Changes in the education system at the end of 19th century: great reforms of Alexander II and their importance for the system of engineering education

The author analyzes the key factors that determine the need for reform of the education system in the 1860s. Reforms are characterized by economic pragmatism and political liberalism. The author identifies their main directions: they are liberalization of the management system, codification of academic freedoms; reduction of class, national and political barriers to education; unification of the organization of the educational process throughout the Russian Empire; centralization of the management of the system of educational institutions of all types; the design of the Russian didactic-methodical system of training engineers (Russian method). The emphasis is made on the fact that one of the main conditions for the effectiveness of reforms carried out from above was the cooperation of the state and civil society institutions.