The System of Public Education in Penza Governorate in the second half of the 19^th and early 20^thcenturies. Part 1

This set of articles explores the development of the education system in Penza Governorate, a region in the Russian Empire, in the second half of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries (through to 1917). The present paper examines the prerevolutionary, Soviet, and contemporary historiography and relevant sources for the study of the topic. It employs a set of traditional and nontraditional historical and general research methods. It provides an outline of the region's economic, social, political, and geographical characteristics. It provides a quantitative and qualitative insight into the state of the system of public education in the region as of 1854. A conclusion was drawn that the source base on the subject, especially its segment dealing with the first half of the 19^th century, is quite scant. A highly valuable source for statistics on the subject is the so-called “memorandum books”. There is a lack of fundamental research on the subject too. The authors' conclusion is that by the mid-1850s Penza Governorate had an underdeveloped education system - even vis-à-vis the then-newly incorporated areas of the Caucasus. The governorate had 28 educational institutions. That is, the region had an average of about 3,000 urban residents per educational institution. The low level of development of the education sector in Penza Governorate at the time must have been associated with the region's relative remoteness and vastness, its complex climatic conditions, and the prevalence there of traditional crafts, which did not require literacy.