“If this evil is really persistent...”: a dispute at pedagogical council’s meeting of Orel male gymnasium about cheating during tests of maturity (1903)

On the basis of previously unknown archive documents the article addresses the problem of cheating at final exams (tests of maturity) in Russian gymnasiums in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The article presents a microanalysis of an incident of cheating which occurred in Orel Boys’ Gymnasium in 1903 during final exams which provided for university entrance qualification. The author focuses on reconstructing the cultural context around the incident, in keeping with the new local history approach in historiography. It is concluded that the entire combination of a number of social, mental, moral and bureaucratic factors impeded the elimination of cheating during exams.