PERIODICAL ORGANS AND PUBLICATION OF SECULAR EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE IN THE CHUVASH LANGUAGE IN KAZAN IN 1905–1914

Abstract

In the conditions of “narrowing” the field of using the national languages of the Middle Volga region peoples, the study of historical experience of their use as a channel of cultural modernization and westernization of the society in the pre-revolutionary period is a topical subject of research. The purpose of the work is to analyze retrospectively the activities to translate and publish secular educational material and periodical press in the Chuvash language in Kazan in the late-imperial period (1905–1914). Liberalization of Caesarism’s internal politics during the First Russian Revolution, as well as emancipation of social consciousness of the national intelligentsia created favorable conditions for the appearance of the first periodicals and secular literature in the Chuvash language. One of the education centers, where at this time new Chuvash editions began to be published, was Kazan. The first Chuvash newspaper “Khypar” was published there as well as annual calendars, the Translation Commission under Kazan educational district organized translation and printing secular educational literature.
 
 Within the framework of this study, for the first time in the Russian historiography, the author makes an attempt to assess the role of Kazan in the formation of the Chuvash secular educational book and newspaper periodicals in pre-revolutionary period, he studies the activity of the Translation Commission under Kazan Educational District on compiling and printing secular educational literature, he shows the repertoire, the circulation and the years of Chuvash editions release. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the formation of secular book printing and the appearance of the first periodic organs in the Chuvash language played a significant role in the birth of the national movement and the growth of self-awareness in the Chuvash people.