Muslim Schools in Tatar Villages of the Simbirsk — Ulyanovsk Volga Region in the 1920s–1930s

Abstract

The article discusses the functioning of Muslim schools in the Simbirsk — Ulyanovsk Volga Region of the 1920s and 1930s. The article was prepared on the analysis of documents of the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk Region and the State Archive of the Recent History of the Ulyanovsk Region. The article has a general overview of the implementation of the Soviet state’s policy towards Muslim religious schools. The actual material analyzes the practice of applying the Decree on the separation of church from school of January 23, 1918, and the resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR of June 9, 1924 on the permission of religious education in mosques. In the Simbirsk — Ulyanovsk Volga Region, the campaign to liquidate Muslim religious schools began in the first half of 1923. The Soviet state wanted to liquidate Muslim religious schools and implement Soviet schools. Muslim Tatars of the Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk Volga Region have repeatedly filed petitions for the organization of religious education for children at mosques. In the 1920s, in the region at the same time there were a few legally open schools and there were various underground forms of religious education for Tatar children. The process of liquidating religious schools ended at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. The latest applications for the organization of religious training from the Muslim Tatars of the Simbirsk — Ulyanovsk Volga Region were received at the same time.