Orenburg Men's Gymnasium and Representatives of the Kazakh Intelligentsia

In the XIX -early XX centuries in Russia there were gymnasiums for secondary education, the completion of which gave the right to enter higher educational institutions (universities) and serve in various institutions.Such educational institutions were famous not only for their teaching methods, but also for the organization of the educational process.One of these educational institutions in the Kazakh steppe was the Orenburg Men's Gymnasium, which opened in 1868.In order to open a gymnasium and construct an educational building, a charitable foundation was organized among the residents.Scholarships were awarded to Kazakh children studying from the charity fund.Among the graduates of this gymnasium were representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia such as: Abubakir Aldiyarov, Salimgerey Nuralykhanov, Kali Ibragimov, Gali-Akhmet Aryngaziev, etc.The documents of Fund 79 of the United State Archives of the Orenburg Region contain information about the activities of the civil men's gymnasium, the names of graduates, information about their academic performance, the daily life of Kazakh children who studied at the beginning of the XX century.Sources indicate that at the gymnasium, Kazakh children lived in a boarding house and received a scholarship assigned to the children of Kazakhs in the Orenburg region and surrounding regions.As part of the curriculum, the following languages were studied: Russian, Greek, Latin, French, German, as well as logic, algebra, geometry, history, and geography.Children were aimed at acquiring knowledge, diligently mastering the educational process in order to achieve good results.After graduating from the Orenburg men's gymnasium, Kazakh young men were able to continue their studies at higher educational institutions in Russia.