Agricultural educational institutions of steppe Tavriya of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries

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Kherson Academy of Continuing Education

Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University

Agricultural educational institutions of steppe tavriya of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries

Oleksandr Trygub PhD hab. (History), Full Professor, Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy

Mykhailo Honchar PhD (Pedagogy), Associate Professor of Department of Pedagogy and Education Management

Kherson, Mykolaiv

Abstract

The development of agrarian education in the southern Ukrainian region is still among the understudied topics, since there has not been done a comprehensive and sufficiently complete study nowadays, and the available researches are fragmentary and leave a significant number of gaps to the historical studies. The purpose of the research is to highlight the agricultural education formation of the Ukrainian peasantry in Steppe Tavriya, to determine the role of educational institutions of an agricultural profile in the education system of the region. The methodology of the research is based on a positivist approach to the reconstruction of the historical past using special historical methods: chronological, systematic, and historical comparative. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the coverage of the pre-Soviet history ofan agricultural education of the Ukrainian peasantry ofSteppe Tavriya through the prism of educational institutions establishment, their financing, the formation of ideas about student and teacher teams, which testified to the peasant nature of agricultural education in the region. The Conclusions. The local self-government bodies and private initiative played a key role in the development of educational institutions of an agrarian profile in the lands of Steppe Tavriya. Owing to their energy on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries two leading agricultural schools appeared, which trained agricultural specialists until the beginning of the 21st century - the Obitochenska and the Lukianivska lower agricultural schools of the 1st category. These schools can be called "peasant” schools, because 2/3 of their student contingent consisted of peasants from surrounding counties, who wanted to escape from the shackles of not large plots of land and hopelessness. Free education, availability of scholarship programmes for a full board and the support of local patrons attracted even the poorest peasant youth to study there. On the other hand, the requirement to study agricultural science, a large share of a practical component in education, working in the field without days off led to the fact that only a third completed their studies (25% of the entrants of the Lukianivska school, and 39% of the Obitochenska school).

Key words: agricultural education, Tavriya hubernia, agricultural school, education of peasants, professional education, agriculture.

Анотація

СІЛЬСЬКОГОСПОДАРСЬКІ НАВЧАЛЬНІ ЗАКЛАДИ СТЕПОВОЇ ТАВРІЇ кінця XIX - початку XX ст.1

Олександр ТРИГУБ

доктор історичних наук, професор, завідувач кафедри міжнародних відносин та зовнішньої політики, Чорноморський національний університет імені Петра Могили, м. Миколаїв

Михайло ГОНЧАР

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри педагогіки й менеджменту освіти, Херсонська академія неперервної освіти, м. Херсон

Розвиток аграрної освіти у південноукраїнському регіоні продовжує залишатися у колі маловивчених тем, оскільки до сьогодні комплексного й достатньо повного дослідження так і не створено, а наявні праці фрагментарні та залишають по собі значну кількість лакун для історичних досліджень. Мета дослідження полягає у висвітленні становлення аграрної освіти українського селянства у Степовій Таврії, визначенні ролі закладів освіти сільськогосподарського профілю у системі освіти регіону. Методологічне підґрунтя роботи становить позитивістський підхід до реконструкції історичного минулого з використанням спеціально-історичних методів: хронологічного, системного та історико-порівняльного. Наукова новизна статті полягає у висвітленні дорадянської історії сільськогосподарської освіти українського селянства Степової Таврії через призму становлення закладів освіти, їх фінансування, формування уявлення про учнівський і вчительський колективи, що засвідчило селянський характер аграрної освіти регіону. Висновки. Урозвитку на землях Степової Таврії закладів освіти аграрного профілю ключову роль відіграли органи місцевого самоврядування та приватна ініціатива. Завдяки їх енергії на межі ХІХ - ХХ ст. постало дві провідні сільськогосподарські школи, які готували фахівців-аграріїв до початку ХХІ ст. - Обіточенська та Лук'янівська нижчі сільськогосподарські школи І розряду. Їх, по праву, можна назвати "селянськими”, адже 2/3 учнівського контингенту складали селяни із навколишніх повітів, що бажали вирватися з тенет малоземелля та безнадійності. Безкоштовне навчання, наявність стипендіальних програм для повного пансіону і підтримка місцевих меценатів приваблювали до навчання навіть найбіднішу селянську молодь. З іншого боку - вимога навчання аграрної науки, велика частка у навчанні практичної складової, праця у полі без вихідних приводила до того, що лише третина учнів завершували навчання (25 % від вступників Лук'янівської школи, і 39 % - Обіточенської).

Ключові слова: аграрна освіта, Таврійська губернія, сільськогосподарська школа, освіта селян, професійна освіта, сільське господарство.

