Russian-Bashkir schools in the Orenburg Province in the post-reform period

Abstract

The paper analyzes the number, composition and major problems in the work of Russian-Bashkir schools in the Orenburg province in the second half of the 19th early 20th centuries The analysis has been carried out on the basis of unpublished sources from the funds of the Joint State Archive of the Orenburg Region and published sources of zemsky records, as well as a number of scientific and journalistic works of the post-reform period. The connection between the development of this segment of the educational system and the theoretical study of the Bashkir language by Russian linguists is shown. The author has come to the conclusion that with time the priority in the system of Russian-Bashkir schools in the Orenburg province was the full development of their graduates in the Russian language, which required, paradoxically enough, more attention to the study of their native (Bashkir) language. The paper proves that the Congress of directors and inspectors of national schools of the Orenburg school district, which took place in Ufa in 1912, initiated a reform of the Russian-Bashkir non-Russian educational system aimed at the integration of teaching in Russian and Bashkir languages within the single curriculum. It is shown that since the establishment of the Orenburg zemstvo in 1913 the issues of non-Russian education were in the focus of its attention. The study also shows the resistance to the processes of Tatarization in Russian-Bashkir schools at the level of regional administration of the system of non-Russian education.