The article is devoted to the problem of home education and schooling in Russia in the 1910s–1920s. The author draws attention to the fact that this topic has not been sufficiently covered in the study of Russian society, although it deserves to be studied no less than history of various educational institutions. Memoirs remain the main source, as features of family education simply can’t be studied on the basis of official documentation. In this regard, the collections of the Manuscript Department of the Russian National Library are of great use to the historians specializing in the history of childhood, for instance, the recently discovered fond of T. P. Znamerovskaya (1912–77) – Ph. D in History of Art, assistant professor of the history of art department at the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) State University, researcher, author of numerous publications on the history of Spanish and Italian art of the 15–17th centuries, a woman of many accomplishments, poet, indefatigable traveler, memoirist. The article analyzes her memoirs, which describe the events from her birth to 1929, when she graduated from the “Znamerovsky school.” It uses the methods of source analysis, grouping facts related to the problem of educational activities in the family, comparing them, and producing typological generalization. Drawing on archival materials, major factors of upbringing and education have been identified, which dated back to scientist's childhood and contributed to the comprehensive development of her personality. In the case-study of the Znamerovsky family the author studies the nature of home education in the Russian intellectual’s families in the 1910s–20s. The article demonstrates the primary role of the family in the education, its main pedagogical strategies and specific trends in the educational tactics, which became uncharacteristic in the Soviet education. The emphasis was placed on the humanitarian sphere in order to educate a person with significant creative and intellectual potential. First of all, the children were to study literature, history, geography, foreign languages (in their spoken form), music, and theater. Exact sciences took a back seat. In early childhood, the education took form of games, theater performances, walks, and reading. The school was to systematize the already accumulated store of knowledge. According to the author, the new archival materials bring it home that the Russian intellectuals of the early 20th century developed and battle-tested a tradition of family education and schooling methods that produced humane, creative, and independently-minded people.
The Notes of Different Years’ of the Moscow Merchant Pyotr Porokhovshchikov: a Family Chronicler in a historical Miscellanea of the Second Half of the 18th century