The Problem Statement

The shameful defeat in the Crimean War and reformist trends in higher circles led to the fact that more and more educated people of the Russian Empire began to mention the situation of the peasantry and, as a result, its educational level. In the central and regional press the publications raised the issue of the “necessity of teaching agriculture”, and the educational level of the peasantry was related to productivity and prosperity of the country directly (V...skii, 1859, February 28). The study was prepared based on the results of fundamental research “The Socio-cultural Space of Ukraine in the Second Half of the Nineteenth - First Third of the Twentieth Century: the Peasant-centric Dimension” (state registration number: 0123U101600) with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, despite the relevance of the spread of agricultural education for the southern Ukrainian rural population, conversations in the progressive environment of Tavriya hubernia did not take on a real meaning. As of 1901, in the steppes of Tavriya (the so-called “northern povits” - Berdiansky, Melitopolsky, and Dniprovsky) there were only two educational institutions of an agricultural profile - the Lukianivska and Obitochenska lower agricultural schools. In December of 1902, the Povit Committees in Tavriya hubernia highlighted the importance of establishing a network of lower agricultural schools with various specializations. The Committees suggested having at least one school per povit, and preferably per volost, “in such a quantity that all the youth could pass the agricultural training” (Trudy, 1903, pp. 22-23, 43).

There emerged two more German lower agricultural schools of the 1st category on the territory of Tavriya in the village of Eigenfeld of Melitopol Povit: a men's school (1907) and a women's school of agriculture and home economics (1909), but they were national and focused on the German-speaking peasantry. There were courses of gardening, horticulture, viticulture and beekeeping at the Preslav Teacher's Seminary (the village of Preslav, Berdiansky povit) and they were also of an agrarian profile. Although the courses contributed to the spread of agrarian knowledge, they were of a nature of advanced training for future teachers, who could teach agriculture courses at general public schools.

Hence, the research objective is to determine the factors that led to the development of agricultural education in the region and examine the outcomes of educational institutions using the example of two schools that provided agricultural knowledge specifically to the Ukrainian peasantry - the Lukianivska and Obitochenska lower agricultural schools.

The Review of Recent Researches and Publications

The study of the development of agricultural education in the territories of Ukrainian hubernias began at the end of the 19th century and continues to this day. Owing to the application of new material, delving into the issue within a narrow chronological and geographical field, it was possible to understand both positive and negative aspects of agricultural educational institutions formation. Hence, the modern interest in the issue could be explained.

In recent decades, there appeared a number of thorough researches, which to one degree or another affect the field of agricultural education. In modern historiography one of the first to study this issue was Serhii Uliukaiev, who revealed the pedagogical content of educational process in lower agricultural educational institutions of the Ukrainian hubernias in 1883 - 1916 (Uliukaiev, 1994). Mykhailo Honchar's thesis is also devoted to the pedagogical issues of lower professional educational institutions (including the agrarian direction) within the boundaries of Southern Ukraine (Honchar, 2015). If the work of S. Uliukaiev is quite broad in terms of a geographical scope, then the study by M. Honchar covers a significant subject field of “professional education”, which led to the coverage fragmentation of the above-mentioned issue.

Separate aspects of the studied issue were covered in publications written by O. Volos and Ya. Berezniak (the role of zemstvo in the agricultural education's formation in southern Ukrainian hubernias), (Berezniak, 2013; Berezniak, 2017; Volos, 2000), I. Mironova (covered agrarian education of the peasantry), (Mironova, 2021), O. Trygub and Yu. Stepanchuk (covered the agricultural educational institutions of Kherson and Podillia hubernias), (Trygub, 2023; Trygub & Stepanchuk, 2024), O. Trygub, S. Dehtyarev and V Parkhomenko (dealt with the analysis of the professional education development in Ukraine and the teaching staff of educational institutions) (Trygub, Degtyarev & Parkhomenko, 2023a, 2023b; Trygub & Degtyarev).

In 2019, the Russian scholar Yuriy Chudnovets defended his dissertation on the topic “Formation and Development of the Agricultural Education System of Tavriya Hubernia in the 19th - at the beginning of the 20th Centuries”), (Chudnovets, 2019), which, would seem, should have put an end to the study of this topic, or significantly fill this gap. Instead, the dissertation was written at a rather low level due to a review of the research text. Only one section was devoted to the educational institutions directly (Chudnovets, 2019, pp. 138-205), and the history of agricultural schools of steppe Tavriya was one and a half dozen pages (Chudnovets, 2019, pp. 187-204), based on several reports for 1910 - 12, which are kept in the Russian State Historical Archive. The role of the author was reduced to an abstract presentation of the specified reports without any generalizations, analysis and dynamics, which only proved the introduction of several documents into scientific circulation.

The purpose of the research is to reveal the agricultural education formation of the Ukrainian peasantry in Steppe Tavriya, to determine the role of educational institutions of an agricultural profile in the education system of the region, to characterize their student and teaching contingents.

