Plan of the education... of Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich" in the context of V.A. Zhukovsky's pedagogical legacy

"Plan of the education of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich" is a conceptual and consistent presentation of Zhukovsky's systemic educational programs. In it, he tried to take into account the best practices of contemporary educators, giving them a very personal reflection based on the observations of the preceding family (teacher of Masha and Sasha Protassov, V.I. and A.P. Kireevsky in the late 1800s - middle 1810s) and court practice teaching (teacher of Russian Grand Duchesses Alexandra Feodorovna in 1817-1825 and Elena Pavlovna in 1823-1825). The position of the educator of the Heir to the throne, proposed in July 1824, required a broader and more detailed approach to teaching from Zhukovsky, as he was responsible not only for teaching a single course, but also for coordinating the activities of other teachers and implementing a single universal education program. The "Plan of the education" is a holistic account of the program, known to us from a draft autograph (Pushkin House. Onegin Collection. No. 27815. P. 2-20) and its copy (Pushkin House. Fund 265 (Archive of Russkaya Starina journal). List 2. No. 1043. Page 1-36 rev.). The second version of the text dates back to the end of 1825 - beginning of 1826; it is the draft of the fair copy intended for the approval of Emperor Nicholas I. It was preserved in the papers of G.P. Pavsky and later became the source for the publishers of Russkaya Starina journal (the first edition of the "Plan"). Corrections Zhukovsky made in the manuscript of the Onegin Collection are already the next stage of text processing and were most likely made in the second half of 1829, when the writer was considering the idea of a pedagogical court journal "The Collector" ("Sobiratel'"). Zhukovsky included the great final piece of the "Plan" entitled "The use of history for sovereigns" there. The purpose of a comprehensive education and training of the Heir to the throne was to be achieved in three phases which were the prototypes of primary, secondary and higher education. The first phase -from 8 to 13 - included "preparatory learning", i.e. the study of general disciplines. The second period - from 13 to 18 - called for "detailed learning", i.e. systematic courses of the basics of sciences, and the third period - from 18 to 20 - "applied learning", focused on the life practice of the Heir to the throne, his "professional" duties. Zhukovsky founded his pedagogical system on the procedure by I.G. Pestalozzi (1746-1827), the creator of an original system of education based on the ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The system had an immense impact on the European educational thought. The writer was the promoter of this system, popular in Russia since the end of the 18th century, since the period of his editing The Messenger of Europe (1808-1811). In the preparation and implementation of the "Plan", Zhukovsky showed himself as a genuine teacher and innovator who successfully adapted the model of teaching in people's school Pestalozzi developed to the individualized education for the elite.

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