Gymnasium pupil Konstantin Paustovsky: The formation of the creative personality and the system of images

Konstantin Paustovsky was educated in the First Kiev Gymnasium, which in the years of his studies was renamed the Aleksandrovskaya Kiev Gymnasium. It was one of the most famous educational institutions of Russia, which existed for more than 100 years. Paustovsky entered the gymnasium on the second attempt, having failed in the competition the first time. The article describes the exam programs that the future writer withstood when entering the gymnasium. To be enrolled not only in the first, but also in the preparatory class, it was necessary to successfully withstand serious tests. According to the Law of God, boys who entered the first class had to know the 10 main prayers, the Symbol of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the most important events of the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments. To successfully pass the exam in Russian, it was required to read fluently in Russian and to be able to retell small read stories, write dictations, and read Church Slavonic. It was also necessary to know by heart at least 10 poems and fables and to expressively read them. The requirements for arithmetic included the ability to add, subtract, divide and multiply within 100 orally, up to one million in writing. The article reveals the characters and biographies of the teachers of the gymnasium, of which Paustovsky wrote in "The Story of Life". Various documentary sources are used to clarify the essential facts of the biographies of the teachers. In turn, the biographical work of Paustovsky allows recreating the details of studies in the Kiev Gymnasium. In the article, considerable attention is paid to libraries that worked in the gymnasium; they were regularly replenished with new publications, including works of belles-lettres by classics and contemporary authors. It is known that Paustovsky used not only the gymnasium library, but also the city library. It was during the years of study in the gymnasium that the circle of reading of the future writer, the basis of his characteristic figurative system, was formed. In this, a considerable role was played by the textbooks on which he studied, including the Law of God, the Russian language, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, geography, natural science, Latin, French and German. The knowledge gained in the gymnasium largely determined Paustovsky's interest in Russian and foreign literature, history, the surrounding natural world, and contributed to the expansion of his horizons. Representatives of different confessions, estates, nationalities studied at the Kiev Gymnasium, friendly dialogue with them, discussion of both aesthetic and political issues shaped the world outlook and the creative personality of the writer.

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