Raising children in the family of Nicholas II. Spiritual and moral aspects of the upbringing of children in the royal family Education and education of children in royal families
Ecology of Consciousness: Life. The principles of education in the house of the Romanovs may well become a guide for the education of future generations.
Nicholas II: "I need normal healthy Russian children"
The family of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had five children - four daughters and a son. The emperor in the upbringing of his children demanded: "I need normal healthy Russian children."
How did the Romanov couple raise children?
Nikolai and Alexandra Feodorovna set an example. Children grew up in an atmosphere of mutual respect and love of parents for each other. The closest friend of the Empress, Anna Vyrubova, said: “For 12 years, I have never heard a single loud word between them, I have never seen them even a little annoyed against each other.”
The children of Nicholas II almost did not know secular entertainment like balls. They themselves came up with entertainment for themselves: outdoor games, physical exercises, theatrical performances. Parents often joined the children in their games. Joint entertainment contributed to the cheerfulness of children and the strengthening of friendship with parents.
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna
The queen said: “Children need joy and happiness no less than plants need air and sunlight.” This requires “not just love, but cultivated love in the daily life of the family, the expression of love in words and deeds. Courtesy in the house is not formal, but sincere and natural.
For the purposes of education, the life of the family was not luxurious. The princesses slept two by two in a room on army folding beds. The furniture in their rooms was artless. Children were taught continuity in everything, so clothes and toys were inherited. The royal children played with toys that had been broken decades ago. Thus, they were taught to value and cherish what they have.
The family of Nicholas II in communication did not divide people into "social estates". The person himself was valued with his individual qualities. The sovereign demanded that children show respect and attention to the needs of any person, even in small things.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
Here is how Alexandra Fedorovna instructed her daughter Olga in a letter: “Be especially polite towards all servants and nannies. They take such good care of you. Think of Marie, how tired she is and not feeling very well, don't make her nervous as well. Listen to her, be obedient and always kind. I made her your babysitter and you should always be nice to her and also to C.I. You are big enough to understand what I mean. Be good and listen to Mom. Read it to Tatiana. Always ask for forgiveness when you were rude or naughty. Now try to be your best and I will be happy.”
The queen raised the girls as future keepers of the hearth. “Home and family are what rests primarily on a woman, and every girl must understand this even in childhood,” the empress wrote. Alexandra Fedorovna taught girls the basics of housekeeping. They were engaged in needlework, sewing shirts and ironing clothes.
Children were not hidden from life. The empress said: "Besides beauty, there is a lot of sadness in the world." She was constantly involved in charity work, and the children helped her in this. When she could not visit tuberculosis patients, she sent her daughters there. During the war years, Olga and Tatyana worked as nurses in the Tsarskoye Selo hospital along with other nurses. The sovereign took his son to the front with him to show the boy the real life of his future subjects and the suffering of the war.
Corporal of the Russian Army Alexei Romanov
The royal children saw the sorrows of the war, but their parents protected them from everything indecent. A friend of the queen, Yulia Den, noted: “All the Grand Duchesses were simple, innocent creatures. Nothing unclean, bad was allowed in their lives. Her Majesty was very strict about the choice of books They read. Most of these were books by English authors. Their Majesties had no idea of the ugly aspects of life.
Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna raised their children in the spirit of constant work on themselves. The royal children grew up strong, independent and merciful. The principles of education in the house of the Romanovs are quite capable of becoming a guide for future generations. published
A prominent representative of the merchant class of the late XIX - early XX centuries. is our countryman Nikolai Polikarpovich Glukharev. Briefly, he can be described as a versatile person with a fairly broad outlook, not indifferent to the history of his Fatherland and his small homeland, eager to share his knowledge with others. True, his great merits are still not appreciated, and therefore the Borovsky Museum of Local Lore appeals to the heads and deputies of the cities of Balabanovo and Borovsk with a proposal to confer on Nikolai Polikarpovich the well-deserved title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Balabanovo and Honorary Citizen of the city of Borovsk.
Nikolai Polikarpovich was born in an Old Believer family and was the eldest son of the Borov merchant of the 2nd guild Polikarp Aksyonovich. According to the data of the end of 1879 - the beginning of 1880, Polikarp Aksyonovich and his wife Pelageya Ivanovna also had a two-year-old son Ivan, daughters Marya, Alexandra and Olga. They lived in Borovsk, near Torgovaya Square, down Kaluzhskaya Street, in their own two-story stone house. The head of the family was engaged in "trading in tea, sugar, wood oil and wax candles." He owned several small factories. In the city of Borovsk in his own house on the street. Kaluga in 1868, he opened a plant for the production of wax candles. (In 1889, it produced 50 poods of white wax candles for 1350 rubles. They were sold in Borovsk). He opened another small chemical plant for the production of wood powder and wood vinegar in 1881 on his own land near the village of Kochetovka, Spasoprognansky volost, Borovsky district. (In 1889, it produced 1,300 pounds of wood powder for 1,950 rubles. It sold in Moscow).
Nikolai Polikarpovich in 1901, being a merchant's son, was employed at a rather large chemical plant owned by a Moscow merchant of the 1st guild, Pyotr Ivanovich Sanin. The plant was located near the village of Litashev, Kurilovsky volost, Borovsky district, not far from his father's. In 1903 June 1 P.I. Sanin died, and Nikolai Polikarpovich became the owner of the Litashevsky chemical plant a few years later. In addition to this plant, Nikolai Polikarpovich at the beginning of the 20th century. owned a factory (the profile of the factory needs to be clarified - N.L.) near the village of Balobonovaya on the banks of the river. Istya. Here he built a two-story house in which he lived for a long time with his family. By this time, he was already married to Lidia Ivanovna (her origin requires clarification - N.L.) and had two daughters, Ekaterina (b. 1901) and Tatyana (b. 1903). It is also known that they had another daughter and son. Workers' houses grew up near the factory. In August 1910, during the election of vowels to the county zemstvo assembly, in which Nikolai Polikarpovich won, newspapers such as Kaluga Courier (1910, No. 93), Russkoye Slovo (1910, No. 192) and Russkiye Vedomosti "(1910, No. 196), they called him a manufacturer, a progressive.
True, by this time the affairs of the manufacturer Glukharev were not going so successfully. Chemical production was sharply reduced due to competition with a similar, but cheaper, large-scale handicraft industry, which was actively developing among the peasants of the Yaroslavl and Kostroma provinces. Nikolai Polikarpovich had financial problems, as evidenced by this fact. In his estate at the village of Balobonova on January 26, 1912 from 10 a.m. in the morning, a sale was announced at a public auction, “his movable property, which consisted of various summer and winter crews, an iron tank for kerosene and two fire pipes, for non-payment of land tax arrears and penalties in the amount of 1269 rubles. 2 k. The property was valued at 1,340 rubles, and since the auction was announced for the second time, the property could have been sold below the stated valuation. In 1914, he hoped to find a partner with 100,000 rubles. in order to expand the chemical plant that produced white lead.
The financial and production problems that arose did not prevent Nikolai Polikarpovich from leading an active social life. So, in 1904-1905. he fussed about permission to put on the grave of the noblewoman F.P. Morozova and Princess E.P. Urus cross. The Kaluga governor was puzzled in response: “What is the goal of Glukharev when placing a cross on the grave of an Old Believer?” Glukharev replied: "The goal of a Christian is to put a cross on the grave of Christians." After some time, the Kaluga governor gave permission, and a cross was placed on the grave of the sisters, and the grave was surrounded by a fence. In 1910-1913. He was elected as a vowel of the county zemstvo assembly. In 1911, he was listed among the jurors in the Borovsky district, in 1916 - a member of the presence on the trade tax, in 1917 - a member of the board and secretary of the telephone circle, a member of the county executive committee from the artisans of the city of Borovsk, and on July 23, 1917 he was elected to the vowels of the Borovsk City Duma from the Trade and Industrial Union. Literally all spheres of life of the population of the Borovsky district worried Nikolai Polikarpovich. In 1913, as an authorized society of peasants in the village of Balobanov, he petitioned for the need to transfer the markets in the village of Balobanov from Tuesdays to Sundays. He argued and proved his point of view on issues of education, medicine, the sanitary condition of the populated areas of the county, the activities of a veterinarian and an agronomist, an agricultural warehouse maintained by the Zemstvo, and many others.
