Private Higher School of Russia: history and current problems of study

Mikheeva Vitalina Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0003-0876-338X PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Fundamental Legal and Socio-Humanitarian Disciplines, Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy" 111123, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, ul. Enthusiasts, 742 vitalinm7@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Towards the historiography of the problem

    The number of works on the history of private higher education in Russia is small. The analysis of the functioning of non-state higher educational institutions has not been carried out in Russian historiography for a long time.  There is still a complete lack of a retrospective of the development of private education from the moment of its formation to the present moment. 

     It seems important to consider the actual problems of the domestic historiography of private education.

    The desire to study the history of private education was discovered quite late — in the 1970s. One of the first works that were devoted to this problem were the dissertation studies of Natalia Yakovlevna Klimochkina "People's Universities in Russia" ^[1] and Yulia Semenovna Vorobyova "A.L. Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University" ^[2].

    To this day, the most fundamental study of the higher education system of our country is a monograph by a specialist in the field of national history, the history of culture and public education Alexander Evgenievich Ivanov "Higher School" ^[3]. The book is devoted to the structure and activities of the Russian higher school in the last pre-October 25th anniversary. The monograph analyzes the composition of state, public and private higher educational institutions, reveals the multi-departmental system of their management, generalizes historical, sociological and political portraits of students and professors. The author devoted a separate chapter to certified specialists trained by the higher school in the late XIX-early XX centuries. When writing the book, the author relied on a wide range of literature, historical sources, archival materials. There is a section in the monograph that the author assigned to "non-governmental" higher educational institutions, which contains a brief description of people's universities. He describes their situation as educational complexes that have united general education, secondary and diversified vocational schools ^{[3, p.121]}.

     After the appearance of this solid work, a period of silence on the issue of private education in Russia came for many years in Russian historical science. 

     The situation has changed in the modern period, when the task of finding new ways and forms of education development becomes acute. The need to reform the higher education system was felt by specialists back in the Soviet period of its development. However, the social relations existing in the Soviet Union did not allow them to be implemented. Gradually, the USSR began to move from the first places in the world educational ranking to lower places and gained a foothold in the top ten countries. Many economically developed countries in the 1980s-1990s carried out reforms of domestic higher school systems. These transformations were aimed at democratizing and humanizing the education system, integrating and diversifying higher education. Modifications of higher education in the leading countries of the world affected, among other things, the sphere of its financing and management. They subsidize universities at several levels: national, regional and local, and material reserves come from state institutions, public organizations and individuals. All this contributed to the transformation of higher educational institutions into more flexible and mobile institutions capable of meeting the needs of the individual and the population of the country in obtaining an up—to-date education, and organizations - in the required specialists.

     Changes in Russia began to be implemented under the slogan of the return of the state to world civilization. The reform of higher education was also carried out in this direction. It was based on a multi-stage system that has been developed in a number of Western countries, the United States. The emergence of private universities and the further formation of their network raised the question of the need for specialists to study the domestic practices of this sector of higher education, which developed in the period before the socialist revolution of 1917.

     By the time of the formation of modern non-state higher education in Russia, several printed works on private higher education in our country were published. They indicate the following factors of the emergence and development of a private school: the emergence of the middle class in the country, democratic principles of activity, its predominantly humanitarian character, etc. The real meaning and content of such conclusions became clear only after the spread of non-state higher education institutions. However, these conclusions and meaning are not widely disseminated. This can be explained by the fact that the research is not of a deep scientific nature, but rather of a local nature, and their results have not been widely disseminated.

    Active interest in the study of private higher education arose in the late 1990s, i.e. when private education in our country was experiencing the peak point of its development. In 1998, an article appeared in which the process of creation and development of the Voronezh Society of People's Universities was studied. People's universities are referred to as a new type of organizations that seek to give everyone the opportunity to broaden their horizons and gain scientific knowledge outside the framework of official educational institutions ^[4].

     A dissertation study and a number of publications by the historian of education, a specialist in the field of military history Vladimir Alekseevich Zmeev appear, in which the author examines the process of the origin and formation of higher education in Russia, including higher military education, the activities of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, pays special attention to the increasing role of non-state universities in the educational system of Russia ^[5].

    At the beginning of the two thousandth, the study of problems related to the history of a non-state higher school was reanimated again. There is a large number of articles, monographs, dissertation research. For example, the work of Berezovsky Alexander Petrovich ^[6], which analyzes the prerequisites and factors of the emergence of non-state higher education in the modern history of Russia, as well as certain aspects of the functioning of non-state higher education in Russia (1990s).

