Modernization of the Russian education system in the first quarter of the 18th century as a factor in the book culture development

Importance. One of the most active means of modernization in Russia in the times of Peter the Great was education. To make a cultural, social, economic breakthrough, the country needed a personnel of educated and energetic specialists who understood the essence of the reforms. At the same time, the origins and directions of reforms were closely connected with the need to reduce the technological and socio-cultural lag of our country from the countries of Western Europe.Materials and Methods. The main sources of the research are the materials of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (F. 256) and the Russian State Historical Archive (F. 796), as well as published records of the main acts that influenced the Russian domestic policy.Results and Discussion. The success of the enlightenment policy of the autocrat could not become without a wide appeal of Russians to book products, democratization of the publishing market and spreading the fashion for reading. The symbol of the time was the rapid spread of the libraries network at educational institutions, which opened access to books and knowledge for the population. The available data on book issuance of the library of the Academy of Sciences show the great readership of the collected fund. Each publication issued to the reader was recorded in a special journal, where the name of the user and the data of the requested work were recorded.Conclusion. One of the Peter the Great’s modernization goals was to create a layer of Russian intellectuals who acted as guides of the initiated transformations. At the same time, the chosen means of enlightenment activity of the autocrat were diverse: it was practiced to educate Russian people abroad, to create a network of educational institutions in the country, to widely spreading secular books in the country.