My Peter. Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

October 1811 went down in the history of our country with the opening of the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo. This was the first lyceum in Russia. The purpose of this educational institution was “the education of youth, especially those destined for important parts of the public service.” The author of its project, M. M. Speransky, an adviser to Emperor Alexander I in the first half of his reign, named the new school a lyceum. This time, when the sovereign was under the influence of educational ideas, the time of projects of transformation, hopes and expectations, Pushkin called “the days of Alexandrov a wonderful beginning.” The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum became the brainchild of this wonderful time. According to Speransky, who was working at that time on plans for the transformation of the Russian state, the new school was supposed to prepare young people to implement these plans and work in a Russia transformed by reforms. Speransky believed that Lyceum graduates should have a breadth of knowledge, the ability to think, love Russia and work for its good. According to the historian Voensky, “The Lyceum was established with bright hopes of creating a class of state people who should lead Russia along the path of enlightenment and common benefit.”

The training program developed by M. M. Speransky allowed twelve-year-old boys who entered the Lyceum to receive an education equivalent to a university education in six years. However, there was no specialization in lyceum education. Pupils were introduced to all the most important branches of human knowledge. One of the tasks of lyceum education is to develop the individual abilities of the student. “The inclinations and knowledge acquired here will decide which path it (youth) should then choose to mark themselves as true sons of the fatherland.” It so happened that the first to glorify the Lyceum was not a statesman, but a poet. The Lyceum became the cradle of Pushkin's poetry and entered the poet's work along with his first poems. Until the end of his days, Pushkin sang the praises of the school that raised him, and the poem “October 19” (1825) became a real anthem to the Lyceum. All pupils of subsequent generations considered it their duty to know this poem by heart.

From Sadovaya Street one of the most beautiful views of Tsarskoye Selo opens up - the palace church with domes, a slender arch with three spans and the Grand Duke's wing of the Catherine Palace. Erected at the end of the 18th century by I.V. Neelov, the outbuilding was transferred to the Ministry of Public Education in 1811 to house the Lyceum. Architect V.P. Stasov rebuilt the building and adapted it for the needs of the educational institution. According to the memoirs of Ivan Pushchin, here “all the conveniences of home life were combined with the requirements of a public educational institution.” The lower floor housed the economic administration, the second floor housed a dining room and a hospital with a pharmacy. In the third there is a recreation room, classrooms, a physics room, a room for newspapers and magazines and a library.

In 1843, the Lyceum from Tsarskoye Selo was transferred to St. Petersburg. The building was rebuilt and used as a residential building for a century. In 1899, a memorial plaque was installed on the building: “Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was brought up here. 1811-1817". The second plaque, which appeared on the facade in 1912, testified: “The Imperial Lyceum was located in this building from 1811 to 1843.” The Memorial Lyceum Museum was opened in 1949 and initially occupied only part of the building. In subsequent years, its historical layout and architectural and decorative decoration were restored. On June 6, 1974, on the poet’s birthday, the Lyceum appeared before visitors as it was in Pushkin’s time.

Among the restored premises is the Great Hall. Called gymnastic or recreational in Stasov’s documents, it was intended for free time. The hall was unusually beautiful: light, spacious, with large windows, and mirrors in gilded frames in the walls. The walls are painted to resemble pink marble and the ceiling is decorated with paintings. All the most important events in the life of the educational institution took place in this hall. The very first celebration was the opening of the Lyceum on October 19, 1811. On this day, the educational institution was presented with the Most Highly Granted Certificate containing the Charter of the Lyceum. Today the Certificate occupies its historical place in the Great Hall. On the opening day, the names of thirty first-year students presented to the sovereign were heard here for the first time. Three years will pass, and these same names will be heard in the hall again - at the transfer exam when students move to the final course. This exam will bring first glory to one of the students. On January 8, 1815, at an exam in Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin read his poem “Memoirs in Tsarskoe Selo” in front of the patriarch of Russian poetry G.R. Derzhavin, who was present at the exam. Derzhavin was delighted. He named the young poet his successor. The poet would express the excitement of this day many years later: “I read my “Memoirs in Tsarskoe Selo,” standing two steps from Derzhavin. I am unable to describe the state of my soul: when I reached the verse where I mention Derzhavin’s name, my voice was adolescent rang, and my heart began to beat with rapturous delight.”

