The Perceptions of Russian Society in the 60s of the 18th Century on Education under the Decrees of the Legislative Commission

This paper analyses, for the first time, the views of Russian society in the reign of Catherine II, the earliest epoch in which this question may be put, on the basis of a sufficient number of sources, on the state education policy, programmes, and sources of financing of the colleges intended for various classes of the empire. Society, for whom education was of secondary importance, considered education from a purely utilitarian point of view and hoped to establish schools where subjects useful for public service and trades would be taught. The upper class regarded peasant education as teaching moral and religious truths aimed at softening coarse morals.