Belt with buckle of a student of the Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Nikolayev Gymnasium

The original leather belt is in very good collector's condition. It was originally equipped with a custom-made buckle from a pupil of the Tsarskoye Selo Imperial Nikolayev Gymnasium (standard buckles had a monogram and crown, and overhead versions were used here). The monogram of Nicholas I is missing. The buckle is steel, silver-plated, the crown is brass. In our practice, the original belt of the lyceum student was encountered for the first time. Guarantee of authenticity.

The history of the gymnasium dates back to 1866. By this time, the women's Theological School and the Mariinsky Gymnasium for women were already operating in Tsarskoye Selo, but the men's educational institutions were represented only by the district school, and it was increasingly overcrowded with students. This forced wealthy citizens to send their sons to St. Petersburg gymnasiums, and those who could not afford it had to limit their children's primary education.

In order to resolve the issue of the formation of local youth, in April 1866, a public meeting of merchants and burghers of Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk and Gatchina decided to ask the Chief Administrator of the Palace Administration, Grigory Fedorovich Gogel, to petition for the establishment of a men's gymnasium in Tsarskoye Selo.

It took a long time to find the necessary funds to implement the idea. In January 1868, the real estate tax for Tsarskoye Selo homeowners was almost halved, and then the townspeople decided to use the saved funds to organize and further maintain the men's gymnasium, which was so necessary for the city.

In November 1868, the city deputies of the Tsarskoye Selo Town Hall determined the annual amount for the maintenance of the gymnasium. In May 1869, the Superintendent of the Ministry of Public Education allowed the "unfinished building of the public almshouse" on Embankment Street to be converted into a men's gymnasium.

The construction of the gymnasium building was completed in 1870, when in one summer everything necessary was done within its walls to open a four-grade gymnasium from the new school year, named Nikolaevskaya in memory of Emperor Nicholas I and the early deceased eldest son of Alexander II, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. Six years later, the four-grade school became a full-fledged classical gymnasium with an eight-year cycle.

The first director of the educational institution was state councilor, law teacher Ivan Ivanovich Piskarev (1824-1887), the law teacher of Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich (the future Alexander III), who took the newly opened gymnasium under his patronage. When he ascended the Russian throne in 1881, the Nikolaevskaya Gymnasium would receive its second title, Imperial.

The grand opening of the gymnasium took place on September 8, 1870 in the presence of Emperor Alexander II and numerous high-ranking guests, including almost all the ministers of that time and members of the imperial family. A special guest at the ceremony was the State Chancellor, Prince Alexander Gorchakov― a friend and classmate of Pushkin.

The opening of the gymnasium was a real event. The residents of Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk and Gatchina who attended the celebration were breath-taking from the abundance of big names and the splendor of uniforms and carriages. After talking about the difference between classical and real education, the director of the new gymnasium ended his speech with an appeal to parents and students: "Parents! By entrusting the education of your children to the gymnasium, do not weaken family home education. Children! For the benefits of education that your parents and fellow citizens are now opening up and providing for you, repay the society that benefits you with good behavior, love of science, and diligence in learning."

The Imperial Nikolaevskaya Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium existed for 48 years. The first graduation of the gymnasium took place in 1876, there were only three graduates that year. But the fame of the educational institution grew, and with it the number of students grew.

Young men of different class backgrounds and religions studied here; the total number of high school students in 48 years was more than 2,000, and more than 1,000 graduates received graduation certificates.

On March 2 (15), 1918, the last graduation of the Tsarskoye Selo Men's Gymnasium took place, which lost the titles of Imperial and Nikolayev after the abdication of Nicholas II. This year's graduation certificates were the last in which the educational institution was also called a gymnasium, and the city was called Tsarskoye Selo. By decree of the Central Executive Committee of October 16, 1918, all secondary education in the country was decisively reorganized, and from that moment on, all types of educational institutions of primary and secondary education in Russia ― from parish schools to real schools and classical gymnasiums - will be transformed into unified labor schools of the first and second levels. The former Imperial Nikolaevskaya Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium, which became the first unified labor kindergarten, will not be an exception.