Vilnius Boys' Gymnasiums () were two

secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

institutions that existed in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

while it was part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. The 1st Gymnasium was opened in 1803 and closed in 1918. The 1st and 2nd gymnasiums were located on the premises of

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

, abolished after the failed

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

of 1830. Vilnius Girls' Gymnasium was established in 1860.

History

1st Gymnasium

On 4 April 1803, Tsar

Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (, ; – ), nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first king of Congress Poland from 1815, and the grand duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russian Empire, Russia during the chaotic perio ...

signed a decree which transformed the preparatory school attached to the Chief School of the Duchy of Lithuania (i.e.

) into a gymnasium. It remained attached to and run by the university. Initially, the education lasted six years. The gymnasium had deep historical traditions and was closely associated with the university. It shared the premises and library, as well as some faculty. Of nine teachers in 1803, five were Vilnius University alumni, two had studied abroad, and two were priests. Therefore, it acted as a

feeder school A college-preparatory school (often shortened to prep school, preparatory school, college prep school or college prep academy) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily design ...

for the university. Out of 115 professors who taught at the university in 1803–1832, 15 were graduates of the gymnasium. The secret student societies

Philomaths The Philomaths, or Philomath Society ( or ''Towarzystwo Filomatów'', or ''Filomatų draugija''; from the Greek φιλομαθεῖς "lovers of knowledge"), was a secret student organization that existed from 1817 to 1823 at the Imperial U ...

and

Filaret Association The Filaret Association (also translated as ''filaret(e)s'', ''philaret(e)s''; , , ''Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Pożytecznej Zabawy'', ''filareci''; from the Greek ''philáretos'', "lovers of virtue") was a secret student organization created in 18 ...

were discovered when a student of the gymnasium wrote on the blackboard "Long live the

Constitution of 3 May 1791 The Constitution of 3 May 1791, titled the Government Act, was a written constitution for the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that was adopted by the Great Sejm that met between 1788 and 1792. The Commonwealth was a dual monarchy comprising th ...

!" in May 1823. Tsarist police launched an investigation that spread to schools in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Kėdainiai Kėdainiai () is one of the oldest List of cities in Lithuania, cities in Lithuania. It is located north of Lithuania's second largest city Kaunas on the banks of the Nevėžis River. Kėdainiai were first mentioned in the 1372 Livonian Chronicle ...

Panevėžys Panevėžys () is the fifth-largest List of cities in Lithuania, city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, eighth-most-populous city in the Baltic States. it occupies with 89,100 inhabitants. As defined by Eu ...

Svislach Svislach or Svisloch is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Svislach District. It is connected with the town Vawkavysk by a railroad branch and with Grodno city by a highway. As of 2025, it has a popula ...

as well as

Kražiai College The Kražiai College () was a Jesuit college (equivalent to a modern secondary school) in Kražiai, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later Russian Empire. Established in 1616 in hopes to educate new generations of Counter-Reformation, anti-Protestants ...

. Many students were expelled or sentenced to

katorga Katorga (, ; from medieval and modern ; and Ottoman Turkish: , ) was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoners were sent to remote penal colonies in vast uninhabited a ...

. After the closure of Vilnius University in 1832, the gymnasium inherited some remnants of its collection, including books, numismatic samples, scientific implements. In 1843, after the closure of the university and Catholic monasteries, several old bequests by nobles were consolidated to establish a dormitory that would provide free housing for 65 students. Inspired by the

Revolutions of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

, several students started organizing an uprising against the Tsarist regime. However, the plot was discovered and 191 people were arrested; 74 were current or former gymnasium students. In 1849, the school was prohibited to admit children of tax-paying classes (i.e. non-nobles) without special individual exemptions. At the time, the school had 73 such students, all sons of craftsmen. In 1871, to prevent modern and revolutionary ideas, Minister of Education

Dmitry Tolstoy Count Dmitry Andreyevich Tolstoy (; , Moscow – , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian politician and a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia (1866). He belonged to the comital branch of the Tolstoy family. Career Tolstoy graduated f ...

reorganized gymnasiums (including the one in Vilnius) to eight-year schools based on "classical" curriculum which spent as much as 40% of the time on

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

s. In 1803, the 1st Gymnasium had nine teachers and 280 students. The number of students increased to 420 in 1805 and 753 in 1828. In 1826–1827, more than 90% of students were

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. The number of students decreased to 375 in 1835–1836, but jumped to 880 in 1845. During the

Uprising of 1863 The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last in ...

