ON THE HISTORY OF TEACHING HISTORICAL DISCIPLINES IN RUSSIA: PROJECTS OF O. F. WALDHAUER AND V. V. BARTHOLD

The development of science and higher education including universities in 19th-century Russia raised a question related to the ways of further progress of the higher school and methods of teaching. In fact, the quantitative accumulation of knowledge and emergence of new disciplines led to a dilemma concerning the need to choose between specialisation (depth) and more general courses (vast scope). The leading scholars who were engaged in teaching at the turn of the twentieth century realised the acute character of this problem. V. V. Barthold, an orientalist, historian of science, and academician who taught at St Petersburg (Petrograd / Leningrad) university for over 30 years and O. F. Waldhauer, a historian of classical art who worked at the Hermitage Museum and the Institute of the History of Arts independently paid attention to this problem and came to a similar conclusion. They maintain that the depth of specialisation and practical training, i. e. seminars, work with visual material, and practical work with the leading specialists according to the German and British models (tutors) are key factors to successful education. The choice of courses for in-depth teaching has to depend not on the desire to balance all disciplines according to the amount of time spent on them but on their relevance and availability of the most detailed information. Other less developed disciplines could be covered within the general courses. Consequently, it is essential to take archival documents on the history of higher education in Russia into consideration while drawing up modern curricula as they reflect long-term experience of teaching by leading scholars.