TITLE: “FRIEND OF MANKIND,” IVAN IVANOVICH BETSKOI
AUTHOR: Mikhail V. Boguslavsky¹
DESCRIPTORS: History of education in Russia, I.I. Betskoi’s educational philosophy, Catherine the Great and education, Smolny Institute, foundling homes in Russia, education of the noble class in Russia, middle class education, ideas of the Enlightenment, the cadet corps, creation of “the new breed.”

SYNOPSIS: Professor Boguslavsky introduces the western reader to Ivan I. Betskoi, his accomplishments as education advisor to Catherine the Great, and his plan for the establishment of Russia’s first unified system of public education.

“Friend of Mankind,” Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi

                                                                             “Betskoi, you were a ray of kindness.”
G. R. Derzhavin

The first modernizer of Russian education, Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi (1704-1795) was very familiar with European culture not only because of his self-education, but also because he was born abroad. His father, Fieldmarshal Ivan Y. Trubetskoi, was held captive in Sweden for a long time after the capture of Narva, Estonia, by the Swedes in 1700. In Stockholm on the third of February, 1704, his son, Ivan, came into the world receiving, as was the custom of that time for an illegitimate child, only part of his father’s name. Concerning his mother, several different versions of the story exist with the most popular claiming she was Baroness Wrede of Sweden.

In his youth Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi traveled throughout Europe. Travel in those days was a matter of particular importance to a young man. It was part of his education and might even set the direction for the development of his future. In the aforementioned connection, a small but characteristic Betskoi’s trait can be detected. While in Germany, Ivan Ivanovich concentrated his attention on educational institutions. For a young person, he made an unusually significant acquaintance there with the mother of the future empress of Russia, Catherine II, (known to the world as Catherine the Great.) This relationship consequently played a decisive role in his becoming close to the empress, so much that wicked and envious Saint Petersburg tongues gossiped that Betskoi… was the father of Catherine II.

Returning to Russia during the reign of Peter III, Betskoi, after the coup of 1762, occupied a firm and conspicuous position in the court of Catherine II. Their close relationship spoke not so much of their long acquaintance as the similarity of their opinions. At this time an ardent admirer of the Enlightenment, Catherine was very well read in the field of education. During their private meetings, Catherine and Betskoi focused their attention in a special way through discussions and reading aloud to one another from books dealing with problems of education. The pedagogical system eventually put into place in Russia was the result of their joint efforts. It is not surprising then that Catherine II assigned Betskoi with the task of creating formational and educational institutions for the children of the Russian nobility.

In 1763, at the time of Catherine’s ascension to the throne, Betskoi submitted a recommendation for “a comprehensive institution for the education of young people of both sexes,” in which was formulated a list of regulations reflective of the pedagogical frame of mind of that era. The ideas described in this recommendation were the result of the collaboration of Catherine and Betskoi. The document stressed an “assiduous attempt to express, word for word,” the “verbal command and lofty thoughts” of the empress.

The “comprehensive institution” proposal reflects characteristics of the 18th century idea that an ignorant man, one who was spiritually dead, would never be illuminated by the rays of the Enlightenment. Most thinkers agreed. A young fellow might be sent off from his home to study, leaving behind his familiar surroundings. By doing this he might then be able to rise up above his former state, but upon returning to his home, he would be absorbed by that familiar environment once again. To prevent this, strong measures were necessary.

“The root of all evil and good,” wrote Betskoi, “is education. The successful and solid attainment of what is good is only possible if one devises a straightforward and sound plan for accomplishing that goal. In support of this indisputable principle, only one course of action remains and that is to produce, by means of training, ‘a new breed of fathers and mothers’ who will use properly sound and commendable principles with their own children in order to instill more deeply in their young hearts the very same kind of education that they themselves received. These children will, in turn, pass it on to their own children and so continue from generation to generation into future centuries. This great plan will be initiated with children of both sexes but no one older than five or six. All future education will be grateful to these first establishments and will recognize them as the birthplaces of the ‘new breed of people.’”

His documents like that quoted in part above are permeated with pedagogical ideology characteristic of the Enlightenment. It was firmly believed that the power of education was practically limitless as a factor in the transformation of people. It also offered vital and necessary direction for the “cultivation” of the new breed of men who would becapable of reconstructing society. This new breed, having received appropriate education would, when they became adults, be capable of reestablishing society along the guidelines of the Enlightenment ideology of absolutism and loyalty to “ruler and homeland.”

