Sanitary and hygienic situation in educational institution and its influence on student’s protests at the turn of the XX century (on the example of the kazan theological seminary)

In 1899 in the Kazan Theological Seminary the wave of student’s protests arose. Uproar were extreme forms and were accompanied by a window shattering, furniture crash and threats to authorities. Shortly before this, the Seminary rector, archimandrite Kirill (Lopatin) submitted the report to the Kazan archbishop Arseny (Bryantsev) in which he described difficult sanitary and hygienic situation of seminary and that it negatively affects the educational process. The document reveals a heavy student life: extreme overcrowding, lack of rooms, high humidity and lack of fresh air. As a special problem, absence of own bath was mentioned, forcing students to visit city baths, that led to increase of number of contagious diseases cases. The petition of the seminary students, handed over to the Kazan archbishop, confirmed that radical moods of pupils were motivated by worsening sanitary conditions in educational institution. However, despite recommendations of the bishop to the Seminary Board to find a solution of the problems rising, no efforts were made due to different reasons. The commission appointed for investigation of incidents, consisted of teachers, but didn’t include a medical worker, that indirectly indicates authorities’ formalistic approach to the problem. On the other hand, the considerable fault in sanitary and hygienic situation deterioration in Seminary lays on students, who by the end of the XIX century were not yet aware of simple sanitary rules importance.

Kazan Theological Seminary, protests, sanitation and hygiene