Next to the hall is a small room called the Newspaper Room. It is remembered by all pets in connection with the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. “Our Lyceum life merges with the political era of the Russian people’s life: the storm of 1812 was preparing. These events greatly affected our childhood,” recalled Ivan Pushchin. During this alarming time, the noisiest and most crowded room in the Lyceum became the Gazetnaya, where “Russian and foreign newspapers were read amid incessant arguments and debates.” These days, communication between students and mentors becomes especially close - together they follow the progress of military operations, read and discuss reports, orders for the army, appeals to the people. For the first time, the words “people” and “Fatherland” sounded special for the students of the Lyceum. They felt like one family, lived with the same thoughts, the same feelings.

A double-height gallery, which housed the library, runs through the entire arch connecting the Lyceum with the Catherine Palace. As in Pushkin’s times, today there are six large mahogany bookcases here. They contain more than seven hundred original books from the Lyceum library. The publications of French enlighteners are juxtaposed with works by English and German authors, books on history, theology, art, travel descriptions, legislative acts, and moralizing works. The selection of books testifies to the encyclopedism of the lyceum education. A manifestation of Alexander I's concern for the students of the school he created was permission to use the books of his youth library in the Alexander Palace. In a separate cabinet there are works by Russian poets and writers of the 18th - early 19th centuries, including V. A. Zhukovsky. The library collected first editions of almost all Russian authors of that time.

The lyceum charter ordered the creation of an environment in the educational institution in which students would never be idle. This was achieved: respect for mental work and mental pursuits reigned in the Lyceum. What kind of mental activities can do without reading? During his student years, A. Illichevsky discussed the benefits of reading: “Reading feeds the soul, shapes the mind, and develops abilities.” Later, recalling his lyceum education, M. Korf will note: “We studied little in the classroom, but more in reading and conversations with constant friction of minds.” “Reading is the best teaching,” says Pushkin.

Two arched passages from the Great Hall lead to two small rooms intended for after-class activities. In these premises, each pupil had a separate desk. Today, in one of the rooms, a mahogany desk from the late 18th century stands as an example. On it, among the autographs of Pushkin’s lyceum poems - “Memories in Tsarskoe Selo”. Many years after the death of G. R. Derzhavin, while sorting through the poet’s archive, Y. K. Grot will find this Pushkin autograph in his manuscripts. Grot believed that Pushkin used this manuscript to read his poem during the translation exam. There is one correction in the carefully rewritten poem, and it is in the very first line: “The pall of gloomy night hangs.” The word night has been corrected to the Old Slavonic “night”. However, the correction was not made by Pushkin; it is believed that Derzhavin himself made this amendment.

The study rooms lead into the classroom, which is similar to a university auditorium. In the classroom there are six semicircular tables located one above the other, in an amphitheater, at each of which there were five students. The teacher's chair has been raised three levels. Lyceum students were seated in accordance with their academic success: the lower the student’s academic performance, the farther from the department he had to sit. It is impossible to establish a specific place where Pushkin sat: the poet occupied different places with different professors. However, in the lessons of Russian literature and French rhetoric, Pushkin was invariably among the first. “At the very beginning, he was our poet,” recalled I. Pushchin. “How I now see that afternoon class when, having finished the lecture a little earlier than the lesson hour, the professor said: “Now, gentlemen, let’s try feathers: please describe the rose for me in verse.” Our poems did not stick at all, and Pushkin instantly read two quatrains , which delighted us all."

After lectures on physics and mathematics, lyceum students moved from the classroom to a nearby physics room for practical training. Today, the physical and mathematical instruments of Pushkin’s era are collected in the physics room. This was the time of the humanities, and the exact sciences sometimes caused despondency and annoyance. “Oh, dark child of Urania, / Oh, immense science, / Oh, incomprehensible wisdom, / Immeasurable depth!..” - wrote Alexey Illichevsky about mathematics. However, there is no doubt that physics and mathematics classes broadened the horizons of lyceum students and encouraged them to learn the secrets of the Universe. In one of the lyceum letters of the future navigator Fyodor Matyushkin, you can read the following lines: “If it were possible for a mortal to rise above the earth and see the structure of nature, the source of the Sun, what kind of knowledge and pleasure he would gain from this...” Just a few years later, scientifically -technical discoveries will change ideas about the world and arouse enormous interest in the exact sciences. And Pushkin’s brilliant lines will appear: “Oh, how many wonderful discoveries we have / The spirit of enlightenment is preparing, / And experience, the son of difficult mistakes, / And genius, friend paradoxes...”

At the beginning of the 19th century, mastery of the art of drawing was mandatory for educated people. The “drawing teacher” S. G. Chirikov used an academic teaching system, focusing on drawing. After acquiring their first skills, the students began copying antique busts and fragments of engravings, and later tried their hand at the art of portraiture. The teacher paid a lot of attention to the selection of originals for drawing. According to I.-V. Goethe, acquaintance with works of art should begin with perfect samples, since taste should be formed only on selected objects of art.

