The System of Public Education in Penza Governorate in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Part 2

This set of articles explores the development of the system of education in Penza Governorate, a region in the Russian Empire, in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries (through to 1917). The present paper is the second part of the series. It examines the timeframe from 1855 to 1894, i.e. the periods of the reigns of Alexander II (“Alexander the Liberator”) and Alexander III (“Alexander the Peacemaker”). The paper relies on the relevant statistical data to analyze the effect of the reforms of Alexander II and the counter-reforms of Alexander III on the development of the system of education in Penza Governorate. The primary source used in this study was the so-called “memorandum books”. Use was also made of certain relevant reference materials (e.g., the so-called “address calendars”) and regulatory documents. In terms of methodology, use was made of а set of traditional (the historical-comparative, historical-typological, historical-systematic, and historical-genetic methods) and nontraditional historical research methods (the historical-statistical method) and a set of general research methods (analysis of the literature and sources, synthetic analysis, systems analysis, and mathematical methods). A statistical analysis conducted as part of this study revealed that the period under examination witnessed a sharp increase in the numbers of secondary (nearly 300 % in the 1870s and around 170 % in the 1880s) and primary educational institutions (from 109 (in 1866) to 542 (by 1894)) in the region. Arguably, the explosive growth in the numbers of educational institutions and students in the region was associated with the liberal education reforms of Alexander II. In the 1880s, i.e. the period of the so-called “counter-reforms”, the region witnessed an increase not in the number of humanities-focused secondary educational institutions (gymnasiums and progymnasiums) but in the number of technical educational institutions (real, industrial, and tradesman’s schools), which was in keeping with the nation’s industrial boom and nascent technological revolution.