When was Tsarskoye Selo opened? Founding of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

Pushkin had three real friends at the Lyceum: I. V. Malinovsky (1796–1873),
I. I. Pushchin (1798–1858) and Baron A. A. Delvig (1798–1831).
In each of these dissimilar young men, the poet found some kind of addition to his multifaceted personality. Pushkin, dying, said: “Why aren’t Pushchin and Malinovsky near me. It would be easier for me to die."

Ivan Malinovsky was the eldest son of the first director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Vasily Fedorovich Malinovsky (1765-1814). He received his primary education at the St. Petersburg Provincial Gymnasium.
In 1811 he entered the Lyceum. Malinovsky was a lively and cheerful young man. Hot-tempered, cocky, he was very hot. His comrades gave him the nickname “Cossack.” He tried to tame his ardor, which often led him to mistakes, which he admitted with repentance. Pushkin loved Malinovsky very much.

In the poem “Feasting Students,” written in 1814, the poet addresses Malinovsky, “a sincere friend,” and in his words one can hear the joy of communicating with the merry fellow and naughty Ivan Malinovsky:

And you are the rake of the rake,
Born of pranks,
Daring grip, thug
A sincere friend...

On February 9, 1812, the family of Ivan Malinovsky suffered severe grief. Mother Sofya Andreevna died. The first heavy blow was followed two years later by the second: on March 23, 1814, his father, the director of the Lyceum V.F., suddenly died. Malinovsky. At the same time, this was also the grief of the Lyceum, which was brought into strict order thanks to the efforts of the deceased director.
This death was also a grief for the first-year students, who, having been accepted into his family after leaves from the Lyceum were prohibited, lost in him not only the director of the Lyceum, but also their father, who accepted them among his children.

Behind the coffin with the eldest son of the deceased, lyceum student Ivan Malinovsky, walked Pushkin, for whom Malinovsky was now closer than all his other friends.
From the family memories of Ivan Vasilyevich Malinovsky’s daughter, Sofia Ivanovna Stackenschneider, it is known that “already at the cemetery (five Lyceum students were present at the burial. - Author), when they lowered the coffin into the grave for eternal rest, Pushkin was the first to approach his friend Ivan Malinovsky , to console him in his grief, and here, in front of his father’s still unfilled grave, they seemed to have sworn eternal friendship.”
In the draft version of the poem “October 19, 1825,” Pushkin remembers his lyceum friend and regrets that Malinovsky did not come to visit the disgraced poet in Mikhailovskoye with Pushchin.

Why didn’t I meet you right there with him?
You, our Cossack, both ardent and kind,
Why are you in my gravestone canopy?
Didn’t you illuminate with your presence?
We would remember how Bacchus was brought
We are the silent victim for the first time,
How all three of us fell in love for the first time,
Confidants, comrades of mischief...

Having received a certificate of completion from the Lyceum, Ivan Malinovsky entered the Finnish Life Guards Regiment. During the campaigns of the Guards Corps, Ivan Malinovsky became friends with the future Decembrist A.E. Rosen.

The events of 1825 indirectly affected Malinovsky, although he did not take any part in the conspiracy. When misfortune befell the family of the Decembrist Andrei Evgenievich Rosen, who was sentenced to ten years of hard labor in Chita, Malinovsky was in St. Petersburg. He fussed and consoled his sister Anna Vasilyevna, who had recently married Baron Rosen and had a small child. During this period, Malinovsky rushed around St. Petersburg, trying to help those in trouble. He did everything he could.
On March 26, 1825, Ivan Malinovsky retired with the rank of colonel.

In 1834, Ivan Malinovsky married the sister of his lyceum friend I.I. Pushchina, Maria Ivanovna (1795 – 1844). This marriage gave birth to two daughters.

Pushkin's death shocked Malinovsky. This can be seen from the correspondence between Pushchin and Malinovsky. Neither time nor distance erased Malinovsky's youthful friendship from his memory.
After the death of his wife in 1845, Ivan Malinovsky married V.D.’s niece. Volkhovsky
(Captain of the Guards General Staff, Major General, first graduating lyceum student) Ekaterina Fedoseevna Zinkevich. This marriage produced two daughters and a son.

