House of the Republic Shkid

The history of house No. 19/31, which belonged to merchant M. Ya. Ponomarev until October, is interesting. Before the revolution, there was a private commercial school here, and in the early years of Soviet power, the 1st school of social-individual education named after F. M. Dostoevsky was located here. It was headed by the talented and original teacher Viktor Nikolaevich Soroka-Rosinsky.

In September 1920, the first seven ragged, hungry boys arrived here. At that time, in conditions of hunger and devastation, there were many homeless children in the country; in Petrograd alone in 1920, more than 9,000 were detained. The school established on Petergof Avenue aimed to raise them into useful members of society. Soroka-Rosinsky’s pedagogical methods were based on a deep understanding of child psychology and respect for each child's individuality.

The school raised many worthy citizens of our country. Its former pupils Alexey Yeremeyev (pen name Leonid Panteleev) and Grigory Belykh wrote a book about the school’s life called "The Republic of ShKID." This is an adventurous, partly autobiographical, children's story about the life of homeless children in the Dostoevsky School-Commune (ShKID), written in 1926 and published in 1927. This book, repeatedly reprinted and translated into many languages worldwide, received enthusiastic praise from Maxim Gorky. "For me," he wrote to Makarenko, "this book is a celebration; it confirms my faith in humanity, the most amazing, the greatest thing on our earth."

The characters, prototypes of whom were the authors themselves, bear the names Grigory Chernykh (nickname — Yankel) and Alexey Panteleev (Lyonka Panteleev) in the story.

The story was written by the authors three years after leaving the school, in 1926, when Belykh was twenty and Panteleev was eighteen. The manuscript was sent to the Department of Public Education and then forwarded to the editorial office of children's and youth literature of Gosizdat in Leningrad.

The editors of the first edition of "The Republic of ShKID" were Yevgeny Shvarts and Samuil Marshak. At the latter’s request, Panteleev rewrote the chapter "Lyonka Panteleev," which was originally written in rhythmic prose. The book was published in early 1927 and gained enormous popularity.

In 1930, another novel about ShKID was published by the "Priboy" publishing house, continuing the story of Belykh and Panteleev. This novel was called "The Last Gymnasium," and its authors were former ShKID students Pavel Olkhovsky and Konstantin Evstafyev. In "The Republic of ShKID," Olkhovsky appears under the name Pasha Yelkhovsky (better known by the nickname "Sasha Pylnikov"), while Konstantin Evstafyev (called "Evgrafov" and nicknamed "Chemist-Mechanic" in "The Last Gymnasium") was not mentioned at all in "The Republic." The new novel differed in tone from "The Republic of ShKID": the ShKID order and Vikniksor were sharply criticized in "The Last Gymnasium." This book was unpopular and was not reprinted.

Later, Panteleev repeatedly returned to the theme of ShKID, writing stories such as "Magnolias" (1927), "American Porridge" (1932), "Green Berets" (1962), as well as a cycle of essays "The Last Chaldeans" (1931–1939). At the end of 1935, Grigory Belykh was repressed on charges of counter-revolutionary activity and sentenced to three years, and in August 1938 he died of tuberculosis in a transit prison.

Until the 1960s, "The Republic of ShKID" was not republished.

One of the strongest Soviet films about re-education — "The Republic of ShKID" — had many "parents." First and foremost, the teacher portrayed in the film under the name Vikniksor was Viktor Soroka-Rosinsky, the creator of the Petrograd boarding school named after Dzerzhinsky (abbreviated ShKID),

who gathered the most unruly homeless children in one place. Then came the students of this school, Grigory Belykh and Alexey Yeremeyev (known under the pseudonym L. Panteleev), who shortly after graduation wrote a story about their life in this school; this was in the late 1920s, the famous film "Road to Life" was released a little later — in 1931, and "The Pedagogical Poem" about Anton Makarenko — only in 1955.

Probably, "The Republic" would have been filmed quite early, but in 1935 Belykh was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda, arrested... three years later he died of tuberculosis in a prison hospital. And the story was considered "outside the system" — it was not published, and films based on it were out of the question, although the second author continued to work and survived the Siege of Leningrad. Only in 1960 was the unofficial ban lifted, and a few years later director Gennady Poloka took on the filming, which was his first independent work.

In 1966, the story by Belykh and Panteleev was adapted into a film at the Lenfilm studio by director Gennady Poloka. In 2013, the story was included in the list of "100 books" recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for independent reading by schoolchildren. Also, documentary filmmaker Nika Strizhak made a documentary film "The Main Secret. The Republic of ShKID."

