Educational Policy of the Russian Empire in the Turkistan Region (The Second Half of the XIXTH - the Beginning of the XXTH Century)

Abstract

The expansion of the Russian Empire was accompanied by a steady increase of its ethnocultural diversity. The weak integration of Russian society prompted the ruling circles to search for effective ways of the annexed people introduction to the sociocultural values that dominate in the country. The problem of acculturation was most difficult in Central Asia, annexed to Russia only in the second half of the 19th century. School policy was recognized as the most important means of foreigner adaptation to the all-Russian cultural space. However, it had a rather differentiated character in different regions of the empire. The aim of the undertaken research is to identify the main trends in the formation and development of Russian educational policy in Turkestan, to identify its specifics and general aspects with politics in other Muslim regions. The analysis of legislative acts, paperwork, historical and ethnographic, statistical collections, periodical press materials, as well as the works of prominent adherents of foreign education allowed the author to draw a conclusion about the unity of the goal-setting principles and established traditions of state educational policy regarding the Muslim population. Its most important trend was school policy aimed at local people integration into the public education system. At the same time, the weak “development” of the Central Asian region prompted the authorities to apply more cautious forms of educational policy in comparison with other, relatively integrated parts of the country