Problems of Reforming “Foreign Education” as a Field of Activities of the Uyezd Zemstvo of Orenburg Province (1913-1917)

Acculturation through the educational system is one of the most typical mechanisms for acculturation. However, in historiography, the main attention is paid to state policy (the admission of “foreigners” to state educational institutions, the creation and functioning of “Russian-foreign schools”, etc.). The article analyzes the policy on this issue on the part of local government. The article presents an analysis of the content of the initiatives put forward by Orenburg uyezd zemstvo after the adoption at the allimperial level of the Rules on Primary Schools for Foreigners of June 14, 1913. The role of the uyezd self-government bodies in reforming the “foreign education” system of Orenburg Province at the beginning of the 20th century is considered. This role was not limited only to the implementation of government orders, but was also accompanied by the active development of their own original projects of reforming Muslim education, based on the unique experience of the Orenburg region in implementing the imperial policy of acculturation. It is shown that in the conditions of the First World War and the accompanying exacerbation of internal political contradictions, the local zemstvo allowed itself to publicly speak out on the topic of “foreign” education in a rather harsh form. The practical work of the uyezd zemstvo in opening new schools and educational courses, changing the structure of education management is described. It is proved that the Orenburg uyezd zemstvo proposed its own project of solving the problem of a more durable introduction of the Russian language into the “foreign” environment due to a kind of a “symbiosis” of the traditional Muslim school (mekteb) and the general education school. At the same time, the Orenburg zemstvo suggested not ignoring but, on the contrary, offering systemic knowledge on debatable issues of national history in a state manner to students of the mekteb. It is revealed that an important element of the program of the Orenburg uyezd zemstvo was attention to the adult Muslim population, which could no longer attend primary schools. It is shown that the activities of the zemstvo in the last years of the existence of the Russian Empire were aimed at a more solid incorporation of “foreigners” into the general imperial educational space. The Orenburg zemstvo people perceived the general imperial innovations in this area as extremely important for the region; they made their own adjustments, amendments and additions to the forms that came “from above”, proposed their own original projects of reforming Muslim education, taking into account the regional specifics and historical experience of the Orenburg region in the acculturation of “foreigners”. The study was carried out on clerical materials, which, in accordance with the principle of publicity, were published by the zemstvos themselves - the so-called “zemstvo reports”.

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