The Source Base of the Research

The original sources are considered to be the reports of educational institutions (Otchet, 1906 - 1911), the resolutions, decisions and reports of the hubernia and povit zemstvo of Tavrian hubernia (Otchet, 1905; Po voprosu, 1899; Postanovleniia, 1908; 1910; 1914), the reference publications of Tavrian hubernia (Adres- kalendar, 1902; Pamiatnaia knizhka, 1915; Trudy, 1903), the reporting and statistical collections of the Department of Agriculture of the Main Department of Land Development and Agriculture of the Russian Empire (Ezhegodnik, 1908; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1913 - 1915; Smeta dokhodov i raskhodov, 1896; Smeta dokhodov, 1910; 1912; 1916) etc. The materials of the periodical press, where we came across mentions and impressions about the agricultural schools, are of an auxiliary nature (V...skii, 1859, February 28; Yug, 1911, May 28).

The Results of the Research

Although the Ukrainian lands were agrarian predominantly, improving the professional education of agrarians was not a priority for the imperial authorities at the beginning of the 19th century. Against the backdrop of a rapid formation of capitalist relations among the leading countries of Western Europe, the Russian Empire, which included most of the Ukrainian lands, continued to remain an economically backward commodity-type country with preserved serfdom of a feudal nature. It is clear that the average Ukrainian landowner did not care much about the agricultural education of his own serfs, relying on the knowledge of administrator.

Instead, there were made several attempts to establish educational institutions of an agrarian profile in the southern Ukrainian hubernias. The very first attempt is the School of Practical Agriculture for the resettled peasants in the village of Bohoiavlenske (Vitovka) within the boundaries of the modern city of Mykolaiv, headed by Professor of Agriculture Mykhailo Livanov (1751 - 1800). But the School of Practical Agriculture in the village of Bohoiavlenske did not operate for a long period. In 1797, the school moved to the village of Charlevo (Pavlovsk) near St. Petersburg, where it operated only until 1803 (Vergunov, 2017, pp. 93-95).

A rapid development of the lands given by the Tsar and the construction of luxurious estates in the Black Sea-Azov region led to a significant shortage of gardeners, who would create park areas at the estates and take care of them. In addition, the construction of huge palace complexes of the Tsar family representatives and the highest aristocracy began in the coastal zone - families of Vorontsov, Golitsyn, Yusupov, Mordvinov, etc. First, in 1817, a school of horticulture was founded in Katerynoslav (closed in 1869), in 1828 - the Maharach School of Viticulture and Winemaking in the Crimea, in 1844 - the Odesa School of Horticulture, which was relocated to Uman in 1859. Hence, it was impossible to create any training system for farmers in the region.

The establishment of several agricultural institutions in the area was primarily driven by the reforms undertaken in the 1860s and 70s, which aimed to transform the region into a land of commercial agriculture, thereby promoting productivity growth. First of all, the understanding was observed among the circle of large landowners, who put pressure on the state apparatus and local public. Only in the last quarter of the 19th - at the beginning of the 20th century a package of normative acts appeared, which were designed to form a certain system of agricultural education: “Regulations on the Agricultural Schools” (1878), “Normal Regulations on Lower Agricultural Schools” (1883), “Regulations on Agricultural Education” (1904) (Trygub, 2023, pp. 73-75).

Practically, local communities (represented by zemstvos and societies) and private individuals were the ones, to whom belonged the entire initiative to establish agricultural educational institutions. The state participation in this process consisted in the formation of a regulatory and legal framework, financial support, work on planning and organization of control over the activities of agricultural schools.

In 1896, the Obitochne lower agricultural school (from 1911 - Obitochne lower agricultural school of the 1st category) was established in Tavriya lands in the village of Obitochne of Berdiansk povit. The opening of the school took place on November 1 at the initiative of Berdiansk Zemstvo, which allocated 218 desiatyn of state land for the school (Otchet, 1910b, p. 2). A farm occupied 170 desiatyn of land, where horses, sheep, cows, pigs were bred, agricultural experiments were conducted, beekeeping was studied, etc. The school had a garden, a vineyard, a vegetable garden, a weather station, craft workshops for various types of crafts, a library (Semenov-Tian-Shanskii, 1910, p. 620; Ezhegodnik, 1908, p. 767).

The school activity goal was declared to be “spreading among the people the basic knowledge of agriculture”, with specialization in agriculture - gardening, horticulture, viticulture, cattle breeding and beekeeping, and crafts - metalwork, blacksmithing, carpentry, wheelwrighting and cooperage.

At school the course of study lasted four years, the first of which was preparatory, where literacy and general education subjects were taught. The classes were divided into practical and theoretical. The class-room theoretical lessons were held during winter period from September 20 to March 20. During the summer period, practical classes consisted in work on school plot of land, but no more than 8 hours per day. During the winter period, practical classes were held exclusively in workshops where fans, frame beehives, and seed drills were made. There were even orders by peasants regarding the purchase and repair of agricultural tools (Berezniak, 2013, p. 78; Berezniak, 2017, p. 55).

