Opportunities for the Jews to receive education in the Russian Empire (the second part of the 19th - early 20th centuries)

The history of the Jewish community in the Russian Empire has long been studied. Despite a wide range of research works, some sides of the Jews' life in Russia need to be studied. In particularly, the opportunities for the Jews to receive education in Russia are of special interest for researchers. The materials for this article were archive sources from the State Archive of Tomsk Oblast grouped in different funds: Tomsk Province Police Fund, Tomsk District Fund, etc., as well as some data from Siberian periodicals. Besides, the Code of Legislative Acts of the Russian Empire in the mid-19th - early 20th centuries was analyzed. In addition to this, some research by contemporary scholars who study the Jewish community history in Russia and works by researchers of the early 20th century were used. The results presented in the article were obtained relying on the following common research methods: description, comparison and analysis. The system approach, according to which the Jewish community in Russia is considered to be a self-regulated system of interrelated and mutually specified elements, has become a methodological basis of the article. A civilization approach is also used. The Jewish population was under the Russian civilization sphere of influence with its socioeconomic, political and cultural features. The Russian Jewish community is considered through the prism of the preserved sociocultural and spiritual elements of the Hebrew civilization, which accounts for using the main principles of a civilization approach. When using it, however, it should be kept in mind that some elements of the Hebrew civilization were modified; it included some Russian civilization traits. In the second part of the 19th century, the renovation process covered the Jewish community in Russia. All sides of the Jews' life, including the educational system, changed. As a result of these changes, from the late 1860s, the Jew youth preferred to study together with the Christian youth in common schools. By the late 1880s, the number of schoolboys increased. There were transformations in types of schools. Gymnasiums became more popular than secondary schools. In Siberia, due to its remoteness, the changes started later. First Jews born in Siberia had no opportunities to study, but they started to send their children to nonsectarian schools. The system of education for the Jews changed seriously in the second part of the 19th - early 20th centuries. New laws introduced in the 1860s-1870s influenced positively on the civil status of the Jews in Russia. Being educated, the Jews had opportunities to get jobs which had been prohibited for them earlier, and to live legally in Siberia. It changed the Jewish community, because they started to consider education as a guaranty for surviving and welfare. Despite the introduction of the percentage share for the Jews by government in the late 1880s, the need for education among Jews increased. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century bilingualism, which was a special feature of the Jewish settled lifestyle of the 19th century, disappeared. In Siberia, due to its remoteness from religious centers, the processes of transformation went faster.

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