Возврат на главную страницу Возврат на главную страницу Возврат на главную страницу Возврат на главную страницу Возврат на главную страницу
The subject index / Smolny Institute

Smolny Institute


Categories / Science. Education/Educational Institutions

SMOLNY INSTITUTE situated at 1 Smolny Passage, the first and most privileged institute for noble young ladies. Empress Catherine II ordered the foundation of the institute in 1764 as the private Society for the Education of Young Noble Ladies. It was designed by I. I. Betsky for 200 daughters of the hereditary nobility and situated in Novodevichy (Smolny) Convent with a separate house built facing south by architect G. Quarenghi in 1806-08. The course of studies was originally twelve years, from six to eighteen years of age. It was then reduced to nine years to be taken from nine years of age. Charges were divided into three age groups differing in the colour of their apron: dark brown for the junior group, blue for the intermediate group, and white for the senior group. They were taught divine law, languages, drawing, history, geography, and arithmetic, elements of physics, dancing, music, manners, needlework, and housekeeping. A petty bourgeoisie department was opened in 1765, reorganised into Alexandrovsky School in 1842 and Alexandrovsky Institute in 1891. A two-year teachers' class was established in 1848 to provide training for teachers. The form-master of Smolny Institute in 1859-62, K. D. Ushinsky effected a number of reforms reducing the course of studies to seven years, introducing a new curriculum with a higher emphasis on Russian, geography, history, natural science, physics, and chemistry, improving the teachers' training system, etc. The institute was closed in the summer of 1917, charges transferred to other education institutions.

Reference: Черепнин Н. П. Императорское воспитатательное общество благородных девиц: Ист. очерк, 1764-1914: В 3 т. СПб.; Пг., 1914-1915; Жерихина Е. И. Смольный: История зданий и учреждений. СПб., 2002.

Е. М. Balashov.

Persons
Betskoy (Betsky) Ivan Ivanovich
Catherine II, Empress
Quarenghi Giacomo
Ushinsky Konstantin Dmitrievich

Addresses
Smolny Passage/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1

Bibliographies
Черепнин Н. П. Императорское воспитатательное общество благородных девиц: Ист. очерк, 1764-1914: В 3 т. СПб.; Пг., 1914-1915
Жерихина Е. И. Смольный: История зданий и учреждений. СПб., 2002

The subject Index
Smolny Institute

Chronograph
1764
1765
1808


Betskoy I.I. (1704-1795), statesman and teacher

BETSKOY (Betsky) Ivan Ivanovich (1703 or 1704-1795, St. Petersburg), statesman and public figure, actual privy counsellor (1766). He was the illegitimate son of General Field Marshal Prince I.Y. Trubetskoy

Catherine II (1729-1796), Empress

Catherine II (1729-1796, St. Petersburg), Empress (from 1761), wife of Emperor Peter III (1745). Nee Sophie Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst. Lived in St. Petersburg from 1744, coming to power by dethroning her husband (1762)

Cavos C.А., (1775-1840), composer

CAVOS Catarino Albertovich (1775-1840, St. Petersburg), composer, bandmaster, and teacher. He studied under F. Bianchi in Incurabile Conservatory, Venice. Living in St. Petersburg from 1798, he served in the Board of Imperial Theatres

College Buildings

COLLEGE BUILDINGS, group of college buildings including classes, workshops, library, assembly hall, recreation rooms, dormitories, etc. Among the first college buildings were the buildings of the Cadet Corps, Academy of Arts, Foster House

Domestic Chapel (entry)

DOMESTIC CHAPEL, churches in private houses, palaces, state, military and public institutions, academic establishments, prisons etc. The first Domestic chapels emerged in St

Dybenko P.E. (1889-1939), revolutionary, statesman

DYBENKO Pavel Efimovich (1889-1938), Soviet military officer and party figure. Army commander of the second rank (1935). In 1911 he was conscripted into the Baltic Fleet

Empress Maria's Department of Institutions

EMPRESS MARIA'S DEPARTMENT OF INSTITUTIONS, a central public institution, which administered charitable organizations, as well as women’s and special educational institutions

Fountains (entry)

FOUNTAINS. The first fountains in St. Petersburg were laid out at the beginning of the 18th century in the Summer Garden. In 1717, the first engine was ordered (engineer Desaguliers) for their water supply and in 1717-1721 Ligovsky Canal was dug

