page_title: Karl May School
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Karl May School / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: May-bug as bas-relief on Saint-Petersburg Karl May school, Vasilievskiy island, 14 line, building 39
context_page_description: Karl May School is a secondary school in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
context_section_description: In autumn 1918, the private educational institution of K.I. May was nationalized and turned into the Soviet United Labor School, 1st and 2nd degree. Here, according to the decrees of the new authorities, co-education was introduced, while grades and the attestat degree were abolished. Later the brigade-laboratory method of study was introduced and utilized until 1932.
  In the pre-war years the director of the school, its name and number (15, 12, 217, 17), the length of study (seven, nine, or ten years) changed repeatedly (see appendix 2). The "May" pedagogical traditions were in one way or another preserved until the winter of 1929, when as a result of an extensive anti-bourgeois press campaign and the publication of unfounded accusations in the newspaper "Leningrad Pravda," from 15 January 1929 the school's educators and management were largely replaced—even the bas-relief above the entranceway was destroyed. In the beginning of the 1930s, K.I. Polyakov (1902-1946) became director of the school and recreated a good pedagogical collective; the life of the school was put to rights. The physical education instructor R.V. Ozol', organizer of the "Spartak" circle, was an especially bright figure at this time. Pioneer and Komsomol organizations were also created.
  Starting in the fall of 1937, in accordance with government resolution, the school also housed the 6th Special Artillery School (6 SAS), formed on a volunteer basis of students from the 8-10th classes of this and other nearby general education schools. Between 1938 and 1941 the 6 SAS graduated four classes. On 5 February 1942, during the cruel winter of the blockade, starving schoolchildren were evacuated to Tobolskt—nevertheless, 63 of them died of hunger on the way. Graduates of the 6 SAS distinguished themselves brilliantly on the fronts of the World War II, defended and liberated their native Leningrad, stormed Berlin and the Reichstag; 111 of them died courageously. Since 1984 in the current School no. 5 (13th line, no. 28) there has been a museum devoted to the 6 SAS, founded thanks to the efforts both of the school director at that time and of the current museum director L.V. Chernenkova. The museum directs the students in active patriotic work, with the aid of veterans, led by General-major V.G. Rozhkov.
  After the lifting of the Leningrad blockade, from September 1944, lessons were begun again, only now the educational institution was called the Men's High School no. 5 (and from 1954, with the institution of co-education, simply High School no. 5). In 1966, on the initiative of the director of studies A.S. Baturina, a museum was created in the school. Along with the expositions devoted to the labor and military works of former students, there was a stand devoted to the pre-revolutionary period and the school's first director, K.I. May. However, this museum did not exist for very long, and, sadly, almost none of its exhibits were preserved.
  In connection with a collapse of ceiling plaster in 1976 (requiring a renovation), the collective of educators and students were temporarily moved to another building on the 13th line (no. 28). The renovation was not completed due to lack of funds, and school activities were not reinstated in the old building. All the unique classroom equipment, the furniture, memorial plaques with the names of former graduates of various years, busts of writers and scholars, and the decorated interiors were left to the whims of fate. All of it was quickly plundered and irretrievably lost.
  Graduates of the school achieved great successes in various branches of science and culture. More than 100 of them became Doctors of Science, 29 were elected active members or member-correspondents of the Academy of Science or the Academy of the Arts (see  list below). Among other former students: three members of the State council of pre-revolutionary Russia—University rector D.D. Grimm, Petersburg governor A.D. Zinov'ev and Minister of Internal Affairs, later Minister of Justice A.A. Makarov; Minister of Internal Affairs D.S. Sipyagin; University rector 
caption: May-bug as bas-relief on Saint-Petersburg Karl May school, Vasilievskiy island, 14 line, building 39. The bas-relief was rebuilt in 1995
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