The school financing was mixed and was carried out both at the expense of the zemstvo, private donations and profits from the farm, and the state treasury. The estimate for the maintenance of the school was approved annually and increased from the treasury from rubles in 1897 to 10,000 rubles in 1917 (Smeta dokhodov i raskhodov, 1896, appendix 33, p. 2; Smeta dokhodov, 1916, appendix 24, p. 29). The increase in state expenditures took place in 1911 in connection with the transformation of the school on August 9, 1912 into a college (Smeta dokhodov, 1910, appendix 21, p. 195).

In fact, the treasury allocated 5,000 rubles more and, therefore, in general - 8 and 15 thousand rubles in accordance. The additional funds were 25-30 state scholarships from the capital of the southern Russian settlers for the Bulgarian population of Berdiansk povit and Melitopol povit (Otchet, 1910b, p. 2). The state also helped in case of force majeure, as happened in 1911, when there was a need to allocate 6,000 rubles for reconstruction of buildings and restoration of individual buildings damaged by fire on February 28, 1910. Funds were sent in the form of aid to the Berdiansk Zemstvo, which provided 11,000 rubles for the reconstruction of the school (Smeta dokhodov, 1910, appendix 34, p. 233). During the audit in 1912, it was indicated that the school repair after the fire cost more than 30,000 rubles (Chudnovets, 2019, p. 195).

The financing by the local zemstvo, which was unchanged until 1917, was 7,950 rubles and contained 33/ scholarships for residents of Berdiansk Povit. Private income and profit from economic activity fluctuated constantly and in different years amounted to: 1909 - 7,036 rubles, 1912 - 1,309 rubles, 1913 - 5,787 rubles, 1914 - 4,639 rubles povit (Otchet, 1910b, p. 22; Smeta dokhodov, 1912, appendix 26, p. 244; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1914, p. 10; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, p. 12). In case of excess amounts, they went to a special account and were directed to the material development of the school - improvement of the premises, development of the economy, purchase of teaching aids and other needs.

The school accepted young men aged 13 and above to study. In order to enter the preparatory class the following was necessary: knowledge of general education subjects was required in the scope of primary public schools, for 1st grade - in the scope of two-class rural schools. A general dynamics of students from the year of the first graduation - 1902, can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1 Dynamics of Students of the Obitochne Agricultural School/College in 1902 - 1914. (Otchet, 1905, pp. 237-238; Otchet, 1910b, pр. 5-6; Chudnovets, 2019, p. 188; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1913, pp. 68-69; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1914, pp. 74-75; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, pp. 80-81)

The main contingent of students (2/3) was the local peasantry between the ages of 15 and 20, and the other part was the burghers and other people, who had completed the general education course of a one-class village or parish school of literacy. During 15 years, 309 young men entered the educational institution.

There were graduated 121 specialists in agriculture, who graduated from the educational institution on January 1, 1915, the following graduates: 18 - run their own business, 32 - served in the agricultural sector, 20 - became the employees of educational institutions, 11 - changed professions, 12 - were in the army, 6 - died, 22 - there was no information (Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, p. 81). At the same time, some graduates raised their educational level, enrolling further in other educational institutions at different times. Since we do not operate with exact data, we can assume that one of them could be the Kherson Secondary Agricultural School, whose graduates had wider opportunities for employment.

One of the pressing issues of the Obitochne Agricultural School was the employment of graduates. In 1905, the report on the inspection of agricultural schools in the Northern Azov region noted that “/ of the graduates go to work as village teachers, % - as assistants on private farms, 1/6 - entered secondary agricultural schools, and the rest received various positions”. And only the surrounding population, “observing the cultivation of the soil on the school land and the results obtained from this cultivation, which were expressed in significantly higher yields, compared to the local routine management of the economy, begins to use other methods in their farms” (Otchet, 1905, p. 238).

The Head of the school, Andronik Ivanovych Yusipenko noted that the purpose of the school was to “spread among people the basic knowledge in the field of agriculture”, “exists by itself, and the school - by itself”, because “it is observed that the schools do not directly serve the peasant economy, but train clerks, assistant managers, senior supervisors and other servants for private farms” in his report to Berdiansk Povit Zemstvo Administration dated September 11, 1910 (Yusipenko, 1910, p. 1). The Obitochne's school was no exception, because “its graduates, in most cases, do not go to their village, but settle somewhere on the side” and, thus, “the school does not have a strong influence on the peasant economy” (Yusipenko, 1910, p. 2).

The speaker saw the reason for this in the fact that children of small-land peasants mostly studied at school, and there were very few children of large-land owners, who were called “the Tavrychans” in the Azov region, and they did not change the situation with improving the agrarian education of the peasantry in the region by their own management.

Taking into account the employment statistics, Zemstvo officials began to express the idea of the need to train folk teachers for rural areas on the basis of an agricultural school. Such teachers could be very useful for the village, setting up apiaries, gardens and orchards at the folk schools, conducting readings and conversations with the peasantry on agricultural topics. As a result, Berdiansk Zemstvo took a course to transform the Obitochne Agricultural School into a school with a pedagogical class (Yusipenko, 1910, pp. 4-5). On July 1, 1911, the school acquired a new status of a lower agricultural school and new opportunities opened up for the graduates in the pedagogical field in the system of public schools (Chudnovets, 2019, p. 191).

