Tsar Alexander I of Russia created a ministry of public education and promulgated laws to provide elementary and secondary schools and higher education institutions for all classes of the population. The public took a great interest in education and actively participated in the funding of schools at every level. (RM)

The expansion of schooling in the Russian countryside after 1864 brought basic education within the reach of the majority of peasants in the European heartland by the time of World War I. It is argued that this expansion was initiated by the purposeful self-activity of the anonymous peasant millions. (RM)