According to the degree of talent, the “drawing teacher” divided all his students into four categories: “excellent talents,” “good talents,” “great talents,” and “average talents.” Pushkin was included by Chirikov in the first category.

More than thirty drawings by first-year students have reached us, two of which belong to Pushkin. These drawings show antique heads, rural landscapes, scenes from biblical times, images of flowers, birds, and animals. Some of them (in copies) can be seen in the classroom.

The adjacent room was occupied by the Singing Class. Music and singing were among the pupils' favorite activities. Instrumental music instruction was provided in the form of private lessons during free hours. Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, Mikhail Yakovlev, Sergei Komovsky played the violin; Nikolay Korsakov - piano and guitar. Korsakov and Yakovlev tried their hand at composing. Pushkin's poems were set to music by his comrades back in his Lyceum years and were popular not only in the Lyceum, but also in Tsarskoe Selo. Since 1816, lyceum students began to study singing under the guidance of L.-W. Tepper de Ferguson. A musician and composer, he not only taught singing, but composed spiritual concerts for his students, rearranging the concerts of D. Bortnyansky with different variations. Often, classes were held in the Singing Class, which were attended by both courses of the Lyceum - senior and junior. The younger one left a description of the class: “There is a philharmonic hall here, and music lovers here often captivate the lyceum students with their singing. Sometimes, in a noisy choir, the whole cathedral, citizens sing their national songs...” Today in the classroom on an old piano lies the edition of the “Farewell Song” of 1835, undertaken by the former director of the Lyceum E. A. Engelhardt. Engelhardt undertook the publication of the “Farewell Song” in connection with the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Lyceum in 1836. Engelhard sent copies of the “Song” to his former pupils, among whom was the “state criminal” I. I. Pushchin. In a letter to him in Siberia, Engelhardt regretted that Pushchin would not hear the tune of the lyceum song. But the old director was wrong. Pushchin’s fellow prisoners learned the “Song” and, with the help of the Decembrist wives Maria Volkonskaya and Kamilla Ivasheva, performed it for Pushchin.

A wide corridor runs through the entire fourth floor. On both sides of it are the pupils' rooms. Each lyceum student had a separate room. This showed respect for the personality of the pupil and concern for his health. Above the thirty doors are attached black metal plaques with the room number, surname and name of its owner. Pushkin’s room at No. 14 turned out to be smaller than the others: on one side there was a solid wall. The poet often called his narrow room a “cell,” and the Lyceum a monastery. This perception was facilitated by the proximity of two churches, the strictly regulated way of life at the Lyceum, and a permanent stay in Tsarskoe Selo for six years. But how the “student cell” was transformed when Pushkin felt like a poet! He admitted to his comrades that he sees poetry even in his dreams. At night, when everyone fell asleep, conversations were held in low voices through the partition with “first friend” Ivan Pushchin, who occupied room No. 13. Often the conversation was about Pushkin’s relationships with his comrades, which were not always easy. The comrades were perplexed why Pushkin, who was ahead of them in many ways, who read books they had no idea about, who remembered everything he read, was not at all proud of all this and did not even appreciate it. “It happened that you were really surprised at the transitions in him: you see, it happened that he was absorbed beyond his years in thoughts and readings, and then suddenly abandoned his studies, went into some kind of fit of rage because another, incapable of anything better, deserted it or dropped all the pins with one blow.” Perhaps the explanation for this contradiction in the behavior of young Pushkin was given in a conversation with N.V. Gogol by V.A. Zhukovsky, who noted that when Pushkin was eighteen years old, he thought like a thirty-year-old man, that his mind matured much earlier than his character, and this often amazed him when Pushkin was still at the Lyceum. When the comrades realized that Pushkin was a poet; the attitude towards him changed. “God grant him success - the rays of his glory will shine through his comrades,” Illichevsky will write. These words turned out to be prophetic.

There is a literary exhibition on the second floor of the lyceum building. Its opening took place on June 25, 2010, during the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo. The exhibition serves as an addition to the memorial premises on the third and fourth floors and at the same time is independent. The history of the Lyceum is not limited to the years of training of students of the illustrious first graduating class. It dates back more than a hundred years of existence and ends after the revolution, when the Lyceum, as a “harmful institution,” was closed. Visitors have the opportunity to get acquainted with the entire history of the Lyceum, which is usually divided into two periods - Tsarskoye Selo and St. Petersburg. In Tsarskoe Selo, the educational institution existed from 1811 to 1843. On November 6, 1843, by decree of Nicholas I, it was renamed the Imperial Alexander Lyceum and transferred to St. Petersburg. Two large sections of the exhibition tell about the Tsarskoye Selo and Alexander Lyceums. The third section is devoted to the history of the lyceum building in Tsarskoe Selo and the creation of a museum in it.

