Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi - the figure of the Russian Enlightenment
Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi was born 3 February 1704 of the year in Stockholm. His father - Prince Ivan Yurevich Trubetskoy, who was captured by the Swedes during the Northern War. There is no exact information about the mother. Under one version - it is Baroness Wrede, on the other - Countess Shparr, other versions claim that his mother was a simple title. This is what Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Shcherbatov wrote about this:
Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy, being captivated by the Swedes, had a mistress, they say, a single noble woman in Stockholm, who was assured that he was a widow, and from her had a son, who was called Betsky, and that even under Peter the Great was honorable and already was in officer ranks.
In the 1718, Ivan Trubetskoy and Avton Golovin were exchanged for the Swedish field-marshal Renschild, who was in Russian captivity. Upon the return of Ivan Yuryevich from captivity, his family accepted little Vanya as their own. After several decades, Ivan Yuryevich, who had no legal heirs through the male line, would offer his son to change his name and become Trubetskoy. However, he will be refused. Ivan Ivanovich will answer that "he became known under the name of Betsky and with this name he will remain and die."
Betskoi was sent for education in Copenhagen, to the local cadet corps; then he served briefly in the Danish Cavalry Regiment, during the exercise he was thrown off by a horse and badly dented, which apparently forced him to refuse military service. He traveled around Europe for a long time, and 1722 — 1728 spent years “for science” in Paris, where, however, he served as secretary to the Russian after and was presented to Duchess John Elizabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst (mother of Catherine II). There is a version that Betska is the real father of Catherine II.
In 1729, he arrived in Russia, served in the College of Foreign Affairs, and was simultaneously adjutant to his father.
With the accession of Anna Ioannovna, Prince Trubetskoy, along with A. Kantemir, Yaguzhinsky and others, was among the main supporters of the autocracy and himself handed the famous petition to the Empress, which was signed by the young Betskaya. From 8 on April 1730, Betskoi was appointed Trubetskoy for the rank of Adjutant General, but was approved for this rank by the Military Collegium only on September 5 1733 and, moreover, in the Major’s rank, and a year later he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. While continuing to serve under his father, Betskaya traveled at the beginning of 1739 with his daughter Anastasia Ivanovna (who in 1738 entered into a second marriage with Prince Ludwig of Hesse-Homburg) abroad and visited various places in Germany, as well as Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, and in winter, 1740 returned to Russia again.
In the 1741 coup, Mr. Betskaya personally did not take an active part, but only appeared to Scheetdie with various assignments from Empress Elizabeth immediately after her entry into the palace. His sister, Anastasia Ivanovna, managed to win Empress Elizaveta Petrovna’s special disposition while being with her during the palace coup in 1741, for which she was granted 25 on November 1741, by the state lady. Thanks to her, he became close to the court of Elizaveta Petrovna.
18 February 1742 Mr. Betska, being with the rank of lieutenant colonel, was granted by the chamberlain to the heir to the throne Peter Feodorovich. In this position, Betsky often appeared at the Court and repeatedly met Princess Anhalt-Zerbst Ioanna-Elizaveta, who arrived in Moscow with his daughter, who soon married Peter Fedorovich in 1744. During this time, according to Catherine II herself, "her mother very closely became attached to the Hesse-Homburg spouses and even more to Chamberlain Betsky. This was very disliked by Countess Rumyantseva, Marshal Bryumer and everyone else."
In addition, consisting of a small courtyard of the small court together with Peter Sumarokov, Lilienfeld, Dicker, Peter Deviere, Betskoi, who spoke French and German well and had already seen a lot abroad in his lifetime, had the opportunity to be an interesting interlocutor to draw the attention of the heir to the throne and his Spouses, preferably in front of other persons of the Grand-Ducal court, which consisted mainly of Germans. In 1747, Mr. Betskaia shared the fate of the latter and, at the insistence of Chancellor Bestuzhev-Rumin, was removed along with the other approximations of the Grand Duke, as they influenced His Highness in a manner inconsistent with the political forms of the Chancellor.
Betskaya, however, remained a chamberlain, but very rarely appeared at the Court, and even made a trip abroad in 1756, together with Prince Dimitri Mikhailovich Golitsyn, married to his niece, Catherine Dmitrievna Cantemir (daughters of Anastasia Ivanovna Gessen-Gomburgskaya from her her marriage). During this long stay abroad, Betskaya visited Germany, Holland, France and Italy, inspected various institutions and charitable institutions. I met in Paris with many artists, scholars and writers (such as Grimm, Didero, etc.), as well as Mrs Joffren, and visited her salon where leading figures of French literature and arts gathered. Probably at the same time in Paris, Betskoi familiarized himself with the teachings and views of both the encyclopaedists and Rousseau and his followers. This acquaintance was largely reflected in Betsky’s various projects, which Catherine II subsequently submitted to them.