    The theme of people's universities formed the basis of a number of works by Marina Sergeevna Venikova ^[7]. The author collects and systematizes material on the organization of people's universities in imperial Russia, as well as on the content of the activities of people's universities.

     In 2020, the reference book "The History of Public Education in the Russian Empire in archival documents" by the historian — archivist Raskin David Iosifovich was published ^[8]. The book for the first time published unique information about the documents of the higher and central state institutions of Russia of the XIX – early XX centuries on the history of public education.

      Thus, the historiography of the non-state higher school of modern Russia has several decades, there is still no periodization of the process of education and development of the system of private higher education in the country, generalizing works on the study of the historical experience of the work of the non-state higher school of Russia XVIII - early XXI century.

     Russian historiography has at its disposal a number of fundamental works on the history of education of our country ^{[9, 10]}. Despite this, there is still no clear clarity in determining the starting point for the development of non-state higher education in Russia.  There is no doubt that scientists and ordinary people agree that non-state higher education is not something supernova and extraordinary for Russia.

                                           Formation and development of a private higher school in Russia

    There is still no definition of the concept of "private higher school" generally accepted by the scientific community in the historical literature. The phenomenon of private private education itself is a large-scale and complex socio-cultural phenomenon. And the question of its interpretation requires additional reflection and analysis of existing definitions. By private higher education we will understand a commercial organization that carries out educational activities as its main activity. 

      The history of private higher education in Russia is inextricably linked with the history of higher education and together they reflect the main stages of the country's development.

    The pioneer in the field of higher education in the country was the Kyiv — Mohyla Collegium, which received the status of a university in 1701. In the XVII-XVIII centuries several higher educational institutions were created in Moscow at once: the Slavic-Latin Academy (1687) and the first Classical University (1755.), and in St. Petersburg - the Naval Academy (1715), the Academic University (1724), Cadet Corps (1731), Mining College (1773), Medical andsurgical Academy (1798) and other universities. The capital cities have the opportunity to be called centers not only of the political or socio-economic life of the country, but also centers of education, science and culture. Higher educational institutions began to attract the attention of people from all over the country, and were able to influence the change in the social composition of the population of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

      In the XIX century. this tradition was continued. The national system of higher education is being further formed, which was accompanied by the creation of new universities, which eventually became the centers of educational districts. Kazan (1804), Kharkiv (1804), Kiev (1834), Odessa (1865), Tomsk (1888) and other cities owe much to their universities, academies, institutes, lyceums, whose activities contributed to attracting teaching staff from Russian capitals, as well as gifted students from the provinces.

      Most authors appeal to the Peter the Great times.  It is known that Peter the Great attached great importance to enlightenment.  In January 1701 Peter I issued a decree on the establishment of a School of Mathematical and Navigation Sciences in Moscow. Later, the Naval Academy was organized on the basis of the higher classes of the School in St. Petersburg. In July, by decree of Peter I, the Moscow Hellenic-Slavic Academy is transformed into the Slavic-Latin Academy with the status of a higher educational institution. In September 1701 Peter the Great reorganized the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium into an academy with his diploma and endowed it with the rights of a university. In the same year, Artillery and Multilingual German schools were founded in Moscow.

     Thus, 1701 is unique in the history of Russian education. Then the establishment of the first higher and special educational institutions was formalized.

     The Kiev and Moscow Academies, as well as the School of Mathematical and Navigation Sciences, had a three-stage structure of teaching specialists. Most of their students, having received general elementary and some special knowledge, entered lower positions in church parishes or were sent to public service. The rest of the students passed the second stage of education, which gave them the right to occupy higher positions and conduct teaching work. The senior classes of the academies gave graduates higher theological education, and the higher (navigation) classes of the school - special engineering, military and naval specialization.

     Considering the difficulties of completing the Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg Maritime Academies, Peter I came up with the idea of organizing a network of primary and special schools. On the initiative and with the participation of the monarch, artillery, hospital, digital, engineering and other schools were created.  This made it possible to train specialists and future students of the first Russian higher educational institutions.

      The need for the development of special educational institutions at the beginning of the XVIII century was caused by the needs of Peter's modernization of Russia, which by the end of his reign was transformed into a mighty empire. After solving the priority socio-economic and military-political tasks, Emperor Peter I was closely engaged in the development of science, education and culture. An important milestone on this path was the creation of Peter's favorite brainchild in St. Petersburg — the Academy of Sciences and its educational units. Unfortunately, Peter I did not have to see the activities of the academic gymnasium and the university. Later monarchs failed to properly implement Peter's plans, which led to stagnation in the development of university education in Russia.

