“Spreading sensible ideas on Russian soil”: pedagogical views of Mavriky Vol'f

The article presents the results of the analysis of a set of sources dedicated to the activities of the Russian book publisher Mavriky Wolf (1825-1883). An interdisciplinary analysis was carried out in the problematic field of the history of education, book publishing and children's literature. Trade catalogues, reports, analytical notes, advertisements, annotations to books of the firm of M.O. Wolf were studied, which made it possible to identify his individual programmatic pedagogical statements and explicate them as a single whole. The system of values professed and publicly declared by Wolf is described. Some aspects of his pedagogical views are examined and characterized in detail: awareness of publishing as a special social mission; understanding of children's literature as a means of education, upbringing, enlightenment through example, interest and entertainment; ensuring thematic diversity of publications in accordance with the requests of children, parents and the professional pedagogical community; implementation of differentiation and addressing of books taking into account the age of the child and his or her level of reading skill; consistent use of printing techniques within the framework of this differentiation (fonts, text volume, number of drawings, etc.); creation of multiple teaching aids for visual learning; solution of the problem of aesthetic education – formation of artistic taste in the child and his/her introduction to the world of beauty through illustrated publications; publication of specialized pedagogical literature and popular science brochures for parents and mentors; promotion of pedagogical innovations and advanced educational practices; constant dialogue with the reader (child, parent, mentor), use of “feedback”, interest in active communication in the field of education and upbringing. Each aspect of the reasoning is explained by examples from Wolf's book publishing practice.