The school's teaching staff remained largely unchanged until its transformation, when a teacher was added to the pedagogical class. If in 1902 there were only 5 teachers in the staff: the Head of the school V. M. Pavlikov; the teachers - H. V. Kucherovsky, K. A. Mikhaylovsky, D. V Perepyliuk and the legislator, the priest P. Dziubenko, (Adres-kalendar, 1902, p. 141), then in 1915 there were 6 people in the staff: the Head of the school D. V Perepeliuk, the legal scholar, the priest O. Kosharnovsky; the teachers - V H. Kucherovsky, V. A. Zorchenko, S. O. Diachenko and D. V. Khronusov (Pamiatnaia knizhka, 1915, p. 106).

The teaching staff can be characterized using the example of the 1909-10 academic year. The Head of the school was an official of the VIII class, a personal honorary citizen Vasyl Maksymovych Pavlikov, who stayed in this position for less than 15 years (1896 - 1910). On December 10, 1896 he was appointed for organizational preparation for the official opening of the school. The Head of the school had a rather good, for that time, level of professional education - in 1885 he graduated from the Moscow Agricultural School of the 1st category and pedagogical courses at Kharkiv Agricultural School in 1896.

During the period of 1910 - 1912, Andronik Ivanovych Yusipenko temporarily performed the duties of the managing head of the school. In 1912, Dmytro Vasyliovych Perepeliuk was appointed the head of the school, a secretary, who began his teaching career at the Obitochne School on September 22, 1901 as a teacher of special subjects. He had a professional education diploma and in 1899 he finished the Kherson Agricultural Secondary School, and in 1900 attended pedagogical courses at the Kharkiv Agricultural School.

Another teacher of special subjects - Pavlo Petrovych Danilevsky also received an education diploma at the Kherson Agricultural School (1903). He worked at the Obitochne's School in 1909 - 1912.

General education subjects were taught by the court councilor Vasyl Hryhorovych Kucherovsky, who had a theological education diploma, graduating in 1885 from the Chernihiv Theological Seminary. Arriving at the school on December 2, 1902, he worked until 1917 (approximately), simultaneously performing the duty of a librarian.

Legislators were, as a rule, local priests with a seminary education.

To ensure practical classes and economic activities, the school employed hired workers: a teacher of horticulture, a workshop manager, a blacksmith and locksmith craftsman, a clerk, a doctor, a paramedic, a messenger and a herdsman. Thus, in 1909, a teacher of Horticulture was Dmytro Volodymyrovych Khronusov, who finished the Tsarist Slavic School of Horticulture and the Heisenheim Institute of Pomology (classes at the Heisenheim Institute of Horticulture on the Rhine were attended by gardeners from the Russian Empire to improve their qualifications and study Horticulture). The head of the workshops - Zahariy Stepanovych Bezruchenko went to the Nohai Crafts School (Otchet, 1910b, pp. 3-4).

Thus, we can see that the school had a sufficiently powerful teaching staff, the majority of teachers had a professional education diploma and improved their qualifications at pedagogical courses. At the same time, the educational institution can be called a peasant school, since the overwhelming majority of students represented the peasantry and later they returned to agricultural labour.

The Lukian's lower agricultural school of the 1st category (since 1910 - the Lukian's lower agricultural school of the 1st category with two pedagogical classes) was established in the Kakhovka Volost of the Dnipro Povit. The school was founded on January 8, 1900, on the initiative of a local peasant-landowner Lukian Yeremiyovych Pavlenko, who in 1895 - 1904 donated all his property to the Dnipro Povit zemstvo: 670 decares of land with a homestead, rublesand movable property for 250 thousand rubles (Berezniak, 2017, pp. 55-56) Ya. Berezniak also points out that after the death of the founder, the school was bequeathed another 170 des. and capital. Instead, the total amount of land in 670 des. and the fact of addition is not indicated anywhere. Including in the source indicated by the author.. During the period of 1895 - 1899, the patron personally managed the construction and arrangement of the school (Fig. 1), the zemstvo prepared and registered the statute, and its official opening took place on October 15, 1900 (Po voprosu, 1899; Otchet, 1909, p. 1).

