Historical Tables by Vasily Zhukovsky

This paper explores the little-studied works of V.A. Zhukovsky, namely, his tables for teaching history. Zhukovsky first learned the didactic genre of history tables back in 1810, when, during his self-learning, he relied on the research conducted by D.J. Hubler and Christian von Schlözer. Schlözer’s historical and geographical maps integrated with synchronistic tables, and metho­dological ideas of his father August Ludwig von Schlözer, became a model for Zhukovsky that steered him in his didactics study. The peak of Zhukovsky's teaching was the period of his service at the court. At that time, he developed a special teaching system using tables with special mnemonic signs. Zhukovsky failed to complete his system and tried to return to it just before his death, when he was busy with the Initial Training Course for his children. In this textbook, the signs created by Zhukovsky were used not only to link the event with the date, but also to encrypt the narrative text. Deciphering it back into the narrative by students was the core of Zhukovsky's didactic plan.