Teaching the Classics.
Private Education in the USSR
by Dimitri Panchenko
I feel honored to have an opportunity to address this audience on the subject of new forms of education in the USSR. I realize that such a subject may seem rather strange under the political circumstances of today. One could feel so disappointed with changes in the Soviet politics since November [of 1990] and so pessimistic about the hoped for development of Soviet Russia towards democracy and freedom that one would find all efforts and achievements in some particular area of our society to be ephemeral and therefore insignificant ones.
I believe, however, that of all the changes in Soviet politics -- or nearly all possible changes in it -- the process of privatization of life will continue. In fact this process started by the middle of the sixties and irreversibly increased and spread. It was apparently connected with the emergence of a new kind of elite within the Soviet society. I mean that the elite with a strong interest in power itself was replaced by the elite with a main interest in the benefits which power could bring. Communist ideology was for this elite a ground and a burden at the same time. Ideology provided these people with the legitimation of their power but laid restraints on their wish to enjoy privileges in their private life. I always thought that the quest for the legitimation of privileges and wealth acquired by this new elite was one of the decisive motifs for launching a campaign of perestroika. This need will be at work in the future as well as in the present and the past. This is why I believe that there will be neither a return to communist ideology, nor an end of privatization of life. Insofar as ideology becomes weaker, we can expect that the changes in education which occurred during the last two years are not ephemeral and insignificant, and that these changes will have their future.
I must apologize in advance that I am not prepared to display a comprehensive picture of the educational process in the Soviet Union. My experience is limited to events in Leningrad. On the other hand I teach personally in two of the new educational institutions which are the subject of my talk. I would like to call these institutions private, though they are not private in the full sense of this word. Soviet law does not allow private educational institutions the right to award degrees to their graduates. What I have in mind in suggesting these new institutions be called private is their freedom to structure their curriculum and select both their staff and students.
The Independent College of Humanities in Leningrad is the first to be mentioned here because it is the first independent regular college in today's Russia. Two courses and the Preparatory Department of this college are now attended by more than 500 students, and taught by 120 teachers. Three higher schools of the college include the Humanities Institute, the School of Philosophy and the Oriental School.
The Humanities Institute is the biggest division of the college. In its educational approach it resembles rather an American university than a Soviet one. Its main task is to provide students with basic education in liberal arts, in general culture. Less attention is paid to specialization. The core courses include world history, the history of philosophy, the history of literature, the history of religion, Latin and modern languages (English, French, German). The prominent place occupied by such an unutilitarian matter as Latin must apparently mark the aspiration for "True Culture."
In contrast to the approach of the Humanities Institute the educational process in the School of Philosophy concentrates primarily on subjects related to philosophy. No modern language is taught here, only Latin and elementary Greek. This school has a lot of students who have graduated already from various universities or colleges. The Eastern School occupies itself mostly with teaching languages (Chinese, Indian, Arabic).
The Preparatory Department was established only this fall. Its curriculum includes logic, World history, modern languages, namely English and French (German was also planned but surprisingly enough there was an insufficient number of students wishing to learn this language.) This department was devised mostly for students in their last year in high school. But in fact only few students of high schools attend the Preparatory Department. On the other hand there is no essential difference in teaching between Preparatory and other divisions of the college.
The whole process of education in the Independent College of Humanities must take eight semesters (the preparatory year is not mandatory and is not included). During the whole period of education students have both lectures and seminars and have exams. These courses take place at night time, starting at 6:30. To be graduated from the College students have to deliver a paper. One could have an additional year for preparation of this paper.
Who pays for education in this college? Students pay for their education. The budget should be sufficient for paying the teaching personnel salaries and for covering rental and other maintenance expenses. The salary in the college is much higher than that in Soviet State universities and colleges. As for the space, the college rents it from public government-owned high schools which do not use it at night. So one could suppose that the rent is not very expensive. But in the modern Soviet society the spirit of generosity and solidarity is not widespread. The rent, in fact, is enormously high, and tuition has nearly doubled, while the salary has remained the same. The tuition is now about 500 rubles per semester, which is more than two average monthly salaries in the Soviet Union.
