Organization of efforts to eradicate illiteracy among peasantry of the Tomsk and Narym Ob territory in the 1920s

The movement of eradication of illiteracy among Siberian peasantry started at the turn of the 20th centuries, and got a new impulse after the Revolution of 1917. In December 1919, a special decree "On Eradication of Illiteracy among the Population of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" was published. At the local level, including Tomsk Province, extraordinary commissions for illiteracy eradication, as well as "Doloy negramotnost'" [Down with illiteracy] All-Russian volunteer society, were founded. United efforts of state public education authorities, public organizations and peasant communities resulted in the opening of new elementary schools and schools for young peasants. They provided not only elementary education, but basic agronomy knowledge, too. The initial school network of the Tomsk and Narym territory of the Ob region was not big enough. Many children of school age did not attend schools because of their remote location and lack of places in them. Moreover, many would leave schools before the end of an academic year because of a difficult financial situation. Schools also faced the problem of lack of pedagogical staff. Rural teachers received small benefits from rural communities or earned a small salary. As a consequence, they would not stay in a village for a long time; and many schools were closed. For example, in Petropavlovskaya District there were only 6 schools for 250 pupils, lack of teachers left 5 other schools closed. In villages located in the suburbs of towns, such as Iglakovo, Rogozhenka, Uspenka, Chernilshchikovo and Mikhailovka, schools were empty as the local Department of Public Education had not provided teachers for them. Literate people with no pedagogical education and even recent elementary school leavers were involved in teaching at schools. According to the data of 1926, in Tomsk District (including Tomsk) 38 % of school staff had special pedagogical education, 27 % had general secondary education and 23 % had elementary education. In spite of all the difficulties of illiteracy eradication, the number of schools and pupils was gradually growing. By the end of the 1920s, in rural areas of Tomsk District there were more than 500 elementary schools which covered 88 % of school age children (from 8 to 11 y.o.). Creation of subdivisions for illiteracy eradication and their work helped increase literacy among peasantry. In the middle of the 1920s, more than 200 such subdivisions operated in Tomsk region. The result of their work can be seen in the opening of new reading houses and libraries in Tomsk villages, as well as in subscription to newspapers and magazines. If in 1921 Tomsk Province had 21 reading houses and 36 libraries, in 1925- 1926 it had 99 reading houses. All of this was the evidence proving that peasants of the Tomsk and Narym Ob territory made a considerable step on the way to literacy and cultural engagement.

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