Ophirian «catechism» by prince M. M. Shcherbatov: the problem of genre

The article studies the utopia of Prince M. M. Shcherbatov “Journey to the land of Ophir” (1784) in a new literary-historical way. The author explores the pedagogical ideal, represented by Ophir schools. In the centre of the study there are the “small books” containing moral and civil “catechisms”, which are taught in school along with other subjects and illustrate the essence of the Ophirian educational system. There are no special works on “catechisms” despite the fact that they often have been mentioned in academic literature. “Catechisms” are of a particular interest to the history of literature. They reflect not only the fragments of the writer’s biography, his view of modern pedagogical theories, but also describe the image of a man and citizen, the true “Son of the Motherland”. The author analyzes literary sources of “catechisms”, among which there are the works of S. Pufendorf, an Augustinian monk I. Felbiger, “Instruction” of Catherine the Great and writer’s own pedagogical texts. As a result, the author concludes that for Shcherbatov the ideal of school education was strongly connected with the truth of the Christian law.