Upbringing of a revolutionary: the concept of «free education» in elite schools in late XIX - early XX centuries Russia

The paper explores the influence of pedagogical concept of «free education» on the formation of the world view of adolescents from the noble-intelligent families of Russia at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. Attention is drawn to the fact that this pedagogical setup could be fully realized only in elite educational institutions. It is concluded that the «new ideological parents» and «advanced schools» carried out a single educational approach, focused on formation of a special intelligentsia opposition, accepting, or even supporting, all means in the struggle of «citizens» for «freedom». Despite the fact that the group of «new ideological parents» could not have been a mass phenomenon by the beginning of the XX century, it, at the same time, spread its influence both to the rest of educated population of the country and to the Ministry of Public Education, which, in favor of advanced pedagogy, agreed on the widespread introduction of individual ideas of free education in secondary schools. As a result of purposeful efforts of family and school, young people from the early youth were drawn into political activity, which became one of the essential factors of the revolutionization of the Russian society.