In his recommendation for a “comprehensive institution,” as in his work entitled “A Concise Collection from the Best Authors, with Some Substantial Notes Concerning the Education of Children from Birth to Adolescence,” (1766) I. I. Betskoi set forth his views on the thorough upbringing of “the ideal” nobleman. To wit, he saw in education, “the root of all evil and good.” Education, therefore, ought to be in conformity with the nature of the child and so develop in him such personal qualities as civility, decency, industry, the ability to control himself, and domestic knowledge. Betskoi was convinced that education without moral formation only damages the character of the child, corrupts him, and turns him away from virtue.

The new pedagogy promulgated an individual approach to the child. The theory that the child’s talent, aptitude, and wishes would dictate his educational pursuits was spread throughout the new educational regulations. The main objective in the upbringing of a child would be the development of his spirit. The new pedagogy came out strongly against ghastly cramming, rushing, and anything contrary to the awakening thoughts of the child. Catherine II, whose own intellectual development basically came through self-education, attached enormous importance to these developmental initiatives for the student.

Constantly (perhaps even persistently) one reads in the educational theory of representatives of the Enlightenment the recurring theme that a child needs to grow up in an atmosphere of respect. His teachers need to teach him civility, but they also are obliged to be civil to him. Education of children, independent of their social qualities or “inborn civility,” was an indisputable task, to which was attached very great importance. Discourse about what was of chief importance for the education of “The New Breed” always concluded that it was the concept of “faith in one’s own abilities.”

I.I. Betskoi considered education to have four sides: “the physical, the physical-ethical, the purely moral, and the subject matter.”

• Physical education was very important because a healthy spirit lived in a healthy body.
• Physical-ethical education was based on the concept that idleness was the mother of all vices, but industry was the father of all virtue. Work, play, and fun are necessary.
• Moral education, first and foremost, consists in this, that it removes from the hearing and sight of the pupil all that has even a shade of vice. The active example of the teacher has the most powerful effect of all on children. Corporal punishment is intolerable, and other forms of punishment ought to be a rarity. Children essentially need to be given a concise but instructive collection of rules which they can use to manage their lives.
• Teaching is intended to develop the intellectual power necessary for one to earn a livelihood. Teaching will be successful if it is of a playful nature in the beginning; if it proceeds in a single language. The law of God, reading, and drawing; these are the subjects of early teaching.

Betskoi assigned a very big role to the use of visual aids in teaching. Of special importance to him was the formation and education of women for they would be the future wives, mothers and educators. In her family and domestic duties, in his opinion, a woman ought to seek meaning and sustenance in her life.

It isn’t difficult to observe that the pedagogical system of Catherine II and Betskoi conforms to the spirit of the 18th century; its spiritual energy; the courageous ideas of its best representatives; its confidence that if an idea is true, then it remains only “to direct one’s mind to it,” and it will become feasible. Reflected in the science of teaching was that bright spirit of social hope that gripped a sizeable portion of the noble society in the early period of Catherine’s rule.

Catherine II and those who, according to her instructions, were put in charge of educational affairs were of the opinion that if children were correctly raised from infancy, then it would be possible to create an entirely “new breed of people” – noblemen, merchants, industrialists, and craftsmen. An Enlightened nobleman should not embitter his serfs, merchants, factory workers, and artisans by excessive cruelty, and they, in turn, should work diligently for him. Devoted to the throne and also not inclined to “harmful philosophizing,” they should then constitute a society that an enlightened monarch would be able to govern easily and pleasantly.

Betskoi began the implementation of his ideas in a variety of foundational projects and in his private educational institutions. Significantly, all the pedagogical works of Betskoi assumed the force of law through their being embedded in the compilation of the Russian Empire’s civil code.

In accordance with Betskoi’s plan developed during the 1760’s and 1770’s, there would spring up in Russia “an entire family” of private educational institutions, which would include primary and secondary boarding schools for the noble class. Between the nobles and the serfs, a third rank made up of the petty bourgeois and merchants would be created. For this new class, there would be foundling homes and training schools for the arts, education, medicine, commerce and the theater.

Catherine II and I.I. Betsoi’s plans for the creation of a state system of education came to fruition with the creation of the Academy for the Arts (1764); foundling homes in Moscow (1764) and St. Petersburg (1770); The Society for the Training of Well-Born Girls or as it was better known, The Smolny Institute (1764); and The Commercial Training School (1773.) Each institution had its own guidelines but certain of these were common to all:

• Corporal punishment and intimidation of children are prohibited.
• Each student must undergo an individual evaluation of ability.
•  All pedagogical activities are to be geared to the development of each student’s unique personality.

