August 31, 1798 - A school of ship architecture was founded in St. Petersburg, which has changed 13 names in 214 years of its existence and since 1998 it has been called the Naval Engineering Institute.
August 31, 1892 - The merchant and philanthropist Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov suggested giving the city the art gallery he founded. Tretyakov began collecting his collection of paintings in the middle of the century. The first two paintings of Russian artists: The Temptation by N. G. Schilder and The Clash with Finnish Smugglers by V. G. Khudyakov, Pavel Mikhailovich bought in 1856. By the time the gallery passed to the city, there were already about 1900 works of art, including 15 beautiful sculptures. And about a hundred years later, in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery there were already more than 55,000 paintings acquired by the state.
August 31, 1914 - Under the influence of patriotic and anti-German sentiments in Russian society, Nicholas II issued a decree on renaming St. Petersburg to Petrograd. The next day, in the morning city newspapers, one could read: "We went to bed in St. Petersburg and woke up in Petrograd! ... The Petersburg period of our history with its German tinge ended ... Hurray, gentlemen! ..." As you know, the city had to change its name one more time to Leningrad (in 1924) before it returned to its former historical name in September of the 91st year.
August 31, 1827 Emperor Nicholas I passed a law that prohibited serfs and courtyards from teaching above parish and county schools. This injustice was eliminated only after 98 years.
August 31, 1925 - The USSR adopted a decree on the introduction of universal primary education. He gave many generations of Soviet youth an opportunity to receive a brilliant, versatile education at public expense, and to make the level of literacy in society the highest in the world.
