The Documents of the Government Senate’s Heraldry Department 1730 –1760 as a Historical Source for Studying the Russian Nobility’s Education

For the Russian Empire, the first part of the 18th century marked a period of emergence and development of secular education and homeschooling. In order to control both types of studying and especially the latter one, the government obliged young nobles to register at the newly established Government Senate’s Heraldry Department and asked its officials to lead special lists of minors. Though record- keeping materials are of great scientific interest, researchers have not treated them in much details. This paper is intended to contribute to fill this historiographical gap and explores the general level of education among elite’s sons, their studying and service trajectories by comparative analysis of aforementioned archival sources and legislative acts. It is argued, that the precise legal framework, which established the rules of studying sciences, did not particularly work. The vast majority of minors tended to ignore imperial edicts, delay or even miss registrations at the Heraldry and did not study the required material in due time. This deliberate strategy fitted interests of poor gentry: to be enlisted directly in the military service to circumvent studying. Such findings have a number of significant implications for the history of education and social studies.