Though tuition is high the administration tries to retain its independence not only from Soviet officials but also from students. The reasoning of a kind "I pay and it is my business how I study" doesn't apply here. Students could be expelled, and if they fail an exam, they have to pay for arranging an additional one.
My experience of teaching here during two semesters in two different divisions allows me to say that there are many highly motivated students in the college. I have also noticed a difference between students who entered the college last year and those of this year. You will find now more daughters and sons of rich parents, but I am waiting for spring exams to see whether the learning has become worse.
The level of faculty is quite high. It is a common problem in today's Russia -- lack of competent people in every area of social life. Teaching is not an exception. It is also common practice that personal relationships, connections and friendship tend to have a special significance in the newly established institutions of any kind, with all the advantages and all the abuses of such a situation. But it seems to me that both the Director of the College Konstantin Filkov and the Dean of the most important division Dmitri Burlaka try to do their best in the selection of the faculty.
The material resources of the college are rather poor. While it has equipment for reproducing necessary textbooks, its library has a tough time, of course, collecting books and magazines in foreign languages due to hard currency shortages and even in collecting the Soviet printed materials, because they also cost a lot of money. But the fact is that despite all the hardships the two years of the college's existence have been a success.
And now I would like to tell you about the legal arrangement of this enterprise. From the legal point of view the college is a small part of a very complicated structure with many layers. What we find at the very top is "The Association of Soldiers of Reserve and Soldiers Internationalists." Let us remember that in the Soviet Union the expression "Soldier-Internationalist" refers to soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. I have no idea what ties connect the Independent College of Humanities with the Association of Soldiers. In reality this connection is entirely formal, of course, and represents only one of the paradoxes of today's Soviet life. Another connection is a little bit more real. Formally the College is also part of a scientific research center which has a right to develop and implement teaching programs. And this is the legal ground of the whole educational process in the Independent College of Humanities.
Still more recently, just a few months ago Leningrad Higher School of Religions and Philosophy was established (sometimes they call themselves St. Petersburg Higher School of Religions and Philosophy). It is too early to judge the results of this school's activity. It seems to be more appropriate to show you its program.
Their mission, they claim, is to elaborate and to implement a program of study of the history and contemporary state of world religions in close connection with the intellectual and spiritual quests of man within modern culture.
The subject of scholarship and course-offerings in the school must be (and really are) World Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and some other religious-philosophical traditions. At the same time the School does not assume the functions of the corresponding confessional educational institutions, being directed towards academic studies in the field of religions including their historical, philosophical, and culturological aspects. The School adheres to the principles of academic autonomy, and is not an instrument of carrying out one confessional policy or another. Students may be admitted to the School according to the general rules irrespective of their attitude towards religion.
The totality of the offered courses could be divided into two parts: 1) the proper study of religions, comprising different problems of the history of theological schools of Byzantium, West Europe, Slavonic World, and Christian East, the history of Christian Church, patrology, historical liturgics, Church art history, some religious-philosophical traditions of the non-Christian East, South and East Asia; 2) philosophical, i.e., courses concerning the history of philosophy (Western, Russian and Asian), contemporary philosophy, philosophical problems of consciousness, psychology, sociology, philosophy, comparative East-West philosophy.
At the same time they are ready to provide their students with the opportunity to obtain systematic knowledge in the field of classical ancient languages (Greek, Latin, Church Slavonic, Sanskrit, Pali). Besides, the School pays special attention to the development of the specific abilities to deal with the literary monuments of antiquity and Middle Ages. They suppose that their students will master the methods of scholarly preparation of a monument through to publication. The latter, they stress, is of special importance for Leningrad as a center of concentration of the outstanding monuments belonging to Western culture, Russia, Byzantium, East.
The School is projected not only as an educational institution but also as a research center. They intend to organize periodical meetings with the authoritative scholars and thinkers in the form of lectures, seminars, scientific conferences. Discussions concerning different aspects of modern culture, knowledge, and consciousness carried out in the spirit of academic freedom will be directed to the creation of a new science of Man and elaboration of its methodological backgrounds.