In addition, from April to October 1917, at his own expense, he published the first socio-political newspaper in Borovsk and the county, Borovskaya Zhizn, being also its editor. The newspaper was printed in the local printing house of A.V. Muratova. Six published issues are known: No. 1 (April 2) - No. 6 (May 14). The editorial statement in the first issue stated: “The newspaper Borovskaya Zhizn set out to tell the one truth and cover all aspects of the life of the city and county in the historical days of a renewed and free Russia, and thereby enable every citizen to follow everything that is happening in his native land. ... ". The newspaper, as an organ of the Borovsky Executive Committee, regularly published the minutes of meetings of the Borovsky Executive Committee, published material about the life of the county in the first months after the February Revolution of 1917, about the abolition of the old authorities and the establishment of new ones, about the preparation and holding of the county teachers' congress, reports from settlements of the county: Abramovsky, Tarutin, Shemyakin, Rusinov and others, testifying to the awakening of the masses to political life. All published materials were not signed.
Nikolai Polikarpovich was also known as a philanthropist, educator and playwright. Yes, back in the 90s. 19th century he, together with the teacher S.E. Chertkov and treasurer I.A. Kazantsev took part in the publication of the book of K.E. Tsiolkovsky's "Metal Controlled Balloon", in 1901 he published in Moscow his brochure "The Arrangement of Urban, Rural and Home Libraries", and in 1903 - his vaudeville "Two Friends - a Blizzard and a Blizzard". In 1904 in the village. Tarutin of the Borovsky district, Glukharev opened a free library, in 1913 - a reading room in the village of Balobonova. Being a lover of dramatic art, together with his own kind, he participated on February 4, 1901 in a charity performance, where scenes from the comedy by A.N. Ostrovsky and N.Ya. Solovyov "Happy Day" and vaudeville D.A. Mansfeld "Entertainer".
To educate the workers, Nikolai Polikarpovich organized free literary readings, which were popular at that time, in one of the buildings of his chemical plant. For this, an elevated place was equipped and several rows of chairs and benches were installed. The equipped room accommodated up to 400 people. At first, readings were organized exclusively for the workers of this plant, then outsiders began to come to them. The Novoye Slovo newspaper in No. 6 for 1906 wrote: “Readings are arranged in an interesting way: priority is given to topics on contemporary social and political issues. Thus, the “Manifesto of October 17 and its meaning”, “On the election of representatives to the State Duma”, “What is a constitutional government”, “On the freedom of the press”, “On the freedom of the individual”, “Black Hundred”, etc. were read. Then with vague pictures in a few evenings, the full course "History of the Russian State" was read. Fine literature was also read, namely: the works of Turgenev, Tolstoy, A. Tolstoy, Chekhov, Garshin, Nekrasov, Nikitin, Koltsov, Lermontov, Pushkin, Yakukhtin, Korolenko, Grigorovich, Gorbunov, Gogol, O. Moshkov, N. Uspensky, Pisemsky , Danilevsky, Surikov, and others. In addition to reading, a number of paintings on geography, natural science, astronomy, and so on were shown. Readings are attended by both workers and peasants very willingly, even children and old people from villages 7 versts away from the factory come ... The hall is always crowded. Now in some villages there is even a queue to attend these readings: in each family, some remain to guard the house, while others go to the readings.
Nikolai Polikarpovich did not stand aside in the days of mourning after the death of L.N. Tolstoy, writing on this occasion a short note in the provincial newspaper "Kaluga Courier". And back in 1902, he was listed as the head of the meteorological station in the village of Bolshaya Litashevka. He was interested in the coordinates of the location of Borovsk, for which he wrote a letter to the Nikolaev Main Physical Observatory in St. Petersburg.
Nikolai Polikarpovich was especially interested in the history of the city of Borovsk and its district. Like no one else at that time, he realized the importance of his native places in the historical context of the Russian state. In the preface of the 1st volume of “Materials for the history of the city of Borovsk and its county” published by him in 1913, he wrote: “More than fifteen years ago I decided to write a complete history of my native city of Borovsk and its county. When the work plan was worked out, I was amazed at its size and the fact that my life would hardly be enough to carry it out. Therefore, I had to abandon the big plan and I decided to write popular historical essays and published them in various magazines, newspapers and in publications of historical and archaeological commissions. But this work did not satisfy me, it was not the work that I aspired to, and I soon stopped it and again took up the implementation of the original plan ... ".
Before writing the history of his native places, Nikolai Polikarpovich began to collect material. Why, in 1901, he applied to the provincial statistical committee with an application for permission to work "in the Committee to extract the information and information he needed" on the history of Borovsk and its county. In 1914, on October 4, he appealed to the Kaluga Provincial Zemstvo Assembly with a request "to donate one copy of all publications of the Kaluga Provincial Zemstvo Administration published from 1864 to 1915, as well as all the might to come out again." To the population, pursuing the same goal, he addressed through the newspapers Kaluga Gubernskiye Vedomosti No. 26 and Kaluga Courier No. 28 for 1910: “Assuming to write the history of the city of Borovsk and its district, I appeal to all persons who have documents related to the city of Borovsk and its county, notes, manuscripts, memoirs, letters, books, brochures, magazines and newspapers, reports, announcements, appeals and other printed publications in which articles and correspondence about the city of Borovsk and its county, portraits of public figures and heroes, maps, plans, paintings, photographs of various types, fortifications, monuments, churches, buildings, etc., coins of the Borovsky princes, etc., provide your addresses and, if possible, send copies and descriptions from them . I especially ask the authors of notes, correspondence, articles and individual publications who published their works in newspapers and periodicals not to refuse to send them 1 copy.
The material collected in this way was systematized and published by Nikolay Polikarpovich in the Borovo printing house of A.V. Muratova in the form of "Materials for the history of the city of Borovsk and its county". In the 1st volume, published in 1913, he published legends, rituals, customs, beliefs, signs, divination, proverbs, sayings, fairy tales, songs of crippled passers-by and songs of residents of the city of Borovsk and its county (free help in correcting these materials he was given by A.P. Smirnov), in the II volume, published in 1914 - copies from the documents of his archive. Both volumes were published at the expense of various individuals and institutions, the income from which was to be used for the publication of further materials on the history of the city of Borovsk and its county. In particular, it was reported that the third volume was being prepared for publication.
Nikolai Polikarpovich had to identify, collect documents and record historical information alone. He wrote about this in the same preface to Volume I of the “Materials…”: “But, unfortunately, I didn’t get anything and I have to work alone. But the work is enormous, especially in the archives, where there is no complete description of documents and one has to look for papers that are not related to the city of Borovsk and its county, papers necessary for the history of the city of Borovsk and its county. Nevertheless, Nikolai Polikarpovich does not despair and further writes: “Releasing this work, I again appeal to all persons with a convincing request not to refuse to inform me about everything that only concerns the city of Borovsk and its county. […] Authors, in whose works something refers to the city of Borovsk and its county, as well as all private and administrative institutions that publish their reports and charters, I earnestly ask you not to refuse to send me one copy; I will be very grateful for everything sent. Apparently, this time he was heard, which he considered necessary to mention in the preface to Volume II of “Materials ...”, thanking all those who sent their articles and articles of other authors, as well as the Borovskaya district zemstvo council.
In various archaeological and historical publications and local newspapers, Glukharev published popular historical essays and notes about the Borovsky region. For example, in 1901-1902. in the magazine "Picturesque Russia" he published popular historical essays and notes "The Miraculous Icon of St. Ryzhkoy”, “Monuments of the Tarutinsky battle”, “Prince M.K. Volkonsky - defender of the city of Borovsk”, “Boyar Fedosya Prokopyevna Morozova”. In 1912, in the "Jubilee Collection in Memory of the Patriotic War of 1812" (Kaluga, Issue 1), together with I.F. Tsvetkov, he published an article about the events that took place in October 1812 in the Borovsky district.
Simultaneously with his publishing activities, Nikolai Polikarpovich was collecting items on the history of Borovsk and its district. As a result, he created the first private Museum of the Local Territory and the Patriotic War of 1812 in Borovsk and the neighboring district. Presumably, this happened in 1912 in connection with the centenary of the victory of the Russian army in the Patriotic War of 1812. The replenishment of its funds came at the expense of the collector and partly due to the same newspaper appeals to the population. So, in the May issue of the newspaper "Borovskaya Zhizn" in 1917, Nikolai Polikarpovich. wrote: “N.P. Glukharev, Borovsk, Gostiny Dvor. Buys antique items made of iron, cast iron, lead, tin, copper, silver, gold, glass, faience and porcelain. Buys copper, bronze, silver and gold coins, medals, tokens and anniversary badges. Buys books, geographical maps, plans, paintings, engravings, manuscripts, archival documents, all kinds of antiques and objects.
