Sergei Gessen and the journal Russkaya Shkola: From the history of pedagogical journalism of Russia abroad in the 1930s

One of the activities of Russian philosopher and pedagogue Sergei Gessen (Hessen) was co-operation with pedagogical journals of the Russian emigration. The article examines the relationship between Gessen and the journal Russkaya Shkola [Russian School] in the Russian emigre pedagogical journalism historical contexts in the 1930s. Gessen actively published his works in emigre (Sovremennye Zapiski, Vestnik Samoobrazovanie, etc.) and foreign pedagogical periodicals (Die Erziehung, Ruch Pedagogiczny, etc.). The central for his pedagogical and philosophical journalism was the Russian School Abroad journal. Having gained a reputation as one of the leading educators of Russia abroad after publication of his Fundamentals of Pedagogy in Berlin in 1923, Gessen headed this journal and turned it into a centre of serious pedagogical and methodological work since 1924. He managed to use it as a tool for coordination of pedagogical community and institutions of educational activities in the Diaspora. The world economic crisis led to a sharp deterioration of the situation with Russian journals, including pedagogical ones. In 1931 Russian School Abroad was closed due to the lack of funding. In these circumstances a significant event was the publication of the journal Russkaya Shkola in Prague in 1934. Its editor A.T. Pavlov attracted the best intellectual forces of the emigration (N.A. Hans, V.V. Zenkovsky, G.Y. Troshin, and others), as well as Czech educators. In fact, Gessen became the coordinator and ideologist of the journal work. He touched upon the most important problems of the modern school, analyzed the state of the Soviet school and education theory, assessed the trends in the development of European education in his articles “Worldview and Education”, “The Problem of the Unified School”, “School and Economy”, “The Last Phase of Soviet Pedagogy”, etc. He also worked with the genres of review and survey of pedagogical literature traditional for him. The author stresses that the ideas of the scholar’s main theoretical publications were close to his articles in Sovremennye Zapiski and Novy Grad, as well as in the Czech, Polish and German pedagogical press. Collaboration with Russkaya Shkola was an important part of Gessen’s scientific, pedagogical and journalistic activities in the 1930s. However, the scholar did not confine himself within the pedagogical space of emigration, and the journal became an expert platform where he presented his ideas and projects and outlined the prospects for the development of European education. After the Second World War, a number of articles from Russkaya Shkola were published in Gessen’s Polish book The Structure and Content of the Modern School. Essays on General Didactics (1947). The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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