Aleksander de Krusenstern, *Précis of the System, Progress, and State of Public Education in Russia* [1837]

Title: A Summary of the System, Progress, and Current State of Public Education in Russia. Compiled from Official Documents

Author: Alexandre de Krusenstern [chamberlain to the Emperor of Russia, as stated on the title page]

Publisher: Warsaw (Varsovie): de l'Imprimerie de la Banque de Pologne, 1837.

Year of publication: 1837

Volume: 426 pp.

Binding: Contemporary half-leather binding.

A treatise on the Russian public education system, published in French in Warsaw in 1837, during the reign of Nicholas I. The title page states that the work was compiled “d’après des documents officiels,” that is, based on official documents, and includes a Russian leitmotif—a quotation from the imperial manifesto of August 22, 1826: “May the fear of God and a strong, patriotic upbringing of the youth be the foundation of all hopes for a better future, the foremost need of all social classes.”

In the preface (Avant-propos), the author explains his motivation for undertaking the work: he was struck by the falsity of the judgments regarding the state of public education in Russia, which were widespread abroad, and concluded that they stemmed largely from the lack of a work that would capture all branches of this important part of the administration in a single overview. He describes how he reviewed extensive collections of laws and official regulations, and also sought information from individuals who, thanks to their positions in various institutions, were able to provide it. On the reverse side of the title page appears the phrase “Permis d’imprimer” (permission to print).

The book was printed at the Bank of Poland’s printing house in Warsaw. The bank was established by a decree dated January 28, 1828, on the initiative of Minister Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, and was dissolved in 1885. Its printing house, founded in 1827, introduced Poland’s first high-speed press in 1830 and, in 1837—the year this book was published—the technique of zincography.

Provenance: handwritten inventory numbers on the title page; an inventory label on the spine.

Condition: Period half-leather binding with visible wear. Inventory label on the spine, water damage marks on the first two pages, and minor water damage on several of the last pages; inventory numbers. Visible tear in the endpapers on both sides.

A French-language, official account of Russian education, printed at a Warsaw printing house that introduced zincography that same year. This piece, bound in a period binding with signs of prior use, will be a fine addition to a collection devoted to the history of education, the Kingdom of Poland, and Warsaw printing.