This day in Russian history and the History of the world.

October 19

October 19, 1811: Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo near Saint Petersburg) was opened.

It was founded by the Emperor Alexander I with the object of educating youths of the best families, who should afterwards occupy important posts in the Imperial service. The first graduates were all brilliant and included Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov. During the 33 years of the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum's existence, there were 286 graduates.

The most famous of these, in addition to the above two, were Anton Delvig, Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, Nicholas de Giers, Dmitriy Tolstoy, Jacob Grot, Nikolay Danilevsky, Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky, Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin.

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