Известия высших учебных заведений. Поволжский регион: Гуманитарные науки (Jul 2021)
“The teacher must be a social activist”: the pioneer and Komsomol movement’s development in a dispersed ethnic environment in the South of Russia in the 1920s – 1930s
Abstract
Background. The study of the historical experience of national politics in the South of Russia allows us to rethink the nature of ethnosocial processes in the region and the mechanisms of ethnic minorities’ integration. The purpose of the article is to analyze the little-studied aspect of the cultural and educational policy of the Soviet state in the youth environment of Don, Kuban and Stavropol people in the 1920s – 1930s, namely, social and ideological work in the context of the pioneer and Komsomol movement’s development. Materials and methods. The implementation of research tasks was based on the use of archival documents from the funds of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the State Archives of the Rostov region, the Center for Documentation of the Contemporary History of the Rostov region, the State Archives of the Stavropol region, and the Center for Documentation of the Contemporary History of the Krasnodar region. An important place is occupied by normative legal acts, statistical data and reports on the survey of ethnic minorities in the South of Russia in the 1920s – 1930s. The article uses historical-genetic and historical-comparative research methods within the framework of the direction of microhistory, including the approach of “new local history”. Results. The poorly studied aspects of cultural and educational policy have been investigated through the prism of the development of the pioneer and Komsomol movement as the most important elements of the system of communist education in the youth environment. The specificity, basic mechanisms and nature of educational and social work among national youth are revealed. A comparative analysis of educational work among representatives of the largest dispersed ethnic groups in the South of Russia, as well as the dynamics of its development in the 1920s – 1930s, is carried out. Conclusions. The tasks of social and ideological work in a dispersed ethnic environment in southern Russia were determined by the need to involve national minorities in Soviet socio-political institutions. Social differentiation was the key mechanism. The main stake was placed on the national youth who studied in the Soviet national schools. The ideologization of education compensated for the shortcomings of the educational process. The pioneer and Komsomol movement in the ethnic environment developed extremely unevenly. It relied on the poorest strata of the population and was presented as an alternative to traditional social institutions with their conservative social hierarchy.
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