"Peasant literacy": educational program in Western Siberia and the construction of a new pattern of female behavior in the 1920's

Purpose. The article analysis the mechanisms of inculcation for a new pattern of female behavior - «literate peasant women» and the peculiarities of the process of illiteracy elimination among Siberians in the first decade of Soviet authority. In the early 1920’s. literate men in the cities of Siberia accounted for 61.2 %, and in rural areas - 26.7%, literate women - respectively 46.9 % and 9.2 %. In fact, 90.8 % of Siberian peasant women were illiterate. Women’s program consists not only the points illiteracy, but women’s clubs, organization of agricultural courses and Sunday schools. Paramount task was learning to write, read and count. It was assumed and the second stage of «Adult» education - schools of half-educated with basic subjects of primary education. The factor of female illiteracy has become one of the significant obstacles in the implementation of the early Soviet policy of building a «new way of life» («novyi byt») and emancipation of women. Teach women to read, write and count was the basic stage in the embodiment of the construct of the «new Soviet woman» within the framework of the Soviet utopia. In fact, after receiving these elementary skills, the following stages of Women policy may began: implementation of the thesis on gender equality, involvement in public and political life, work in leadership positions, atheistic campaign, a complex of work on maternity and infancy, and in general, to produce global transformations of women’s life strategies and values. Results. The early Soviet policy on eliminating illiteracy is a very popular topic among Russian historians. Most of the works were created during the Soviet period, which imposed certain restrictions on them: with extensive factual material, these studies bore a somewhat one-sided, ideologically biased interpretation of this process. An analysis of post-Soviet literature showed that today the problem is being worked out no less intensively. Regional studies, based on statistical information and archival materials, prevail. This study is based both on archival, statistical data, and on the materials of the Siberian press of the 1920’s. The originality of the work is given by the materials of field ethnographic research, which allows the author to supplement the historical picture, and, perhaps, see the dry report data and statistical data from a different angle. Conclusion. The author makes the assumption that the failure of the policy of education and the weak involvement of girls in school education in Western Siberia in the 1920’s became one of the key reasons that the image of a Russian peasant woman in Siberia during this period still largely corresponded to the notions of the role, functions and place of a woman in a «traditional» society.