Read more
List of contents
List of Images and Figures
Introduction
1. Facing West: Peter the Great to the Empress Elizabeth
2. Roots of a System: Catherine the Great
3. Refining the System: Alexander I
4. Engaging the Public: Alexander II
5. Reasserting Authority: Alexander III and Nicholas II
6. From Revolution to Revolution: The Duma Period
7. Schooling for Socialism: From Revolution to Cultural Revolution
8. Retrenchment: Stalin to Chernenko
9. Ends and Beginnings: Gorbachev to Putin
Conclusion
Further Reading List
Index
About the author
Wayne Dowler is Professor of History at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Russia in 1913 (2012), Classroom and Empire: The Politics of Schooling Russia’s Eastern Nationalities, 1860-1917 (2000) and An Unnecessary Man: The Life of Apollon Grigor'e (1995).Jonathan D. Smele is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at Queen Mary, University of London. For a decade (2002-2012) he was editor of Revolutionary Russia, the journal of the Study Group on the Russian Revolution and is the author of The 'Russian' Civil Wars 1916-1926:Ten Years That Shook the World (2016), Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926 (2016; 2 vols.) and Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, 1918–1920 (1997). He is also the co-editor, along with Anthony J. Heywood, of The Russian Revolution of 1905: Centenary Perspectives (2005) and compiled The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921: An Annotated Bibliography (2003).Michael S. Melancon is Professor Emeritus at Auburn University, USA. He is a co-editor of the Wildman Series, a monograph series issued by Slavica Publishers (Indiana University, USA) that focuses on the revolutionary experience in Russia. Michael is the author of The Socialist Revolutionaries and the Russian Anti-War Movement, July 1914 Through February 1917 (1990) and The Lena Goldfields Massacre and the Crisis of Late Tsarist Society (2005). He is also the co-editor of New Labor History: Russian Workers’ Experiences and Discourses, 1800-1917 (2002; with Alice Pate), Russia in the European Context, 1789-1917: A Member of the Family (2005; with Susan P. Mccaffray), Russia’s Century of Revolutions: Parties, People, Places (2012; with Donald J. Raleigh). Michael also serves on the editorial board for the journal, Revolutionary Russia.
Summary
A History of Education in Modern Russia is the first book to trace the significance of education in Russia from Peter the Great’s reign all the way through to Vladimir Putin and the present day.
Individual chapters open with an overview of the political, social, diplomatic and cultural environment of the period in order to orient the reader. Dowler then goes on to analyse the aims of education initiatives in each era before considering the ways in which Russians experienced education, both as students and as teachers. Each chapter concludes with an assessment of the outcomes and consequences of education policies in the period, both the successes and failures as well as the impact of education on the cultural, social, economic and ultimately political environments. The chronologically arranged book also traces and then summarises underlying key themes like the tension between an open system of education and an estate-based system; the push and pull between utility and the broader goal of human development; and the effects of centralized, authoritarian control that for much of the period limited local initiative and starved the regions of adequate resources.
Foreword
A concise account of the aims, institutions, methods, and outcomes of education in modern Russia, as well as an exploration of the experiences of both teachers and students.
Additional text
A timely and much needed overview that skillfully synthesizes the latest scholarly literature on the subject and will certainly become a must for anyone interested in the subject. By carefully placing schools and schooling in their historical context Wayne Dowler maps out the waves of reforms, counter-reforms, and counter-counter-reforms in Russian education from Peter I to Putin.
