The Phenomenon of Suicide in the Secondary Schools of the Russian Empire in the 19th - Early 20th Century

Interest in the study and discussion of the problem of suicide among young people, its importance in society is difficult to overestimate. However, not many people know that this problem became relevant in the 19th century. The so-called “suicide epidemic” in particular among the younger population of the Empire in the 19th - Early 20th centuries affected not only the minds of the older generation, gave a push to an ardent discussion in the journalistic field and the emergence of many scientific papers on this topic, but also contributed to making attempts to put under control schoolchildren’ behavior by government, in particular in the field of regulation of the issue and attempts to stop the rapid increase in the number of suicides among secondary school students. Despite the significance of the issue and the presence of an impressive number of sources on this topic, in modern historiography, there are few works devoted to the phenomenon of suicide in the secondary schools of the Russian Empire. The question of the nature of the connection between social and political institutions and the phenomenon of school suicide as one of the central problems in society has not yet been studied in detail. Thus, on the basis of reports that were sent the Ministry of Education on the cases of committed suicides, statistical data, as well as various articles and essays on this topic, this paper analyzes the main stages of the development of state’s activity in the fight against suicides among students of secondary schools and the transformation of public opinion towards this phenomenon in late imperial Russia.