Reflection of Late Imperial Discussions on Education of “Foreigners” in The Practice of National Construction of Soviet Russia (1918—1925, on the Example of the Orenburg Region)

Abstract

The author traces the continuity between the projects of integration of “foreigners” into the imperial space by means of an education system without the rigid conditions of linguistic and cultural homogenization of Muslims, dating back to the late imperial period, and the first decrees of the Soviet authorities on the “free national development” of representatives of all ethnicities and nationalities of the Soviet Republic. This right was realized especially visibly in the construction of a new system of education. The work shows the steps of the People's Commissariat of the Kazakh Autonomous Republic (KASSR) to create a unified labor school, to train teaching staff, including for Kazakh schools, to organize the publication of new textbooks and manuals on the history of the Kyrgyz Republic in both Russian and Kazakh languages.