The article examines two areas of activity of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of Emperor Alexander II, related to the outstanding pedagogue K.D. Ushinsky: reforms in educational and upbringing programmes in educational institutions in the Russian Empire (1855–1880), and the upbringing and education of the children of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The article reflects her involvement in the development of women’s secondary education in Russia and abroad, including transformations in the closed women’s institutes of the Department of the Institutions of Empress Maria, support for K.D. Ushinsky during his work at the Smolny Institute, the establishment of women’s gymnasiums, care for diocesan women’s schools, and support for Russian schools in Palestine and the Balkan Peninsula; as well as the compilation of educational programmes for her own children and special concern for the proper upbringing and education of the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nicholai Alexandrovich, as the future ruler of the Russian Empire. The author attempts to analyse Ushinsky’s Letters on the Upbringing of the Heir to the Russian Throne – the prehistory of their appearance, their specific addressee, purpose, main pedagogical ideas, and significance for Russian pedagogical thought and personally for Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who closely followed the development of pedagogy as a science. The author concludes that Christian principles in upbringing and education were fundamental for both the eminent pedagogue and Empress Maria Alexandrovna: above all, they placed moral education at the foundation of all education and insisted on the humanity and holistic nature of education, without pressure or physical violence, in order to develop the child’s inherent talents.
Imperial House of Romanov; Empress Maria Alexandrovna; Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky; 19th-century pedagogical thought; reforms of women’s education under Emperor Alexander II; upbringing within the family of Emperor Alexander II; Tsesarevich Nicholai Alexandrovich (1843-1865); ‘Letters on the Upbringing of the Heir to the Russian Throne’.