In the spacious, bright hall, dedicated to the Tsarskoye Selo period, portraits of mentors and students, lyceum relics, personal belongings of students, and views of Tsarskoye Selo from the first quarter of the 19th century are presented. The materials tell how the destinies of lyceum students turned out after graduation. Its first-born sons brought real glory to the Lyceum. The first issue went down in our history with the names of A. S. Pushkin, poets A. A. Delvig and V. K. Kuchelbecker, navigator Admiral F. F. Matyushkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chancellor A. M. Gorchakov, Decembrist I. I. Pushchin, generals V.D. Volkhovsky and K.K. Danzas, director of the Imperial Public Library M.A. Korf. The exhibition also tells about the fates of those who came to the Lyceum to replace Pushkin’s graduation. These are the satirist M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, the poets L. A. Mei, V. R. Zotov, M. D. Delarue; scientists Y. K. Grot, K. S. Veselovsky, N. Ya. Danilevsky; the founder of the society of utopian socialists N.V. Petrashevsky; ministers A.V. Golovnin, D.A. Tolstoy, D.N. Zamyatnin, M.H. Reitern, N.K. Girs.

A significant part of the exhibition is dedicated to the St. Petersburg period of the Lyceum’s existence. The Alexandrovsky Lyceum was distinguished by respect for the past and the preservation of the best lyceum traditions. The role of the educational institution in perpetuating the memory of A.S. Pushkin is great. Lyceum students were the initiators of the construction of the first monument to Pushkin. The first Pushkin Museum in Russia was created within the walls of the Alexander Lyceum, and the Pushkin Lyceum Society was opened. A separate room in the exhibition is dedicated to the theme “Pushkin and the Alexander Lyceum”. It presents materials collected by lyceum students and previously stored in the Pushkin Museum of the Alexander Lyceum. In the center of the hall there is a model of the monument to A. S. Pushkin by sculptor A. M. Opekushin, unveiled in Moscow on June 6, 1880. This model belonged to a former lyceum student, Minister of Public Education A.V. Golovnin and after his death it was donated to the Lyceum by his sisters.

In the same room, part of the interior of the Pushkin Museum of the Alexander Lyceum was recreated from surviving photographs. On the wall is the famous painting by I. E. Repin “Pushkin at the Lyceum Exam in Tsarskoe Selo on January 8, 1815.” To the right and left of the picture are memorial plaques with the names of first-year students. On one of them are the names of lyceum students who entered the civil service. The list opens with Alexander Gorchakov; Alexander Pushkin is also on the same list. On another board are the names of those who entered military service; here the first name is Vladimir Volkhovsky. The painting was painted by Repin at the request of members of the Pushkin Lyceum Society for the 100th anniversary of the Lyceum, celebrated on October 19, 1911. Having accepted the Lyceum's order, Repin began work with enthusiasm. The artist was introduced to the full list of exam participants, provided with portraits of some of them to work with, information about the costumes of that era, and the hall where the exam took place. For Repin, a mock exam was staged at the Alexander Lyceum, in which students, the director, teachers and educators took part. During the staging, photographer Karl Bulla captured this interesting and important moment for the creation of the picture. Today the photograph is placed in a glass case under the painting.

Another relic that was once kept in the Pushkin Museum-Lyceum is a case folder in which Pushkin’s friend at the Lyceum M. L. Yakovlev donated to the educational institution an autograph of A. S. Pushkin’s poem “October 19” (1825) . On the cover of the case there is an inscription: “October 19. Autograph of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Mikhailovskoe 1825. From the co-pupil of the poet Mikhail Lukyanovich Yakovlev, donated to the Lyceum on March 2, 1855.” The autograph itself is kept at the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House).

