The gifts and ‘contributions' Friedrich Froebel and Russian education (1850–1929)

This article examines the contribution of the Russian Froebelian movement to educational theory and practice in Russia, in the context of the cultural transformation there from the second half of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. The Froebel movement had a strong influence on not only the formation of Russian early years educational practice but also child psychology. The analysis explores mainly, but not exclusively, the educational ideas of two followers of Froebel, Elizaveta Vodovosova (1844–1923), educator and writer, and Luiza Schleger (1862–1942), founder of the first public kindergarten in Moscow. Their lives and educational beliefs highlight the development of two different interpretations of Froebelian educational theory in two particular periods of Russian cultural development. In this article we argue that the specific accommodation of Froebelian pedagogy in pre‐revolutionary Russia created the foundation for the presence of Froebelian ideas in the curriculum of Soviet Early Childhood Education.

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7 For more information on the policy of the government see Kniazev, Evgeny A. Genezis Vysheva Pedagogicheskogo Obrazovania V Rassii V Xix–Nachale Xx Vekov: Smena Paradigm. Moskva: Sent’iabr.

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14 Princess Helen was called by Tsar Nicholas I “the scholar of our family”.

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19 Vodovosov, “Izbrannie Pedagogicheskie Sochinenia”, 57.

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28 Troyat, Henry. Tolstoy. New York, Grove Press, 2001.

29 For Tolstoy’s libertarian views on education see Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich Kniaz. Russian Literature: Ideals and Realities. London: Duckworth & Co, 1905.

30 Tolstoy, Lev N. Polnoe Sobrannie Sochinenii, Vol. 8. Moskva: Gos. izd‐vo khudozh. lit‐ry, 1938: 9.

31 Pinkevitch, Albert P. The New Education in the Soviet Republic New York: The John Day Company, 1929; Shabaeva, ed., Istoriy Pedagogiky.

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34 Kirschenbaum, Lisa. “The Kindergarten and the Revolutionary Tradition in Russia.” In Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea, edited by Roberta Lyn Wollons. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.

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36 Chuvashev, Ivan V. “Vidnie Teoretiki I Practiki Doshkol’nogo Vaspitania Vtoroi Poloviny Xix B.” In Istoria Pedakogike, edited by M.K. Shabaeva. Moskva: Prosvishtenie, 1981.

37 Vodovosov, Izbrannie Pedagogicheskie Sochinenia.

38 Pinkevitch, The New Education in the Soviet Republic; Shabaeva, ed., Istoriy Pedagogiky.

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41 Kindergartens were established in Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, Warszawa, Orenburg, Tiflis and Tomsk, I.V. “Obshtestvenno‐Pedagogicheskoe Dvijenie 60‐H Godov Iix V. I Razvitie Pedagogicheskoy Mysli.” In Istoria Pedagogiki, edited by M. K. Shabaeva. Moskva: Prosveshtenie, 1981.

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43 Starostina, Iz Istorii: Pervy V Rossie; see also Pinkevitch, The New Education in the Soviet Republic; and Shabaeva, ed., Istoriy Pedagogiky.

44 Jeravina, P.I. Makushin and “Detskiy Sad Po Metode Frebel’a.

45 Chuvashev, Obshtestvenno‐Pedagogicheskoe Dvijenie 60‐H Godov Xix V. I Razvitie Pedagogicheskoy Mysli.

46 See Simonovich, K istorii detskogo sada: po materialom jurnala Vestnik vaspitania.

47 See Simonovich, K istorii detskogo sada: po materialom jurnala Vestnik vaspitania.

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49 Shabaeva, ed., Istoriy Pedagogiky.

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51 Kravetz, Meshko and Yankovich, Programa I Plany Seminarskih Zanyat Navchal’nogo Kursu Istoriya Pedagogiki: Dlya Studentov Vishih Pedagogichnih Osviti.

52 Ot redakcy. “Vera Feodorovna Schmidt—Avtor ‘Dnevnika Matery’.” in Development of Personality (2002). See also Brehony, Kevin J. “Representations of Socialist Educational Experiments in the 1920s and 1930s: The Place of the Sciences of Education.” In Education Nouvelle—Sciences De L’education, edited by Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly. Bern: Peter Lang, 2006 (forthcoming).

53 Shabaeva, ed., Istoriy Pedagogiky.

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55 Piskunov, Istoria Pedagogiki I Obrazovania.

56 There was a German ethnic group in Russia whose population came to live in Russia during the time of Catherine the Great.

57 Pinkevitch, The New Education in the Soviet Republic.

58 Piskunov, Istoria Pedagogiki I Obrazovania.

59 Wood, Elizabeth A. Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia. Ithaca, NY–London: Cornell University Press, 2005: 27.

60 Piskunov, Istoria Pedagogiki I Obrazovania.

61 “Comunisticheskaia Shkola.” Staraia Moskva, 12 February 1908.

62 Shabaeva, ed., Istoriy Pedagogiky.

63 Catherine A Grubb. “Didn’t Someone Invite Patty? Haw Patty Smith Hill’s Vision of International Education Has Crossed the Border in a Most Unusual Place.” Paper presented at the Association for Childhood Education International Conference San Diego, CA, 2002.

64 Criblez, Barbara S., and B. S. Criblez, “John Dewey’s Teaching Methods in the Discussion on German‐Language Kindergartens—a Case of Non‐Perception? Kindergartens—a Case of Non‐Perception?” Studies in Philosophy and Education 19, no. 1 (2000).

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66 Jeravina, “P. I. Makushin and “Detskiy Sad Po Metode Frebel’a ‘V Tomske.”

67 Hiterer, V. “Evreiskoe Obrazovanie V Ukrainskoi Narodnoy Respublike (1917–1920).” Vestnik Evreiskogo Universiteta v Moskve 3, no. 13 (1996).

68 “Commissar” in Lenin’s government was the new word for “minister”. Lunacharsky served as a Commissar of Education from 1917 to 1929.

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70 The Declaration was published in the weekly NKP “People Education,” nn. 69–70.

71 Lunacharsky, A. “Declaration of Preschool Education.” Narodnoe obrazovanie no. 8 (1967): 82.

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74 Evgeny Nikolaevich Medinsky (1885–1957) Professor (1926), Doctor of Education (1935). During 1915–17 he had taught Froebel Courses in Saint Petersburg. He was the author of the first Marxist Soviet text book on the History of Education: History of Education in a Context of Economic Development of the Society, vols 1 and 2 (1925–29) and many other manuals of History of Education for university students. Professor MGPI (Moscow State Educational Institute V.I. Lenin). He was involved in the editing and publishing of the works of S. T. Shatsky and A. S. Makarenko.

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78 Dewey, John. Impressions of Soviet Russia and the Revolutionary World. New York: New Public, 1929.

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