Fig. 1. Scheme of the building of Lukian's Lower Agricultural School of the 1st grade (Honchar, 2015, p. 294)

1. Church; 2. Physics office; 3. Library and teacher's room; 4-7. Educational class-rooms; 8. Corridor; 9. Assembly hall; 10. Washroom;

11. Corridor; 12-13. Bedrooms; 14. Medical office; 15. Service premises; 16. Zeichhaus

The school grounds included: a homestead, a threshing floor, an orchard, a vineyard, a paddock, a nursery, a research field and a park area. The majority of of the land - 598 des. - was set aside for arable land. At the same time, the school cultivated only a part (in 1909 - 144 dec., 1910 - 280, etc.), and the rest of the land was leased to small-land peasants at a price of 15 rubles for a des. (Otchet, 1910a, p. 10; Otchet, 1911, p. 10), which should have given a constant profit in the amount of 5-6 thousand rubles. In fact, not all the land found a tenant, and the rent received fluctuated significantly from year to year, yielding, on average, rubles of profit. agrarian education student

At school there was perhaps the best material and technical base among agricultural educational institutions not only in the Tavriya province, but also in the South of Ukraine in general. In 1910, the dead inventory included a steam thresher, “Ideal” sorting machine, “Clayton” corn thresher, “Elvorti” planters, “Planet cultivators, plows, harrows, and many others. Three pairs of Ukrainian oxen, 29 horses (17 of them working horses) were used in the work. Pupils engaged in dairy farming (33 cows, a bull and 2 bulls), pig farming (15 animals), beekeeping (Otchet, 1911, pp. 14-18, 31). The school had its own meteorological station, craft workshops for various types of crafts, a library, a bathhouse, and even a church, which was built together with the school building on the initiative of L. E. Pavlenko.

The main goal of the school, according to the statute and “Regulations” of 1883, was to spread basic knowledge in agriculture in general and sericulture among the agricultural population of the povit, mainly through practical classes, viticulture, horticulture, livestock and beekeeping in particular; and also by crafts: blacksmithing, carpentry, wheelwright and cooper (Berezniak, 2017, p. 56). At the same time, the founders of the school and the drafter of the statute, probably anticipating the future problem of returning graduates to agricultural labour, declared the main goal to be the requirement that students who finished school returned back “to their agricultural, mostly peasant environment, i.e. to their societies and villages, and there, by a personal labour, they would spread the correct understanding of various branches of agriculture”. After completing the school course, each student must work for one year in some third-party farm for a fee determined by an agreement between the school authorities and the owner of the estate. Interns were required to send reports on their actions and observations to the school every four months; the reports were certified by the owner, who provided his comments as needed (Otchet, 1911, pp. 2-3).

The course of study at the school lasted three to four years and, in terms of curriculum, basically corresponded to the generally accepted for lower-type agricultural educational institutions. A feature of the educational process was a one-year internship, since only after the internship report, a graduate received a diploma of graduation. Therefore, at the Lukian's school the practical side of training was given primary importance, which was not always positively assessed by both examiners and the public. For example, the Commission of the Tavriya Provincial Zemstvo, which visited the school in 1905, noted: “Numerous school management representatives distract the school from its educational purpose and pursue almost exclusively economic interests. Due to this, the main focus of the school economy is not on giving more material to the student, but on getting more profit from the estate... There is no research field in the school... and, thus, at the Lukian's school, students do not see a rational economy, but see a typical local economy, from which little can be learned” (Otchet, 1905, pp. 244-245).

After 6 years, a contributor to the “Yug” newspaper noted with sadness: “11 years passed... what a result the school made during its existence. Two folk teachers and a hundred illiterate attendants or senior workers at landlord estates.

During my visit to the Lukian's village school, I was impressed by the endurance of the students... They work from the beginning of spring field work until September 1. Finally, the long-awaited time for classes is coming. Classes are held from 8 a.m. in the morning until 12 o'clock; and work again in the afternoon. I ask, will learning be beneficial when all the forces are spent on physical labour, which mercilessly exploits the student's forces?

God insulted the Lukianivska school and the composition of teachers: while in other villages and towns at schools, teachers have a higher or secondary education diploma, here they have a lower one, and it is not surprising that teachers read even elementary scientific information from textbooks at the lessons... School economy brings income. Maintenance fees are received correctly, students work more than they should (14 instead of 8 hours)” (Yug, 1911, May 28, p. 3). And if one can still agree with the author about the emphasis on labour in the educational process, then the criticism of the teaching staff is clearly exaggerated, since, as will be shown below, it was not particularly different from other agricultural schools in the region.

The main source of funding for the Lukian's school was its own economic activity, private income and student maintenance fees (scholarships and own funds), and only % of the income was aid from the Dnipro Povit Zemstvo. Unlike many other agricultural schools, the Lukian's school did not receive funding from the treasury until 1914, when it was reorganized into a college.

Initially, expenses for maintaining the school amounted to 10,000 rubles, of which were the profit from L. Pavlenko's donation, and 3,000 were the annual contribution of the poviat zemstvo. In addition, during the first 5 years, the Tavriya provincial zemstvo allocated 1,000 rubles (Po voprosu, 1899, pp. 590-592). In 1905, the estimate for the school maintenance was approved in the amount of 16,510 rubles, of which the Dnipro Zemstvo provided 3,820 rubles, the scholarship fund (3 named scholarships for 16 people) - 1,920 rubles, rent for 170 des. - 2550 rubles, sale of crops - 6,000 rubles, sale of water from school wells - 500 rubles, other - 1,720 rubles. In fact, the school received appropriations and profits for 23,101 rubles (Otchet, 1906, pp. 71, 73). At the same time, it should be taken into account that this amount was not constant and fluctuated depending on the success of farming and yield.