After the October events of 1917 over the N.P. Glukharev was threatened. House on the street. Kaluga No. 120, where he lived with his family and where the museum was located, in 1919. local newly-minted officials from the Soviet government intended for eviction and the placement of a nursery in it. To prevent this from happening, Nikolai Polikarpovich turned to the Collegium for Museum Affairs of the NKP for help. He was supported by the members of the Organizing Committee of the 1st Experimental Station for Public Education under the NCP (the village branch of the station was located in the Borovsky and Maloyaroslavets counties, and N.P. Glukharev was his employee), in their appeal to the Board dated October 28, 1919 Borovsky Uezdkom The RCP reacted to this in a manner traditional for officialdom, which found vivid expression in the publication of one of its members, who wished to remain anonymous. In the Kaluga newspaper "Commune" for July 30, 1919 we read: "... you see, he wrote a statement to the center, which instructed the county control to investigate this case, it still lies under the cloth with us, and the bourgeois live happily ever after..." (underlined me - N.L.).
Yet, despite the obstacles created, the "bourgeois" N.P. Glukharev "as a collector of the museum in the city of Borovsk" received a safe-conduct No. 10562/11123 on December 17, 1919. The All-Russian Collegium for Museum Affairs appointed Nikolai Polikarpovich himself as the head of the museum.
But on May 31, 1920, Nikolai Polikarpovich died "from a stroke." This was recorded in the parish register of the Old Believer Church of All Saints, whose parishioner Nikolai Polikarpovich and his entire family were for a long time. He was confessed, communed and buried by Archpriest Karp Teterkin. What caused the “strike” is still unknown. The place of burial of this remarkable person is also not known (there is no record of this in the metric). The fate of the museum, library and archive, the house itself and the Glukharev family living in it was a foregone conclusion.
The Department of Museum Affairs was initially forced to take steps to maintain the museum. In June 1920, he asked Borovsky UONO to transfer the museum, archive and library to N.P. Glukharev for the temporary use of the 1st Experimental Station for Public Education for scientific processing, proposed to appoint a new head. Until October 16, 1920, the museum was examined by employees of the Museum Affairs Department of A.A. Rybnikov and A.M. Skvortsov. However, nothing is known about the results of the survey. It is only known that in 1920 only a watchman worked at the museum. 282,760 rubles were required for the maintenance of the museum, for its equipment, heating, lighting, replenishment of collections, for the purchase of showcases, cabinets, for restoration and expert work, for the purchase of stationery and household affairs.
What did the museum look like, what were the composition of its collections, how many items did N.P. Glukharev, it is currently impossible to say. Only a few records from the early 1920s have survived. 20th century One is on a torn piece of paper, drawn in pencil by an unknown person.
First, the icons were listed: 12 months - 10 inches, 12 holidays - 7 inches, 1 Savior, 1 Kyiv. miracles, 1 folding for each day, 1 Resurrection - 12 apex, 1 Mother of God of Korsun, 1 Tenderness of evil hearts, 1 Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, 1 Pafnuty Borovsky, 1 St. John the Baptist in the desert, 1 Panteleimon the healer, 1 Polycarp, Pelageya.
Then 1 measure of towels, pillowcases, various needlework, various gizmos: porcelain, paintings with beads embroidered and wool, 1 painting “The Flight of Joseph and Mary”, 1 painting “Peter I on a boat during a storm”, 1 painting with beads Mazurok, scales, 3 antique candlesticks, ladders, copper icons, measures of flour and vegetables, 80 or more icons in total. (Is this an inventory of objects, or an inventory of family property, or maybe all at once? - N.L.) Another is the record of the provincial museum instructor A. Pokrovsky, who examined the collections of the already closed museum in 1923. He singled out the objects and collections, in his opinion, of museum value: a cast-iron bell of the 17th century, photographs of the monasteries and churches of Borovsk and the county, including 35 pieces, various weapons, 20 pieces. and 2 small cannons, a silk Old Believer sundress, an Old Believer cloth undershirt and porcelain in the amount of 32 pcs. At the same time, A. Pokrovsky noted that the Kaluga Historical Museum needs such items, “since the Historical Museum either does not have such items at all or is available in limited quantities ...”.
In fact, the closing of the museum took place, obviously, by 1922. So, the head of the Borovsky UONO, a certain Siblievsky, in his message to the Gubmuseum on January 13, 1922, reported that the museum, by order of the People's Commissariat of Education, was transferred to the Borovsky UONO along with the building. By order of the PEC, part of the building was transferred to the children's sanatorium of the health department, and the exhibits had to be piled up. Negotiations on the further existence of the museum with representatives of the People's Commissariat of Education, who promised to help in the "systematization of the museum" and its management, ended to no avail. The museum, according to Siblievsky, cannot provide for itself without the help of the state. “Therefore, I ask you to send a representative to inspect the museum and resolve the issue of its further existence. - I believe that it will be possible to take valuable exhibits to the Provincial Museum, liquidating ours completely. In any case, I ask you to resolve the issue of the museum in Borovsk hastily.” The solution of this issue "on paper" dragged on for several years.
Only between July 5 and 15, 1924, museum items and part of the library of N.P. Glukharev was handed over to the Pafnutiev Monastery-Museum for the organization on its territory of the State Museum of History, Art and Local Lore. Museum items, according to the same head of the Borovsky UONO Siblievsky, which he expressed on March 14, 1923 at a meeting of senior officials of the UONO entrusted to him, suitable for household use and having no artistic value, were to be used for the needs of cultural and educational institutions. As for the other part of the library, it was supposed to be kept by Lidia Ivanovna Glukhareva.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that, despite the rather sad fate that befell the museum collection and the library of N.P. Glukharev, the memory of him, and first of all, as a local historian, educator and philanthropist, is carefully preserved by the employees of the Borovsky Museum of Local History. Two books are currently kept here with glued ornamented sheets and the inscription “Library of Nikolai Polikarpovich Glukharev” on them (donated by S.Ya. Glukharev), a barn book with newspaper clippings and notes by N.P. Glukharev, prepared by him for publication in the III volume of "Materials ..." (were published in 1998 by local historian Alexei Alekseevich Antipov from Borovsk). The museum also houses the aforementioned “Anniversary collection in memory of the Patriotic War of 1812” (Kaluga, 1912. Issue 1), “Materials for the history of the city of Borovsk and its county. Copies from N.P. Glukharev” (Borovsk, 1914. Vol. 2) and several issues of the newspaper “Borovskaya Zhizn”. In the city of Borovsk on the street. Kaluga, in the house where N.P. Glukharev spent his youth, on the initiative of the director of the Borovsky Museum of History and Local Lore A.M. Morozov in 2010 a memorial plaque was installed. Nikolai Polikarpovich is remembered and appreciated in the city of Balabanov: in 2014, the city library was given his name, and at the entrance to it a memorial plaque with a text about the founder of a free reading room in the village of Balobonova and a bust of N.P. Glukharev, made by sculptor Sergei Lopukhov.
*All dates up to February 1918 are given in the old style, subsequent dates in the new style. The article was written mainly on the basis of archival documents of the GAKO and BICM.
N.P. Loshkareva,
Researcher
Borovsky Historical
- local history museum
The topic of raising children is revealed in the book “The Royal Family. Return”, published in February 2018 by the Sirius Publishing House on the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Royal Family.
When guests come to someone's house, they are shown albums with family photos. In any case, they did it before. A family album is an invaluable document that reflects the history of a family and captures important events. Moments of happiness, good memories. A family album is a silent witness, sometimes speaking more than entire volumes of books.
Let's take a look at the family album of the Royal Family.
We see in the photographs in the film beautiful, spiritualized faces, filled with beauty, purity, inner dignity.
The last shots of the film remind us that the whole family, together with the children, was killed in the basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918. We will return to this issue at the end of the lecture.
For now, let's talk about education. This topic excites every caring parent: how is it right to raise children?
Of course, in this matter, none of us is immune from mistakes. But in order to make fewer of them and choose the right direction in raising children, we get acquainted with the experience of other families.
And the Royal family is a model of such a family, with which you want to take an example.
They say you should judge by the fruits. Not by good intentions or beautiful speeches, but by the result of efforts.
The fruits of education are children. Let's get to know the fruits.
Fruits of upbringing
In front of you in the photo is Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and her two older daughters in the form of sisters of mercy. When the First World War began, Alexandra Feodorovna first opened hospitals and warehouses for medicines in the palaces belonging to the family. Together with his older daughters, he graduated from the courses of surgical nurses. Olga was at that time incomplete 19 years old, and Tatyana 17 years old. Young girls assisted in operations, did dressings to the wounded.
