Modern Russian Literature at School in the 1890s-1920s

This paper focuses on the process of including modern and contemporary Russian literature in the school literary canon in Russia in 1890-1920s. By analyzing different levels of the presence of literature in school (official syllabi and chrestomathies) the paper seeks to reconstruct the position of modern and contemporary literature in Russian and Soviet school as well as to make some observations on the methods of teaching literature and on its functions. Numerical analysis of the data collected from the chrestomathies of 1890-1918 used in this work allows to make assumptions on the real circulation of texts in school, which often differs from official curricula. Thus, it was established that contemporary literature appeared in chrestomathies long before it was included in compulsory reading lists. The analysis also shows that modern authors were substantially present in chrestomathies, though the amount of their texts did not prevail over the one of the “old” classics. Another result of the analysis is the established difference between poetic and prosaic canons, where the former tends to have strong ties with tradition, while the latter accepts changes more easily.