“Maturity” test in Russian classical gymnasium: bureaucracy, teachers, gymnasium students, and documentation (late XIX - early XX centuries)

This article based on previously unknown archival documents is the first attempt to analyze the standard requirements and actual practices of graduation exams (“maturity tests”) in Russian gymnasiums at the end of the 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries, with the First Boys’ Gymnasium of Orel being used as an illustration. The main focus is given to the bureaucratic procedure of graduation exams as a common practice. Also the article studies common relations between the gymnasium students, the teaching staff and the gymnasium’s administration as well as officials from the Ministry of Public Education in the course of final exams. It is concluded that the practices and results of the graduation examinations (“maturity tests”), by far, failed to correspond to the required standards of classical education in Russian gymnasiums. This discrepancy strongly affected the mentality and conduct of the gymnasium students, as well as the teachers’ and administration’s work.