Imagine a picture of a hospital: bloody wounds, smells, operations lasting several hours ...
It's beautiful in staged photos. But weekdays were different.
How was the day of the women of the Royal family?
I will cite the recollections of an eyewitness, Anna Vyrubova, a lady-in-waiting and friend of the Empress, who, together with her, graduated from nursing courses:
“I will describe one such morning. At 9 1/2 o'clock we arrived at the hospital and immediately set to work - bandaging, often seriously wounded; The Empress and the Grand Duchesses were present at all operations. Standing behind the surgeon, the Empress, like every operating sister, handed out sterilized instruments, cotton wool and bandages, took away amputated legs and arms, bandaged gangrene wounds, not shunning anything and steadfastly enduring the smells and terrible pictures of a military hospital during the war. I explain to myself that she was a congenital sister of mercy ... "
Another description from the memoirs of A. Vyrubova:
“A terribly difficult and tiring time has begun. From early morning until late at night the feverish activity did not stop. We got up early, sometimes went to bed at two in the morning. At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Empress stopped every day at the Church of the Sign, to see the miraculous image, and from there we went to work in the infirmary. Having had a quick breakfast, the Empress devoted the whole day to inspecting other hospitals.
When the ambulance trains arrived, the Empress and the Grand Duchesses did dressings without sitting down for a minute, from 9 o'clock (s) sometimes until 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
In addition, Olga and Tatyana, together with Alexandra Fedorovna, visited hospitals in the western and central cities of Russia. Both opened committees, in which, according to General A.A. Mosolov, very reasonably and sensibly worked and chaired. The Olginsky Committee was intended to help the families of front-line soldiers and crippled soldiers, the Tatyana Committee - to help refugees. This committee provided assistance to three and a half million refugees.
Let me remind you that the girls were 19 and 17 years old.
And what did they do junior princesses? They also worked in the hospital. Maria was 15, Anastasia - 13 years old. Their duties included visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals. They read aloud to the wounded, wrote letters home under their dictation, entertained them by playing checkers with them, arranging impromptu concerts. In addition, the girls sewed underwear for the soldiers and their families, and prepared dressings.
And being so young, they were witnesses of death. In one of the letters, Anastasia wrote: "Two unfortunate people died, and yesterday we were sitting next to them."
General A.A. Mosolov recalled:
“In all four (sisters) it was noticeable that from early childhood they were inspired by a sense of duty. Everything they did was imbued with thoroughness in execution. This was especially expressed in the two Elders. They not only carried out the duties of ordinary sisters of mercy in the full sense of the word, but also assisted with great skill during operations. This was much commented on in society and blamed on the Empress. I find that with the crystal purity of the Tsar's Daughters, this, of course, could not have a bad effect on them, and was a consistent step of the Empress as a teacher.
Thus, when the war began - the most difficult time for the country, the Empress, as the true mother of all the people and her children, stood at the forefront of the battle along with her children.
Can you give examples of the wives of modern or even not so modern rulers who would work as surgical nurses from morning to night?
Truly, the history of mankind does not know such an example of the selfless service of royalty to their people.
And where was the youngest child in difficult wartime, Tsarevich Alexei?
As a true heir to the throne, as a man, he, along with his father, was also at the forefront of the battle - at the front. When the father took his son to Headquarters, he was barely 12 years old (this is the age of a fifth grader!). Alexei endured all the hardships of camp life on an equal footing with adults, participated in parades. And yet he continued to learn! His teachers went to the front together with the Tsarevich.
And now put yourself in the place of a mother who must let her 12-year-old son go to the front! In addition, the situation is aggravated by the fact that the boy is sick with hemophilia, blood incoagulability. And from any scratch or bruise, he seriously suffers and gets sick.
And yet men are where they are supposed to be.
At the end of August 1915, Nicholas II became the head of the Russian army, which had previously suffered one defeat after another. Exhausted physically and morally, the fighters began to surrender in tens of thousands. As historian Anton Kersnovsky writes: “If June was a month of bloody losses, then August 1915 can be called a month of mass surrenders. A military catastrophe approached Russia, but this catastrophe was prevented by its Tsar..
The decision of the Sovereign to assume the duties of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief caused acute discontent among both the liberal part of society and the ministers. They tried to force him to abandon this decision. But the Sovereign showed a firm will, his decision remained unchanged.
And it was the right decision. In a short time, the general crisis on the Eastern Front was overcome: the supply of shells, weapons, food was established, the morale of the army rose. In 1916, the “dead” Russian army responded with a powerful offensive. The emperor was confident in the impending victory. The victory parade was scheduled for the summer of 1917.
And all this happened in front of my son. Isn't this the best example for raising a true heir to the throne!
The British politician W. Churchill gave a high appraisal to the efforts of Russia and its Sovereign.
It should be noted that many foreign figures, among whom were even enemies, appreciated the contribution of the Emperor and Empress not only to Russia's victory in the First World War, but also to the development of the country as a whole. But only not the ministers of the court, not members of the royal family, not the notorious liberals, always dissatisfied and condemning, always standing in opposition to the authorities. They judged themselves. But they themselves have not grown up to the spiritual and moral heights of the Royal family.
So, as we have seen, parents educate children by example of their own life. If they affirmed something in words, then the same thing was necessarily manifested in deeds.
Dynastic factor
Parents - Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, in turn, were brought up in the same way, taking the life of their parents as a model.
Agree that the higher the position in society, the greater the responsibility. The head of the country bears a huge responsibility. And if power is inherited, then the parent also has the responsibility to prepare children for the burden of power.
It took the House of Romanov 300 years for Nicholas II to appear in Russia.
Recall that the ancestor of the royal family of the Romanovs is Mikhail Fedorovich, who was, in fact, democratically elected to reign. In 1613, representatives of all the provinces of Russia gathered in Kostroma in the Ipatiev Monastery, where they signed a Letter, in which an oath was given to be faithful to the tsar and all his descendants.
Mikhail Fedorovich and almost every subsequent tsar improved Russia, enlarged its territory, brought it to a new level. Almost two dozen sovereigns have succeeded each other on the throne in 300 years. They strengthened a sense of responsibility, a sense of duty, devotion and love for the Fatherland, forged certain qualities and character traits: honor, devotion, a sense of duty, concern for citizens, high efficiency, the ability to think big, set high goals.
In life, we often met examples of how in a family of musicians, where there were several generations of musicians, a brilliant composer or virtuoso performer was born (for example, the Bach dynasty, the Strauss dynasty). How children were born in a family of scientists who also became scientists and made brilliant discoveries (dynasties of Curie, Bernoulli, Pascal, Kapitz).
In a dynasty, each of the descendants can take everything that is most valuable from their parents and other ancestors, develop, improve, increase this baggage and pass it on to their children.
The same applies to the monarchical Romanov Dynasty: Nicholas II was the representative of the family who concentrated in himself the best qualities of a monarch and a person.
There is no doubt that Alexei Nikolaevich, if he had not been killed, would have been able to adequately continue the reign of his parent and would have raised Russia to an unprecedented height, at which Russia could be a world leader not only in terms of economic indicators, but also a leader in spiritual terms, setting a more spiritual vector of development for the whole world.
Thus, the dynastic factor in terms of raising descendants plays an important role. That is why it is so important to know your roots and rely on your family.
The process of education in the royal family
Let's touch details of education, from which, after all, it developed in the Romanov family.
Sometimes at meetings we are told that the royal family had much more opportunities, and therefore we will never raise our children in this way. Let's figure it out.
Indeed, the royal people had great opportunities in material terms: they lived in palaces, could dress in luxurious outfits, adorn themselves with jewelry, afford any daily routine, travel. Those. live in luxury and bliss.
What do we see in the photos? The women of the Royal family have modest dresses, simple hairstyles, often in their hands - needlework.
The king on weekdays in a simple working uniform. The interior is the simplest, conducive to work. And Nicholas II often worked well after midnight, as they say, until the last document. He said that until he cleared the table of papers, he would not go to sleep.
The girls lived two by two in a room. Slept on simple hard beds. We got up early. Take a cold bath in the morning. The food was the simplest, no frills. The younger girls wore the clothes of the older ones.
Children have never been idle. In their free time, they were engaged in drawing, needlework, playing music, reading a lot of artistic and spiritual literature. Alexandra Fedorovna set an example for them, every free minute of which was occupied with needlework or reading books. Many things, sewn or knitted by the hands of the princesses, were intended not only for their relatives, but for poor people, for soldiers and members of their families.
