Commercial Colleges (Entry)

Categories / Science. Education/Educational Institutions
COMMERCIAL COLLEGES, institutions of intermediate education with general and special commercial educational courses. The first Russian commercial college was established in Moscow in 1772 by P. A. Demidov. It was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1800 and was named the St. Petersburg Commercial College, located at Chernyshev Lane, today 9 Lomonosova Street. Architect M. A. Makarov built the current building in 1871. Attached to the college was a boarding school. Sons of merchants, the bourgeoisie and people of other classes no younger than ten years old were accepted to the Commercial College. The curriculum was divided into four forms. Each form lasted for two years. In total, the curriculum lasted eight years. The general course included Divine Law, German, French, English, and Italian, mathematics, geography, history, natural history and physics. Special courses included accounting, technology, history of commerce, and commerce and commodity research. The Regulations of 1879 introduced the eight-year curriculum including a six-year general course and a two-year special course. In 1880, the Peter the Great Commercial College was opened with the contribution of stockbrokers at 62 Fontanka River Embankment. The college had a seven-year curriculum including five general courses and two special classes. Political economy, commercial geography, statistics, jurisprudence, accounting, commodity research etc. were among the special subjects. Commercial colleges became institutions of intermediate education with the course lasting for seven to eight years and providing general and professional education in accordance with the Regulations about Commercial Education of 1896. Teaching basic subjects in the first five forms was based on reduced programmes from the Real colleges. A practical course of foreign languages took a considerable place in the programme. Special subjects were studied at the two higher forms: accounting, commercial arithmetic, correspondence in Russian and foreign languages, trade and industrial jurisprudence, political economy, geography, chemistry and commodity research. Graduates of commercial colleges had the right to enter commercial and technical institutions of higher education. The curriculum was prolonged to nine years in a number of commercial colleges at the beginning of the 20th century. All the commercial colleges were either private or public. They were subordinated to the Ministry of Finance in 1894 and in 1906 fell under the oversight of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Outstanding teachers were among the staff of the commercial colleges: V. A. Gerd, V. N. Verkhovsky, V. А. Wagner. Tenishevskoe Commercial College, Treifeldt Vyborgskoe Commercial College, headed by P. A. German and located at 5 Finsky Lane, were the most famous colleges at the beginning of the 20th century. Many commercial colleges were established by various associations of teachers: the Commercial College of the Society for Expansion of Commercial and Artistic Industrial Education at 23 Institutsky Avenue, the Commercial College of the Society of Zealots of Commercial Education, 19 Stary Petergofsky Avenue, the Commercial College of the First, the Second and the Third Associations of Teachers (5 Razezzhaya Street; 15 Bolshaya Grebetskaya Street; 5 Mytninskaya Street), the Commercial College for the Society of Experimental Teaching at 59 Zhukovskogo Street, the Commercial College of the Society of Free Upbringing at 7 Shpalernaya Street, the Commercial College of the Society for Education and Upbringing (at Bolshaya Okhta, 1 Traurnaya Street; not preserved), the Commercial College of the Society of Teachers and Friends of Education at 39 Sixth Line of Vasilievsky Island, and the Commercial College of the Society for Workers’ Upbringing at 40 Gorokhovaya Street etc. Several commercial colleges were opened by administrations of enterprises (the commercial colleges at the Alexandrovsky Factory and at the Putilov Factory) and by trade and industrial circles (Alexandrovskoe Commercial College of the St. Petersburg Society of Merchants; 82 Tambovskaya Street). The Girls’ Commercial Courses of P. O. Ivashintsova in 1891 laid the foundation for women’s commercial education. Several girls’ and mixed commercial colleges functioned in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century. There were 27 commercial colleges in Petrograd by 1917. They all were reorganised as state common labour schools in 1918.

References: Григорьев С. Коммерческое образование в России и его нужды: Ист. очерк // Рус. экон. обозрение. 1898. № 8-9; Тимофеев А. Г. История С.-Петербургского коммерческого училища: В 2 т. СПб., 1901-1902; Лейкина-Свирская В. Р., Селиванова И. В. Школа в Финском переулке. СПб., 1993.

Е. М. Balashov. Demidov Prokopy Akinfievich
Gerd V.A.
German P.A.
Ivashintsova P.O.
Makarov Mikhail Alexeevich
Treifeldt A.K.
Verkhovsky Vadim Nikolaevich
Wagner Vladimir Alexandrovich
6th Line of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 39
Alexander Ulyanov St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Finsky Lane/Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 62
Gorokhovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 40
Institutsky Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city, house 23
Lomonosova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 9
Mytninskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Pionerskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 15
Razyezzhaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Shpalernaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Staro-Petergofsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 19
Tambovskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 82
Zhukovskogo Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 59
Григорьев С. Коммерческое образование в России и его нужды: Ист. очерк // Рус. экон. обозрение, 1898
Тимофеев А. Г. История С.-Петербургского коммерческого училища: В 2. СПб., 1901-1902
Лейкина-Свирская В.Р., Селиванова И.В. Школа в Финском переулке. СПб., 1993 Ministry of Finance
Ministry for Industry and Commerce
Tenishev's School
1800