Next  comes  the  third  of  the  three  free  school  systems
of  Siberia,  the  gymnasium  (the  gymnase  of  France),
found  only  in  the  towns  and  cities.  History,  literature
and  the  higher  mathematics  are  taught.  French  and
German  are  voluntary;  English  cannot  be  taken.  Ger-
man, by  the  way,  is  a  good  deal  the  most  common  foreign
tongue  used  by  Russians  in  Siberia.  A  very  fair  knowl-
edge of  it  is  possessed  by  almost  all  postmasters,  army
oflficers,  government  officials,  mining  engineers  and  edu-
cated men  and  women  in  all  walks  of  life.  French  and
English  are  much  less  often  encountered.  But  to  return
to  the  gymnasium.
Latin  and  Greek  are  compulsory  and  are  rather  over-
done, according  to  some  of  our  informants.  In  1880,
Count  A.  Tolstoy,  cousin  of  the  literary  Leo  and  at  that
time  Minister  of  Education,  became  obsessed  with  the  idea


32  THEOUGH  SIBERIA

that  in  copious  doses  of  the  dead  language  classics  would
lie  the  dissipation  of  the  Russian  Empire's  social  unrest,
and  that  their  study  would  foster  a  spirit  of  conservatism.
So  he  dealt  out  Latin  and  Greek  with  a  liberal  hand,  and
the  rising  generation,  much  to  its  disgust,  still  has  to
stagger  along  under  his  legacy.
The  Kommerscheskaja  are  privately  owned  trade
schools.  The  courses  of  mental  instruction  are  much
easier  than  those  of  the  gymnasia.  They  occur  in  the  big
towns  and  cities,  and  are  largely  filled  with  the  children
of  well-to-do  Jews.