Often, Alexandra Fedorovna arranged charity bazaars, considerable funds from these events went to support various charitable causes. Brought up in the rules of caring for people herself, the empress also taught children. Personal funds did not go to outfits and jewelry, but to support the work of 33 charitable committees organized by the Empress. Also, Nicholas II never ignored any request for assistance.
Children in this followed the example of their parents. So, when Princess Olga, when she received the right to manage part of her personal money at the age of 20, the first thing she turned to her parents was with a request to allow her to pay for the treatment of a disabled child. Going out for walks, she often saw this child hobbled about on crutches.
The children learned a lot. And not only in the morning, but also after lunch and a walk. Their educational program was much wider than in the schools of that time and even than in many modern schools. And in this, of course, there are great opportunities for royal people. They had the best teachers, whom the mother herself selected for the education of the children.
But they also had a huge responsibility: each of the princesses could potentially become the wife of a representative of the highest authority in another country, i.e. queen, or to occupy a high position in any European court, or to remain in Russia and benefit the country in the chosen field.
Children could miss classes only due to illness or in connection with important state events. Possessing many opportunities, the royal children did not have other opportunities that children from ordinary families have: they could not walk as much as they wanted, go wherever they wanted, spend time in idleness, in inappropriate companies, behave noisily, be insolent to elders ... A high position imposes their limitations.
The friends of the royal children were not those who had a high position in society, but, above all, those who possessed the qualities of good morals. Often the children of the servants were among the friends of the children.
Tsarevich Alexei was very attached to his "uncle" sailor Derevenko. He closely followed the lives of ordinary people. Cesarevitch said: “When I am king, there will be no poor and unfortunate! I want everyone to be happy!”
Children were brought up in strict requirements of an attentive attitude towards each person and never boasted of their high position. The emperor always repeated:
“The higher the person, the sooner he should help everyone and never remind his position in his address; this is how my children should be!”
Since the father, in connection with his imperial duties, was busy most of the time, the mother spent most of the time with the children.
Alexandra Fedorovna herself breast-fed all her children, although it was customary in noble families at that time to attract nurses. And therefore, in the literal sense, with mother's milk, children received the warmth and power of love.
For each of her five children, Alexandra Fedorovna found her own special approach, in accordance with the characteristics of the children's character.
Alexandra Fedorovna combined wonderful qualities, so necessary in the upbringing of children. She had "adamantine" (diamond) willpower, as people who knew her noted. Firmness and severity, combined with inner moral purity and spirituality, were the basis for children's souls, thanks to which the best conditions were created for their growth and development, and no dirt of the world could stain them.
Here are just some of the rules that the Empress instilled in her children:
- simplicity and modesty in everything,
- sensitivity to people and their needs,
- the ability to realize if wrong, and ask for forgiveness after rudeness and disobedience,
- no gossip and gossip,
- lack of arrogance.
The Empress kept a diary, writing down quotes from books close to her heart, and her thoughts. Everything that Alexandra Fedorovna once wrote down in her diary, she applied everything in her life.
Here is how family harmony was achieved for her:
“The happiness of life is made up of individual minutes, of small pleasures - from a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment and countless small but kind thoughts and sincere feelings. Love also needs its daily bread.”
“Each house has its own trials, but in a true house peace reigns, which cannot be disturbed by earthly storms. Home is a place of warmth and tenderness. It is necessary to speak in the house only with love. In such a house only beauty and gentleness of character can be brought up. One of the misfortunes of our time is that quiet family evenings are crowded out by business, entertainment, rotation in society.
These lines are still relevant today.
Let's watch the film "Purity of Thoughts and Purity of Soul", based on the book "Repentance will save Russia. About the royal family.
Atmosphere in the family
Using the example of the royal family, we see that, regardless of the social status or capabilities of the family, true harmony in the family is created by all family members and, of course, first of all, by the tireless efforts of parents, especially a woman.
And the basis of such relationships is love.
It must be said that married Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Feodorovna for love, which was at that time an unprecedented luxury for royal persons, most of whom are forced to enter into marriages of convenience.
They lived in peace and harmony for almost a quarter of a century, and this union has never been overshadowed by any quarrel or serious disagreement. And years after the wedding, they loved each other like newlyweds.
And in this atmosphere of love their children grew up.
Relatives recalled:
“Touching was their love and direct adoration of their parents and mutual friendship. Never have I seen such harmony in such a large family. A walk with the Sovereign or a joint tea party was considered a festive event.
Another eyewitness account, reflecting a very important feature of the royal family:
“During the Family Talks, their conversation was always far from any petty gossip that affects someone's family life and cast any shadow on one of the parties. For many days and evenings, when I had the joy of being in close communion with the Royal Family, I never once heard even a hint of gossip, which has always animated all classes of both our and foreign society so much. Attempts by certain intimates to break this custom were invariably met with silence and a change in conversation. In this regard, the Family of my Sovereign was the only one I have ever known: everyone gossiped about them, even close relatives, they did not gossip about anyone».
And one more important circumstance. The life of the king and queen was permeated not only with mutual love, but all illumined by love for God.
The sovereign did a lot to ensure that the people had faith in God. Under him, 30,300 churches were built, 429 monasteries were opened.
It was during his reign that the canonizations of saints were resumed after a 200-year break. One of the most significant is the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, which took place at the personal request of Nicholas II in 1903.
Under Nicholas II, more saints were canonized than under any of the Romanovs, more churches were built than under any other ruler, and a record number of monasteries were opened.
Summarize, what is the main thing in raising children (on the example of the Royal family):
- creating a space of love, care, conditions for revealing the best qualities of a child (morality and purity in everything come to the fore, this should be the red thread in the process of education);
- to teach children by example of their lives: the way of life of parents is much more important than the use of edifying words or punishments, since children simply absorb and copy this example in their actions;
- to instill a sense of responsibility, a sense of duty not only to their loved ones, but to other people, the Motherland, the planet;
- faith in God's providence, which allows you to accept life circumstances with humility and love.
"Love is stronger than death"
This close-knit, friendly family had to endure terrible upheavals.
In March 1917, after the imaginary abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, the whole family is imprisoned in their own house. This was followed by painful, humiliating months of exile, first in Tobolsk, then in Yekaterinburg.
The family maintained the highest dignity, tried to live an ordinary life as much as possible.
In a letter from Tobolsk, Olga conveyed the last words of her father addressed to the people:
“The father asked me to convey to all those who remained devoted to him, and to those on whom they can have influence, so that they do not avenge him, since he has forgiven everyone and prays for everyone so that they do not avenge themselves and that they remember that something the evil that is now in the world will be even stronger, but that it is not evil that will conquer evil, but only love ... "
On the night of July 16-17, in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, the Romanov family was killed.
The clairvoyant elder Nikolai Guryanov was given the opportunity to see with his spiritual gaze the last hours of the life of the Tsar's family. He reported that the family was not just killed, they were tortured for a long time - they tortured their children in front of their parents who turned gray with grief.
According to the testimony of the elder, the last words of the Sovereign were the words of Jesus Christ: "Father, let them go, for they do not know what they are doing."
In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church ranked the Royal Family among the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. But so far in Russia there is no recognition of the Royal family that these outstanding people deserve.
Conclusion
Until we realize how morally pure and spiritually exalted the members of the Royal family were, nothing in Russia will change for the better.
We must realize the gravity of the created. The sin of regicide lies on everyone: on those who killed, and on those who gave orders, and who did not protect, and who pretended that it did not concern him ... And we, as the descendants of all these people, also have this sin.
We must realize that the murder of the Royal Family was preceded by another grave sin - the sin of betrayal. Many coveted money, the promises of positions. Greed and a thirst for power led to treason and a coup, and only then, on this "fertile" ground, the Bolsheviks seized power. And then followed a civil war, famines, repressions, concentration camps ... Millions of victims of the people - as retribution for a grave sin committed. Haven't we paid too much to atone for this guilt?
Without understanding the causes and their consequences, we will continue to make the same mistakes.
We must realize that for 100 years of our history we have gone the wrong way, that it was impossible to kill the innocent king and his children.
And when everyone comes to this conclusion, that is, makes a practically change of mind in connection with the events of 100 years ago, then it will happen repentance of the nation, because repentance means a change of mind, awareness.
