«Instruments» of national policy in the development of higher education in the North Caucasus in the 1920s – 1930s

Abstract

Based on archival sources, the mechanisms of the influence of Soviet power on national policy in the North Caucasus through higher education in the 1920s and 1930s are shown. The process of formation of higher education in the region took place during these years and it developed in parallel with the formation of national statehood within the RSFSR. The first universities appeared in 1918 – 1919 on the initiative of the society and the Soviet government. The devastation of the 1920s made it impossible for all universities to survive. Nevertheless, the new government did not retreat in its desire to create national cadres in all areas. In the 1930s, the industrial transformations of the first five-year plans led to the need for personnel. Mobilizationally, in a short time, a significant number of higher educational institutions in the national-territorial formations of the region have earned. The management made every effort to attract the mountain peoples to the training. Universities in central cities booked budget places. The support of scholarships, the provision of dormitories, the work of young specialists in their republics played an important role. By the 1940s, the higher education system in the region has already fully functioned, created supranational, nationwide ties, and thereby influenced interethnic communications. Modern students of the region recognize the level and quality of higher education in the USSR as the most important value of the Soviet era, the second most important after the victory over Nazism during the Great Patriotic War.

Keywords

• ussr
• north caucasus
• higher education
• national state policy
• institutions
• students
• state support
• supranational ties
• seat reservations
• socio-cultural processes