Soviet Policy in the Field of Education in the 20s of the XX Century on the Territory of the North Caucasus

Abstract

The subject of the article is Soviet educational policy in the 1920s. The methodological basis of the research is the principle of historicism. The Bolsheviks considered one of their most important tasks in the region to be the formation of secular education and the enlightenment of the population. Many peoples of the North Caucasus did not have a written language, there were few literate people. There was a priority of Islamic education over secular education in the region. There were Tibetan schools attached to every mosque, and there were few secular schools. In the 1920s, the peoples who did not have a written tradition received writing, schools were opened, teachers were trained, the education system was formed in their native languages. In Dagestan, the issue of language was the most acute and therefore a project was being implemented there, according to which the national school system was formed in three languages: native, Turkic (Kumyk) and Russian. But the project was not very successful and was soon curtailed. The authorities of the republics of the North Caucasus placed special emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy of the population and the education of women. The article emphasizes that all these measures in a fairly short period of time contributed to the strengthening of the position of secular Soviet education in this region of Russia and the displacement of religious education from its socio-cultural space, reducing distrust of the new government and the formation of Soviet identity.