Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum: The most elite school of the Russian Empire (PHOTOS)
Over the 32 years of its existence, just under 300 students graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. The institution was so elite that only representatives of the highest-born nobility had any chance of getting in.
A school at the Imperial palace
The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was founded by Emperor Alexander I personally in 1811. He planned to educate his younger brothers and his children there together with the offspring of high-ranked noblemen, so that the princes would have healthy competition. The lyceum was opened, though the tsar's children didn’t attend studies there. It was decided to educate them at home due to the outbreak of the war with Napoleon and the unstable political situation.
The educational institution was housed right in the wing of the luxurious Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, the country residence of the imperial family. There the students not only attended classes, but also lived. Each student had his own small room with only the bare necessities: a bed, a desk for studies (they studied standing) and a mirror.
The little rooms were separated only by thin partitions that did not even reach the ceiling, so, for example, Pushkin would talk with his best friend Ivan Pushchin right through the wall.
In the Soviet era, a memorial museum was opened there with a recreated interior of the classrooms and the students' “cells”, as the poet called them.
Who studied at the Lyceum & how
Boys aged 10–14 were admitted to the lyceum for a six-year study course. They studied moral disciplines (the Law of God, jurisprudence, logic and others), literature and several languages, history, fine arts and mathematics. Attention was also paid to physical development – gymnastics, swimming, fencing and horseback riding.
The young men were raised in strictness; however, corporal (physical) punishment was not used.
Those who studied at the lyceum were not merely representatives of the gilded youth, but truly the best minds of the empire. And they were trained specifically to take high state posts. One of the most famous was Alexander Gorchakov, the long-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Chancellor. Many graduates also became famous as ‘Pushkin's friends’.
October 19 – a date all of Russia knows
The day the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was founded is indeed known in Russia to every schoolchild, because Pushkin had several poems titled with this date, recalling his fellow lyceum students and their daily life.
Incidentally, Pushkin's origin was, strictly speaking, not high enough for him to study there. But, his uncle Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, who was acquainted with Mikhail Speransky, the founder of the institution, put in a good word for him. The future poet, however, did successfully pass the entrance examinations.
Pushkin studied at the lyceum from age 12 to 18. His teachers left this note in his personal file: “Frivolous and light-minded, skilled in French and drawing, lazy and falling behind in arithmetic.”
At one of the examinations, he performed before chief court poet Gavrila Derzhavin, who, according to Pushkin himself, “blessed” him.
In 1843, by order of Emperor Nicholas I, the lyceum moved to St. Petersburg and was renamed the Imperial Alexander Museum. Children of the highest court figures continued to study there and the last graduating class was in 1917.