July 17, 2018 is the date of the 100th anniversary of the brutal murder of the Royal Family. This is an important frontier facing the country and people. We must acknowledge the mistakes of our great-grandfathers and stop repeating lies and slander. We must stop looking at the Royal Family through the eyes of their killers. We must recognize the high morality and culture of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, realize their enormous contribution to the good of their country, the unconditional value of their life for Russia.
It is after this that something will begin to change in Russia for the better.
The symbolic return of the Royal Family is our return to the ideals of morality, honor, dignity, nobility, decency in all spheres of human activity.
New facts to replace old lies:
Royal family. Return / auto-stat. T.N. Mikushina, O.A. Ivanova, E.Yu. Ilyin. - Omsk: Sirius Publishing House, 2018. - 200 p.
Where can our children get a good, quality education? How to raise children to believers? What makes up the notorious and elusive “all-round development of the personality”? We are not the first in the history of mankind to face these problems. And before us, parents lived on earth who quite successfully solved the same problems.
In the biographies, and especially in the autobiographies of interesting, outstanding people, we can see how that very “comprehensively developed personality” gradually grows out of a small child. We can see how, from tiny patches, from random circumstances and purposeful pedagogical efforts formed Human.
Of course, these are memories of only one child from this family. In addition, far from all of us will be able to see - after all, not everything can be tracked and recorded, even when such a task is set. Not everything can be applied to the upbringing and education of our own children. But, of course, nothing prevents us from drawing some conclusions for ourselves. In any case, this story is a real experience of living people.
So, the priest Nikolai Mikhailovich Bogolyubov (1872–1934) lived in pre-revolutionary Kyiv. Rector of the temple at the Kiev Imperial University of St. Vladimir; teacher of the Law of God, geography, Russian language, didactics; philosopher. In the future - a confessor who spent several years in Soviet prisons. Member of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. A student of the archbishop, then Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky). Vladyka Anthony even presented Fr. Nikolai with his “doctor's” cross, the insignia of a doctor of theology.
When the father of the family began teaching at the university, he was given a three-room apartment. After the revolution, the Bogolyubov family lived in a rural house. And then the dispossessed pop wandered with his family in strange corners, without a fixed place of residence. In such living conditions, future academicians grew up.
The Faith of Scientists
That scientists are often believers and ecclesiastics is, of course, not surprising. But the fact that Father Nikolai Bogolyubov managed to pass on his faith to his children, to pass on in such a way that he remained for life, seems like a feat and a miracle.
From the memoirs of Alexei Nikolaevich Bogolyubov, we learn that the Bogolyubov children were fond of studying sacred history already in childhood. I went to church with my parents. They were completely immersed in Orthodox culture - for example, at Christmas, future academicians "glorified" them.
How exactly did Father Nikolai teach his sons the faith? Let's say the obvious right away: he himself was not only a priest, not only a theologian, but also a deeply religious person. That is, the main educator and teacher of future academicians was himself a true Christian.
And Father Nikolai not only served in the church himself, but took his children with him. For example, he will take his sons by the hands and walk with them on foot, through the field, to the temple. And he talks to them along the way.
The children served their priest-father during divine services. And the pope also introduced his sons to those bishops with whom he himself communicated, with whom he concelebrated. It is difficult to say exactly how these meetings took place; Aleksey Nikolaevich did not cover these topics in detail. But in his memoirs, he said that the memory of these meetings, the memory of such divine services, was preserved by the sons of Father Nikolai forever.
Father example
The children saw that their dad was working, that work was interesting, work was important
Father Nikolai was a busy man: serving as a priest, teaching, and scientific work. But he tried to spend more time with the children - for example, he worked a lot at home. His work was not easy, requiring seemingly solitude - for example, work on a doctoral dissertation. But Father Nikolai arranged a workplace for himself in his apartment, in the corner of the common dining room.
He worked - and the children saw that their dad was working. Children saw that there is work, scientific work, work is interesting, work is important.
Here is how the son of Father Nikolai Alexey writes about this:
“The interests of the sons developed under the direct influence of the knowledge of the father. They see that the father is reading an English book. “Daddy, do you understand everything?” - "Yes!" This means that they also need to understand everything, and interest in languages is growing by itself. Then there is an interest in writing. Dad sits and writes a book (he was working on his doctoral dissertation...). Both sons, the eldest was then about seven, also decided to write books: they sewed themselves a small notebook and settled down in different corners of their father's office.
Exactly aspiration parents to education - education in the broadest sense - gives rise to this very aspiration in children as well. In such a situation, the apple will probably not fall far from the apple tree.
Elementary education
Father Nikolai Bogolyubov planned to send the children to the 1st Alexander Classical Gymnasium. But at the same time, parents were engaged in “preparation for school” and initial education with their children themselves, at home.
Alexey Nikolaevich writes about it this way:
“Parents were engaged with them: the father taught his sons German, French, and a little later English. He developed in them a love for languages, prepared them for entry into another world, unfamiliar at first. He also taught all subjects, including calligraphy. Later, he himself prepared his sons for entering the gymnasium ... Mother ... taught her sons to read music and play the piano ... ".
If the father's pedagogical activity in relation to his children turned out to be very successful, then the mother "lacked rigor" to finish teaching her sons to the end.
Parents purposefully, consciously, organizedly opened the world of knowledge to their children
So parents purposefully, consciously, in an organized manner opened the world of science, the world of knowledge to their children. So education in itself became an interesting and significant thing in life for children. Because they were taught by their relatives and beloved parents in their own home.
But Father Nikolai did not at all oppose home schooling to school. When the eldest son Nikolai was 8 years old, Father Nikolai sent him to the preparatory class of the gymnasium. A year later, nine-year-old Nikolai - his family name was Kotey - moved to the first grade (approximately the fifth grade of the current high school), and eight-year-old Alexei entered the preparatory one.
Basic secondary education
When Nikolai graduated from the second grade of the gymnasium (Aleksey, respectively, the first), Archpriest Nikolai Bogolyubov and his family were forced to leave Kiev - from street shelling, "hunger, cold ... from petty tyrants, with whom the people's power was so rich." Now the university teacher continued to serve in a parish in a distant village. In this village there was a seven-year school, where self-taught enthusiasts taught. “Considering the level of knowledge, the Bogolyubov brothers were accepted into the sixth and seventh grades of the school. It was in the autumn of 1920,” recalls Aleksey Nikolaevich. Alexei, who was accepted into the sixth grade of a rural school, was 10 years old, Nikolai, a seventh grader, was 11.
Here is how Alexey Nikolaevich writes about this school, recalling his brother Nikolai:
“The fact that he became a scientist was, of course, a considerable merit of this rural school. By the way, the certificate of completion of the seven-year plan was the only document of education he received throughout his life.
The disorganization of the rural school during the Civil War turned out to be, oddly enough, a big plus in the education of children. It seems that the main task of the teachers was simply to keep the education of children in this difficult time for our entire land, and they did it as best they could, but clearly in good faith. Education here was so unsystematized that the eldest son of Nikolai's father, after graduating from the seventh grade ... again went to the seventh grade of the same school. To learn a little more. And this is “on the advice of the father.”
Rural labor has again become an occasion for communication with children, another form of their upbringing
During this time of famine, Father Nikolai combined his work as a parish priest with hard agricultural labor in order to somehow feed his family. But this work itself again became an occasion for communication with children, another form of their upbringing and education. This time, labor training: for example,
the father “taught his sons to thresh bread with flails. This operation was carried out by the father and his sons, three of them, moving in a circle ... ”recalls Aleksey Nikolaevich.
The children took care of the cattle and the garden. And all this - together with the parents.
Although the children studied at school, Father Nikolai worked with them at home. It was organized, systematic home schooling:
“Despite the difficulties and the lack of textbooks, he continued to study languages with his sons. He introduced them to Latin and Greek and continued to study French with them,” recalls Aleksey Nikolaevich.
Many years later, the eldest son Kotya, already a well-known scientist, worked for the benefit of science and the country in the closed Arzamas-16. One of the colleagues once looked to the priest's son when he was listening to the radio in some unknown language. It turned out - in Hebrew. During the years of the Civil War, in times of famine, illness and labor, Father Nikolai really helped children learn ancient languages. This is how not just scientists-specialists grew up, but also erudite, polyglots, those very “comprehensively educated people”. People of great culture.
Note: just like the father of the Artobolevskys, the father of the Bogolyubovs worked with the children at home “in parallel” with schooling. Both Father Artobolevsky and Father Bogolyubov did not help the children with school assignments - they themselves were "teachers" and "leaders" of their children's education.
Becoming a mathematician
What was the overall approach to the education of children in this family, what was the ratio of school and family education, is well illustrated by the study of mathematics by the future mathematical genius - the eldest son of the Bogolyubovs.
