TAUTSKOLAS IDEJA VARAS HIERARHIJAS DISKURSĀ.

In Latvian and Estonian modern history the impression has formed that during the so-called Swedish times, i.e. 17th century, the Swedish government had taken special care of peasant education in the Baltic provinces and as a result their level of education experienced rapid growth. In its turn, the Great Northern War brought not only the scourge of war, but also the decline of education. However, some scholars already at the beginning of the 20th century questioned this assumption, but in the archive documents clearly indicate that in the 17th century no significant attempts to improve education of the peasants were made, while in the 18th century changes are detectable in a number of acts which indicate both relatively rapid growth of the peasant school network and peasants' literacy growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]