, the number of students decreased by 271 or 28% as students were expelled or voluntarily left in support of the uprising. In 1880, about 600 students studied at the 1st Gymnasium, about 80% of which were the children of officials and nobles. About 10% of the children were

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, while the rest were almost evenly split between

and

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

s. The 1st Gymnasium was officially closed on 23 February 1918.

2nd Gymnasium

After the failed

, the university and many other schools were closed. Bucking the trend, the 2nd Boys' Gymnasium was opened in 1834. In October 1838, it was transformed into Vilnius

Institute for Nobles Institute for Nobles () was a form of boys-only boarding school in the Russian Empire that provided secondary education in the 19th century. It was similar to a high school or gymnasium but was only open to boys from noble families, and student ...

() meant for 100 sons of nobles. The institute was meant as a tool of

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

; its students were encouraged to join the

Russian Imperial Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

. As such, it did not become popular among the

Lithuanian nobles The Lithuanian nobility () or ''szlachta'' of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (, ) was historically a legally privileged hereditary elite class in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (including during period of foreign r ...

and was closed in 1863. A new gymnasium in Vilnius was established in 1868 when a was opened. The concept of "real schools" was borrowed from Germany. They provided more practical education (i.e. math and science) than the "classical" gymnasiums, but its graduates could not apply to universities. The , including the one in Vilnius, were reorganized into in 1872. The 2nd Gymnasium was reestablished in 1884 after a reorganization of a six-year

progymnasium ''Gymnasium'' (and variations of the word) is a term in various European languages for a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university. It is comparable to the US English term '' preparatory high school'' or th ...

. In the early 20th century, tuition cost 75

Russian rubles The ruble or rouble (; symbol: ₽; ISO code: RUB) is the currency of the Russian Federation. Banknotes and coins are issued by the Central Bank of Russia, which is Russia's monetary authority independent of all other government bodies. Article ...

at the 2nd Gymnasium. Both gymnasiums lived side by side, separated by a fence, and had a common house of prayer –

Saints Cyril and Methodius Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are ...

Church with icons painted by local academic Ivan Trutnev.Виноградов А. А. Путеводитель по городу Вильне и его окрестностям. Со многими рисунками и новейшим планом, составленным по Высочайше конфирмованному. В 2-х частях. — 2-е изд. — Вильна, 1908. — С. 103

People of the 1st Gymnasium

Directors

Pyotr Bessonov Pyotr Alexeyevich Bessonov or (in the pre-1917 spelling) Bezsonov (Пётр Алексе́евич Бессо́нов; 1828–1898) was a leading Russian folklorist who collected and published many East Slavic and South Slavic folk songs. The son ...

, director from 1865, Russian

folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

Notable faculty

* , physicist, professor * , karaim hachan, professor *

Nestor Kukolnik Nestor Vasilievich Kukolnik () (1809–1868) was a Russian playwright and prose writer of Carpatho-Rusyn origin. Immensely popular during the early part of his career, his works were subsequently dismissed as sententious and sentimental. Today, he ...

, playwright Emeryk_Hutten_Czapski

Notable students

Vladimir Beneshevich Vladimir Nicolayevich Beneshevich (; August 9, 1874 – January 17, 1938) was a Russian scholar of Byzantine history and canon law, and a philologer and paleographer of the manuscripts in that sphere. Beneshevich was a corresponding-member of the ...

, graduated in 1893, historian *

César Cui César Antonovich Cui (; ; ; 26 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, member of the Belyayev circle and The Five – a group of composers combined by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. As an officer o ...

, composer and Engineer-General *

Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Emeryk Hutten-Czapski (), Leliwa coat of arms (17 October 1828 – 23 July 1896) was a Polish Count, scholar, ardent historical collector and numismatist. Hutten-Czapski was born Emeryk Zachariasz Mikołaj Hutten-Czapski in the town of Stańkava ...