    Thanks to the efforts of the first Russian scientist-encyclopedist M.V. Lomonosov, in 1755 Moscow University was established, which became the national center of education, science and culture. Lomonosov's main ideas for the development of Moscow University were later used in the organization of other universities, for example, the Academy of Arts, Mining College, Medical and Surgical Academy, etc. Until the end of the XVIII century. in the Russian Empire, there was a difficult process of establishing higher educational institutions that were not united by a single governing body.

        Thus, there is no doubt that the XVIII century was the time of the emergence and construction of the national higher school. In the first century of its historical evolution, the Russian higher school was focused on the German model of education, which was borrowed in Europe by Peter I, Catherine II and other emperors. At that time, among the teaching staff of Russian universities there was a large proportion of foreigners, especially Germans. By the end of the century, among the noble youth, the most prestigious universities were three Cadet corps, as well as a Mining school. The children of the clergy preferred the Theological Academies, and the diverse youth chose the Moscow University and the Medical and Surgical Academy.

     Despite the enormous difficulties, the first century of the existence of the Russian higher school must be recognized as productive. For example, the total population of the Russian Empire during the XVIII century increased from 15 to 40 million subjects, the number of universities increased from 3 to 15, the number of students — from 1.5 to 3 thousand, teachers — from 25 to 250 people. By the end of the XVIII century. among the teaching staff of higher educational institutions, Russian people began to make up the majority. In 1747, Professor M.V. Lomonosov was the first to give lectures to students of the Academic University in Russian, followed by other teachers. At Moscow University and its gymnasiums, a domestic methodology for teaching training courses is beginning to take shape. In 1761, the Department of General History was established at Moscow University, which was important for improving teaching methods and conducting scientific research.

     The first half of the XIX century . It was very effective for the development of the Russian higher education system. As already noted, universities were created in Kazan, Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa and other cities of the empire. The expansion of the geography of the higher school of Russia was in harmony with the new modernization of Russia undertaken at the beginning of the century by Emperor Alexander I, who received the nickname Blessed for his role in Russian history. In 1802, the Ministry of Public Education and other departments were established, which became public administration bodies of higher educational institutions.

     In the developing system of higher education, the leading place was occupied by the Moscow University. At the same time, Moscow University, through its employees and graduates, provided real assistance to new universities of the Russian Empire. Government spending on higher education has increased. Control over spending on education was carried out by ministries, boards of educational districts and councils of universities. Concerned citizens also contributed their contribution. Donations from private individuals contributed to the functioning of the higher education system.

     In 1835, Nicholas I approved the Regulations on Educational Districts and the General Charter of Imperial Russian Universities. The document formed the basis for the reform of the higher education system in the spirit of Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality. At the same time, St. Petersburg University significantly strengthened its position, which became the head of the capital's educational district. Approximately at the same time, the formation of the national higher engineering, agricultural and military school took place. During the first half of the XIX century. the population of the Russian Empire increased from 40 to 60 million people, the number of universities increased from 15 to 33, the number of students — from 3 to 9 thousand, and teachers — from 250 to 1500 people.

     The great reforms that were carried out in Russia in the 1860s and 1870s under the leadership of Emperor Alexander II led to the active development of the higher education system. The country needed qualified specialists for the formation of capitalism in the Russian Empire. There is a need for engineers, agronomists, managers, financiers, merchants and others. Women were increasingly involved in various spheres of the country's life. This led to the fact that 150 years ago, in 1872, the Moscow Higher Women's Courses of Professor V.I. Guerrier were created. According to some estimates, this was the first non—state university in Russia ^[11].

     At a meeting of the Council of Ministers on January 14, 1871, Emperor Alexander II spoke in favor of distributing women's courses that train obstetricians and teachers. This was the signal for the beginning of concrete actions. Vladimir Ivanovich Guerrier — historian, public figure, corresponding member St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Professor of General History Moscow University is preparing a project for the organization of Higher Women's Courses. Appealing to the emperor's words about the desirability of expanding the pedagogical activity of women, Vladimir Ivanovich states that the purpose of the courses will not be to train "women scientists in special subjects", but to increase the general level of education and development of girls "according to a certain, strictly considered system" ^[11]. In May 1872, the Minister of Public Education approved the "Regulations on Moscow Higher Women's Courses".  The name "Higher Women's Courses" was proposed by the trustee of the Moscow School District, Prince A.P. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, who showed attention to this project.