State activity that glorified him began with the advent of Catherine II to power. By decree of 3 in March 1763, he was entrusted with management, and at 1764 he was appointed president of the Academy of Arts, during which he organized an educational school. 1 September 1763 of the year a manifesto on the establishment of a Moscow educational house was made according to a plan drawn up, according to one data, by Betsky himself, according to others - by professor of Moscow University A. A. Barsov, following Betsky’s instructions. According to Betsky, a “educational society of noble maidens” (later the Smolny Institute) was entrusted in St. Petersburg, entrusted to its main care and leadership.
Betskoi dreamed of a new nobility - enlightened and industrious. He thought not only about the nobility. He proposed to educate in Russia "the third order of people", which is necessary for trade, industry and crafts. In other words, the Russian enlightened bourgeoisie, which would be as hardworking as the western, but would have been brought up not on the love of money, but on the love of people. If you dream up, it was a good foundation for building a capitalist society “with a human face”. Moreover, Betskoi believed that not only merchants and manufacturers, but also people living in intellectual work, that is, intellectuals, should come out of the “third rank”. Betsky’s ideas were ahead of time by almost a hundred years: both the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia in Russia in the 18th century were only born.
Betskoi advocated learning "easy and natural." He wrote that “it is necessary to bring children to the doctrine, as in a pleasant field decorated with flowers, and the thorns that are in it only irritate nature, especially at first, and this happens only because of the teacher’s unreason.” Betskoy was sure that teachers should take into account the age psychology of students and not force them to learn too much by heart, overloading their memory. In his opinion, teachers should try to interest children, “using their natural children's curiosity.” Here Betskoi had high hopes for a visual technique: children need to show various objects as much as possible so that they study “things, not words”. Therefore, he recommended keeping globes, stuffed animals, mock-ups and collections of stones in classrooms, as well as organizing more informative walks with children. Those who are older must observe the work of artisans. Having chosen a craft for their liking, they will first play it, but it is during the game that they will learn the basics of labor. Of course, Betskoi was against corporal punishment, believing that they develop vengefulness and pretense. Instead, he put "condemnation", which for a moral person is stronger than the rod.
According to Ivan Ivanovich, the education of new people should take place away from society, its laws and morality. It was on these principles that the Smolny Institute and the Educational House in Moscow were organized.
Since the founding of the Educational House, the medical aspects of the institution’s activities have been of great importance. According to the General Plan "On the Heads and Servants of the Educational House," the staff of medical workers consisting of doctors, doctors and midwives was provided for in the Educational House. Thus, the Imperial Moscow Educational House can rightfully be considered the cradle of Russian pediatrics.
The educational home was run by the Board of Trustees and funded by private donations (including on behalf of monarchs and grand dukes) and taxes — a quarter of the collection from public shows and a special tax on stamping cards. All playing cards sold in Russia were taxed at five kopecks from a Russian-made deck and ten - from abroad, bringing 21 a thousand rubles to 1796 and 140 thousand to 1803. From 1819 to 1917, the Educational House had a monopoly on the production of cards, which were produced only by the Alexander manufactory in St. Petersburg.
With 1772, the Board of Trustees also managed banking institutions — Loan, Safe and Widowed Treasuries, which became the main source of income in the 19th century. In the same year, the Demidov Commercial School and the Medox Entrepreneur Theater Studio were opened at the expense of PA Demidov. Children up to the age of 11 studied writing and the basics of crafts within the institution, and with 1774, they studied at third-party factories and workshops. Gifted students were sent to continue their studies at Moscow State University, the Academy of Fine Arts, and 180 people were sent to study in Europe. Most of the graduates did not have such privileges - they were given clothes, one ruble of money, and a free person's passport allowing them to join the merchants and open their own enterprises.
In the year 1770, again on the initiative of Ivan Ivanovich Betsky, the Petersburg Educational House was created following the model of the Moscow Educational House.
The Smolny Institute, according to Catherine II, was to become an exemplary educational institution, which was not equal at that time in Europe. According to the charter, children were supposed to enter an institution not older than six years of age and stay there for twelve years, and a receipt was being taken from their parents that they would not demand them back under any pretext until the expiration of this period. The Empress hoped, by removing the children for a long time from the ignorant environment and returning to the already developed and ennobled girl, to help soften morals and create a "new breed of people." The Senate was ordered to print and distribute the statutes of this institution to all provinces, provinces and cities, "so that each of the nobles could, if they wish, entrust their daughters in their infancy with this institutional education." The decree provided for the education of two hundred noble maidens in the newly built Novodevichy Convent.
In the 1765 year, at the institute established initially as a closed, privileged educational institution for the daughters of the nobility, a branch was opened “for middle-class girls” (non-noble estates, except for serfs). The building for the Meshchansky school was erected by architect J. Velten.
In the first grade pupils were taught Russian and foreign languages, as well as arithmetic and, of course, various handicrafts. The second introduced geography and story. In the third - literature, architecture, heraldry, music, dancing. The last classes were to make the students of the institute pleasant members of society. From this time Smolyanka had to sew dresses for themselves. The fourth grade was devoted entirely to practical training. Senior pupils took turns studying with the younger ones to learn how to raise children. They also learned to maintain order and home economy. They were taught to negotiate with suppliers, calculate expenses, pay bills and determine the price of products.