, 1846, Count, numismatist *

Jan Czerski Jan Stanisław Franciszek Czerski, also known as Ivan Dementievich Chersky () or Yan Dominikovich Chersky (; – ), was a Polish, Belarusian, and Russian paleontologist, osteologist, geologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia. He was exi ...

, geographer *

Simonas Daukantas Simonas Daukantas (; 28 October 1793 – 6 December 1864) was a Lithuanian/Samogitian historian, writer, and ethnographer. One of the pioneers of the Lithuanian National Revival, he is credited as the author of the first book on the history of Li ...

, historian *

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...

, Bolshevik revolutionary *

Vasily Kachalov Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov (; – 30 September 1948), was one of Russia's most renowned actors. He worked closely and often with Konstantin Stanislavski. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. It was Kachalov who playe ...

, 1894, theatre actor * Adam Kirkor, 1838, ethnographer, publisher * Ignaty Krachkovsky, 1901, academic, arabist * , historian, archaeologist *

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

, 1885, Chief of State and then First Marshal of Poland *

Pyotr Stolypin Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Аркадьевич Столыпин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian statesman who served as the third Prime Minister of Russia, prime minister and the Ministry ...

, Prime Minister of the Russian Empire *

Eustachy Tyszkiewicz Count Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, Leliwa coat of arms, (18 April 1814 – 27 August 1873) was a Polish noble from the Tyszkiewicz family. He was an archaeologist and historian of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and White Ruthenia, then part of th ...

, archaeologist *

Walery Antoni Wróblewski Walery Antoni Wróblewski (; 27 December 1836 – 5 August 1908) was a Polish-Belarusian and French revolutionary, politician, general of Paris Commune and commander of January Uprising and one of the leaders of the Reds (January Uprising), Reds ...

, 1853, revolutionary * , 1826, Belarusian ethnographer

People of the 2nd Gymnasium

Notable faculty

Yefim Karsky Yefim Fyodorovich Karsky (, ; , older name form) ( – 29 April 1931) was a Belarusians, Belarusian linguist, Slavist, ethnographer, and paleographer, founder of Belarusian language, Belarusian linguistics, literary studies and paleography, a me ...

'','' from 1885, linguist and ethnographer

Notable students

Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the phi ...

, philosopher *

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky (, ; August 14, 1875, Novgorod – November 20, 1957, New York City) was a Russian-Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay of the early 20th-century city ...

, 1895, painter *

Nikolay Krestinsky Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky (; 13 October 1883 – 15 March 1938) was a Soviet Bolshevik revolutionary and politician who served as the Responsible Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Born in Mogilev to a Ukrainia ...

, 1901, Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician * Ivan Solonevich, philosopher, historian, writer *

Branislaw Tarashkyevich Branislaw Adamavich Tarashkyevich (; 20 January 1892 – 29 November 1938) was a Belarusian public figure, politician, and linguist. He first standardized the modern Belarusian language in the early 20th century. The standard was later Russifi ...

, 1911, Belarusian linguist *

Antanas Tumėnas Antanas Tumėnas (13 May 1880 in Kurkliečiai, near Rokiškis – 8 February 1946 in Bachmanning, Austria) was a Lithuanian politician, teacher, professor of law, judge, 8th Prime Minister of Lithuania, Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the ...

, 1900, Prime Minister of Lithuania

Citations and references

Cited sources

* *

External links

Alphabet list of more than 3000 surnames
of graduates of the 1st Vilnius Gymnasium in 1837–1903, 2nd Vilnius Gymnasium in 1876–1902, Vilnius Teachers' Institute in 1878–1900 and the Shklov Cadet Corps in 1785–1824 (in Russian) {{coord missing, Lithuania Defunct schools in Vilnius 1803 establishments in the Russian Empire Educational institutions established in 1803 Educational institutions disestablished in 1918 History of education in Lithuania

History

1st Gymnasium

2nd Gymnasium

People of the 1st Gymnasium

Directors

Notable faculty

Notable students

People of the 2nd Gymnasium

Notable faculty

Notable students

Citations and references

Cited sources

Further reading

External links