     At the same time, the Minister of Public Education, Count D.A. Tolstoy, gives his consent to the opening of Moscow Higher Women's courses as a private educational institution and approves the "Regulations on Courses".

     Already in the autumn – November 1, 1872, the grand opening of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses (courses of Professor V.I. Guerrier) took place in the building of the First Men's Gymnasium on Volkhonka. V.I. Guerrier becomes the first director of the courses.  The institution was funded by tuition fees: initially it was 30 rubles, and since 1900 it has been 100 rubles a year. The students lived in a dormitory at the courses and paid 200 rubles for it. There were also private donations for the maintenance of the courses. At first, the term of study was two years, later it was increased to four years, and since 1906 it has become dependent on the successful completion of the curriculum by students.

     On the eve of the October Revolution, Moscow higher women's courses were given the right to conduct final exams, as well as to issue diplomas of higher education. The number of students was constantly growing.  By 1918, the courses numbered 8.3 thousand students, second in number only to Moscow University. In the autumn of 1918, the Moscow Higher Women's Courses were transformed into the Second Moscow State University.

     However, there is another point of view in the historical literature. It lies in the fact that the first private educational institutions in the country appeared already at the beginning of the nineteenth century. ^[12]. According to this version, a private commercial boarding house was opened in 1804. Its opening was attended by representatives of the Moscow merchants, as well as a foreigner K.I. Arnold. In 1806, this institution was renamed and received the name "Practical Commercial Academy". From the very beginning, the institution existed solely on funds from donations from private benefactors.  Since 1810, this institution has received an official status. Alexander I grants the institution the status of an "institution", i.e. it begins to exist officially and is called the "Society of Lovers of Commercial Knowledge". The institution existed at the expense of fees from pupils, contributions from members of the Society of Lovers of Commercial Knowledge, since 1871 benefits from the Moscow Merchant Society (5% of the net annual profit. The students could live in the institution (interns) or be visiting students (externs).

    Among the first private educational institutions in Russia, the "Armenian Lazarev School" is also called. Its founders are two brothers — Ivan (Hovhannes) Lazarev and Ekim (Ovakim) Lazarev. Who in 1800 contributed 200,000 rubles to the Moscow Guardianship Council in order to eventually build a building for the education of Armenian children from poor families with interest from them.      In 1815, the "Armenian Lazarev School" was opened. His pupils could be not only Armenians, but people of any nationality. It is known that Ivan Turgenev, Konstantin Stanislavsky and many other outstanding personalities of our Fatherland studied with the Lazarevs. Despite the fact that tuition was paid, 40 pupils from poor families were recruited for free every year.

     In 1872, the charter was adopted, according to which the institute consisted of two educational institutions: the "Institute", in which the native language and the law of God were taught for Armenians, and the "Lyceum" — 3 special classes with a three-year term of study. In 1919, the Lazarev Institute was reformed into the Armenian One. Later it was transformed into the Central Asian Institute, in 1920 — into the Central Institute of Living Oriental Languages. In 1921, all Moscow Oriental educational institutions were merged into the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies.

   The difficulty in dating the initial point of existence of the system of private education in Russia is largely due to the fact that until the middle of the nineteenth century there were no regulatory documents that would regulate the activities of private individuals in matters of education. The state completely controlled the education system, which could become an elevator of social mobility of the population. However, the socio-economic situation in the country of the mid-nineteenth century could not but affect the education system and this resulted in the reform of the education system..

     Of course, private education in our country received a major boost after the promulgation of the Regulations on Private Educational Institutions in 1868 ^[13]. Private educational institutions were allowed to open only to those in respect of whom the educational authorities were convinced of "morality and reliability" ^[14].

      New educational institutions are opening, the number of students is growing dramatically. This caused significant changes in the social, national and religious-confessional composition of the higher school. The numerical preponderance of radically minded diverse youth among students turned this social group into a catalyst for powerful anti-government and anti-monarchist protests. Having increased spending on higher education, state authorities have taken decisive action to regulate the social and national composition of students, as well as the regulation of the internal regulations of universities.

     In the first half of the 1880s, the reform of the Russian higher school was carried out, fixed by the new university charter. Emperor Alexander III states  The Charter of 1884, according to it, abolished the autonomy of universities and other universities, they were placed in direct dependence on the Ministry of Public Education and the trustees of educational districts. The general Charter of Imperial Russian universities and a number of ministerial documents created the necessary legal conditions for the dynamic development of the entire higher education system. In the next decade, the state higher school developed in a balanced way in the direction of improving the quality of training specialists. During the second half of the XIX century. the population of the Russian Empire grew from 60 to 130 million people, the number of universities increased from 33 to 64, the number of students — from 9 to 31 thousand, and teachers — from 1500 to 2450 people.

