PARTICIPATION OF OFFICERS AND THE ARMY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN POST-REFORM RUSSIA
For the first time in Russian historiography, the paper raises and examines the question of the activities of the Russian officers and the army for the development of lower agricultural education and enlightenment in post-reform Russia. The article shows that officers, especially those who retired from their estates, turned to entrepreneurship, which stimulated the establishment of lower agricultural schools in order to provide their farms with qualified personnel of mass professions. The officers who served in the army actively participated in organizing and conducting agricultural readings for lower ranks and wounded soldiers. Many officers popularized agricultural knowledge and the agrarian policy of the state in pamphlets prepared for the lower ranks, which were distributed to them free of charge during the period of dismissal from service.