Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi or Betskoy (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Бе́цкой; ) was an educational reformer in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
who served as
Catherine II
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
's advisor on education and President of the
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...
for thirty years (1764–94). Perhaps the crowning achievement of his long career was the establishment of
Russia's first unified system of
public education.
Life
Betskoy's parents were Prince
Ivan Trubetskoy
Prince Ivan Yurievich Trubetskoy (russian: Иван Юрьевич Трубецкой; 28 June 1667 – 27 January 1750 in Aleksandr Nevsky Monastery) was a Russian Field Marshal, promoted in 1728. Son of Yuriy Trubetskoy, as a member of t ...
, a Russian field marshal, and his Swedish mistress, Baroness von
Wrede
Wrede is a surname that includes two different noble families, the German princely one and Finnish-Swede noble family "von Wrede" that originated from Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern ...
. His surname is the abbreviated form of his father's.
He was born in
Stockholm, where Trubetskoy was held captive throughout the
Great Northern War, and went to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
to get a military education before joining a Danish cavalry regiment. It was in the Danish service that he sustained a fall from a horse which forced him to retire from the service. Field Marshal Trubetskoy, having no other sons but Betskoy, called him to the Russian Empire in 1729. At first he served as his father's
aide-de-camp but later would be sent on diplomatic missions to various capitals of Europe.
Betskoy was actively involved in a
coup d'etat that brought
Elizaveta Petrovna to the Russian throne. The grateful empress promoted him to General Major and asked him to attend
Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, whose daughter Catherine was selected as a bride for the Empress' nephew and heir, Grand Duke Peter. In truth, Betskoy had been on friendly terms with Johanna Elisabeth for two decades previous, their intimacy giving rise to rumours that Catherine was his biological daughter.
After Johanna Elisabeth was expelled from Russia in 1747, Betskoy found it necessary to lay down his offices and settle in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where he spent the following 15 years in commerce with the
Encyclopédistes
The Encyclopédistes () (also known in British English as Encyclopaedists, or in U.S. English as Encyclopedists) were members of the , a French writers' society, who contributed to the development of the ''Encyclopédie'' from June 1751 to Decembe ...
especially to
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
. And to
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...
, he was at least in correspondence with him. He was introduced to the highest echelons of the French aristocracy by his half-sister Princess
Anastasia Ivanovna, Landgravine von Hesse-Homburg (her first husband was Prince
Demetre Cantemir, ruler of
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...
).
Peter III of Russia recalled Betskoy to Russia and put him in charge of imperial palaces and gardens. Upon arriving to Saint Petersburg, Betskoy renewed his acquaintance with the sovereign's wife (and his own purported daughter), helping her depose Peter in 1762. His hopes to profit from his prominent share in the conspiracy were high. In her memoirs,
Ekaterina Dashkova recalls an episode when Betskoy importuned the Empress with questions like "Was I not the one who incited the Guards? Was I not the one who threw money to the people?"
Although Betskoy held no post of any consequence until 1764, when Catherine made him President of the Imperial Academy of Arts, he went on to become a pillar of the Russian establishment. His position at Catherine's court is not easy to classify. Some historians define his post as a "personal secretary"; others regard Betskoy as an "unofficial education minister" to the Empress. He was one of the few people who enjoyed unlimited access to the Tsarina on daily basis for most of her reign. It was at his suggestion that
Étienne Maurice Falconet
Étienne Maurice Falconet (1 December 1716 – 24 January 1791) was a French baroque, rococo and neoclassical sculptor, best-known for his equestrian statue of Peter the Great, the ''Bronze Horseman'' (1782), in St. Petersburg, Russia, and for ...
was commissioned to sculpt the ''
Bronze Horseman
The ''Bronze Horseman'' (russian: link=no, Медный всадник, literally "copper horseman") is an equestrian statue of Peter the Great in the Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was opened to the public on 7 (18) August ...
