Out of school education in the second half of the XIX - early XX century

The author analyzes the different forms of non-formal education: Sunday school, people reading, libraries, public reading rooms, people's universities. They were designed to promote widespread literacy and culture among the general adult population illiterate lower classes and partly compensate for the lack of organized primary schools. According to the observations of the author, school education developed through public and private initiative, supported by the local government, the liberal intelligentsia and the clergy. An important role in the dissemination of knowledge extracurricular played Petersburg and Moscow literacy committees, publishing houses and libraries. The researcher concludes that the official school authorities feared the spread of revolutionary ideas through these forms of public education, and periodically imposed bans and restrictions on its institutions, impose censorship. Despite this, the non-formal education will be an additional form of education and self-education, a means of combating harmful habits. It expanded social and cultural horizons of uneducated lower classes.