The faculty members of the School are qualified scholars during a long time being concerned with research activities in the corresponding areas in different Leningrad academic centers. The financial sources of the School are or are supposed to be: current educational fees (it is so now), incomes from the publication trade, donations from private persons and organizations.
Let us turn now from the higher school to the secondary school, and I would like to tell you about the most remarkable enterprise, at least in my judgment. It became possible under the circumstances of perestroika to establish in Leningrad a Classical School or Gymnasium, the first and the only one since the Bolshevik revolution.
I realize that here, in the United States, all that pertains to Classics looks somewhat conservative. It is quite different in the USSR. Preoccupation with Classics implies a kind of living in the past which must seem suspicious from the point of view of the communist ideology oriented towards the happy future. But other reasons are more important. The interpretation of Greek and Latin texts is something that is not always easy to put under ideological control. (I remember when I was a third-year student in Leningrad University, I proposed as the theme of my course paper such an innocent subject as "Socrates' Irony." My proposal was rejected because, I was told, it was not clear enough who is or are the object of Socrates' irony -- government perhaps, or communist party.) Then Greek and Latin are too unutilitarian a matter to be honored in a society based on planned economy. Finally, culture has always been a fighting ground between the Soviet intelligentsia and Soviet power. Here the functionaries were not self-confident and hence they were so irritated. This was something beyond their understanding. They disliked or even hated all this suspicious fuss with culture but didn't dare to suppress it completely. (Let me recall another story from Brezhnev's time. Some people from Leningrad radio encouraged my friend, a musician, and me to prepare a narrative about medieval Latin culture for broadcasting. So my friend with his band had to produce medieval music and singing, and I had to display a picture of medieval Latin poetry. Then we came to the editor. She explained to us that we were talking very strange and absolutely impossible matters. For, she said, they listen to us, that is Lengingrad broadcasting, very attentively. "Who are they?" was my question. But there was nothing to grasp in the editor's reply, except a vague hint about the Vatican. And after all she was a kind woman. She suggested we prepare a narrative about the Kirov Ballet.)
The Leningrad Classical School (or gymnasium) was established in 1989, first as a part of another high school. It was established as an autonomous division of Mathematical High School #30, which school is remarkable in itself. It was, perhaps, the best school in Leningrad during the Brezhnev epoch. Many distinguished professors both in America and in Israel were graduated from this school. And when I think about the plausible future of my students in Leningrad Classical School, I wonder whether history will lead them to adopt the same pattern of emigration.
So two classes were admitted, each of them had 26 students eleven or twelve years old. It occurred that it was the only advantage of being part of the Mathematical School that we had the opportunity to teach students to deal with computers, which are still rather rare in the Soviet Union. The Staff was convinced that it had to look for independence. This goal was eventually achieved. But when September 1 came, we confronted the fact that there was no place to start with teaching. All the promises we had got were in fact insecure. And it was only the help of Prof. Anatoly Sobchak, Chairman of Lensoviet (Leningrad local authorities), that allowed us to start with teaching a few days later. Now we enjoy both independence and the safe status of a state school. We have no space of our own and must rent space, but we are temporarily released from paying for it.
Our school has four classes. There are two classes of first-year students and two classes of second-year students. Each class has no more than 28 students. All of them attend only our school. We offer them a complete curriculum. Each student is required to study Latin (five hours a week), mathematics (five hours a week), history (two hours a week), the history of culture (two hours a week), English (five hours a week), Russian literature, local history, geography, natural science. The third-year students will start next year with Greek. We also intend to teach a third language, namely Hebrew, perhaps as a non-obligatory course.
Students attend the school six days a week (which is quite usual for Soviet high schools) and every day they have between four and six classes, each class being 45 minutes. We admit students to our school on the grounds of competition. They have to pass two exams. The first is a written examination which shows their ability in logic and mathematics. The second oral one shows their erudition and memory. The result of every exam is calculated and the sum of both determines the rating of each candidate. Last year we had five candidates per position. This year there have been thirteen.