In the preparatory class of the gymnasium (elementary school level), the unique abilities of the future great mathematician and theoretical physicist N.N. Bogolyubov not only did not appear in any way, but even “there were some disagreements with arithmetic, and one day the teacher told him: “There will be no mathematics from you, Kolya!”. Such a remark is a consolation to every parent struggling with “underachieving” children.
Then, in a rural seven-year plan, barefoot and hungry 11-year-old N.N. Bogolyubov followed the example and advice of a self-taught teacher, a lawyer: he simply solved all the problems "from the famous problem book of Malinin-Burenin." Then “Kotya begged” from the algebra teacher “the algebra problem book for Shaposhnikov and Walter and re-solved all the problems. This was the second stage,” says Alexey Nikolaevich.
Thus, the basis of Nikolai Bogolyubov's passion for mathematics was the independent work of the child, the school in this case served as support for this independent work, for the work and passion of this particular child. A very, very important thing. This moment can be traced in most of the studied biographies of great scientists, outstanding people: not special special schools, not multi-story programs, not the number of hours in the schedule grid, and even more so, not fancy electronic gadgets allow the child to become interested in the subject, get carried away by it, figure it out, discover the beauty of work , the beauty of science, the love of knowledge, the thirst for education ...
And at the next stage in the study of mathematics by the future great mathematician, the father-priest again plays an important role. A.N. Bogolyubov writes:
“Apparently, the first to notice the extraordinary talent of Nikolai was his father ... My father decided to study mathematical analysis with him, which he himself was once interested in. The year 1922 began, and Nikolai was already 12 years old. My father got two of Grenville's textbooks on differential and integral calculus from someone. Despite the fact that he himself had never seriously studied mathematics, now, having nothing in his specialty, he decided to study analysis himself ... He began to study Grenville and at the same time tried to explain to Nikolai the basics of mathematical analysis. It soon turned out that the student quickly overtook the teacher.
Father Nikolai was not a mathematician. But he still began to teach his son - simply because the priest was truly attentive to his son. And he really tried to help the child, as they say, "to reveal his potential." Father-teacher doesn't even teach here - but together with a child masters a new and very difficult subject.
The father-teacher, together with the child, masters a new and very difficult subject - and this also requires humility
But teaching a child a subject that you don’t know yourself is not only difficult. It also requires humility. In this situation, Father Nikolai allows the student - his son - to see his own inability. But at the same time, Father Nikolai showed his son his desire for education.
We complain that we don't have time, that the textbooks are bad, that there is no money for tutors. And Father Nikolai served in the village church, grinding flour himself in order to feed his wife and children. Hunger, need: the children were barefoot and undressed - there was literally nothing to go to school, there was only one shoe for two sons, and that one was for women ... And the father of the family finds time to do mathematics with the child. Integral calculus...
And then there was an opportunity to return to Kyiv. So the Bogolyubovs again ended up in their native city. As a priest, Father Nikolai could no longer teach at the university (although he was offered to resign under the condition). But relations with university teachers have been preserved. And taking advantage of this, Father Nikolai Bogolyubov took his Kotya to the university. And here the flower of Russian science has gathered. Those who were not shot, those who could not or did not want to emigrate, preferred the calmer Kyiv to the bloody Petrograd. Therefore, Father Nikolai managed to introduce his son to Academician D.A. Grave, a major representative of the St. Petersburg mathematical school, who happened to be in the city at that time.
The priest thought that his teenage boy was well prepared to enter the institute. Indeed, by the age of 13, Kotya “worked through a number of textbooks in Russian, English and French, studied the five-volume treatise by O.D. Khvolson in physics. By the way, my father's language classes responded here.
But the boy did not go to college. It turned out that Kotya already had knowledge no lower than a graduate of the mathematical faculty of the university. and D.A. Grave told priest Nikolai Bogolyubov that "it made no sense for Nikolai to attend lectures at any higher educational institution, you need to work with him individually." At the age of 15, the boy defended his graduate work - what is now called a candidate. In April 1930, the general meeting of the Physics and Mathematics Department of VUAN awarded Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolyubov the degree of Doctor of Mathematical Sciences.
Educational space
Of course, Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolyubov is a genius. But after all, this genius had to open up, manifest itself, grow. In addition, two more prominent scientists grew up in this family. So we are not talking about the phenomenon of Nikolai Bogolyubov - but about the phenomenon of the Bogolyubov family. And since we have the opportunity to see the "educational trajectory" of only the eldest son, let's see what it is like.
At the base here - family educational space in which the child grows. Where culture, book culture, scientific culture are the background of life, an organic part of life at home.
At the base here also example parents. Let's say an active example. And at the base - formed attachment to parents. And another such banal thing: there is a large amount of time children spend with their parents.
That is, the amount of time that children spend in this very educational space, with these parents, in this atmosphere. So this space, this example could really affect the children.
The father deals with the children - and so sets the tone for the entire education of the child. Sets the attitude to study and work
And besides this elusive, but such an important atmosphere, there is also a very specific thing: the conscious work of parents. When a parent perceives himself as a teacher. After all, this is where the child's perception of his parents as teachers begins. We see how a busy father of a family sits at a desk with a small child and carefully, systematically deals with him. And then we see how an even busier and at the same time literally impoverished father is doing the same thing. He deals with children - and so sets the tone for the entire education of the child, no matter where and how this child has studied yet. Sets attitude to study and work.
Undoubtedly, this is attitude turned out to be more important than the subjects that Father Nikolai did with the children. Although the subjects turned out to be important, and knowledge is important. But more importantly, attitude. This is precisely what those children who graduate from expensive gymnasiums, study with tutors around the clock - and at the exit the mountain gives birth to a tiny mouse: nothing of themselves, indifferent, cultureless and unattached, shapeless young man ...
Where did the future academician Bogolyubov study? In the gymnasium for two or three years. A couple more years in a rural school. Then, too, there were some courses. Classes with private teachers, sometimes excellent teachers. Now here, now there, now with textbooks, now without them. Here there was no exclusively home education, and there was no cult of home education. But the house in this family was the place of education for children.
Education began at home. Home education has always accompanied education in educational institutions. Not only the father was the teacher of his children. But among teachers at every stage of education, the father was a teacher too.
But in this education of the Bogolyubov children, the most important role of the father is not even that he taught his children, not that he sat down with them at the desk. And that he directed this education. In that he put together all the disparate pieces of his children's education. He built all the elements of training-upbringing-education. With love and attention, he led each of his children along the same "individual educational trajectory" to the very "realization of creative abilities." The father attentively and sensitively supervised the self-education of his children, created conditions for continuous self-education child, supported in children the desire for education. In the toughest conditions...
Here is such a story. Family history. History of the culture of attitude towards children. relationship to education. A relationship that has borne fruit. A relationship that we can not only marvel at, but also learn from.
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna wrote: “Parents should be the way they want to see their children - not in words, but in deeds. They should teach their children by the example of their lives.” Indeed, Tsar Nicholas and Tsaritsa Alexandra throughout their earthly life, by their own example, taught children mercy, compassion, and brotherly love.
In 2013, the cleric of the Novo-Tikhvin Convent, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Hieromonk Jerome (Mironov) told the participants of the VIII Congress of Orthodox teachers of the Yekaterinburg Metropolis about the "Spiritual and Moral Aspects of Raising Children in the Royal Family". His work was included in the Collection of Reports, which was published following the results of the Congress with the blessing of Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye.
We bring to your attention the text of the report, in which the author, using the example of the Royal Family, shows the principles of raising children in a modern family.
Spiritual and moral aspects of raising children in the royal family
Autocratic monarchs rarely have time to express their views in lengthy conceptual documents. Monarchs act on the basis of their world view; they preach by action, providing others with the theoretical basis for these actions.
In pre-Petrine times, education and upbringing in Russia were under the jurisdiction of the Church and the clergy, which determined their national and religious-moral character.
From Peter I, attention is drawn both to the teaching of useful knowledge, and to the religious and moral enlightenment of the people, and the Church and the clergy were instructed to follow the work of religious and moral education. From the same time, the institution of domestic upbringing and education began, mainly in the houses of the nobility and aristocracy. For this, educators were discharged from France, Switzerland and other European countries. But, despite this, training and education under Peter and Catherine II were distinguished by the spirit of patriotism and were strictly national. This made it possible to obtain for an independent life and a useful social life people who were vigorous in spirit and body, who loved their people and their Fatherland, who were devoted to the teachings of the Orthodox Faith, their Supreme Power and the legitimate Government.