31 year - from 1763 to 1794 Betskoi was the president of the Academy of Arts. The academy was financed by the treasury and united in itself the academy and the art school. The management was carried out by a director who kept a large academic seal. Directors were elected from among the rectors every four months, but not more than three times in a row, his duties included supervision of the general order at the Academy of Arts, education and training. The school hosted boys of all classes of five or six years (from this age, Betskoy considered it possible to start raising decent citizens of the fatherland), and for nine years they were taught general education disciplines, as well as copying engravings and drawings. The most capable were transferred to special classes and for six years they were trained by sculptors, painters, engravers and architects.
27 June The 1769 of Betskaya requested the Empress's permission to keep on her own dependency, starting with 1770, ten boys each, taking them for three years. By 1785, there were already 60 people brought up on account of Betsky at the Academy of Arts. With the change in the size of interest paid by the bank in 1786, Betskoi did not find it more possible to continue this business and notified the council of the new intake of students who had previously come to 1788.
Art subjects taught by academics. At the Academy of Arts, corporal punishment was prohibited. In his letter to the Board of Trustees of the Academy (1784), Betskoi wrote: "... a person who honors himself as a person should not be allowed to do with himself as an animal." Betskoi himself loved the theater and tried to convey this love to his pupils. At the Academy of Arts, a theater was opened in which the students played (they also made decorations for performances). Often there were balls, illuminations, living pictures. The musical education of the pupils included learning to play the harpsichord, violin, cello, theoretical music and singing. A student orchestra and a choir of pupils of the school were formed.
Betskoi bequeathed to the Academy two cabinets with engraved antiques, very ancient, and with rare casts of images of various historical persons, made mostly by French artists. This collection was collected by him during his trips abroad.
In 1765, he was appointed chief of the Land gentry corps, for which he made a charter on new principles. According to the "points for change" approved by the same 1765 of the cadet corps (among which it was positively prescribed to "remove all corporal punishments of the cadets now"), Betsky drafted a new charter approved by the Empress 11 of September 1766. and in other statutes compiled by Betsky: children of only nobles, no older than six years old, were accepted into the corps, and the parents gave a subscription that they give the children voluntarily, no less than fifteen years, in the continuation of which they will not take children even from USK. The building was an institution closed, had five ages (or classes), stayed at each age for three years. When entering the 4 age, the cadet had the right to choose a civil service and accordingly studied some other sciences, which the rest of the cadets did not learn. It was prescribed to take care of the physical and moral development of the cadet, treat them with affection, never beat with a sword or fuchtel, try to prevent and prevent mistakes and misconduct, etc. Those who completed the full course entered the military service, the best were awarded with medals, and the most deserving had the right , with the consent of the parents, to travel for three years abroad at the expense of the corps. All the statutes compiled by Betsky demanded particularly good mentors and teachers, who at that time felt a great lack; I had therefore to resort to the assistance of foreigners. The desire to remove foreign influence prompted Betsky in 1772 to submit a special report to the Empress, in which it was proposed to establish a special department in the land corps to educate petty-bourgeois children, from which decent teachers and tutors for the corps could eventually form. The Empress approved this October 27 project. In 1773, Lieutenant-General Purple was appointed director of the corps, and Betskaya remained only a member of the board until his abolition in 1785.
In 1768, Catherine II produced Betsky for the rank of Actual Privy Counselor. In the year 1773, according to the plan of Betsky and at the expense of Procopius Demidov, an Educational Commercial School for merchants' children was established.
Having entrusted Betsky to the leadership of all educational and educational institutions, Catherine bestowed upon him great wealth, a considerable share of which he gave to charity and especially to the development of educational institutions. Following the model of Moscow, Betskoi opened an educational home in St. Petersburg, and with it he established widows and safe treasuries, the basis of which was the generous donations he made.
In 1773, in the solemn meeting, the Senate presented Betsky with a large gold medal, stamped in his honor, according to the Highest Will, for establishing scholarships in 1772 for his own money, with the inscription: “For the love of the fatherland. From the Senate 20 November 1772 of the Year. " As director of the Chancellery of the buildings, Betskaya contributed much to the adornment of St. Petersburg with state-owned buildings and structures; The largest monuments of this side of his activity are the monument to Peter the Great, the granite embankment of the Neva and the canals and the grating of the Summer Garden.
By the end of Betsky’s life, Catherine lost interest in him, depriving him of the title of her reader. From her expression: “Betskoi assigns herself to the glory of the state”, one may think that the reason for the cooling was rooted in the empress’s confidence that Betskoi alone attributed the merit of educational reform, while Catherine herself claimed a significant role in this matter.
Betsky was single, but he had a number of “pupils”, including Anastasia Sokolova, whom he bequeathed 80 000 rubles in silver and 40 000 banknotes, as well as two stone houses on Palace Embankment. He was the curator of the Smolny Institute, and, being already an elderly man, took 17-year-old graduate Glafira Alymova into his house to live, who was very jealous. When the girl got married and, unable to withstand Betsky’s permanent control, ran with her husband to Moscow, Betsky struck a blow, he almost died and withdrew from most of his business.
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