Documents of the Vinnytsya County Gymnasium as a Source for Study of Russification of Secondary School Education in Right Bank Ukraine (First Half of the 19th Century)

The purpose of the work is to introduce into scientifi c circulation important archival documents that reveal the mechanisms of the beginning of Russifi cation of secondary school education in Right-Bank Ukraine after the defeat of the First Polish Uprising in 1830, using examples from the life of the Vinnytsia County Gymnasium, which existed in 1832-1846. The research methodology is in a systematic approach using elements of documentary, structural, comparative, statistical analysis of archival and printed sources. The scientifi c novelty of the study is determined, fi rst of all, by the publication of archival documents that reveal the process of preparation of the main normative acts of the Russian Empire regarding the liquidation of the Polish and extension to the Kyiv, Volyn' and Podillia provinces of the less perfect Russian system of secondary education, the establishment of an oppressive atmosphere of secret political surveillance of students and their parents. Of particular interest is the almost panicked reaction of the higher educational leadership to the events in Lesser Poland and Galicia in February-March 1846. Against this background, an interesting documentary example of a kind of the noble liberalism is the actual demand from the governor-general to the director of the Gymnasium, transmitted in an offi cial manner through the trustee of the Kyiv educational district, to reinstate in it the fi fth-grade student Juseph Rolle, who was expelled for writing the revolutionary slogan «Vive la liberté» on the blackboard. Conclusions. Each of the published archival documents is a unique testimony of the era, conveys its unique features, helps to better understand the diffi cult conditions in which the new intellectual elite of the new Ukrainian nation was born. The prospect of further research consists in the scientifi c processing and publication of the following materials on the history of the development of education in the Right-Bank Ukraine of the 19th century from the rich fonds of the State Archives of Vinnytsia Region.