Memoirs as a source about literacy learning of noble children at home and at private schools in Russia in XVIII century

In the conditions of a rare network of public schools on huge open spaces of the Russian Empire XVIII century it was received the spread of the house training of children to literacy and private schools, especially in the Russian province. The state government supervised this process poorly; therefore official documents are the greater rarity. But the authors of the memoires paid attention to teaching literacy, who was describing the life as a rule from children's age. Memoirs reproduce a typical picture of training in noble families of this period, reflect many valuable facts which are absent in other types of sources. We had for an object to consider the complex of memoirs included in the annotated index, having been made by P.A.Zayonchkovskiy, in order may to find out how the question of teaching literacy was reflected in memoirs, who played the role of teachers, at what age training began, as soon children learnt literacy, which methods of teaching used, what geographical points this data concerned. From 40 memoirs, affecting the question of home training and private school in Russia in XVIII century and having learnt by us, only in 23 there is an information on children training for reading and writing of different degree of completeness. They concerned authors, their brothers, sisters, other relatives, neighbors and own children. Authors of these memoirs were the representatives of the highest officials, tribal aristocracy, the natives of the environment of medium and of the landed gentry (senators, generals and admirals, governors, professors, scientists, having retired). The majority of memoirs were written in the first half of the XIX century and coveraged the events of the second half of the XVIII century. Judging by memoirs, children started to teach literacy from age 5 to 8 years. Parents (mothers, fathers, grandmothers, uncles) quite often acted as teachers. Related communications were widely used: needy, having many children noblemen sent children for training to families of more well-founded relatives. Quite often noblemen employed sextons, government officials, priests, nuns. At countryside it was difficult to find the good teacher and sometimes parents had to change him, by sending children for studying to the next village or the city. Children were trained by own household servants, who had known the literacy. Often teachers were old men, having known literacy poorly, the teachings were dragged and it was necessary to change several teachers before the child become proficient in reading and writing. Memoirs of natives of the noble families, the highest bureaucracy, testified that they were started to learn the Russian literacy almost at the same time with foreign languages.

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