In the case of private educational establishments, the social class principle was strictly carried out. Children of the nobility were destined for the privileged boy’s cadet corps or the “training school for girls of the nobility.” Betskoi himself would be the head of the boy’s Land-Forces (as opposed to naval forces) Cadet Corps as well as the girl’s Smolny Institute, and he would direct the foundling homes. For intellectuals not of noble birth, there were the training schools of the Academy of Arts and the educational foundling homes in each of the provinces.

Upon exiting the training schools, the non-noble graduates would constitute the new “third class of people.” Artists, craftsmen, teachers, doctors, and the rest of the educated would all take their places buffering the nobles from the serfs. No mention was made of the education or training of serf children. Serfs would not be accepted into any training establishment.

Russian educators approached the implementation of this great project with unusually businesslike enthusiasm and practical courage. A place was needed for the contemplated experiments. Betskoi sought and, of course, immediately received a large parcel of land.

Catherine II’s manifesto and report, presented by Betskoi, appealed to the society and to each citizen to take part in the creation and well-being of each foundling home. The calculation of the organizers proved correct. The enterprise, which was so suddenly announced and publicized by the empress, aroused sharp interest. Men of high rank were flattered to be appointed members of the council of guardians or trustees of the institutions. The Russian nobility and rich merchants donated money, provisions, and other necessary items to the education centers. One famous rich man, P. A. Demidov, took upon himself a significant part of the expenses for the construction of the foundling homes. Eventually, these training institutions began to receive contributions through generous donations or through wills and testaments in much the same way that monasteries acquired funding for construction and maintenance. People became donors out of concern for the spiritual welfare of their families since the good deed might “save their souls.” “Temporal higher authority” might also be favorably disposed to the donor and subsequently grant to members of the family significant privileges. In this manner, a new pedagogy was supplied, and a material base was created in order to accomplish the great task.

The brilliant pedagogical ideas of Betskoi, however were, in reality, poorly implemented in the foundling homes. The shortage of resources and the lack of good teachers negatively impacted the children and their education. Overcrowding, poor nourishment and care, the lack of medical assistance, all of these had regrettable consequences. The rate of sickness and mortality was high especially among babies of nursing age.

Students in the foundling homes were divided into three separate groups in conformance with their natural talents:

• first, children talented in science and art;
• second, those talented only in handicrafts and needlework (the largest number of people);
• third, those capable of only the simplest work.

All of them would be educated in the foundling homes. They would receive a primary education and professional preparation for industrial workshops where Betskoi’s idea of the superiority of “upbringing” over mere “training” would be brought to fulfillment. His main principle of education consisted in leading children “to play with pleasantness.” He believed that to cram children for hour upon hour behind a book would weaken and deaden them. As regards abstract exhortations on morality, in Betskoi’s opinion, it would be of some use to write over all the doors of the foundling homes the following:

1. Do onto others what you would have done to yourself.
2.  Act toward others as you would wish they would act toward you.
3.  Do no evil and annoy no one.
4.  Do not harm animals and do not irritate them.
5.  Do not lie.
6.  Never be idle.

Wards of the Moscow Foundling Home could expect their destinies to follow certain lines. The most capable were separated from the others and studied Latin in preparation for occupations as pharmacists. Some students learned to paint. They then entered “special training schools for boys of various classes” which, according to Betskoi’s plan, were public and in affiliation with the Academy of Arts. The most gifted boys studied foreign languages and some sciences. Certain of these boys then went on to study at Moscow University.  Some girls from the petty bourgeois were accepted into the Smolny Institute. The majority of male students however became craftsmen, farmers, or went into service in the homes of the wealthy while most of the girls became nannies or wet-nurses.

In 1765 at the initiation of Betskoi, the “Land-Forces of the Szlachta Cadet Corp” was created. (This institution was a secondary level, army-affiliated, military school for boys named for the szlachta or Polish gentry who were part of the Russian Empire at the time.) He wrote to the newly established Szlachta Land-forces Cadet Corps regarding what was on the mind of their leader. “At each level, the cadet needs to learn science because it is not only needed by the military but also for civilian service.”

A list has been established for all age groups delineating those sciences which the cadets ought to begin to study at the first level and deepen their knowledge of them on up through the fifth level. All sciences are divided into four sections:

1. Sciences providing guidance to the knowledge of other science
2. Sciences necessary for civilian occupations
3. Sciences having a practical use
4. The arts

The professional schools, from the beginning, need to be preparing their students simultaneously for the military and for the civil service, as architects or for the general service of the people in order to fulfill any of the government’s requirements.”

