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Facts in History

In 1701, in Moscow, the first secular state educational institution was opened in the Sukharev Tower.

It was the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences. Before that, most education had a religious focus but this school shifted the emphasis to practical and technical subjects.

The country urgently needed skilled professionals: sailors, engineers, and artillerymen. Tsar Peter I realized that training such specialists abroad was too expensive, so he decided to establish a domestic training system.

The teachers were both foreigners and Russians.

Students at the school included children of nobles, clerks, deacons, soldiers, and ordinary townspeople; children of serfs were not allowed to study there.

First, students learned basic skills (literacy and arithmetic), then moved on to more advanced subjects: geometry, geography, navigation, artillery, engineering, and so on. Upper--level students completed mandatory practical training.

BTW, the tower building was chosen for the school because the teachers needed a good view of the sky and the horizon to study astronomy and navigation. The building hasn’t survived to the present day; it was demolished in the mid 1930s due to the widening of Moscow’s streets.

In 1801, Emperor Paul I of Russia was murdered in his own bedroom at the Mikhaylovsky Castle in St. Petersburg.

A group of assailants, mostly dissatisfied officers, broke into his chambers. They didn’t like Paul’s unpredictable way of governing and the strict discipline that was characteristic of him. They forced the emperor to abdicate, and when he refused, violence broke out. Paul I died that night, and the throne passed to his son, Alexander I. The official announcement to the public claimed that the emperor had died of a stroke, but everyone knew the truth.

In 1901, the body of main leaders of Russian Orthodox Church --- Holy Synod claimed that a renown Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was no longer part of the Orthodox Church. They didn’t say he was cursed — they said Tolstoy himself had chosen to leave because of his beliefs, and they just made it public.

In his later years, Tolstoy disagreed with many Church's Dogmas and Sacraments, though he didn’t denied Jesus Christ and Christian morality. Church said he was spreading ideas that were against its teachings.

The Church also said that Tolstoy could come back if he changed his mind and remorse. But he didn’t, so the Church’s decision stayed unchanged.

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Facts in History