Problems of school construction and the fight against illiteracy and semi-illiteracy in the south of the Soviet Far East in the late 1930s

The study considered the problems of school construction and literacy campaign of the Soviet state in the south of the Far East in the late 1930s based on the archival documents. In the late 1930s, the concentration of all resources of the country on the completion of industrialization to the detriment of social sector was the determining factor in a party state policy. As a result, the education system in the Far East, as well as countrywide, developed in the context of an acute shortage of personnel, material, and financial resources. The literacy campaign implemented at the regional level considerably lagged behind the state. The lack of the qualified teaching staff, the principle of residual financing, and the objective social and economic features of the Far East development were the main reasons.