A.L. Kekin Gymnasium

The A. L. Kekin Gymnasium is a municipal educational institution in Rostov Veliky, Russia. It is the oldest operating educational institution and the largest in terms of student enrollment in the Rostovsky District of the Yaroslavl Oblast.

After the death of his only son in 1885, Alexei Leontievich Kekin, a native of the Rostov Uyezd and a merchant from Saint Petersburg, decided to will all his property to the town of Rostov. The main point of the will was the establishment of a boys' gymnasium in Rostov, and later a university. After A. L. Kekin's death in 1897, A. A. Titov, renowned Russian archaeographer, informed the Rostov town Duma about Kekin's will. After completing the preparatory work, the city effectively became the heir in 1898, when the St. Petersburg District Court ruled to execute the will. However, not everyone agreed with A. L. Kekin's will—in 1902, I. P. Kekin filed a lawsuit, which delayed the opening of the gymnasium from 1905 to 1907.^[1][2]

At the beginning of 1905, the Rostov town Duma began discussing the type of new educational institution to be established. Ultimately, it was decided to establish an "eight-grade classical gymnasium without Greek, compensating for the latter with a more thorough study of new languages, mathematics, and natural sciences".^[1][2]

In 1906, it was decided to open a preparatory gymnasium and the first four grades of the gymnasium by the fall of 1907. Kononova's house was purchased specifically for this purpose, and Malgina's house on Zarovskaya Street was rented by the spring of 1908. In October 1907, the city council requested the gymnasium to be named after A. L. Kekin, and the Ministry of Education approved. The gymnasium was not only built with A. L. Kekin's funds, but also entirely maintained by them.^[1][2]

On September 2, 1907, Sergei Pavlovich Moravsky, a history teacher at the Medvednikov Gymnasium, was elected director of the gymnasium. The competition for this position had its own difficulties: Titov A. A. collected information about the candidates, and there were cases when he did not recommend that the city hire certain candidates if they had bad reviews from students. Moravsky's main condition for the city was the opportunity to personally select teachers.^[3] At the same time, the gymnasium became a fairly democratic educational institution. It had no religious divisions (by 1911, the quota on the number of Jews had been lifted, the physical education teacher Devishchev was a Muslim, and it was decided to abandon the construction of a house church), class divisions (the majority of students were children of peasants and townspeople, with a significant number of merchants and nobles), nor political divisions (among the teachers were Social Revolutionaries and Social Democrats). The first graduating class of the Kekin Gymnasium went to Switzerland and Germany after graduation, together with their teachers.

The cost of education at the gymnasium for townspeople was 30 rubles, and half of the students studied for free.^[3] There was also a system of encouraging students through scholarships, with a total of five scholarships awarded, including the Andrei Titov Scholarship (established by the "Mutual Fire Insurance Society" for city residents), in memory of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov (established by the Rolma partnership for the children of employees or workers of the partnership), and in memory of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of peasants from serfdom (Rostov town Duma).^[4] The director attached great importance to visual aids and physical education for students, and Moravsky also emphasized subjects such as drawing and singing.^[5] The opening of the astronomical observatory in 1912 was of great significance. It was equipped with a five-inch Reinfelder and Hertel telescope. At the same time, an astronomy club was formed, which published its own scientific journal.^[6]

The school was open even on Sundays, and teachers spent several hours with their students, which made it possible to dispense with supervisors.^[7] With the outbreak of World War I, an infirmary for the wounded was opened in the gymnasium, located on the third floor. Later, a girls' gymnasium was also transferred to the Kekin gymnasium building.^[8]

In 1917, S. P. Moravsky and A. A. Titov were supposed to travel to St. Petersburg to submit documents for the creation of a university, but the trip did not take place due to the February Revolution.^[1][2]

After the October Revolution, four schools were opened on the basis of the men's and women's gymnasiums: two first-level schools and two second-level schools. In 1920, the school was visited by the People's Commissar of Education A. Lunacharsky.^[9]

In addition to general education schools, the gymnasium building also housed a workers' faculty, an adult evening school, a music school, a kindergarten, and some institutions unrelated to education. By the spring of 1921, only educational institutions remained in the building, and the building itself was named the "V. Lenin House of Education." In 1921–1922, the gymnasium building housed the Rostov branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute, which later attempted to become a separate university, but was eventually closed due to funding problems^[10]

Since having several schools in one place was inconvenient in terms of the educational process and administrative management, it was decided to merge them into one, which was done in the fall of 1924. This situation continued until the early 1930s, when advanced schools were reorganized into factory-based seven-year schools. The former gymnasium was also affected by this transformation and became FZS No. 1. However, since the education reform did not live up to expectations and the quality of education declined, it was decided in 1933 to increase the length of schooling by two years, and in 1934 by another year. At the same time, the school changed its name to "Secondary School No. 1 named after V. I. Lenin".^[8]

With the start of the Winter War between Finland and USSR in 1939, the gymnasium was again converted into a hospital, and the students were distributed to other schools. After the end of the war, the building was returned to the school, but not for long; the Great Patriotic War began, and it was once again necessary to organize a hospital. The students temporarily studied in unsuitable premises and were then transferred to the former building of the Mariinsky Girls' Gymnasium. Classes were held in two or three shifts, and the knowledge they received was based on the skills and knowledge necessary in wartime. The students also had to carry out labor duties. The school returned to its own building in 1947.^[8]

In the 1950s, the school had to work in two shifts, and in 1955 and 1956, seven 10th grades graduated. At the same time, a generational change was taking place, with younger teachers coming to work. A school museum was organized for the 50th anniversary of the gymnasium.^[8]

In the early 1960s, the school switched to an 11-year education system. Now, one day a week, students were engaged only in vocational training. The school was equipped with a metalworking workshop, and classrooms for auto mechanics and machine engineering appeared. Students were also sent for practical training to sewing and lining factories, and a teaching class operated at the Pioneer House. By 1966, the concept of education in the country had changed again, and the school became a ten-year school. During those years, a math school was also set up, started by Alexei Sergeyevich Orlov, subject competitions were held, and technical creativity clubs became popular.^[8]

In the 1970s, by decision of the city council, the school was renamed after V. I. Lenin. During the same period, the regional leadership, headed by First Secretary of the Yaroslavl Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Loshchenkov F.I., planned to move the museum from the Rostov Kremlin to the school building, for which a specialized school building was designed on Gogol Street, but thanks to public pressure, the move did not take place^[11]

In the early 1980s, the technical means of teaching were updated, and the school acquired televisions, film projectors, tape recorders, film viewers, and other equipment. A new subject, computer science, was introduced, but without a computer lab. In the 1990s, the school switched back to an 11-year education system, this time by extending the duration of primary school education. In 1991, the school became a gymnasium again, and two years later, the first class of gymnasium students graduated.^[8]

In 1992, the school regained its gymnasium status, and in 1999, it regained the name of Alexei Leontievich Kekin.^[12] Based on methodological associations of teachers, departments were formed, specialized classes were organized, and named scholarships were awarded (named after A. L. Kekin, S. P. Moravsky, and P. G. Trubnikov^[13]). In 2006, the gymnasium won a competition for implementing innovative educational programs.^[14] The gymnasium established cooperation with schools in Stevens Point (USA), Holmfirth (England), Nîmes (France), Jämsä (Finland), and Neuburg an der Donau (Germany), and together with the Yaroslavl Medical Academy, it runs a medical and biological school^[13]