In 1844 I.V. Malinovsky wrote a brochure “On the life of Major General Volkhovsky,” which was published in Kharkov.

Ivan Malinovsky was elected leader of the district nobility for many years.
He died on February 10, 1873 from pneumonia.
He was buried in the cemetery in Kamenka not far from V.D. Volkhovsky.

Sources:

Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova-Williams “The Life of Pushkin”.
Internet sites
Valeria Bobyleva, Marat Gainullin "Intimate Buddy"
http://www.moles.ee/99/Mar/15/6-1.html

And alma mater is for boys from high-born families. The first lyceum in Russia prepared for “important parts of the public service.” It was opened by imperial decree and was equivalent to a university. In the building of the palace wing of the Catherine Palace there was a special spirit - the “lyceum republic”. Let's remember the history and traditions of the noble higher school together with Natalya Letnikova.

Karl Schultz. View of the Lyceum and the Court Church from Sadovaya Street. Lithography. 1850s

Alexander Pushkin. Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Drawing in the draft of Chapter VII of Eugene Onegin. 1831

"For the common good"- the motto united mentors and students. They taught “not by darkening the children’s minds with lengthy explanations, but by stimulating their own action.” Minds were boiling - both in classes and in “cells”. The prohibition of corporal punishment is a special clause of the statute. It favorably distinguished a high-status educational institution from private boarding schools and military schools.

What did you comprehend?. According to the program of Mikhail Speransky himself - a reformer and lawmaker. Russian and foreign literature, historical and mathematical sciences, moral disciplines, fine arts and gymnastics were studied. The six-year program prepared humanities students for further service - be it military or civilian.

Unit - “for happiness”. For excellent successes a score of “1” was given, and progressively up to four – for “mediocre” successes. But “the expression of the absence of any knowledge” threatened with zero. For each subject, the lyceum student received three marks, the first two changed, but the first remained unchanged throughout the entire training: for ability or for talent.

№ 14 . Rooms, or cells, as Alexander Pushkin called bedrooms for students. Simple furnishings: a chest of drawers, a desk, an iron bed, a mirror and a table for washing. Students lived in these narrow rooms all year. The holidays lasted for a month. No. 14 - Pushkin’s “cell”. “No. 14” - this is how the poet signed letters to his fellow lyceum students even after his graduation.

All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Memorial Lyceum Museum

All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Memorial Lyceum Museum

All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Memorial Lyceum Museum

Literary games. Poetry and prose, politics and criticism. Literature exercises for young lyceum students, despite the dissatisfaction of teachers, became periodicals. “For pleasure and benefit”, “Inexperienced pen”, “Young swimmers” and, finally, “Lyceum sage”. A magazine that lyceum students published for three whole years. The progenitor of school wall newspapers.

The exam is like the first poetic success. Transfer tests at the Lyceum were public. When Pushkin took the exam, the first poet of the 18th century, Gabriel Derzhavin, was among the guests. The ode “Memories in Tsarskoe Selo” sounded “with extraordinary animation.” Derzhavin was touched and wanted to hug the ardent lyceum student. For the first time, Pushkin put his full signature under the printed text of “Memoirs”.

Poets in the poetic environment. Not only classrooms, but also shady alleys of luxurious parks. At the Lyceum, everyone who was not too lazy wrote poetry, suffering from metromania. Delvig, Kuchelbecker, Pushchin, Illichevsky, Korsakov and, of course, Pushkin were not lazy. “Suddenly I’ll start speaking in rhymes...” - the young poet wrote more than 120 poems at the Lyceum.

Pranks and fun. From the moment of the grand opening, the spirit of the lyceum took over - the dinner party ended... with a snowball fight. Steal an apple from the imperial garden or escape to St. Petersburg. What are the lyceum years without innocent pranks and nicknames: Frenchman - Pushkin, Frant - Gorchakov, Zhanno - Pushchin, Kyukhlya - Kuchelbecker, Tosya - Delvig. What kind of friendship is there without quarrels and duels - with pistols loaded with cranberries?