The section of the exhibition about the Alexander Lyceum continues with a hall telling about the Lyceana Museum, dedicated to the history of the educational institution and its students. The museum was housed in “Kamenka”, a room in which the stone from the foundation of the building of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was kept, transported to St. Petersburg as a sign of the continuity of the best lyceum traditions and the inextricable connection between the Tsarskoye Selo and Alexander Lyceums. Just like today in the exhibition, photographs of courses and portraits of famous graduates hung on the walls of Kamenka; a library consisting of the works of lyceum students, course archives, and lyceum relics was also kept here. The last rite of farewell to the educational institution took place in Kamenka. Having placed on the Tsarskoye Selo stone the faithful companion of lyceum life - the course bell, which called the lyceum students “to prayer and study”, they broke it, and pieces of the bell were distributed to all members of the course as a memory of course unity, of comrades, of their home school. They were set in gold, and they served as key rings, the likes of which no one else had. The same hall tells about the celebration of the centenary, about the participation of lyceum students in the First World War, about the last days of the Lyceum, about the fate of its students who left after the revolution abroad, and the tragic events in the lives of lyceum students who remained in Soviet Russia.

The windows of the last halls of the exhibition overlook the Church of the Sign and the Lyceum Garden. The Church of the Sign is the first stone building of Tsarskoe Selo. The shrine of the city was kept here - an ancient family icon of the Romanov dynasty - the image of the Sign of the Mother of God. The church was a parish church, but among the parishioners one could often see lyceum students.

Today it is impossible to imagine the Lyceum Garden without the monument to A.S. Pushkin. The opening of the monument took place on October 15, 1900. Funds for its creation were collected by subscription organized among the residents of Tsarskoe Selo. The author of the monument is Academician R.R. Bakh, a resident of Tsarskoye Selo. The sculptor depicted the young poet in a lyceum uniform, shortly before graduating from the Lyceum, sitting on a cast-iron bench, of which there were many in Tsarskoe Selo parks at that time. The poet I. Annensky took an active part in setting up the monument. He selected lines from Pushkin’s works, carved on three sides of the granite pedestal. Before the opening, Annensky was very worried. Waking up at night, he thought that one of the quotes had been spelled out inaccurately: instead of “in the spring with the cries of swans,” they wrote “in the spring with the cries of swan.” At five o'clock in the morning he ran to the Lyceum Garden and made sure that they had written it correctly. When the poet told his friends about this, one of them exclaimed: “What a difference!” “The difference,” Annensky answered, “is a whole century!” Art critic E. F. Gollerbach, who was present at the opening of the monument, recalled: “The minute the tarpaulin slid down, I was choking with excitement. I was overcome with such delight as if they had shown me a living Pushkin.” Here, at the monument to the poet, in February 1937, a meeting of the city’s workers took place, at which they announced the naming of Tsarskoye Selo after Pushkin. The monument to the poet in the Lyceum Garden became one of the symbols of the city that bears his name.

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Books

The Imperial Lyceum in memory of his pupils: Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (1811-1843) Buy for 2386 rubles
The Imperial Lyceum in the memory of his pupils. Book 1. Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (1811-1843), . The book contains letters, memoirs, excerpts from the diaries of graduates of the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, covering the period from the establishment of the Lyceum to the 40s of the 19th century and...

History of the building's construction

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

The four-story building of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was built as an outbuilding of the Catherine Palace between the Church Building and the Church of the Sign. Construction was carried out in - years according to the design of the architect I.V. Neelova.

Creation of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

The Lyceum was opened on October 19, 1811. The idea of creating the Lyceum belonged to the prominent Russian statesman M.M. Speransky, who was the initiator of the reforms carried out by Alexander I, believed that Russia needed a constitution that should eliminate differences in rights between classes. The reformers of that era were not alien to romanticism, and this often made their reforms inconsistent and poorly understood by the country's population. While working on the Lyceum project, Speransky was inspired not only by liberal ideas, but also by the example of Aristotle’s school, which was called the Lyceum or Lyceum. Antiquity was fashionable during the reign of Alexander I, and the romantic analogy with the ancient forerunner influenced both the program and the daily routine of lyceum students.

The purpose of the Lyceum was to prepare graduates for public service, and this was explicitly stated in its Charter. The Lyceum accepted boys 10-12 years old - as a rule, they came from poor noble families. The number of lyceum students at the opening of the Lyceum was 30 people, and the duration of study was 6 years. The lyceum was a closed educational institution, the life of its students was strictly regulated, boys were not allowed to leave its territory throughout the year, including during the holidays.

The day began with getting up at 6 am, followed by morning toilet, prayer and a brief review of yesterday's lessons, then 2 hours of classes, breakfast and another 2 hours of lessons. Then - a walk, lunch and another 3 hours of classes, an evening walk and gymnastics, swimming, horse riding, fencing - it is interesting that the range of sports largely coincides with modern pentathlon. In total, the lyceum students studied for 7 hours a day, but besides this, they devoted a lot of time to reading and talking with each other.

