Nobility, Institutes of the

boarding schools that provided a general education for sons of the nobility. The basic purpose of the institutes was the preparation of students for further education on the university level. The institutes of the nobility were established in the 1830’s in a number of cities, including Moscow (1833), Vilnius (1838), Penza (1843), and Nizhny Novgorod (1844). They were opened in response to the petitions and with the resources of societies of noblemen. Recipients of large state subsidies, they were under the “immediate supervision” of the administrators of the educational districts.

The institutes of the nobility were created through the reorganization of the Gymnasiums or the boarding schools for nobles that were affiliated with the Gymnasiums. This was demanded by the nobility, who did not want their sons educated with children from lower estates.

Among the subjects taught in the institutes of the nobility were biblical and church history, logic, Russian grammar and philology, languages (Latin, German, and French), mathematics, geography and statistics, history, physics, natural history, calligraphy, drawing, and sketching. Graduates of the institutes enjoyed all the privileges of graduates of the Gymnasiums, and in addition, they were allowed to enter the universities without examinations. The institutes of the nobility were closed at the end of the 19th century.