Krasnoufimsk Russian-Bashkir Lower Agricultural School: N. A. Sokovnin’s Pedagogical Project

Abstract

This article explores the history of the establishment of the first Russian-Bashkir agricultural school in the Urals. Its initiator was Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokovnin (1841–1893), a prominent figure in professional education. The article analyses reports of the Krasnoufimsk Russian-Bashkir lower agricultural school to the trustee of the Orenburg educational district written by Sokovnin. They testify to the fact that the establishment of this educational institution was the result of many years of thinking by the teacher about how it could be possible to improve the economic situation of peasants with the help of education. Sokovnin was convinced that agricultural schools could not be limited to teaching the theory and practice of farming and cattle breeding, they had to give peasants the skills to process agricultural products. He looked for new sources of national wealth in the development of small trades such as handicrafts, as well as in the dissemination of technical knowledge among the population. Sokovnin saw the missionary function of the school in the fact that it could change the established traditions of raising Bashkir children and make them sensible and thrifty heads of households. Sokovnin sent the first teachers of the agricultural school to the best processing enterprises in Central Russia to improve their technical knowledge and skills. The Krasnoufimsk Russian-Bashkir lower agricultural school was opened in 1887. It worked in accordance with the Charter, which demanded that the school have full-time teachers who received state salaries and people who worked for hire. The former included a school manager, a preparatory class teacher, three main class teachers and a teacher of law, the latter — a mullah teacher, craft teachers, foremen, a watchman and other attendants. Education at the school lasted for five years: two years in the preparatory class and three years in the basic. About 60 people studied at the school every year, a third of them being Bashkirs and representatives of other peoples who professed Islam.