The painting depicts a 19th-century rural school during an arithmetic lesson. The figure of the teacher has a real prototype - Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky, a botanist and mathematician, professor at Moscow University. Rural students solve a very interesting example. It can be seen that it is not easy for them. In the picture, 11 students are thinking about a problem, but it seems that only one boy figured out how to solve this example in his head, and quietly says his answer in the teacher's ear.

   Nikolai Petrovich dedicated this picture to his school teacher Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky, who is depicted on it in the company of his students. Bogdanov-Belsky knew the heroes of his picture very well, since he himself was once in their situation. He was lucky enough to get into the school of the famous Russian teacher, Professor S.A. Rachinsky, who noticed the boy's talent and helped him get an art education.

　　这幅画描绘了在算术课上的一所19世纪乡村学校。老师的身材具有真实的原型-植物学家和数学家谢尔盖·亚历山德罗维奇·拉钦斯基（Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky），莫斯科大学教授。农村学生解决了一个非常有趣的例子。可以看出，这对他们来说并不容易。在图片中，有11名学生正在思考一个问题，但似乎只有一个男孩想出了解决这个问题的方法，并悄悄在老师的耳朵里说出了自己的答案。

　　尼古拉·彼得罗维奇（Nikolai Petrovich）将这张画作献给了他的学校老师谢尔盖·亚历山德罗维奇·拉钦斯基（Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky），后者在他的学生的陪伴下被描绘。画家非常了解他的作品中的英雄，因为他本人曾经处于这种状况。他很幸运地进入了著名的俄罗斯老师S.A.Rachinsky教授的学校，他注意到了男孩的才华并帮助他接受了艺术教育。

About Rachinsky

   Sergei Rachinsky (1833-1902) - Russian scientist, teacher, educator, professor at Moscow University, botanist and mathematician. Continuing the beginnings of his parents, he taught at a rural school, even though the Rachinskys were a noble family. Sergei Alexandrovich was a man of versatile knowledge and interests: in the school art workshop, Rachinsky himself taught painting, drawing and drawing.

   In the early period of his teaching career, Rachinsky searched in line with the ideas of the German teacher Karl Volkmar Stoya and Leo Tolstoy, with whom he corresponded. In the 1880s, he became the main ideologist of the parish school in Russia, which began to compete with the zemstvo school. Rachinsky came to the conclusion that the most important of the practical needs of the Russian people is communication with God.

   As for mathematics and mental arithmetic, Sergei Rachinsky left behind his famous problem book “ 1001 mental counting tasks ", Some tasks (with answers) from which you can find by.

   In 1867, due to the circumstances, Rachinsky left the professorship at Moscow University, returned to his native Tatevo, opened a school there and devoted himself to teaching and raising peasant children. A few years later, the Smolensk village of Tatevo becomes known throughout Russia.