Irina Vitman. Pushkin-lyceum student in Tsarskoe Selo. 1954

"Cast iron workers". This is how the lyceum students of the first, Pushkin graduating class began to call themselves. After graduating from the alma mater, director Yegor Engelgardt gave the students cast iron rings as a farewell gift - a symbol of friendship as strong as metal. Rings in the form of intertwined hands were made from fragments of the broken bell of the Lyceum church. According to tradition, after graduation, the bells that had been ringing for classes throughout the entire training period were broken.

They remained true to the oath. At the farewell ball, friends from the lyceum decided to meet every year on the day the lyceum was founded. In 1825, Pushkin wrote a poetic message from exile in Mikhailovskoye. “My friends, our union is wonderful!”, mentally being with those who feasted on the banks of the Neva that day, remembering those who were far away or passed away. The last to take the oath was the Chancellor of the Russian Empire, Alexander Gorchakov, who survived his comrades. “And the last lyceum student will celebrate October 19th”...

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, a higher privileged closed educational institution in pre-revolutionary Russia for children of nobles; was intended to train mainly senior government officials. Founded in 1810 in Tsarskoe Selo (now the city of Pushkin, Leningrad region); opened on October 19, 1811. It was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Education, and from 1882 - the military department. The lyceum accepted children 10-12 years old, the number of students ranged from 30 (in 1811-17) to 100 (from 1832).

During 6 years of study (two 3-year courses, from 1836 - 4 classes of 1 ½ years each) the following sciences were studied at the Lyceum: moral (God's law, ethics, logic, jurisprudence, political economy); verbal (Russian, Latin, French, German literature and languages, rhetoric); historical (Russian and general history, physical geography); physical and mathematical (mathematics, principles of physics and cosmography, mathematical geography, statistics); fine arts and gymnastic exercises (penmanship, drawing, dancing, fencing, horse riding, swimming). The lyceum's curriculum was changed several times, but it retained its humanitarian and legal basis. Graduates received the rights of university graduates and civil ranks of the 14th - 9th grades. For those wishing to enroll in military service additional military training was carried out, and they were given the rights of graduates of the Corps of Pages...

In the first years of its existence (1811-1817), the Lyceum created an atmosphere of passion for new Russian literature, represented by the names of N. M. Karamzin, V. A. Zhukovsky, K. N. Batyushkov, and French literature of the Enlightenment (Voltaire). This passion contributed to the unification of a number of young people into a creative literary and poetic circle that determined the spirit of the educational institution (A. S. Pushkin, A. A. Delvig, V. K. Kuchelbecker, V. D. Volkhovsky, A. D. Illichevsky, K. K. Danzas, M. L. Yakovlev and many others). The circle published handwritten magazines “Lyceum Sage”, “Bulletin”, “For Pleasure and Benefit”, etc., creative literary competitions were held between its members, poems by lyceum students Pushkin, Delvig, Kuchelbecker and others. Since 1814, famous magazines began to be published (“Bulletin” Europe", "Russian Museum", "Son of the Fatherland"). The poetic creativity of lyceum students and their interest in literature were encouraged by the professor of Russian and Latin literature, Zhukovsky’s friend N.F. Koshansky and his successor from 1814 A.I. Galich.

... After 1825, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum strengthened the restrictive regime for students, control over the selection of teachers and the direction of lectures. At the end of 1843, the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was reorganized into the Alexandrovsky Lyceum and in January 1844 it was transferred to St. Petersburg. The new lyceum was transferred to the jurisdiction of the 4th department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery, from the end of the 19th century. — Departments of the institutions of Empress Maria. Closed after the October Revolution of 1917.

Over the 33 years of the existence of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, 286 people graduated from it, including 234 in the civil sector, 50 in the military, 2 in the navy. ... Many of them joined the ranks of the Officials of the Russian Empire (A. M. Gorchakov, A. K. Gire, N. K. Gire, A. V. Golovnin, D. N. Zamyatnin, N. P. Nikolai, N. A. Korsakov, M. A. Korf, S. G. Lomonosov, F. H. Steven, D. A. Tolstoy, etc.)… Preferred scientific activity K. S. Veselovsky, J. K. Grot, N. Ya. Danilevsky and others. The historical glory of the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum was brought primarily by the graduates of 1817 - A. S. Pushkin, A. A. Delvig, Decembrists V. K. Kuchelbecker, I. I. Pushchin. ... M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin studied there for 5 years.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1975

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Modern photo

On August 12, 1810, Emperor Alexander I signed a decree establishing a lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo for “the education of youth destined for important parts of the public service.”

