ROLE OF ACADEMIC GYMNASIUM AND MOSCOW UNIVERSITY IN REPRODUCTION OF THE RUSSIAN ELITE OF THE XVIII CENTURY (BY THE EXAMPLE OF 1755-1765 ACADEMIC YEARS)
By the example of career and educational trajectories of the Academic Gymnasium graduates and Moscow University students, the article examines education as a social lift. The paper identifies to what extent the Gymnasium graduates replenished the intellectual elite of the Russian Empire. The author concludes that 5-8% of the Gymnasium graduates achieved the first five ranks; one third of the Gymnasium graduates, who achieved the first three ranks, were children of generals with the same rank; among generals of the first three ranks, Moscow University graduates were five times more frequent than the Academic Gymnasium graduates.