Eliminating adult illiteracy in the Yenisei province in 1920-1921

The purpose of the paper is to study the activities of local authorities aimed at creating a system of general educational institutions for the adult population of the Yenisei Province in the first year of the restoration of Soviet power. The study analyses legislative and regulatory legal acts, the educational level of the adult population of the province, the initial period of the creation of a system of literacy schools and literacy centers for the adult population, objective and subjective factors that influenced the implementation of the Decree on the Elimination of Illiteracy. The methods of organizing the system of training and retraining of teaching staff for work with the adult population are reconstructed, as the factors of positive dynamics of development of the system of general educational institutions. The working conditions, goals and objectives of general educational institutions established in the Province are revealed and described. The forms and methods of involving the population in the work of literacy schools and literacy centers, measures of influence upon those unwilling to study are characterized. Particular attention is drawn to the practiceoriented content of the educational process and the personal participation of employees of local authorities in the organization of the system of general educational institutions. The reaction of the population to the complex of measures taken is considered as the main reason for the successes and failures in the implementation of the main provisions of the decree in the local conditions of the Yenisei Province in the first year of the restoration of Soviet power. Elements of micro-historical approach are used to consider the problem compressed in a narrow chronological framework. Research methodology is based on the principle of objectivity, which allows to consider the interrelation of events, the existing estimations and to work out one's own view of the problem. The historiographic review includes works of domestic and foreign authors. The source base of the study consists of archival materials, as well as materials of the regional and local periodicals, some of which are introduced into circulation for the first time.