The author of the project for creating the Lyceum was M.M. Speransky, known for his reform ideas. In the new educational institution he created, he dreamed of educating people who would be able to further implement all the plans he had outlined for the transformation of Russia. Speransky himself was a widely educated person, so he wanted state power to be occupied by people who knew how to think, who had broad knowledge and who wanted to use it for the good of the Fatherland.

Associate Professor of Moral and Political Sciences Alexander Petrovich Kunitsyn spoke about the same thing in his keynote speech at the opening of the Lyceum: “Love of glory and the Fatherland should be your leaders.”

In the fall of 1811, the first intake of lyceum students took place. Children aged 10-12 years were accepted, the number of pupils was supposed to be 30 people.

The highest diploma of Alexander I, granted to the Lyceum

On October 19, 1811, the Lyceum was opened in Tsarskoe Selo, a new educational institution for boys from privileged families. This educational institution received its name from the name of the outskirts of ancient Greek Athens (Lyceum), where Aristotle studied with his students in the garden next to the Temple of Apollo.

The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was a completely new type of educational institution for Russia; Alexander I himself kept its organization under close supervision.

Initially, the Lyceum was located in a 4-story wing of the Catherine Palace, rebuilt for this purpose by the architect V. Stasov.

The Lyceum was planned as a closed educational institution, where students were supposed to not only study, but also live. In terms of the level of education received, the Lyceum was equivalent to a university.

The training program was designed for 6 years: 2 courses of 3 years each. Students were required to receive a general education with a predominance of the humanities. In the first year, the curriculum included mathematics, grammar, history, “fine writing” - literature, fine arts and gymnastic exercises (penmanship, drawing, dancing, fencing, horse riding, swimming). In the senior year, special attention was paid to the “moral sciences” (the Law of God, ethics, logic, jurisprudence, political economy), history, mathematics, and foreign languages.

At the same time, special attention was paid to teaching literature: each student must learn to write an essay on a given topic, expressing his thoughts correctly and gracefully.

No less close attention was paid to the study Russian history, which included knowledge of the native country, its past, present and future.

Immediately after the Emperor signed the Decree on the Lyceum in August 1810, a recruitment of lyceum students was announced, 38 families applied to admit their children, so an admission exam and medical examination were arranged. In addition, applicants for training required recommendations from influential persons (for example, Pushkin was accepted on the recommendation of the famous writer A. Turgenev and his uncle V.L. Pushkin).

In October, future lyceum students began to gather in Tsarskoye Selo, where they were met by the Lyceum director and teachers.

V.F. Malinovsky - first director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

The first director of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was Vasily Fedorovich Malinovsky, one of the most educated people of his time. He believed in the special purpose of the new educational institution, and, having received the right to personally select teachers, invited the most advanced and talented people. He created the very “lyceum spirit” known from many recollections of lyceum students, which his students carried throughout their lives. What kind of spirit was this? This is a special atmosphere in which it was possible to freely exchange opinions, where the most pressing issues of society were discussed. Teachers and educators treated the lyceum students as adults, addressed them as “you,” and some students addressed each other as “you.”

The grand opening of the Lyceum on October 19, 1811 was attended by Alexander I, his family, and the most noble and influential people of Russia. In the center of the hall there was a table covered with red cloth and on it lay a charter about the establishment of the Lyceum. On one side of the table stood the lyceum students along with the director V.F. Malinovsky, and on the other hand, professors. The guests of honor, led by Emperor Alexander I, were sitting at the table.

Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Big hall

The director of the Lyceum, V. F. Malinovsky, made a solemn speech, and then Professor Kunitsyn addressed the students. Lyceum students remembered his performance with gratitude all their lives. After the ceremony, a lunch was arranged for the boys and a tour of the Lyceum premises for the guests. In the evening everyone enjoyed the magnificent fireworks display.

30 boys started a new life. Each was given a small room with the most necessary furniture: an iron bed, a chest of drawers, a desk, a mirror, a chair, and a table for washing. On the desk there is an inkwell and a candlestick with tongs.

