The Liquidator of Illiteracy as a Key Person in the Process of Liquidation of Illiteracy in the 1920-1930s (Based on the Materials from the Orenburg Region)

The article reveals the results of a study devoted to teachers who were involved in the campaign for elimination of illiteracy of the adult population in the 1920-1930s. The authors carried out a historiographical review and proved the relevance of the issue. After the October Revolution of 1917, high demands were placed on teachers of the new school: teachers had to have specialized knowledge, and also be true conductors of the new Bolshevik ideology. The authors found that, in conditions of an acute shortage of personnel, people without special pedagogical education were often recruited to teach the illiterate. All education workers were to be involved in literacy work after school hours. The personnel shortage was covered by members of the Russian Communist Party, trade unions, cooperatives and other public organizations. The shortage and turnover of staff was largely due to the low material incentives of teachers. Educational materials were carefully selected and had to have an ideological component for the political education of the masses. When organizing training, attention was paid to the need to take into account the psychology of adults and to develop methodological materials for teaching this category of the population. The authors trace how teaching staff received their education and how their methodological retraining was carried out. The training of teaching staff, including those for literacy centers, was carried out in pedagogical universities and colleges; their training and retraining was carried out at shortterm courses, congresses, conferences and meetings. The methodological work consisted of developing methodological guidelines, illustrative and demonstrative materials, and providing methodological consultations to the teaching stuff. Particular attention was paid to the training of personnel for teaching national minorities. The authors emphasize that the lack of teaching aids and methodological materials signifi cantly complicated the work of liquidators. The authors also identifi ed the evolution of the state’s attitude towards teaching staff: if in the 1920s, strict emergency measures were actively used to attract and retain teaching staff to eliminate illiteracy, then by the end of the period under study, the authorities had developed a fi rm conviction that only by paying teachers can one expect high-quality, conscientious work from them. It is concluded that by the end of the period under study, the authorities had managed to almost completely satisfy the needs of the literacy centers for trained specialists.