Smolnyi Institute

(full name Smol’nyi Institute for Wellborn Girls), the first women’s secondary educational institution in Russia, which initiated Russian public education for women. The Smol’nyi Institute was founded in St. Petersburg in 1764 on the initiative of I. I. Betskoi in accordance with an ukase of Empress Catherine II. It was attached to the Voskre-senskii Smol’nyi Novodevich’ii Convent (Smol’nyi Convent) and originally bore the title of the Society for the Upbringing of Wellborn Girls. It was founded as a private privileged school for daughters of the noble aristocracy and had 200 students. A department attached to the institute for girls of the meshchanstvo (nonnoble estates exclusive of the enserfed peasants) was opened in 1765. In 1796 the Smol’nyi Institute came under the Department of Institutions of Empress Mariia.

As in later institutes for girls of the nobility, training and instruction at the Smol’nyi Institute had a narrow class-oriented bias. The curriculum included Scripture, foreign languages (primarily French), Russian literature, arithmetic, history, geography, drawing, music, dancing, needlework, various facets of household management, and “social deportment.” The term of study was seven to eight years; students ranged in age from 6 to 18. In 1848 a class in pedagogy was introduced, and the department for girls of the meshchanstvo was reorganized as the St. Petersburg Alexander School. From 1859 to 1862, the inspector of the classes of the Smol’nyi Institute was K. D. Ushinskii, who carried out a number of progressive reforms; these included a new curriculum with a large number of classes devoted to the Russian language, geography, history, and natural science and a two-year class in pedagogy. After Ushinskii’s forced departure from the institute, all of his basic reforms were eliminated. The institute’s curriculum was made equivalent to that of the girls’ Gymnasiums. In the summer of 1917, the students of the Smol’nyi Institute were transferred to other schools. In 1917 the revolutionary authorities were located in the building of the institute.