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In June 1817, Pushkin graduated from the Lyceum. Three years later, on 12 may (24th new style), 1820, a major fire occurred in the Royal Village, destroyed the building of the Lyceum.

the Boys-the students had to endure the library, to save the devices from classrooms, but the environment in which ROS Pushkin and his classmates were lost. Immediately after the fire, Alexander I ordered to restore the Lyceum “like ever,” but it is clear that the former was not to return.

In fact tragic for the Lyceum 1820 had to cancel public examinations to Lyceum graduates and ranks they are assigned on the basis of reviews of the Lyceum teachers. Today’s high school students as no one will understand the experiences of their peers, who lived two centuries ago.

read More about the events of 200 years ago I asked a leading researcher of the Memorial Museum-Lyceum Svetlana Vasilievna Pavlova.

the Fire started in the middle of the day may 12, 1820, in the Palace Church. Perhaps it would have been soon extinguished, if not the strongest wind. The fire instantly consumed the dry wooden structure of the Palace, spread to the arch of the Lyceum, the Lyceum building, got to the Knight house, where he lived Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.

“an hour in the third before dinner, I quietly wrote in his new office – said Karamzin in a letter to his friend, the poet Ivan Dmitriev, – and suddenly saw above the dome of the Church a cloud of smoke with the flame, run and find the Emperor, already giving orders, zapisannogo water, almost in the fire…”

Saw burning the roof of his house, Karamzin run back to the family. The wife of the historian Ekaterina Andreevna took her children and calmly told my husband that he saved their paper. All books, manuscripts were made in the field. Fortunately, the wind changed direction and the house was saved.

Continuing the letter Dmitriev, Karamzin writes: “meanwhile, the Palace burned down. Did what I could in anticipation of the St. Petersburg police, who galloped to the night… We stayed up all night did not undress and slept not until the seventh hour of the morning. The fire stopped at the office of the sovereign… the Fire is completely extinguished yesterday for lunch, but the school and in the morning still burned…”

Lyceum particularly hard hit. On this day in the school in the usual way were classes. The second course was preparing for final exams.

the Director of the Lyceum Egor Antonovich Engelhardt in a letter to his former pupil Fyodor Matiushkin described that sad day: “they Burned our Lyceum from the roof to the cellar, and in addition to walls, blackened with smoke, nothing left… Fire metal in all directions, all sought to save the Palace, and on the Lyceum, no one cared. We made the entire library, a physics laboratory and mineral Cabinet. Then took out from under the burning roof already vospitanii all things… We ceased to pass, when the flameI don’t let more to go; all gone, I was alone in our large burning hall, and when more than half of the ceiling collapsed, when already half burned, I bid farewell to my hall… with school!..”

In this terrible time Director demanded urgent solutions. It was necessary to select a room for accommodation of fire victims, to find a place for rescued Lyceum of the property, to take care of graduates.

high school Students placed in the Singing lane, in the house where they lived, Lyceum employees. Here they had organized a class. Storage Lyceum property was determined by the Hermitage.

two days after the fire, having learned of the terrible misfortune that occurred at the Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo came his first vypuskniki – Vladimir Volhovsky, Ivan Pushchin, Sergei Komovskogo, Ivan Malinowski and Peter Savrasov. Looking at the blackened walls of College, they promised each other that their friendship and love for the old Lyceum will never disappear.

the News about the fire in Tsarskoye Selo found Fyodor Matyushkin on the way from Irkutsk to Yakutsk. Shocked by the news, he immediately took the letter Engelhardt: “Egor Antonovich!.. So Lyceum is no more? No, I don’t believe… Do the return of my Royal will be alien to me?.. No, no, I don’t believe it. Egor Antonovich, constitute me, I write that all a lie, a lie…”

the next day after the fire, established a special Commission approved by his Majesty for the amendment of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. The main role in it was played by the architect Stasov, who was promptly arrange remedial work.

a year later, the Lyceum was revived.

Since the fire of 1820, passed two centuries. And, it would seem that today, in the revived Pushkin Lyceum nothing reminds us of the dramatic event. However…

Once in the Museum, pay attention to the main document – a Charter granted by Emperor Alexander I to the Lyceum, contained its Statute. Diploma dressy decorated with the monogram of the Emperor on the cover, with mastic imprint of the state seal in a metal ark.

now a red blur on the cover Letters – and there is evidence of a fire in 1820. Then from a high temperature mastic melted and left their mark on the main Lyceum of the document.

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Jennifer Alvarez is an investigative journalist and is a correspondent for European Union. She is based in Zurich in Switzerland and her field of work include covering human rights violations which take place in the various countries in and outside Europe. She also reports about the political situation in European Union. She has worked with some reputed companies in Europe and is currently contributing to USA News as a freelance journalist. As someone who has a Masters’ degree in Human Rights she also delivers lectures on Intercultural Management to students of Human Rights. She is also an authority on the Arab world politics and their diversity.