The curriculum included subjects that were divided into the following categories:

moral (God's law, ethics, logic, jurisprudence, political economy);
verbal (Russian, Latin, French, German literature and languages, rhetoric);
historical (Russian and world history, physical geography); physical and mathematical (mathematics, principles of physics and cosmography, mathematical geography, statistics);
fine arts and gymnastic exercises (penmanship, drawing, dancing, fencing, horse riding, swimming).

Lyceum students were instilled with a taste for literary creativity, they learned to write poetry and prose, and published their own literary magazines. They read a lot, fortunately the Lyceum had an excellent library, the replenishment of which the professors paid a lot of attention to.

The Lyceum's graduates were erudite people, brought up in the spirit of love for the Fatherland and freethinking. It is no coincidence that many of them became Decembrists.

The lyceum students were distinguished by that special brotherhood that one of them, the great Pushkin, sang in his poems. The cohort of Lyceum graduates had a serious influence on changes in the culture and political life of Russia, embodying in practice the motto of the Lyceum “For the Common Benefit” and thereby proving the ability of even one educational institution to influence the destinies of the country.

The fate of the building after the 1917 revolution

Catherine Palace

On the tragic fate of the library of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in the USSR, see S. Shumikhin “The Strange Fate of the Library of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum”

Modern history of the building

Alexander Pushkin

(1799 - 1837)

Of course, the most famous and revered graduate of the Lyceum can be called Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who was secretly crowned during his lifetime, calling him a genius and “the sun of Russian poetry.”

It must be said that if Pushkin’s father had not shown parental consciousness, the future great poet would have studied at the Jesuit Collegium in St. Petersburg. However, upon learning that Alexander I intended to open an educational institution in Tsarskoe Selo, the father immediately decided that his son should go there and nowhere else.

In fact, the children of high-born nobles, who were destined to occupy important government positions in the diplomatic and military fields in the future, were supposed to live and study for free at the Lyceum. Despite the fact that there were many promising offspring, the Lyceum was ready to accept only thirty students under its umbrella. It is worth noting that Pushkin was not of such high birth that he could study with the great princes. His father began to work hard, seek the patronage and support of influential people, and finally achieved his goal: his son was allowed to take the exam.

In the summer, young Pushkin left Moscow with his uncle Vasily Lvovich for St. Petersburg and, having passed the exam, was accepted. Upon arrival at the Lyceum, the poet began to live in the same room with Ivan Pushchin, the future Decembrist. As close friends and teachers recalled, Pushkin was often absent-minded, changeable, restless and did not show any ability for mathematics - it was rumored that the poet even cried on the back desk, looking at the blackboard where the teacher wrote numbers and examples. Meanwhile, he practiced languages well, studied history with enthusiasm and, most importantly, it was at the Lyceum that he discovered his talent for poetry, which was tirelessly protected by the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, and later by Gabriel Derzhavin.

Alexander Pushkin, portrait by O. A. Kiprensky. 1827 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Alexander Gorchakov

(1798 — 1883) )

The last chancellor of the Russian Empire, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, from his youth was distinguished by the talents necessary for a brilliant diplomat. His idol was Count John Kapodistrias, “manager of Asian affairs” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1815-1822.

“I would like to serve under his command,” said Gorchakov.

At the Lyceum he studied not only the humanities, but also the exact and natural sciences. “The wayward hand of Fortune has shown you a happy and glorious path,” his mother-in-law, Alexander Pushkin, wrote to his friend Alexander. The poet's prediction came true - Gorchakov became the head of the Russian foreign policy department under Alexander II.

As Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Vyacheslav Mikhailov wrote in one of his works, “the essence of “Gorchakov’s” diplomacy was that, playing not so much on contradictions, but mainly on the nuances of European diplomacy, without firing a single shot, without any harsh pressure, within a few years Russia found itself free from all humiliating treaties and again entered the ranks of the leading European powers.”

Alexander Gorchakov was a holder of the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Ivan Pushchin

(1798-1859 )

Ivan Pushchin was one of Pushkin's first close friends, with whom he shared a room at the Lyceum. In the future, Ivan Ivanovich became a Decembrist and told his friend about secret societies and the published book “Woe from Wit,” which then shook up reading Russia. However, at fourteen years old, he was an ordinary young man “with very good talents, always diligent and prudently behaved, who shows nobility, good manners, good nature, modesty and sensitivity.