''; and it was he who engaged
Georg von Veldten to design a magnificent iron fence for the
Summer Garden
The Summer Garden (russian: Ле́тний сад, ''Letniy sad'') is a historic public garden that occupies an eponymous island between the Neva, Fontanka, Moika, and the Swan Canal in
downtown Saint Petersburg, Russia and shares its name w ...
.
Betskoy's influence continued unabated until the late 1780s when Catherine's tolerance towards the ideas of the Enlightenment began to be eroded and Betskoy was declared "reverting to childhood" on account of his advanced age. Death overtook him in his ninety-second year, when he had long been incapacitated by blindness. Betskoy never married and left his estates to a natural daughter who enjoyed Catherine's particular favour; she married
Jose de Ribas, a Spanish adventurer who founded the city of
Odessa.
Educational reform
In 1763, Betskoy presented to Catherine the ''Statute for the Education of the Youth of Both Sexes'', studded with citations from
Comenius
John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considere ...
,
John Locke, and Rousseau. The treatise contained a proposal to educate young Russians of both sexes in state
boarding schools, aimed at creating "a new race of men". Betskoy set forth a number of arguments for general education of children rather than specialized one: "in regenerating our subjects by an education founded on these principles, we will create... new citizens." Boarding schools were to be preferred to other institutions of education in accordance with Rousseau's notion that "isolating the pupils enabled their tutors to protect them from the vices of society."
The Empress endorsed his proposal and established the
Society for the Training of Well-Born Girls
An Institute for Noble Maidens () was a type of educational institution and finishing school in late Imperial Russia. It was devised by Ivan Betskoy as a female-only institution for girls of noble origin. Those were "Closed female institutes of th ...
, with Betskoy as a trustee. This so-called
Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens was the first female educational institution in Russia and one of the first in Europe. The Smolny was to become a training ground for Rousseau's ideas on education: the girlsviewed as the future centers of their familieswere protected from every pernicious influence and their moral education was given more prominence than intellectual one. The Empress personally maintained a correspondence with some of the pupils, perhaps viewing the school for women as a vindication of her own place at the pinnacle of Russian society.
For the students of this institution Betskoy and Catherine brought out an instruction entitled ''On the Duties of Man and Citizen''. This essay not only discussed the pupil's duties in regard to God and to society but also contained practical advice on health, hygiene, and other everyday matters. An extensive collection of Betskoy's aids and manuals was published in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
in 1775. This edition was revised and expanded to two volumes printed in 1789–1791.
Born out of wedlock himself and anxious to reduce the frequency of
infanticide, Betskoy found in illegitimate children and orphans an ideal material for implementing his educational theories. It was by his advice that two large
foundling
Foundling may refer to:
* An abandoned child, see child abandonment
* Foundling hospital, an institution where abandoned children were cared for
** Foundling Hospital, Dublin, founded 1704
** Foundling Hospital, Cork, founded 1737
** Foundling H ...
homes were established,
first in Moscow (1764) and then in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
(1770). The Saint Petersburg Foundling House was a precursor of the modern
Herzen University.
210 years of Herzen University
Official University site Not less potent was his encouragement of education for merchant's sons. Betskoy deplored the fact that "we have only two classes of society, either peasants or noblemen" and sought to spur the development of middle-class consciousness by establishing a commercial school in Moscow.
Further reading
*A.S. Lappo-Danilevsky. ''I.I. Betskoy and His System of Education''. SPb, 1904.
*P.M. Maykov. ''Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy: A Biography''. SPb, 1904.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betskoy, Ivan
Philanthropists from the Russian Empire
Age of Enlightenment
Politicians of the Russian Empire
Politicians from Stockholm
Denis Diderot
Trubetskoy family
1704 births
1795 deaths
Swedish emigrants to the Russian Empire
Swedish expatriates in Denmark
Educators from the Russian Empire
Burials at the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities