A formation of secular school education in the Tatar settlements of Mordovia (1910s – early 1940s) 

Anna N. Zankina, Researcher, I.D.Voronin Joint Local Lore Museum of the Republic of Mordovia (2 Saranskaya street, Saransk, Russia), E-mail: kraeved13rus@gmail.com, annakonopljnkova@yandex.ru 

93/94 

DOI

10.21685/2072-3024-2021-4-6 

Background. Researches are interested in the educational policy of the USSR so far, especially in the context of a multinational state. In this article, the formation of a secular school is shown by the example of the Tatars of Mordovia, whose history within the above-mentioned region has been poorly studied, mostly because of their small number. The purpose of the research is to show the cardinal changes that took place in the field of education after the revolutionary events of 1917, the transition from a Muslim religious school to a secular general education and universal primary education, to reveal the features of this process among the Tatars. Materials and methods. The implementation of research tasks was achieved through the use of documents extracted from the funds of the Central State Archives (CSA) of the Republic of Mordovia. A special place is occupied by previously published studies on Soviet educational policy. The methodological corpus of the research includes a comparative-historical method, the application of which makes it possible to compare the literacy of the Tatars, Russians and Mordovians (in the imperial and Soviet periods), as well as the percentage of school indigenization among these peoples; chronological method, thanks to which it is possible to trace the sequence of historical events throughout the period under consideration; a statistical method that allows you to analyze the number of Tatar students in pedagogical technical schools, the educational level of teachers, data on the number and nativization of Tatar schools, as well as school cove-rage of children. Results. It was possible to trace the process of the formation of the Soviet school in the 1910s – early 1940s. on the example of the Tatar settlements of Mordovia and identify the difficulties it faced, such as a lack of teachers, special rooms, dropouts, poor academic performance. The processes of gradual displacement of the confessional Muslim school of the Soviet general education during the 1920s are considered; the establishment of universal primary education and attempts to introduce a seven-year universal education; the approval of the compulsory Russian language in schools and the indigenization of schools. Conclusions. Studying the topic of the formation of Soviet school education in Mordovia made it possible not only to find new interesting information about how this process in the Tatars of Mordovia took place, but also to reveal its distinctive features. In particular, it was found that during the 1920s. In Tatar settlements, Muslim confessional schools continued to operate, which functioned both at mosques and at home. One of the difficulties in implementing was an acute shortage of special school buildings, since in the Tatar settlements, in contrast to the Russian and Mordovian ones, there were no former parish schools and noble estates. Also, the difference between the Tatar national school was that, in contrast to the Mordovian one, there was no problem of attracting girls to school and a high percentage of teaching in their native language remained, while in Erzya and Mokshan schools it was much lower. 

Key words

Mordovian ASSR, educational policy, Tatars, national school, indigenousization, general education 

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