Great harm was inflicted on the Russian people and the Russian state during the reign of Emperor Alexander I, when the Pole Adam Czartoryski was the all-powerful lord in the matter of education.
Under Alexander II, liberal reforms in education continued, and only Alexander III clearly and definitely led the Russian national policy in the field of education. His successor, the Passion-Bearer Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich saw himself as a successor to his father's policy in this area.
It will not be far from the truth that the main ideas of the “Moscow Collection” by K.P. Pobedonostsev, published at the very beginning of the reign (in 1896), were identical with the original views of the king. So, in any case, contemporaries of this edition believed.
The Moscow Collection, touching on the question of public education, remarks: “The concept of a public school is a true concept, but unfortunately it has been overreached everywhere by the new school. According to the popular concept, the school teaches to read, write and count; but inseparably connected with this, it teaches to know God and to love Him, and to be afraid, to love the Fatherland, to honor parents.
And the family of the Passion-Bearer Emperor Nicholas II can serve as the most striking example of raising children in this spirit.
To see a person in everyone ... In the Royal Family, this was not just a principle, but a way of life. The well-known simplicity and modesty of this family were not feigned, besides, they did not bring her popularity at all. On the contrary, most of all the king and queen were condemned precisely for these qualities. In private life, the Royal Family did not make any distinctions between social levels at all. First of all, a person, his individual qualities were valued.
The views of the sovereign and his family on human relationships were chivalrously noble, pure, imbued with goodwill, and the atmosphere in which their homely, modest, monotonous life flowed was clear proof of this. During family conversations, their conversation was always far from any petty gossip that affected someone's family life and cast any shadow on one of their sides. The sovereign demanded from his children respect and attention to the needs of any person, even in small things, which, as you know, make up the whole.
Nikolai Dmitrievich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky recalled: “The sovereign swam very well and loved to swim. After a long rowing on a deuce in the Finnish skerries, we moored to some island and swam. In these rare chance meetings, the sovereign showed extraordinary simplicity in communication. When we were in the water, the Tsarevich, who had been playing on the shore (he did not swim), knocked my things, neatly folded on a bench, into the sand. I started to get out of the water, wanting to pick up things, as there was a wind and they were scattered; His Majesty, turning to me, said: "Leave things, Alexei dropped them, he must collect them" - and, turning to the heir, forced him to pick up my things.
Let's think about whether we miss our children precisely in such trifles, insignificant at first glance, do we allow, thanks to "trifles", egoism and inattention to other people to develop in a fragile child's soul?
Here is another of the main principles of education: do not hide children from life, not only in its joyful, but also in its mournful manifestations. And, it would seem, how easy it was to surround the emperor's children with only pleasant things! But this simply did not occur to the august parents. This was fully manifested during the First World War, when not only the empress herself, but also her young daughters worked in hospitals and visited the wounded.
They also raised their son. In order to show the boy, the heir, the real life of his future subjects, the suffering of the war, the sovereign took Alexei Nikolayevich to the front with him, despite the fact that this brought some damage to his health and teaching.
“As for children, it is the duty of parents to prepare them for life, for any trials that God will send them,” wrote Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
But at the same time, the royal couple protected the children from everything indecent. Yes, the prince and princess saw not only the beauty, but also the sorrow of life. But they did not know the abominations of vice. The elder princesses saw the purulent wounds of the soldiers, the amputated arms and legs. They could feel the stench of wounds - they did not feel the stench of human vices even in custody, when the bawdy guards tried in every possible way to offend the purity of the young girls.
There was not a drop of parental selfishness in the emperor and empress. The great love for children, which Alexandra Fedorovna lived, did not turn into exaltation of children.
What did the Holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna teach the children? From a letter to daughter Olga: “My girl, you must remember that one of the main things is to be polite and not rude in both manners and words. Rude words in the mouths of children are more than ugly. Always think about your behavior, be honest, listen to your elders ... "
“Children should learn self-denial,” the Empress reasoned. They can't have everything they want. They must learn to give up their own desires for the sake of other people. They should also learn to be caring. A carefree person always causes harm and pain unintentionally, but simply through negligence. In order to show care, not much is needed - a word of encouragement when someone is in trouble, a little tenderness when the other looks sad, in time to come to the aid of someone who is tired. Children must learn to be helpful to their parents and to each other. They can do this without demanding undue attention, without causing others worries and anxiety because of themselves. As soon as they grow up a little, children should learn to rely on themselves, learn to do without the help of others, in order to become strong and independent.
The Christian principles of the life of the royal couple became the principles of raising children: “Love is the greatest thing in the world. We must try to ensure that everything we do, our whole life is for the benefit of other people. We must live in such a way that we do not harm anyone, so that our life serves as an example for others ...
Even what we do not like, we must do with love and diligence, and we will stop seeing what was unpleasant to us. We must help not only when we are asked to do so, but we ourselves must look for an opportunity to help ... Fill your days with love. Forget yourself and remember others. If someone needs your kindness, then show this kindness immediately, now. Tomorrow may be too late. Love does not grow, it does not suddenly become great and perfect all by itself, but it takes time and constant care... To always love is a duty” (Martyr Empress Alexandra Fedorovna).
Why is obedience necessary in children?
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna would not hesitate to answer this question. “Listen, dear,” she writes to her most “difficult” daughter, Olga, “you should try to be more obedient. When I tell you to do something, do it right away, even if others are busy with their own things. Learn obedience while you are young, and you will learn to obey God when you are older.”
Obedience is necessary for children not in order to amuse parental pride, but in order to learn to obey God; acquire reasonable obedience, i.e. Christian virtue is one of the conditions of salvation. And if sensible parents project their children's obedience to the highest - to God, naturally, they will try to behave themselves in a Christian way.
Teaching children obedience, the empress is strict and consistent: “Let’s say there are things that you like to do, but you know that I forbade them, try not to do them, even if my prohibition seems strange to you, and you don’t understand its reasons, but I know it, and I know that it is for your benefit. Quickly follow my orders, and do not waste time to see if others are doing. You must set a good example and others will follow. Inspire them to obey me and dad and, of course, Marie and S.I. I myself was a little girl, I was taught to obey, and I am grateful to those who taught me, were strict with me. Quite right: there are parental requirements that children must, of course, fulfill. Prohibitions should be reasonable, not numerous, but clear: if it is impossible, then it is impossible. However, why is the spirit of the order not felt in Alexandra Feodorovna's letter? Only maternal love and warmth. Because love determined everything in the life of the empress, and mentoring was generally alien to her as a Christian.
The Royal Family is an example of a truly Orthodox upbringing, instilling in children such charitable character traits as kindness, honesty, simplicity, meekness, forgiveness, sympathy, modesty. We see what great attention was paid to Orthodox education.
The entire external and spiritual way of life of the Royal Family was a typical example of the pure, patriarchal life of a simple Russian religious family. All children were brought up in conditions of extreme modesty and simplicity, they were taught not to love luxury. The emperor and empress were faithful to the principles of their own upbringing: camp beds without pillows, cold baths, simple food (beef, pork, borscht and buckwheat porridge, boiled fish, fruits).
From childhood, the sovereign was accustomed to physical work and taught his children to it from an early age. Tsarevich Alexei in Alexandria Park, near Peterhof, himself sowed, grew and harvested wheat.
While in captivity, the royal children and their father, at their own request, prepared firewood for the winter, grew vegetables in the garden, cleared the paths from snow, etc., and, as their letters testify, they did this with great pleasure.
These children did not live in a monastery. They revolved in a world full of luxury and debauchery, but remained modest and pure, as if nothing dirty and cruel had touched their souls. The whole life of this family remained the same, the children grew up in an atmosphere of love and purity.
Thus, children in the Royal Family were brought up strictly, but with love for God, parents and others. Despite the fact that Nicholas II was the head of a huge state, he raised his children in strictness, without any excesses and could serve as an example for any Christian. An example of upbringing in this family is not a single phenomenon, but a whole layer in our national spiritual culture.
List of sources:
- Kravtsova M.V. Education of children on the example of the Holy Royal Martyrs / M.V. Kravtsov. M.: Blago, 2003. - 288 p.
- Oldenburg S.S. Reign of Emperor Nicholas II. T. I / S.S. Oldenburg. Belgrade: Publication of the Society for the Distribution of Russian National and Patriotic Literature, 1939. - 384 p.
- Royal Children: Sat. / Comp.: N.K. Bonetskaya. M.: Sretensky monastery, 2005. - 448 p.