As he grew older, Pushchin joined the “Sacred Artel”, became a member of the “Union of Salvation”, “Union of Prosperity”, “Northern Society” and belonged to the most revolutionary wing of the Decembrists. He was later sentenced to death, commuted to twenty years of Siberian hard labor. In 1856, at the age of 58, he was returned from exile. A year later, he married the widow of the Decembrist Mikhail Fonvizin, Natalya Apukhtina. But the marriage did not last long: on April 3, 1859, Ivan Pushchin died on the Maryino estate.

Ivan Pushchin was sentenced to death, commuted to twenty years of Siberian hard labor. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Modest Korf

(1800 —1876)

“Secretary Mordan” was the name given to the son of Baron Korf at the Lyceum.

The director of the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Vasily Malinovsky, spoke of the 12-year-old pupil in the most flattering terms, noting the diligence and neatness of the young man. Only among the qualities that could interfere with young Corfu, he indicated “caution and timidity, preventing him from being completely open and free.”

However, these qualities did not prevent Modest Andreevich from making a brilliant career. He managed the affairs of the Committee of Ministers, was the head of a secret committee to supervise book printing, and was the director of the St. Petersburg Public Library. His merits include the fact that he founded a special department of foreign books about Russia in the library, promoted the compilation of catalogues, and was also able to attract private donations to finance the institution.

“Secretary Mordan” was the name given to the son of Baron Korf at the Lyceum. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin

(1826 — 1889)

When the future writer studied at the Lyceum, he was notable, first of all, for his gloomy appearance.

Memoirist and Nekrasov’s wife Avdotya Panaeva recalled: “I saw him in the uniform of a lyceum student in the early forties. He came to him in the mornings on holidays. Young Saltykov did not have a cheerful expression even then. His big gray eyes looked sternly at everyone, and he was always silent. I remember only once a smile on the face of a silent and gloomy lyceum student.”

If Pushkin remembered the lyceum with warmth, then Saltykov-Shchedrin retained in his memories the image of a state-owned educational institution, in which he did not find a single close friend and where “the pedagogy was gloomy in every sense: both in the physical sense and in the mental sense.” However, the writer was right in his dissatisfaction: the education system at the Lyceum has changed since Pushkin’s times.

“The peculiar aristocratic freedom and comfort were replaced by the gray, leveled and rather harsh regime of a paramilitary boarding school.” At the Lyceum of that time, students were systematically punished: they were forced to stand in the corner and imprisoned in a punishment cell. According to the writer’s recollections, he was not a diligent student, but knew languages well and had deep knowledge of political economy, Russian history and legal sciences.

Lev May

(1822 — 1862)

For his diligence and success, the future Russian poet was transferred from the Moscow Noble Institute to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, despite the fact that he was of non-noble origin and the family lived in great need.

The moment of the takeoff of his creative career should be considered the day and hour when he became close friends with the publisher of the scientific and literary magazine “Moskvityanin” Pogodin, and later with the playwright Ostrovsky himself. May’s works, which at first were not accepted by society and were branded as unmodern and chamber-like, subsequently became widely known, and the plots of the dramas in verse “The Tsar’s Bride”, “The Pskov Woman” and “Servilia” formed the basis for the opera by the composer Rimsky-Korsakov.

May translated “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” from Old Russian into the literary language of the 19th century. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Fedor Matyushkin

(1799 — 1872)

The future polar explorer and admiral Fyodor Matyushkin graduated from the Lyceum in the same year as Alexander Pushkin. The good-natured boy, with a gentle character but a strong will, was immediately loved by both fellow students and teachers. Literally in the first months of training, he showed remarkable abilities in geography and history. Despite the fact that he had a lively character, he always remained modest; in the report card, in which the characteristics of each of the graduates were written, it was stated: “Very well-behaved, with all his ardor, polite, sincere, good-natured, sensitive; sometimes angry, but without rudeness.”

Immediately after completing the course, he set off on a circumnavigation of the world, and even later participated in Wrangel’s expedition. These travels became daydreams that haunted him during his studies at the Lyceum and which were “fed” by Pushkin, drawing unprecedented and enchanting distant countries to Fedor’s imagination with the help of his lively speech and poetry. It is curious, but Matyushkin did not have his own family and, having dropped his last anchor in St. Petersburg, he settled with his lyceum comrade Yakovlev. Later he moved to a hotel, where he lived for more than 15 years. Only in the last years of his life did he build a dacha not far from Bologoe. Matyushkin outlived almost all of his classmates.

