Soviet Policy in the Field of Education in the 20s of the XX Century on the Territory of the North Caucasus

Akkieva Svetlana Ismailovna Doctor of History Leading Researcher, KBSC RAS 5 Shogentsukov Ave., Nalchik, 360051, Russia asisma@yandex.ru

In the North Caucasus, the Bolsheviks paid great attention to the development of education. Education in the North Caucasus region was complicated by a number of local specific features. Along with the common reasons inherent in the whole country: the lack of scientific and pedagogical personnel, the lack of the necessary material base, there were local difficulties:  the actual lack of writing among many peoples, the extreme diversity of the ethnographic composition of the population, the diversity of everyday features, the strong influence of the Muslim religion and the Islamic clergy, who did not welcome the development of secular education, the social passivity of most of the population, etc.

 The Bolsheviks adopted two documents that became the "basis" for the formation of the education system. The first document is the decree of the Central Executive Committee of October 16, 1918 "On the unified labor School of the RSFSR". And the second is the decree of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR of October 31, 1918 "On schools of national minorities".

On the basis of these documents, a new secular education system was built, which consisted of two educational stages:  5 years – on the first, 4 years – on the second. All open schools, colleges, various technical and other educational institutions were transformed and merged into a single educational "tool". The previously prevailing elite and other barriers were eliminated and any citizen of the country had the right to receive education regardless of gender, age and other characteristics, religious beliefs, material well-being, etc.  The policy of the Soviet state in the field of education was, among other things, aimed at explaining the goals and objectives of the new government and for this they used the native language of the peoples of the North Caucasus ^[1] (and this provision applied to all peoples, regardless of their number).

During the period of its formation and formation, the Soviet state sought to use the potential of the national intelligentsia, and therefore the local party bodies were obliged to surround the representatives of the latter with a special "atmosphere of camaraderie ..." in order to exclude "a tone of neglect..."^[2]. This attitude contributed to the fact that educated representatives of the peoples of the region began to cooperate quite actively with the Bolsheviks, became a kind of "tool" in terms of promoting Soviet policy, including in the field of education. At the X Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1921, the issue concerning the national aspects of statehood was considered and discussed as the most important and acute. As a result, it was decided "... to help the working masses of the small Russian peoples... to develop and strengthen the court, administration, economic bodies, and authorities operating in their native language, composed of local people who know the way of life and psychology of the local population..."^[3]. It was impossible to solve this problem without training the necessary personnel from among the indigenous peoples. To this end, a policy called "korenization" was launched. This policy led to the fact that representatives of the peoples of the North Caucasus received positions in government bodies. The policy of "korenization", the famous researcher T.P. Khlynina characterized as "a powerful impetus to the socio-economic and cultural development of the North Caucasian peoples, laid the foundations of ideas about the existence of special national interests, the resolution of which requires a special policy"^[4]. The involvement of national minorities in the structures of government, in all structures of the national economy, the development of education in their native languages contributed to reducing the level of distrust of the new government, Russian culture and became one of the factors of the unity of peoples and the formation of Soviet identity.

The problem of writing was one of the most acute and complex.  In the region, not all peoples had their own writing system, those peoples who had it had it on an Arabic graphic basis, the predominant components of writing were superscript characters, subscript symbols, there was an imperfect phonetic system, which further complicated the assimilation of literacy by local residents.  Enthusiasts from among the small stratum of the local intelligentsia tried to solve the problem. And since there was no single approach to this issue, they solved the problem of writing in their own way.  Some adhered to the Arabic principles of writing, while others sought to introduce the Latin alphabet into local writing systems. There were also those who leaned towards the Cyrillic alphabet. Contradictions created many difficulties, but the work on the creation of writing was moving. In 1920, the Kabardian alphabet was created, the "basis" of which was represented by an Arabic graphic basis. This alphabet did not become optimal in every sense, because only people who studied in Islamic religious institutions were familiar with its principles. Later, an alphabet based on Latin was also created, the developers were N. Yakovlev, A. Pshunetov, T. Sheretlokov ^[5]. The Balkarian alphabet was created by the prominent statesman of the North Caucasus M.A. Eneev in Latin. He also prepared a primer in Cyrillic in 1924 .  

Soviet ideologists expected a world revolution, which seemed to them a matter of time soon. For this reason, a proposal was put forward, according to which it seemed most expedient to develop a writing system in Latin for representatives of Islam. At the same time, it was assumed that the displacement of Arabic graphics would lead to a weakening of religious principles, would cause the reorientation of aspects of the development of Muslims to fundamentally new spiritual "determinants". A Latin-based primer was developed in the Karachai language, its author was a prominent public and statesman U. Aliyev.  A Latin alphabet was developed for the Ingush language. In Dagestan, due to the widespread Arabic alphabet, the transition to the Latin alphabet occurred later. In addition, the issue of the language of interethnic communication was also acute in Dagestan. At the initiative of N. Samursky, at the IV All-Dagestan Congress of Soviets in 1925, a special resolution was adopted, according to which the national school system was formed in three languages: native, Turkic (Kumyk) and Russian ^[6].  The Russian language was considered mandatory, but did not have a sufficient base in the region. There was also no unity regarding the Turkic language in the context of its use as a "lingua franca" in Dagestan. The Avars, Laks, Dargins, etc., i.e. representatives of the Nakh-Dagestan languages, whose number was much larger than the peoples belonging to the Turkic language family (Kumyks, Nogais, Azerbaijanis), sharply opposed the Turkic language.  