The daily routine of the lyceum students was strict: getting up at 6 am, morning prayer, from 7 to 9 am - classes, at 9 am - tea, until 10 - a walk, from 10 to 12 - classes, then a walk, lunch, again penmanship classes and drawing, from 3 to 5 - classes again, a walk, repetition of lessons. Dinner at 9 pm, evening prayer and tea at 10. None of the lyceum students had to leave the lyceum during 6 years of study, and relatives were allowed to visit the boys only on holidays.

Physics room of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum

The day of October 19 became sacred for lyceum students. They always sought to get together on October 19, although each of them had their own lives. Every year fewer and fewer lyceum students came to the meeting...

Pushkin and all his friends considered only their first graduating class to be truly lyceum. And so it was: although the history of the Lyceum was long, the curriculum in it had changed, the teachers were different, and most importantly, that unique Lyceum spirit was no longer there...

Once upon a time, on the outskirts of Athens, near the temple of Apollo Lyceum, there was a school founded by the great philosopher of the past, Aristotle. It was called the Lyceum or Lyceum. On October 19, 1811, an educational institution under the same name opened in Tsarskoe Selo, near St. Petersburg. And, probably, its creators hoped that the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum would in some way become the successor to the famous school of antiquity, of which the beautiful park architecture here in Tsarskoe Selo was reminiscent. However, she spoke not only about the world of eternal art. The parks preserved the memory of the glorious pages of Russian history - the battles of Peter the Great, the victory of Russian weapons at Kagul, Chesma, Morea.

History of the establishment of the Lyceum

“The establishment of the lyceum is aimed at the education of youth, especially those destined for important parts of the public service,” said the first paragraph of the lyceum charter. The author of the project to create a lyceum, M. M. Speransky, saw in the new educational institution not only a school for training educated officials. He wanted the lyceum to educate people capable of implementing the plans for the transformation of the Russian state. The broadest knowledge, the ability to think and the desire to work for the good of Russia - these were the qualities that the graduates of the new educational institution were supposed to distinguish. It is no coincidence that in a new program speech addressed to students on the day of the grand opening, associate professor of moral and political sciences Alexander Petrovich Kunitsyn spoke about the duties of a citizen, about love for the Fatherland and duty to it. The boys remembered the words for the rest of their lives: “Love of glory and the Fatherland should be your leaders.”

According to the charter, children of nobles aged 10-12 years were admitted to the lyceum. At the same time, no more than 50 people could be educated in an educational institution. The first, Pushkin course, accepted 30 students. The training lasted six years and was equivalent to university education. The first three years - the so-called initial course - studied subjects in the upper grades of the gymnasium. The next three years - the final course - contained the main subjects of the three faculties of the university: verbal, moral-political and physico-mathematical. The extensive program harmoniously combined the humanities and exact sciences and provided encyclopedic knowledge. A large place was given to “moral” sciences, which, as the lyceum charter stated, “...means all that knowledge that relates to the moral position of a person in society, and, consequently, concepts about the structure of civil societies, and about rights and responsibilities, arising from here."

Traditions of education in lyceums

One of the main tasks of lyceum education is to develop mental abilities and teach students to think independently. “The basic rule of a good method or way of teaching,” it was emphasized in the lyceum charter, “is not to darken the minds of children with lengthy explanations, but to stimulate its own action.” The most important place The curriculum included an in-depth study of Russian history. The development of patriotic feelings was closely connected with knowledge of the native country, its past, present, and future.

Much attention was paid to the study of the biographies of great people - it was believed that historical examples would help the self-education of the individual and teach him great service to the Fatherland. When drawing up the curriculum, the age characteristics of the students were taken into account. In the first year, when the boys were 10-12 years old, a lot of time was devoted to learning languages: Russian, French, Latin and German. There were days when students were required to speak a foreign language among themselves.

The Lyceum was a closed educational institution. The daily routine here was strictly regulated. The pupils got up at six o'clock in the morning. During the seventh hour it was necessary to dress, wash, pray and repeat lessons. Classes began at seven o'clock and lasted two hours.

At ten o'clock the lyceum students had breakfast and took a short walk, after which they returned to class, where they studied for another two hours. At twelve we went for a walk, after which we repeated our lessons. At two o'clock we had lunch. After lunch there are three hours of classes. In the sixth - a walk and gymnastic exercises.

