Activities of the society for the restoration of orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus in the field of school construction in Abkhazia (mid-19th - early 20th centuries)

The study identifies the main directions and stages of school education organizing in pre-Soviet Abkhazia that are associated with the activities of the Abkhaz mission of the Society for the Restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus (SROCC) in the mid-19th - early 20th centuries. As research materials, the reports of the Society, archival sources, the acts of the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission were analyzed; works of pre-revolutionary, Soviet, Abkhaz and modern Russian researchers concerning this problem were considered. The representativeness of the analysis of the processes of school construction in pre-Soviet Abkhazia is ensured through the use of comparative-historical, concrete-historical, historical-descriptive and diachronic methods. The factography of the formation and development of the SROCC school network has been established and studied, the problems of school construction have been identified, and the activities of talented teachers have been characterized. The sociopolitical conditions in which the school network functioned are described, and an assessment of these conditions is given. The importance of public initiatives and state support in the forming of a network of Abkhaz schools is shown; ways of solving the problem of shortage of teaching staff are revealed. The importance of using unified teaching methods in the Society’s schools and the facts of popularizing the successful experience of individual teachers are revealed. The importance of teaching in the native (Abkhaz) language is reflected in the aspect of increasing the interest of students and the local population in school education. Activities of professional departments at schools, which gave students craft skills, are characterized. The influence of teachers’ congresses on the development of school education in the region is determined. The restoration of Abkhaz schools after the devastating events of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 has been studied. It has been determined that for a long time the whole matter of public education in Abkhazia was actually concentrated in the hands of the SROCC. As a result of the study, the author develops a periodization of the process of forming a network of schools operating in Abkhazia under the auspices of the SROCC, and identifies four stages of this process. The author concludes that, during the described period, schools were sources of public education and played an important role in the spread of literacy and culture in the region.