The process of creating an alphabet for the Chechen language was also difficult because there was resistance to creating it in Latin.

At the beginning of 1928, within the framework of the plenum of the Dagestan regional Commission of the CPSU (b)  The provisions of a special report on the language and alphabet in Dagestan schools were considered. As a result, the participants decided that it is advisable to translate local schools into the alphabet, in which the principles of Latin graphics prevail. Separate variants were created and adapted to Avar, Kumyk, Lak and some other languages.

It is noteworthy that against the background of the translation of Dagestan writing into Latin "rails" in the republic, enormous work was launched in terms of creating writing for those peoples who simply did not have it. It's about Lezgins and Tabasarans. At the same time, the multinational nature and abundance of different languages on the territory of Dagestan have led to a number of objective difficulties and problems. The question of choosing a specific language for interaction between peoples remained relevant. Some employees of Dagestan authorities considered the Turkic (Kumyk) language as the language of interethnic relations, but this idea turned out to be unsuccessful.  The authorities of the Soviet state have worked towards establishing the orientation of the party and Soviet organs of the republic to teach Russian in all schools, while maintaining instruction in their native languages.  This was the first step towards strengthening the position of the Russian language in the region. Russian Russian education in the North Caucasus comes much later, as well as to the official recognition of the Russian language as the language of interethnic communication.

In the 20s, work began on the construction and opening of secular schools in the region. This, against the background of everything else, has become something of a tool that contributes to a significant increase in the literacy of the North Caucasian peoples. If in the early 20s of the XX century this indicator was only 2-3% on average, then 5 years later it reached 9-10%^[7]. At the same time, the work on the training of teaching staff intensified. Teachers who are able to work responsibly in new schools have become in demand. Against the background of difficulties with the pedagogical reserve in rural areas, this required enormous efforts, because it was in the villages that the predominant number of North Caucasian peoples lived. It should be noted that the salaries set for teachers in the region were quite low. This is another factor contributing to the shortage of teaching staff in the North Caucasus. To eliminate this problem, the activities of institutions providing accelerated training of teaching staff were organized in different regions of the region. On average, the training took 1-2 months. Teachers were trained in their native languages, mastered the basic teaching methods and tools. As part of the courses, they got acquainted with the Latin alphabet, Arabic graphics and not only. After a while, the duration of training in various areas has been increased to 5 months. In the 20s, against the background of the events described by the latest, various technical schools were opened that worked to train future teachers. This has largely mitigated the problems associated with the shortage of teaching staff. Additionally, specialists trained in Moscow, Tbilisi, Leningrad and other cities were sent to the region for education purposes.  At the beginning of the second half of the 20s, 200 Kabardins and Balkars were trained in various teacher courses in the North Caucasus, then in 1926 their number reached 685 people^[8].

The result of the measures to create a written language based on the Latin script is an increase in the number of schools, professional development of teaching staff against the background of an increase in the education of the North Caucasian peoples. By the end of the 20s, the literacy rate of residents in the region averaged 35-40%^[9].

It should be noted that a special contribution to the eradication of illiteracy in the North Caucasus has been made by all kinds of so-called "cultural assaults", as well as by the activities of literacy centers and similar structures.  Attention should be paid to the fact that in the early years of the development of the Soviet state, Muslim educational institutions were predominant in the region. And there was a certain competition between secular and Muslim schools. The society was dominated in various aspects by the local clergy, who influenced the consciousness of the illiterate rural population. As the practice of teaching Arabic writing, learning to read the Koran was gradually eliminated, and the authorities began a policy to reduce the influence of religious figures and close Muslim schools, Islamic religious figures switched to underground teaching of the basics of Islam and agitation against the actions of Soviet authorities in the field of education. Having succumbed to this propaganda, some parents, under various pretexts, tried not to let their children (especially girls) into schools. According to the author's field materials, there is evidence that some women inspired their children that they should not learn "not our literacy". Under pressure of circumstances (the authorities demanded that the children go to school)  and when sending children to school, mothers told their daughters to sit quietly in class, but not listen to the teachers' explanations. Informants noted that in adulthood, many of them lamented that they had not received an education and remained "dark" (illiterate).  Gradually, the number of supporters of studying in secular schools grew in society, but there were also people who preferred studying in Muslim schools rather than secular ones. 

In the late 20s, the authorities began to close Muslim schools, which caused a mixed reaction in society. The experience of Kabardino-Balkaria is noteworthy in this regard. Here, the ban on the activities of Muslim schools has led to a number of protests. The most significant ones were held in Baksan under the leadership of Askhad Shogentsukov, a famous Islamic theologian and the first Kabardian playwright (since 1961, the Kabardian Drama Theater bears his name). The activities of the protesters did not bring results, by the end of the 20s of the last century, almost all Kabardian and Balkar Muslim schools were closed. This led to a decrease in the influence of Islamic religious figures and contributed to strengthening the positions of secular education, the authority of teachers and Soviet authorities.

The development of secular education had a significant and at the same time positive impact on the development of the North Caucasian peoples^[10].The creation of writing in the languages of the peoples of the North Caucasus led to a significant increase in the educational level of all the peoples of the North Caucasus, the emergence of a cadre of teachers and other specialists, the formation of national intelligentsia.  In general, it should be noted that the policy of the "center" in relation to the North Caucasus in the 20s of the last century contributed to the development of the cultural infrastructure of the region.

You can simply select and copy link from below text field.