The students studied for a total of seven hours a day. Class hours alternated with rest and walks. Walks were taken in any weather in the Tsarskoye Selo Garden. The pupils' recreation consists of fine arts and gymnastic exercises. Among physical exercises at that time, swimming, horse riding, fencing, and in winter - skating were especially popular. Subjects that promote aesthetic development - drawing, penmanship, music, singing - are still included in the secondary school curriculum.

In future statesmen they tried to develop a sense of self-esteem and respect for the personality of another person. They were taught that “all pupils are equal... and therefore no one can despise others or be proud of anything before others”; that teachers and tutors should always tell the truth, “for to lie to your boss means to disrespect him.” It was forbidden to shout at the uncles or scold them. There was no corporal punishment or official drill at the lyceum. Each pupil had a separate room. In the first years of study, grades were not given at the lyceum. Instead, professors regularly compiled characteristics in which they analyzed the student’s natural inclinations, his behavior, diligence, and success. It was believed that a detailed description helped work with the student better than an unambiguous assessment.

The students of the Lyceum were never idle. Here everything was aimed at developing mental interests, every desire for knowledge was encouraged. For example, Alexey Illichevsky collected materials for the biographies of great people of Russia, and Wilhelm Kuchelbecker compiled a dictionary containing extracts from the works of philosophical writers close to him.

The students read a lot. “We studied little in class, but a lot in reading and conversation with constant friction of minds,” recalled Modest Korf. Replenishing the library was a constant concern of the council of lyceum professors. In a letter to Pavel Fuss, answering the question whether new books reach the lyceum, Alexey Illichevsky reflects on the benefits of reading: “Do newly published books reach our solitude? - you ask me. Can you doubt it?.. Never! Reading feeds the soul, shapes the mind, develops abilities...”

Lyceum students knew their contemporaries - Russian writers and poets - not only from their works. Illichevsky’s testimony from a letter to Fuss is interesting: “... until I entered the Lyceum, I did not see a single writer, but at the Lyceum I saw Dmitriev, Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Vasily Pushkin and Khvostov; I also forgot: Neledinsky, Kutuzov, Dashkov.” Professor of Russian and Latin literature Nikolai Fedorovich Koshansky considered the ability to write and compose to be the basis of literary education and approved of the poetic experiments of his students. Often in class he suggested writing poems on a given topic. “How I now see that afternoon class of Koshansky,” Ivan Pushchin later recalled, “when, having finished the lecture a little earlier than the lesson hour, the professor said: “Now, gentlemen, let’s try feathers: please describe a rose to me in verse.”

One of the favorite activities of lyceum students was meetings at which everyone was obliged to tell something - fictional or read. Gradually, the stock of poems, stories, and epigrams increased, and they were written down. Handwritten journals were created, and lyceum poets grew up, friendly competing with each other. And since 1814, their poetic experiments began to appear on the pages of Russian magazines.

Famous students of the Lyceum

At that time, students of many educational institutions had their own mottos, but hardly any of them had a motto more humane and noble than the one chosen by the lyceum students of the Pushkin course - “For the Common Benefit.” The directors of the lyceum, Vasily Fedorovich Malinovsky and Yegor Antonovich Engelhardt, the best professors and teachers, taught to live “For the Common Benefit”. During the 32 years of existence of the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo (from 1811 to 1843), 286 people graduated from this privileged educational institution. The following students studied within its walls at different times: the outstanding satirist M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, the poet L. A. Mei, the organizer of the society of utopian socialists M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky, philosopher, historian N. Ya. Danilevsky, compiler “Dictionary of the Russian Language” Academician Y. K. Grot. And yet, the lyceum owes its glory primarily to its first-born, a class that went down in Russian history with the names of the poet A. S. Pushkin, poet, journalist A. A. Delvig, an active participant in the uprising on December 14, 1825 on Senate Square, one of the most courageous, persistent Decembrists I. I. Pushchin, poet, Decembrist V. K. Kuchelbecker, navigator Rear Admiral F. F. Matyushkin, participant in the Turkish and Persian campaigns General V. D. Volkhovsky, prominent statesman, Minister of Foreign Affairs A. M. Gorchakova.