School education system in the Baikal-Amur Mainline construction regions (1970-1980s)

The history of the late Soviet comprehensive school in the areas of socialist construction projects in Siberia and the Far East is unevenly developed in contemporary historiography. The purpose of the paper is to study the historical experience of the formation and development of the school system based on the materials of the Baikal-Amur Railway Mainline construction regions during the 1970s and 1980s. The empirical basis consists of the oral stories of contemporaries of the All-Union construction, recorded during the researcher fieldwork in the settlements of the western part of BAM (2002-2020), archival sources, materials of the Soviet press. The combination of the traditional historicaldocumentary approach with the methods of oral history and everyday life history made it possible to reconstruct the complicated process of forming schools in the BAM regions in microhistorical and historical-anthropological aspects. Comprehensive schools’ chain was formed during a short period of the mainline construction. There were distinguished four main types of schools by origin: the schools of “old” settlements that existed before BAM; schools placed in temporary buildings for children of BAMers; located in permanent structures schools of the territorial education system and railway jurisdiction department. School construction constantly lagged behind the needs of the population, which was caused by the residual principle of financing, the dispersal of funds to many facilities, departmental fragmentation in the process of schools’ construction, delays in the development of project documentation, etc. In turn, this led to congestion of class-sets, a three-shift work schedule, and the abandonment of electives, circles, and extended-day groups. The material and technical condition of schools was also at a low level: the heat control was not maintained in classrooms, there was no special furniture and educational equipment, and there were interruptions in the organization of hot meals and medical services for children. At the same time, schools at BAM surpassed the educational institutions of neighboring regions in many indicators of the educational process efficiency (polytechnic, the introduction of innovative teaching methods, other diversification forms of education), which was achieved due to the teachers’ personal enthusiasm and their young age, the weakness of party-ideological control in the areas of new development, cultural exchange between representatives of different regions of the country who took part in the all-Union construction. Schools had not only educational functions, but also were the centers of socio-political and cultural life of builders (sports competitions, amateur performances, tourism, etc.). After the end of the Komsomol construction, due to the outflow of builders, the unprofitability of the railway, and the uncertainty of the future prospects of most settlements of BAM, it was not possible to use all the capacities of new schools. In the result, a part of the school fund was transferred to other departments or dismantled. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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