm.
Classes in the gymnasium were held daily for six hours a day with a break for lunch. There were only four lessons a day, but each of them lasted an hour and a half. According to the established rules, students had to “take books for morning classes, go to school 15 minutes earlier, sit and repeat the lessons. It was forbidden to get up and leave the classroom without the permission of the senior student or supervisor. Almost graveyard-like silence and peace seemed to be the ideal of Kursk teachers.
In the choice of punishments, the usual measure of canning was appointed for misconducts which are: “riot in the classroom”, “laziness”, “pranks”, “fail”, “negligence”, “bad behavior”, and “indecent actions”. A single beat by the cane was enough for a high school student to avoid his mistakes in the future. This was for a good reason because sometimes the use of rods led to scandalous consequences.
Everything above was just a description of what life was like as an ordinary student in the gymnasium. Just an average school system. Of course, it seems rather absurd for us young adults who have left school years ago and now enjoy the freedom of youth and technology, but during our school days, a strict regime was the norm to be followed.
‘100’ Cane Tragedy
Daniil Grigoryevich Zhavoronkov (1819–1901), who for 56 years was the Director of the gymnasium. The atmosphere that developed in the gymnasium by the middle of the 19th century, was intense. He was an egocentric man; he walked with a steady gait with his head held high. In conversations with him, it was necessary to refer to him as “Your Excellency”. His speech was pompous, abrupt, and rarely pleasant
The Director immediately was proved to be a very strict, even cruel administrator, but soon suffered a serious accident for this. According to the rules introduced by him, students who committed a crime were left without lunch, but had to be present at the dining table!
Artyukhov, a mischievous seventh-grade student was punished for some misdemeanor and was sitting with empty plates. The ruthless Zhavoronkov began to mock him, and somehow humiliated Artyukhov’s father. The young man, unable to stand the taunts, grabbed a plate, and threw it in the direction of the Director, and it cut the skin on his forehead.
An unimaginable commotion arose; as Artyukhov was confined in a punishment cell, and Zhavoronkov went to his apartment and called a doctor. The wound was not dangerous, but it left a scar on Zhavoronkov’s forehead for the rest of his life. Zhavoronkov was not satisfied and immediately reported the incident to St. Petersburg.
From there came the “highest command”: to give Artyukhov 100 canes! Even in those days, such cruel punishment was only imposed on criminal offenders for serious crimes. But in this case, the sentence was carried out exactly. The entire staff of the gymnasium was gathered and a brutal execution was carried out.
Poor Artyukhov’s lacerated skin quickly fell off in shreds and the blows of the rods rained down on his naked back, causing it to swell like a pillow and become covered in blood. The brutal execution made everyone fled as screaming shouts of Artyukhov gave chills to every soul in the perimeter. The screams of the little boy were heard far away from the gymnasium.
He survived, after a long stay in the infirmary, recovered and, according to orders, was sent as a soldier. There he distinguished himself, received an officer’s rank, and returned with the regiment to Kursk.
But on the other hand, the Director for the insult received some kind of reward out of turn. His superiors continued to lavish him with titles and decorations. After that incident, there were no more ‘canes’ as a punishment. He remained for the rest of his life as the Director of the Kursk gymnasium, and at the end of his service received even the rank of First Councilor and high orders.
He even restricted admission to the sons of poor parents. He was particularly strict in collecting tuition fees; those who failed to pay the next installment were dismissed, and the fee was still collected. The Director suggested that those who made the payment later, are to sit for entrance exams as an outsider.
‘The Good Days’
According to the memoirs of S.N. Romanovsky, much of the interior and equipment of the school have been preserved since the pre-revolutionary era. In the lobby, for example, the huge marble statues of Apollo Belvedere (left) and Pallas Athena (right) still stood at the foot of the stairs.
On the first floor there was a gym, showers, changing rooms, an anthropometric office, apartments for technicians, teachers and, near to the main entrance, the Director. On the second floor there were classrooms, physics and chemistry offices, a library and toilets. On the third floor-where the boarding school for high school students from the province and the auditorium.
Teachers tried to rally the students to create a sustainable school tradition. So, the first head of the school, Nestor Fyodorovich Shmyrev, after the end of the school year, arranged an excursion to the Shuklinka for the graduating 9th grade so that they were not bored. 7th and 8th graders followed along.
Located on the picturesque Bank of the Tuskar river, students had fun and rested until four o’clock in the afternoon. From time to time the band played waltz, polka, or quadrille, the children bathed in the river, picked mushrooms, and then returned home.
But in May 1931, the building was made to be the house the training unit of the heavy artillery regiment of the military. Students were distributed to different educational institutions. During the Great Patriotic War, the building of the former gymnasium was severely damaged, only the box remained, but in November 1945, a resolution of the Council of people’s Commissars was adopted on the deployment of low-voltage equipment for mines and ferrous metallurgy in Kursk. In the early 1950s. another floor was added above the gymnasium building, and in the 1960s a new building of the plant was added to the old gymnasium building.
On 29 November 2019, journalists and bloggers were invited to an excursion. In a recent meeting it was concluded that in 2023, the Kursk Museum of local lore will move to the building of the former men’s gymnasium the project will be ready by August 1, 2020. The Ministry of Culture has received approval, and funds will be allocated from the Federal budget to co-Finance this work. “We will start work at the end of 2020 so that the Museum will be fully ready by 2023,” said A. Smirnov.
In another building of the electrical equipment factory, there will be a panorama of the battle of Kursk. to launch the panorama in the same time frame. Reconstruction of the building for the needs of the Museum will cost about 1.5 billion rubles.
REFERENCE:
1. old-kursk.ru/book/myz_arh/book1.html
2. sekunda.media/obshchestvo/3207-kurskij-kraevedcheskij-muzej-pereedet-v-zdanie-byvshej-muzhskoj-gimnazii-v-2023-godu
3. old.kurskcity.ru/pubs/photo/976
4. dddkursk.ru/lenta/2019/11/29/056777/