The Third Moscow Gymnasium, Nikolay Ivanovich Kareev and Alexander Vasilievich Zhivago

Abstract

This article deals with the memoirs of A.V. Zhivago (1860–1940), a famous Moscow doctor, about the years he spent at the Third Moscow Men’s Gymnasium. He came from the highly cultured RyazanMoscow merchant family and was related to the Alekseev family (Zhivago was a lifelong friend of K.S. Stanislavsky). Zhivago’s younger sister was married to A.P. Chekhov’s attending physician in Germany. His great uncle was the first Russian business partner of Heinrich Schliemann, the future archaeologist. In 1873–1877 and 1878–1879, N.I. Kareev (1850–1931), a distinguished historian, taught history to Zhivago at the gymnasium. Kareev’s methodical attitude and the charm of his personality instilled in Zhivago a deep respect for the historical past and a desire to understand the material sources: his pedagogical method assumed the involvement of older students in scientific activities, as well as the use of illustrative materials and additional literature; he also argued that political and cultural history is inseparable from the history of art. Zhivago’s solid education in the field of historical and museum disciplines is thus to Kareev’s credit. This background enabled him to work as a lecturer at the Department of Coptology and Ancient Egypt of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) from 1919 to 1937.