Features of Eradicating Illiteracy Among the Rural Population of the Orenburg Region (The 1920s-1930s)

The aim of the article is to reveal the activities on eradicating illiteracy and low literacy among the rural population. The article was written on the materials of the Orenburg region of the 1920s-1930s. The historical-comparative method was applied: it was necessary to compare the data on the number and level of literacy of the urban and rural population, and also to compare the materials of the population censuses of 1926 and 1939 according to the specified parameters. The author used the principle of objectivity for an adequate and impartial analysis of the work on eradicating illiteracy and little literacy in the rural areas of the Orenburg region. The author thoroughly analyzes the historiography of the problem. Modern historians point out that the new authorities paid increased attention to the eradication of illiteracy in the countryside; administrative measures were actively applied for the purpose. The unpublished sources used as material for the research were obtained from the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation; among the regional archives, it is worth noting the Orenburg State Archive of Social and Political History. The author shows that the features of the eradication of illiteracy and low literacy were the need to take into account the conditions of life and agricultural labor. The multinational composition of the rural population of the region was taken into account: mobile schools and libraries were created, special premises with separate training for women and men were organized. The patronage of city workers over the village was actively used. From the second half of the 1920s, extraordinary methods were used among the rural population: cultural trips, socialist competitions for literacy. Since the beginning of mass collectivization, the cultural campaign in the Orenburg region took the form of an agricultural collective farm campaign, the competitive element in the organization of training intensified. In rural areas, the eradication of illiteracy and low literacy was hampered by an acute shortage of teaching staff, teaching materials, rooms with heating and lighting. In rural areas, it was not professional teachers who worked in training centers, but literate Komsomol members and party workers. Professional teachers often worked on a social basis, that is for free, which significantly reduced the quality of educational work. Despite all the measures, it was in rural areas that the highest rate of student dropout from educational institutions was observed, reaching 60-70%. Summing up the results of the eradication of illiteracy and low literacy among the rural population, the author concludes that this was a complex and contradictory process. In the eradication of illiteracy, the needs of the trainees were not always taken into account, lessons often turned into political meetings and gatherings, which gave rise to doubts and disappointment among peasants. Nevertheless, all the work carried out in the 1920s-1930s to eradicate illiteracy and low literacy among the rural population led to significant positive results.

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