In 1914, the school was reorganized into a college and began to receive funding from the state treasury. In 1914 the total estimate was 50,579 rubles, of which: state funding - 7357 rubles (in the future - 10,000 rubles annually), zemstvo - 8,520, own income, scholarship fund, payment for a boarding house and private donations - 34,702 rubles (Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, pp. 12-13). Thus, we may state that the school actually turned into a profitable agricultural enterprise, which could maintain a high level of material and technical support of the educational institution with its own funds and spend only on the maintenance of boarders 13,542 rubles (Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, pp. 13).

Young men of all ages were admitted to go to school, at least 13 years old - up to the preparatory class, and 14 years old - the first. Education at school was free, and according to maintenance, students were divided into scholarship holders and self-paid students (at their own expense, which amounted to 120 rubles per year). As a rule, 90% of students were scholarship holders (for example, on July 1, 1907, 38 scholarship holders and 2 private (Postanovleniia, 1908, p. 421), i.e. only 5%). In total, the school operated 5 scholarship programmes for 41 people: Emperor Alexander II - 10, Tsarevych Alexey Nikolaevich scholarship programme - 5, O. M. Kolchanova scholarship programme - 1, L. Pavlenko scholarship programme (per % of capital) - 5, school scholarship programme - 20 (Postanovleniia, 1910, p. 748). The availability of these programmes made it possible to get not only free education, but also full board.

During the first decade, an average of 40 people went to school (see Table 2), and already in the second decade, during the period of 1911 - 1913, the number of students increased to almost 100 people. The sharp increase in students not only prompted the reconstruction of the school buildings to increase the space for teachers and students, but also the school transformation into a school with a two-year teaching class (the decision of the Zemstvo dated September 26, 1913) (Postanovleniia, 1914, pp. 577-583).

Table 2 Dynamics of students of the Lukian's Agricultural School in 1904-1914. (Otchet, 1905, pp. 243; Otchet, 1906, pp. 2, 51; Otchet, 1907, pp. 5-6; Otchet, 1908, pp. 5, 38-39; Otchet, 1909, pp. 5, 50-51; Otchet, 1910a, pp. 5, 66-67; Otchet, 1911, p. 5; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1913, pp. 74-75; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1914, pp. 80-81; Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, pp. 80-81)

The main contingent of students (2/3) was the local peasantry of the Dnipro and Melitopol povits of the Tavriya province (78%) aged 14 to 19, and the rest - burghers and other diferent social classes, who completed the general education course of the Zemstvo national school or church parish school (other educational institutions make up less than 10%. It is interesting that some students came not only from the neighbouring provinces - Kherson, Katerynoslav, but also from distant regions - Grodno, Novgorod, Smolensk hubernia (Otchet, 1906, pp. 51-52; Otchet, 1908, pp. 38-39).

During the period of 15 years, 311 young men entered the Lukian's Agricultural School (college). As of January 1, 1915, there were graduates: only 78 specialists in agriculture (25%), of whom: 2 were engaged in their own farming, 60 - worked in the agricultural sector, 2 - employees of educational institutions, 5 - changed their profession, 3 - served in the army, 2 - died, 4 - continued their studies at other educational institutions (Kratkie statisticheskie svedeniia, 1915, p. 81). Thus, we can see that the description of the employment of graduates given to the school by the correspondent of the Yug newspaper in 1911 was quite true, because % of the graduates worked as attendants and supervisors in landlord farms.

Thus, for example, of those who finished school in January of 1905 (the second graduation), there were 4 people: 1 remained at the Lukian's school, 1 returned to his own farm, as he was from a wealthy family, 2 were looked for a job. Thatis why, the commission concluded that “a general phenomenon is repeated at the Lukian's school: graduates do not return directly to the environment which they have left” (Otchet, 1905, p. 244), and looking for a job in some other places.

We believe that this phenomenon can be explained in the same way as in the case of the Obitochne school, because even at the Lukian's school, an even greater part of the students were from peasants with little plots of land, and they had, in fact, nowhere to return, because they did not have their own farms. That is why, having knowledge and management skills, young farmers did not spread their knowledge, but worked in the farms of large estates.

The teaching staff of the school corresponded to the level of lower agricultural schools and consisted of 5-6 people and additional hired practice teachers. In the first five years of the school, a rather powerful team was formed, which consisted of the head of the school, I. I. Schmidt and the teachers: V. E. Hromeko, M. P. Derkach, F. F. Danylenko and T. V Hrek, f. O. Popov, and practice teachers I. V. Balan and V. S. Shevchenko.

The head of the school, Ivan Ivanovych Schmidt (1904 - 1918), replaced the school's founder Lukian Pavlenko on July 1, 1904, and worked at school from the very beginning, teaching special subjects. І. І. Schmidt had a higher university diploma (Piga Polytechnic Institute) and an agronomist of the 1st grade.

