Training Craftsmen in Comprehensive Schools of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries (Based on the Materials from the Arkhangelsk Province)

Abstract

This article studies the history of the establishment of the vocational education system in Russia. Up to the late 19th century, there had been no integral system for training professional personnel in the country. Therefore, in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, crafts departments and classes at comprehensive schools served the purpose of spreading special knowledge. They were opened as the need arose on the initiative of individuals and local communities. From the very beginning, practicing teachers had mixed feelings about this phenomenon as not everyone shared the idea of combining comprehensive and vocational schools. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the organization and content of education in such schools lacked uniformity. The author examines the legal framework for the crafts departments at comprehensive schools, analysing pertinent government documents. Using the educational institution opened in Vonga village (Arkhangelsk Province) as an example, the paper shows how the main points of the aforementioned government documents were implemented in pre-revolutionary Russian provinces. Further, the author studies the principles of financing crafts departments and provides statistics on their opening in the Arkhangelsk Province and in Russia as a whole. In addition, the problems they faced are listed and the attitude of the local population to teaching children crafts is shown. In spite of all the difficulties and discrepancies, crafts departments at comprehensive schools were able, with extremely modest funding from the state and local authorities, to train a great number of artisans in demand on the labour market.