Also writing to the corps of cadets, Catherine explained to them that, “My cadets will do all that they wish. They will choose their profession themselves according to their own tastes and inclination. But, it has been found that over the course of the 15 years of “hothouse” conditions in the cadet corps, the young people become isolated from real life. When they eventually collide with their new environment upon graduation from the corps, these former cadets quite often fail and are not able to find employment opportunities in the occupations for which they trained. And as a result, a sizeable portion of the corps’s students abandon the service and return to their ancestral estates.”

The influence of the cadet corps on the cultural life of St. Petersburg from the middle of the 18th century was noticeable. The corps’s library contained about ten thousand volumes and was reported to be one of the very richest in Russia. The theater founded by the cadets achieved extensive fame especially when a writer and graduate of the corps, A. P. Sumarokov, staged his own plays, but a cadet, F. G. Volkov was the first to gain recognition for his acting skills. (Consequently, he organized and acted in the very first, professional Russian theater located in the city of Yaroslavl.)

The most successful of Betskoi’s enterprises was the Society for the Education of Well-Born Girls of the Smolny Institute which laid the foundation for the education of women in Russia. In 1764 an imperial decree was announced in all the provinces and cities “concerning the education of well-born girls in Saint Petersburg at the Resurrection Convent” which was familiarly called the Smolny Convent. In accordance with the decree, each noble was invited to send his daughters to be educated in this establishment. In such a manner, the Society for the Education of Well-Born Girls at the Smolny Convent was founded. Its charter, composed by I. I. Betskoi, defined a contingent as two hundred students. Fifty girls were to be admitted at each reception time and there were to be three entry receptions per year. The length of the course of instruction could vary from six to 18 years. Parents would be obliged to submit a signed statement that they relinquished the right to remove their daughter from the educational institution or even visit her before she reached the age of twelve. Daughters of the nobility would begin their training at the Smolny Institute no older than six years of age. Students moved through the program of study and formation in four stages. There would be four “age groups,” (classes) with three years spent in each group.

The famous “Saint-Cyr School for poor girls of good families” (not to be confused with Saint-Cyr Special Military School founded by Napoleon in 1803) had been founded in France in 1684 at the request of Francoise de Maintenon, morganatic second wife of Louis XIV. This establishment served for a long time as a model for similar institutions in other countries. Betskoi himself learned from the experiences of Saint Cyr School and took from there such ideas as:  strict isolation of the girls from the surrounding world; separation of the students by age groupings; identification of each age group by dresses of a different color; and so on.

Contemporaries saw in the Smolny, the embodiment of the new educational program so promisingly declared by the government. Interest in the institute on the part of Russian society was very great. When the students of the first reception group made their debut in a walk through the Summer Garden, a huge crowd of city residents came to observe them. The well-known educator, I. I. Novikov, published in the journal that he owned some verses dedicated to them:

“With their educated minds, they exemplify all virtues.
Hearts corrupted, disposed toward malice, they repair.
How much we are indebted to Catherine.”

Leading intellectuals throughout the country, in tune with the new pedagogical plan, placed great hope on the students of private educational institutions.

However, by no means were all contemporaries enraptured by the “convent girls.” Many people spoke about them with great skepticism. Their education, in reality, was a kind of incubation, and in that connection, the skeptics loved to pass on anecdotes that had been moving about in society, intimating that the well-brought up girls of the Smolny actually asked such questions as, “Where are the trees that grow bread?” They also composed satirical verses like the following: “Ivan Ivanovich from Bets, a man who is “nemets” (a German; also insinuates: a man who is dumb or unable to speak.) “He dumped upon society a group of 60 hens, who quickly demonstrated they were utter simpletons.”

On the more serious side, the Russian social-pedagogical Utopians peculiarly decided to put into practice real-life experiments which they thought would not be considered utopian. Since the core of Utopia is the creation of “a new breed of people, they studied the ideas of Rousseau thoroughly and decided to establish conditions that would isolate a child from its “depraved social environment” and thereby develop an “ideal person” who would be perfect in every sense. The Utopian ideals of Catherine and Betskoi, however, would be promulgated first by sermon, homily, and propaganda, but eventually they would be firmly established by means of decrees and legal statutes. Once put in place, these ideals would be able to transform society, its social structure, and its worldview.

Betskoi’s idea that the typical family is not capable of educating good people and worthy citizens, not only was never discarded in subsequent years, but was even elevated to greater importance among his educational tenets. Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi went on to open new, official, private, educational institutions for men and women of diverse classes and survives in the memory of his progeny as a remarkable pedagogue and humanist. It is no accident that he is known as, “the friend of all humanity.” He spent all of his impressive wealth on the educational institutions he had established and devoted his life to them.