Description of the attraction
The building of the Rodionovsky Institute for Noble Maidens is located in the center of Kazan, on the street. Lev Lolstoy. The building was designed specifically for the women's institute. The authors of the project were architects M. P. Corinth, A. I. Peske and F. I. Petondi. Construction of the building lasted from 1838 to 1842. In 1841, the Women's Institute was opened. The building was built with funds bequeathed by Anna Petrovna Rodionova (1751 - 1827), with the "highest permission" of Empress Maria Feodorovna to establish the institute.
From the first year of its existence, the institute was very popular. In 1841, Emperor Nicholas I issued a decree and the institute officially became known as Rodionovsky. According to the institute's charter, girls aged 8 to 13 from families of nobles, merchants of the 1st and 2nd guilds and the clergy were admitted to it. For admission, it was necessary to pass exams. You had to know the first four rules of arithmetic and be able to write and read in Russian. Initially, training lasted 3 years, then training lasted 6 years (in three classes for two years). Since 1862, the training lasted eight years, and since 1911 it has been ten years.
The program was quite extensive. The institute studied disciplines such as the Law of God, arithmetic, geography, Russian language and literature, German and French, history, drawing, handicrafts and music. The aim of the institute was to give girls a comprehensive education.
The Rodionov Institute was a closed institution, and the living conditions in it could be called Spartan. The pupils were at the institute all year round, they were not allowed to go home for the summer holidays. The pupils studied from nine o'clock in the morning to six in the evening. There was only one day off - Sunday.
For the first 20 years the institute was headed by the most enlightened woman of that time - Elena Dmitrievna Zagoskina. Among her acquaintances were the writers P. D. Boborykin and L. N. Tolstoy, the composer Balakirev and many others. The reigning persons were frequent guests at the institute. Among the graduates of the Rodionov Institute, one can also name well-known names: the sisters Vera and Lydia Figner, the sister of Leo Tolstoy - Maria.
After the revolution, in 1918, the first demonstration school (commune) named after K. Marx was located in the building. The children of the killed Red Army soldiers and victims of the terror of the White Guards studied in it on state support. Then in the building there were alternately: Eastern Pedagogical, Tatar Pedagogical, Kazan Pedagogical Institutes.
In 1933-1936, according to the project of the architect Ashmarin, the third floor was added to the building. During the Great Patriotic War, a military hospital functioned in the building. From 1944 to the present time, the Kazan Suvorov military school has been located here.