We have no political activities in our school. There are, for example, no Young Pioneers. It turned out that none of our teachers has ever been a member of the Communist Party. So far, none of them has become a member of one of the new parties. We try to have on the faculty of our school teachers who are both teachers and scholars actively involved in research. About half of them are affiliated with a scholarly institute and have PhD's. Some of them have experience teaching in high school, some haven't. The fact is that it is irrelevant to the success of their teaching in our school. (There is yet a peculiar problem with the faculty of the school. The Director, Dr. Leonid Zhmud is now fellow of the Humboldt Stiftung in Germany. A few months ago Dr. Lev Lurie, another founder of the school, was here. Now you see me, and so on. But we replace each other, of course.)
We do not pursue a specific task of preparing classical scholars. (Though I hope, of course, that some of my students will inherit my profession.) Our task is to cultivate well-educated young people. We try to restore the prerevolutionary gymnasium in its, so to say, classical form. I mean the education based on both ancient languages and mathematics. But we are aware that something has changed during the last seven decades. In the beginning of our century most students entered gymnasium having a good home education in their background. There are only few such students now. So we enhanced the traditional course of history and introduced as an addition a course in history of culture. We teach both courses in parallel, they are synchronized. For instance, when we speak in class about the political and social history of ancient Mesopotamia, we have an hour or two devoted to the Gilgamesh epic. When we speak about ancient Israel and Judea, we read some chapters from the Bible.
The first-year course includes world history from the dawn of mankind to the fall of the Roman Empire. Greek and Roman history has within its frame the very end of the fall and the whole of the spring.
As to the method of teaching history as well as other subjects related to humanities, we have no uniform approach mandatory for all faculty. We arrived at a consensus that the knowledge of facts, dates, and names is necessary. It depends on the teacher to what degree she or he will allow or encourage discussion, make suggestions, or emphasize a particular point of view.
I personally try to combine both approaches. I encourage students to exercise their memory and learn that knowledge should be precise, not vague. Every quarter or even twice a quarter they have to write a quiz on their knowledge of historical dates. The first time most of the students were rather annoyed by this task. And I realize that some of them could always have trouble with it. But their results became much better already in the second quarter.
On the other hand, I am eager to encourage or provoke a discussion and suggestions on causal explanations of events and facts. Our students are very intelligent, they have clear minds, and from time to time such discussions bring great satisfaction both to them and to their teacher. I noticed also that some of the students remain uninvolved in these discussions for the simple reason that they are too shy. So it seems to me that to combine the training of both memory and discourse is not only fruitful but also fair.
Each student is required to write some papers during the year. Sometimes such a paper requires an original view, sometimes it is a compilation which just requires reading a few texts. By the end of the year all students have to pass exams. Last year these exams were very serious and they will apparently be similar this year too.
You will perhaps be surprised to hear that we use textbooks published before the Revolution, in 1911 and 1913. But they are much better than the newer Soviet ones. We prefer to have trouble with a lot of corrections concerning the account of Eastern history than to deal with disgusting production. And as for Latin textbooks, the reason is obvious: there are no highschool textbooks published during the Soviet epoch.
The school has a library, though still a modest one. We have no collection of slides to teach history of fine arts. We confront many other hardships, the main one concerning space. But we do have intelligent and highly motivated students. Let me give you an example. One day I had to cancel one of two joint lessons of history which were the last lessons of this day. So I told my students at the beginning of the first lesson: "Please, don't get mad, but instead of your last lesson you will be free to do whatever you want." Gloomy silence. And then somebody asked me: "Do you mean we should be glad?" I did. And I was astonished.
So I believe that something is happening now in Soviet education which is of great importance for both the tradition of Western culture and Soviet society, as far as it still wants to live a better life.
"It is a pleasure to write to you and specially now, after democracy and freedom have won in this country. You know, of course, how it was in Moscow. Tanks were expected in Leningrad too. We gathered in the night round the local authorities' palace to stop them. I met there many of our colleagues, the half of the staff of the classical gymnasium I talked in Brown about. Almost everybody who knows Greek and Latin was there! As a historian I was lucky to be a witness of all these events and I hope I will have a chance to tell you all that could be interesting to you."
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