The new school movement in Russia: Konstantin N. Venttsel (1857-1947), the concept of "free upbringing" and the Declaration of the rights of the child

This essay deals with the Russian pedagogue and philosopher of education Konstantin N. Venttsel (1857–1947), one of the main representatives of the new school movement in Russia, little known among Western historians of education. The article is made up of two parts, corresponding roughly to the pre- and post-revolutionary periods, describing the evolution of Venttsel’s concept; each part is divided into four sections. After the Introduction, which places Venttsel in the context of the new school movement in Europe, the first part reconstructs Rousseau’s and Tolstoy’s influence on Venttsel’s concept of free education and more generally his view of moral education, the declaration of child emancipation, the “Home of the Free Child” (a particular kindergarten realized on the basis of Venttsel’s ideas of free upbringing) and finally the principle of authority and its meaning in the upbringing of the child. The second part highlights the evolution of Venttsel’s theory after the Revolution, that is, his theory about free upbringing and the ideal children’s garden, with particular attention paid to Western influences on Venttsel, the declaration of the rights of the child, the concept of cosmic education and the philosophy of creative will. His pedagogical conceptions influenced the educational theories of others Russian pedagogues despite his legacy having been condemned to a period of oblivion in the Soviet Union for a long time after his death. EET/TEE KEYWORDS: history of education; early education; philosophy of education; Russia; Soviet Union; XIX-XXth Centuries.