Ostrogorskii, Viktor Petrovich

Born Feb. 16, 1840, in St. Petersburg; died Jan. 31, 1902, in Valdai, present-day Novgorod Oblast. Russian educator and literary and public figure.

Ostrogorskii came from a gentry family. After graduating from St. Petersburg University in 1862, he taught literature at Gymnasiums and women’s pedagogical courses in the capital. He developed a systematic method of teaching literature in secondary schools. Ostrogorskii opposed scholasticism and the preoccupation with antiquity and called for greater emphasis on modern and contemporary Russian and foreign literature.

Ostrogorskii’s principal contribution to the methodology of teaching consisted in his great concern for ethical and aesthetic education and the development of independent creativity among his pupils. Ostrogorskii was the author of short stories for children, as well as literary criticism on the works of M. Iu. Lermontov, N. V. Gogol, A. V. Kol’tsov, A. N. Pleshcheev, S. T. Aksakov, I. A. Goncharov, and N. G. Pomialovskii. He was the editor of the journals Detskoe chtenie (Readings for Children; 1877–84), Delo (Action; 1883–84), Vospitanie i obuchenie (Upbringing and Instruction; 1885), and Mir bozhii (God’s World; 1892–1902).

Ostrogorskii advocated the further development of women’s education. He used his own funds to open a free school and library for peasant children at Valdai, and he was the founder of the first Sunday schools (general education schools for adults) in St. Petersburg.