Russian Schools abroad. National identities, Soviet reforms and cosmopolitan education by Sergey I. Hessen (1887-1950)

Abstract: This article deals with the history of Russian emigrant schools in the 1920s and 1930s. The October revolution and the civil war that divided the country for two years prompted many Russians to emigrate abroad to European countries. It was a veritable diaspora. Animated by the hope of returning home once the revolutionary impetus had calmed down, the Russian emigrant intelligencija created a network of schools. In some European countries these were included in the national educational system, in others their existence depended only on the donations of fellow exiles. The first part presents a brief comparison between Russian schools in France and Czechoslovakia, bearing in mind that the Central Pedagogical Bureau for the Affairs of the Higher and Lower Russian School Abroad, founded in Prague, was responsible for the educational policy of all Russian schools on foreign soil. The second part describes the measures undertaken by the Pedagogical Bureau against the so-called “denationalization” of Russian emigrant children. In the third part, debates advanced by Pedagogical Bureau members Aleksandr Bem and Andrej Pavlov regarding contemporary Soviet reforms are discussed. Finally, the fourth part outlines aspects of Sergej I. Hessen’s thought: this well-known jurist and philosopher participated in the pedagogical debates in Prague before emigrating to Poland where he further developed his ideal of the modern school. His influence on post-war Italian school reforms is an example how important the contribution made by Russian emigrants was to European culture in the first half of the twentieth century.