“The Best Breeding Ground for the Higher School”: Organization of National Personnel Training in the Crimean ASSR in the 1920s: Documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation

УДК 904'18.47(Крым)+94(47+930.253)

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2020-4-1083-1094

Andrey A. Nepomnyashchy

Crimean Federal Univercity, Simferopol, Russian Federation

“The Best Breeding Ground for the Higher School”: Organization of National Personnel Training in the Crimean ASSR in the 1920s: Documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article analyses the history of creation of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the M.V. Frunze Crimea University. On the basis of previously unknown documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), the author studies the organization of training of personnel for work in state structures of the Crimean autonomy for the first time in the national historiography. Documentary materials from the GARF fonds of the People's Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats RSFSR), the agencies of Narkomnats in contractual and autonomous republics and their agency at the Narkomnats, and the General Department of Professional Education (Profobr) of the People's Commissariat for Education of RSFSR confirm that the ideas of creating a Scientific Oriental (Tatar) Center at the Taurida University were emerging ever since the opening days of the first Crimean university. The opening the Oriental Center within the Crimean University was made possible after the establishment of the Soviet power in 1922, thanks to energetic efforts of professors M. Gredinger and A. Derevitsky. The curricula and job description schedule of the faculty makes it possible to establish that there were two departments at the Faculty of Oriental Studies: linguistic (for training teachers of the Crimean Tatar and Persian languages) and administrative (for training of state administration officials for the institutions of the Crimean ASSR). The documents throw light on the role of M. Frunze in the faculty foundation: his letter addressed to the Commissar of Enlightenment A. Lunacharsky is cited, where he justified the necessity of opening an Oriental Center in the Crimea. M. V. Frunze persistently insisted on financing of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the Crimean University. He also argued that the training of such specialists was an important component in state’s strategic goals. Despite all prerequisites for further productive work, the Center of Oriental Studies in the Crimea went nowhere.

Keywords

Oriental studies, M.V. Frunze Crimean University, Faculty of Oriental Studies (department), State Archive of the Russian Federation, M. Gredinger, A. Derevitsky.

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References

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About the authors

Nepomnyashchy Andrey Anatolievych, PhD in History, professor, Acad. V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, head of the department, Simferopol, Russian Federation; ?ihabetdin M?rcani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, leading researcher, Kazan, Russian Federation, +7-978-760-18-01, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 13.11.2019, published (for citation):

NEPOMNYASHCHY, A. A. “Luchshii rassadnik vysshei shkoly”. Organizatsiya podgotovki natsional'nykh kadrov v Krymskoi ASSR v 1920-e gg. Po dokumentam Gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Rossiiskoi Federatsii [“The Best Breeding Ground for the Higher School”: Organization of National Personnel Training in the Crimean ASSR in the 1920s: Documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2020, no. 4, pp. 1083-1094.doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2020-4-1083-1094