Levitsky D.G., (1735-1822), Artist

LEVITSKY Dmitry Grigorievich (1735-1822, St. Petersburg) artist. He was a master of gala and chamber portrait paintings. He studied in Kiev under his father, Ukrainian graphic artist K. G. Levitsky (Nos) and A. P

Maria Fedorovna, (1759-1828), Empress

MARIA FEDOROVNA (1759-1828, St. Petersburg), Empress (from 1796). Nee Sophie Dorothea Auguste Louise, Princess of Wurttemberg. She was Emperor Pavel I's second wife (from 1776)

Matveev A.T., (1878-1960), sculptor

MATVEEV Alexander Terentievich (1878-1960), sculptor, honoured Worker of Art of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1931), doctor of art criticism (1939)

People's Commissariats

PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIATS, central institutions of public administration in Soviet Russia, established by the Decree of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of 26 October (8 November) 1917

Political Parties (entry)

POLITICAL PARTIES, groups of people united by political opinions and goals fixed in party documents; possessing certain membership requirements, internal structure and types of activities stated in the regulations; relying on a certain social base

Prisons (entry)

PRISONS. The first prison in St. Petersburg (Convict gaol, or Convict yard, until 1732 under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty) was built in 1706 in the area of present-day Truda square

Prokopovich S. N. (1871-1955), public figure

PROKOPOVICH Sergey Nikolaevich (1871-1955) was a public figure, economist, statistician, a theorist of cooperation, Ph. D. in philosophy from Bern University (1913)

Public Education (entry)

PUBLIC EDUCATION. It was Peter the Great who laid the basis for public education in St. Petersburg placing the greatest emphasis on military and professional education with the Naval Academy founded in approximately 1715

Public Halls (entry)

PUBLIC HALLS, a special premise for informal mass events. The first public hall was arranged in banker A.A. Ral's house (On the Moika River Embankment, beside Red Bridge; not preserved)

Quarenghi G. (1744-1817), architect

QUARENGHI Giacomo (1744-1817), architect, representative of Neoclassicism. Native of Italy. From 1761 (according to the other data sources, from 1763) studied painting and architecture in Rome. At the end of 1779, he came to St

Red Terror

RED TERROR, a policy of repression pursued by the Soviet government in its early years in order to frighten and kill actual and potential (often imaginary) opponents to the Bolshevik regime

Smolny Architectural Ensemble

SMOLNY ARCHITECTURAL ENSEMBLE, created over the course of the 18th-20th centuries on the curve of the left bank of the Neva River, on the place of the early 18th century Smolyanoy (Russian "smola" means "resin") courtyard (hence the name)

Smolny Institute

SMOLNY INSTITUTE situated at 1 Smolny Passage, the first and most privileged institute for noble young ladies. Empress Catherine II ordered the foundation of the institute in 1764 as the private Society for the Education of Young Noble Ladies

Smolny, State Museum

SMOLNY, Historic-Memorial State Museum (3 Proletarskoy Diktatury Square). The V. I. Lenin and N. K. Krupskaya Memorial Museum-Room was opened in 1927 in the building of the former Smolny Institute. V. I. Lenin and N. K

St. Anne’s Lutheran Church

ST. ANNE’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, located at 8 Kirochnaya Street, an architectural monument of the Classicist style. It was built in 1775-79 (architect Y. M. Felten) on the place of a brick chapel of the same name, constructed in 1735-40 (architect P. M

Suvorovsky Avenue

SUVOROVSKY AVENUE, from Nevsky Prospect to Proletarskoy Diktatury Square. The avenue was laid in the mid-18th century. It ran from the Elephant Yard (a menagerie) which used to occupy the site of the present-day Oktyabrskaya Hotel

Ushinsky K.D., (1824-1870), teacher

USHINSKY Konstantin Dmitrievich (1824-1870), teacher. In 1844, he graduated from the faculty of law of the University of Moscow and moved to St. Petersburg in 1849. Here he contributed to the Sovremennik and Biblioteka dlya Chteniya journals

Women’s Institutes (Entry)

WOMEN’S INSTITUTES were boarding schools of intermediate education. They were under the oversight of the Department of Empress Maria's Establishments in 1796-1917