A teacher of special subjects, a hereditary nobleman Volodymyr Yevhenovich Hromeko (1901 - 1907) had a professional education diploma of the Uman College of Agriculture and Horticulture, and additionally he completed pedagogical courses at the Kharkiv Agricultural College. Before beginning his teaching activities at the Lukianivska school (September 10, 1901), he was in charge of a research field in a private estate in the Kharkiv province and was an experienced practicing agronomist. Another teacher of special subjects - personal honourary citizen Makariy Panteleymonovych Derkach graduated from the Kherson Agricultural College and worked until July 1, 1904 in the Akkerman District Land Administration (Bessarabia Province). Since 1907, Volodymyr Yosyfovych Maslov (1907 - 1918), a graduate from the Kherson Agricultural College and pedagogical courses at the Kharkiv Agricultural College, had been a teacher of special subjects.

In 1901 - 1905, general education subjects were taught by the former teacher of the Oleshky Zemstvo National School, a graduate of the Kherson Teacher's Seminary, Fedir Fedotovych Danylenko, who came from the peasantry and owing to his own efforts he became a teacher. He was replaced by Terentii Vasyliovych Hrek, who graduated from the Bayramche Teacher's Seminary (Akkerman District of the Bessarabian Province) and worked for only two years (1905 - 1907), teaching also in the preparatory class. For only one year (1907 - 1908), a hereditary honourary citizen Mykola Mykhailovych Rylsky, who had a theological education diploma (Odesa Theological Seminary), taught general subjects. In 1908, Heorhy Oleksiiovych Maidachenko, who also graduated from the Bairamche Teacher's Seminary and had experience as a public teacher in Bessarabia, started working at school. It is interesting that for the first five years (1901 - 1906) the Law of God was taught by the local priest Oleksandr Popov, and later this subject was taught by M. P. Derkach, who had no theological education diploma.

Teachers-gardeners, blacksmith and carpentry masters worked at school to conduct practical classes and economic activities. At different times, the educational process was provided by gardeners: Ivan Vlasovych Balan (Nikitske School of Winemaking), Volodymyr Yevhenovych Bernard (Nikitske School of Winemaking and Practice Abroad), Franz Ivanovych Studnichka (studied in Austria), Kostiantyn Ivanovych Vasiliev (Penza School of Horticulture) and the others.

Masters were practitioners who did not have any professional education diploma, but gained practical experience at enterprises, in the army, in private farms: Vasyl Semenovych Shevchenko, a blacksmith and locksmith master, Onisym Vasyliovych Ryaboshlyk, a carpentry master, Oleksiy Ivanovych Malikov, a blacksmith, Matviy Zakharovych Taran, a blacksmith and the others (Otchet, 1906, pp. 36-39; Otchet, 1907, pp. 36-39; Otchet, 1908, pp. 24-27; Otchet, 1909, pp. 37-40; Otchet, 1910, pp. 50-53).

Thus, we can see that at school there was a sufficiently powerful teaching staff, whereand all full-time teachers had a professional education diploma and improved their qualifications at pedagogical courses. Instead, we observe a rather significant staff turnover among teachers of general education subjects and practicing teachers. The reasons for this phenomenon are not known for sure and require further scientific research, but we can assume that it was related to difficult living conditions in rural areas or insufficient financial support, because zemstvo and rural teachers received less money than in towns. Although the majority of employees of the Lukian's school, both theory and practice teachers, received additional payments - managing workshops, keeping office books, managing the school economy and office, teaching additional subjects, etc. Therefore, the issue of personnel turnover remains open.

The Conclusions

Local self-government bodies and a private initiative played a key role in the development of educational institutions of an agrarian profile in the lands of Steppe Tavriya. Owing to their efforts at the end of the 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries two leading agricultural schools were established, which trained agricultural specialists until the beginning of the 21st century - the Obitoche's and Lukian's lower agricultural schools of the 1st grade, which in the second decade were transformed into schools with the right to train teachers of rural folk schools.

These schools can rightly be called “peasant”, because 2/3 of their student contingent consisted of peasants from the surrounding counties, who wanted to escape from the shackles of little land and hopelessness. Free education, availability of scholarship programmes for full board and the support of local patrons attracted even the poorest peasant youth to study. On the other hand, the requirement to study agricultural science, a large share of a practical component in education, working in the field without days off led to the fact that only a third completed their studies (25% of the entrants of the Lukian's school, and 39% of the Obitochne's school).

On the other hand, despite all the shortcomings of these educational institutions, they initiated the agricultural education system formation of the Ukrainian peasantry, which was transformed into a modern system of training specialists in the agricultural sector, which is strategically important for the Ukrainian statehood and its economy.

Acknowledgement. We express sincere gratitude to all members of the editorial board for consultations provided during the preparation of the article for publishing.

Funding. The study was prepared based on the results of fundamental research “The Sociocultural Space of Ukraine in the Second Half of the Nineteenth - First Third of the Twentieth Century: the Peasant-centric Dimension” (state registration number: 0123U101600) with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

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