     According to official sources in 1902, there were already 941 state secondary and lower educational institutions in Russia (including 55 commercial schools of the Ministry of Finance) and 1,780 private educational institutions. The number of students in private educational institutions was about 99 thousand against 321 thousand students in public secondary and lower educational institutions ^{[14, p. 48]}. As already mentioned, in 1905, the report of the Minister of Public Education I.I. Tolstoy was approved, which allowed the opening of "private" courses in the country with an above-average program. The number of private higher education institutions is beginning to grow. Until 1905, there were 14 non-state higher educational institutions in Russia. Two years later, their number grew to 50. And from 1908 until the beginning of the First World War, 26 more institutions of non-state higher education appeared.

     By February 1917, 65 higher educational institutions and 59 private ones were operating in Russia. The main part of the latter was concentrated in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev. Educational institutions trained 45 thousand students against 65 thousand in the public sector ^{[12, pp.70-71]}.

     Thus, the Russian higher school entered the stage of active modification and enhancement of its role in the life of society, which lasted until the October Revolution. The main reasons for this process were: the rapid development of the economy, science and culture in the country, the Russian-Japanese war, the revolution of 1905-1907, the First World War and the weakening of the imperial power.

    As a result of these changes, the Russian higher school was freed from centralized management by ministries, gained autonomy, and developed the non-state sector of the education system. Thanks to the admission of women to higher educational institutions, the country has increased the number of students, the quality of education and the number of specialties for which admission was carried out have improved. 

    Due to known historical circumstances, the subsequent development of a non-state higher school is suspended.

     Non-state higher education institutions have been reviving since 1991. It is known that the main driving force of post-industrial society is science and knowledge. Accordingly, society is interested in educated people. The main factor in the development of such societies is human capital, that is, intelligence, knowledge, and people's abilities. This is reflected in the growing number of students in all economically developed countries. This trend is becoming characteristic of modern Russia, where, after a decrease in the number of students in the late 1980s - early 1990s, an increase in their number began in 1995.  In line with this process, the number of students of non-state universities is also growing.

     With the adoption of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Enterprises and Entrepreneurial Activity" in 1991, non-state educational institutions were able to be created openly. And already in 1992, with the adoption of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Education", the possibility of the existence of a non-state education sector in Russia was recognized.

      The first extra-budgetary universities appeared in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and later began to be organized in other cities. The creation of branches of higher educational institutions of the capital cities in other localities is widely practiced. As in the pre-Soviet period, in the 1990s, non-state higher education was brought to life by the development of private property in the country, the formation of the middle class, the need to promptly provide vocational education in many newly emerged specialties. First of all, this applies to lawyers, economists, managers, etc.

     Currently, the formation and development of the system of non-state higher education continues. In 1996, the Association of Non-State Higher Educational Institutions (ANVUZ) was established, and later the Russian Association of Non-State Educational Institutions (RosANOU), regional associations of higher educational institutions and councils of their rectors were formed. 

  In the early 2000s, more than 1,500 private educational institutions were registered in Russia. From 1992 to 2012, the number of non-state universities increased 15-fold. ^[15]. At the moment, against the background of a general reduction in the number of non-state universities, the share of private university students from the total number of students in Russia remains at the level of 15%. ^[15]

Conclusions

     Thus, the history of a private higher school in Russia has about two centuries. The process of its formation and development went through periods of ups, such as in the XIX century, and through periods of stagnation, such as in the XX century. Until now, there is no clear clarity in historiography on the question of the starting point of the existence of the Russian private education system. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that until the middle of the nineteenth century there were no regulatory documents regulating the activities of individuals in education. There is no periodization of the history of private higher education in Russia. There are no works that give a general long-term picture of the development of non-state education in the country. In addition, private higher education is studied by representatives of various branches of scientific knowledge. Hence, the approaches to study differ in diversity. And the term "private higher school" itself carries a different semantic content, which prevents a systematic vision of the problem in its entirety. The recent history of the non-state higher school has several decades. However, a complete picture of the history of the development of private higher education in the country in recent times has also not yet developed. In this regard, the topic does not lose its relevance, and the future fate of a private higher school largely depends on monitoring its activities and analyzing its situation.

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