Film characters:

Ella Andreevna Lumberg (Elanlyum) — real name Ella Luminskaya. German language teacher. Wife of Vikniksor. Went missing, emigrated to Germany, or died during the Great Patriotic War.

Nikolai Gromonoscev (Gypsy) — real name Nikolai Pobedonostsev. By Vikniksor’s decision, he was transferred to an agricultural technical school in the Petergof district. Later worked as an agronomist at a state farm.

Georgy Dzhaparidze (Dze) — real name Georgy Lagidze. Worked in one of Leningrad’s design bureaus. Died of starvation during the blockade winter of 1941/42. His younger brother, nicknamed "Dzyonish," also studied at ShKID but was not mentioned in the story due to lack of space.

Georgy Yeonin (Japanese) — real name Georgy Ionin. After finishing school, he joined the police, managed a police club for some time, then graduated from the directing department of the stage institute. Worked with Dmitry Shostakovich on the libretto of the opera "The Nose" based on Nikolai Gogol’s work. After graduation, worked in the theater of classical miniatures. Died from scarlet fever.

Konstantin Finkelstein (Kobchik) — real name Konstantin Lichtenstein. Worked at a newspaper, published the book "The Adventures of Mr. Flust in the Trading Port." Died in 1942 at the front near Leningrad. Panteleev’s notebooks mention that Konstantin Lichtenstein had a son named Yuri ("Dze lectures his son, citing Yurochka Lichtenstein as an example").

Offenbach (Merchant) — real surname Wolfram. Worked as an engineer at one of Leningrad’s enterprises. The last ShKID student died in 1995.

"Yakushka, the smallest citizen of the republic" — real surname Yakovlev. Worked as a driver at a motor depot in the city of Kalinin.

A film of the same name was made based on this book, where the head of the school Viktor Nikolaevich Soroka-Rosinsky appears under the name "Vikniksor." Today, the building where the "Republic of ShKID" once thrived houses a branch of the Volodarsky Sewing Association.

(From an article by S. Martyanov, Deputy Director of the Leningrad State Archive of Literature and Art)

There is information that later, before WWII, an ordinary orphanage was located here.

Viktor Nikolaevich Soroka-Rosinsky graduated from the historical-philological faculty of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University in 1906. He studied in the same course as Blok, composed poetry, and was interested in archaeology. After graduating, he became interested in psychology — working in the laboratory of experimental psychology at the Military Medical Academy and attending Bekhterev’s lectures, he wrote books. At the same time, he worked in several St. Petersburg gymnasiums, teaching for seven years at the Strelninskaya gymnasium near Petersburg. From 1918 to 1920, Soroka-Rosinsky worked at the Herzen Putilov School under Gerdt’s leadership. Here, a group for extended day care, children’s meals at school, and other innovations were first organized. From 1920 to 1925, at the Dostoevsky school, he created an original method for re-educating homeless and especially difficult adolescents. Krupskaya and Makarenko criticized this method, and Soroka-Rosinsky was forbidden to work in Narcompros institutions.

Later, he worked at the Peat Technical School, in an experimental school for psychoneurotics at the Pedological Institute, and then at school No. 210. V. N. Soroka-Rosinsky developed and applied various didactic games in the educational process, which gave quick and stable results: failing students began to get solid threes, and most students — fours and fives. At the same time, he graded very strictly: his "three" was worth a "four" from other teachers. When he suggested mastering didactic games and applying them in their classes, fellow teachers laughed, considering it eccentric. Thus, these methodological discoveries were lost forever.

In the late 1950s, Viktor Nikolaevich retired but continued active work: he wrote the history of his pedagogical views, contributed to newspapers, and compiled methodological manuals for schools. Unable to imagine life without children, he called nearby schools asking them to send him difficult underachieving students. Having created a home club (which he jokingly called the "Academy"), he worked with groups of 4–5 students until they improved and earned a solid three. Then he asked for new students to be sent.

His last protégé was a girl who had been ill for a long time and fell behind her class. V. N. Soroka-Rosinsky worked with her daily. When the student received her first five, he decided to celebrate the event and promised to take her to a panoramic cinema. He went to get tickets and, while crossing the street, due to very poor eyesight and hearing, did not see the tram in the dark and did not hear the conductor’s bell... This tragic event happened on October 1, 1960, at the intersection of Sadovaya and Makarenko streets.

After the war, the building belonged to the Volodarsky sewing factory, which is now called the "Saint Petersburg Clothing Factory."

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Республика_ШКИД

https://www.citywalls.ru/house3380.html