In 1811, Fyodor Matyushkin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, which he graduated with Pushkin in 1817 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Mikhail Petrashevsky

(1821 - 1866)

The Russian revolutionary Mikhail Petrashevsky, the organizer of meetings of the “Petrashevites”, who in 1849 were condemned for these same gatherings, despite the fact that although all its members were in some way “freethinkers,” they were heterogeneous in their views and only a few had plans of a revolutionary nature.

In his younger years, Fyodor Dostoevsky also came to the meetings. It was then that a scandalous incident occurred, called a “mock execution,” when the convicts were put under psychological pressure, brought to the scaffold, and kept until the last minute, expecting that one of them would blurt out the necessary information. At that time, the “convicts” had already been pardoned. It was a nice “joke” from Alexander II.

Petrashevsky himself, who kept at home literature on the history of revolutionary movements, utopian socialism, materialist philosophy, and also advocated the democratization of the political system of Russia and the liberation of peasants with land, was exiled to eternal settlement in Siberia.

Mikhail Petrashevsky at one time served as a translator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Vladimir Volkhovsky

(1798 — 1841)

The future Major General Volkhovsky was a lyceum student of the first graduating class. As often happened, for noticeable success in his studies, he was transferred from the Moscow University boarding school to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where he received the nicknames “Sapientia” (wisdom) for being able to influence even the most stubborn and careless classmates, and “Suvorochka” - diminutive of the surname “Suvorov”.

Volkhovsky was small in stature, but had a strong character and an unbending will. After graduating from the Lyceum, he was noticed in the organization “Sacred Artel” - which became the forerunner of the Decembrist gathering, and also participated in meetings with Ivan Pushchin and other members of the secret society. Later he was noted in the battles of the Russian-Turkish war and even served as consul in Egypt.

Volkhovsky was small in stature, but had a strong character and an unbending will. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Nikolay Danilevsky

(1822 — 1885)

A Russian sociologist, cultural scientist and founder of a civilized approach to history, he graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum in 1843, passed the master's exam, and already in 1849 he was arrested in the case of the same Petrashevsky. The exculpatory note saved him from trial, but not from exile. Danilevsky was assigned to the office of the Vologda and then Samara governor.

It must be said that there were grounds for suspicion of political unreliability in power: Danilevsky, like all the “Petrashevists,” was fond of Fourier’s utopian socialist system. However, fate turned out differently: Danilevsky did not lay his head on the chopping block, but went to explore fishing along the Volga and the Caspian Sea, and then became famous by writing the historical and philosophical work “Russia and Europe.”

Danilevsky was one of the first to pay attention to the signs of the decline and progress of civilization, and having collected extensive factual material, he proved the inevitable repetition of social orders. A kind of idea of eternal return according to Nietzsche, but in its infancy. Along with Spengler, Danilevsky is considered the founder of the civilizational approach to history.

Where is our rose?
My friends?
The rose has withered
Child of the dawn.
Do not say:
This is how youth fades!
Do not say:
This is the joy of life!
Tell the flower:
Sorry, I'm sorry!
And on the lily
Show us.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin wrote these lines during his years of study at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, when students were asked to write a poem about a rose as an exam. The task was quite complex and caused difficulty. But the future poet coped with it brilliantly, instantly composing and voicing it in front of the class.

The guide led us through the corridors and classrooms of the lyceum, telling us how the young Sasha - the Frenchman, as his friends called him - surprised everyone with his talent. And I wanted to understand what was special about this educational institution, that so many famous, truly talented people who were patriots of their Fatherland came out of its walls. What kind of atmosphere reigned in the classes, what was the “lyceum spirit” that its graduates later remembered so much about? More than once I visited the museum of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and enjoyed its views, which were restored and preserved for us, our descendants. I admired the views of the park, which is located in close proximity to the lyceum. And every time I discovered something new.

A little history

The Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum is located in a wing of the Catherine Palace in Pushkin. Consists of four floors:

On the ground floor there were rooms for lyceum employees, as well as a utility block.
On the second floor there was a dining room, a pharmacy, a hospital, a conference room, and an office.
On the third floor there are halls for physical exercises, a recreational hall, classrooms, a reading room with periodicals, and a library. It was located in the arch connecting the lyceum and the palace.
The fourth floor was reserved for student rooms.

The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was founded on October 19, 1811. Its grand opening took place in the same year. The Lyceum was founded by Emperor Alexander I. The idea was brought to life by the famous statesman of the 19th century M. M. Speransky. The children of the upper noble class, close to the emperor, were supposed to study here. They are future diplomats and senior government officials. It was planned that the younger brothers of Emperor Alexander I would also study at the lyceum. Students were selected by competition, and one of the influential people had to vouch for them.