Tatar House of Education in Leningrad (1933–1937)

The article examines the condition and activities of the state institution for conducting work among the Tatar national minority of Leningrad – the Tatar House of Education (domprosvet, DPR) with a Bashkir section. National houses of education were established in the 1920s and early 1930s in large cities in accordance with the policy of korenization for ideological, political, cultural and educational work among non-Russian ethnic groups in their native language, with the purpose of educating a convinced Soviet person, eliminating cultural backwardness, and developing national culture on the common socialistic basis. Despite the academic significance of the topic, it remains poorly studied at present. The Tatar DPR was formed in connection with a considerable increase in the number of temporary workers – Tatars and Bashkirs employed at numerous construction sites in Leningrad and the region. Domprosvet conducted a lot of political and general public work on its premises, as well as directly at enterprises and institutions in the form of reports, lectures, conversations, evenings of questions and answers, concerts, children’s matinees, and technical propaganda. Special attention was paid to the elimination of illiteracy and poor literacy of Leningrad’s new population; educational courses and a comprehensive evening school for adults were provided. Various clubs (over 10), amateur talent groups worked in the house of education. Domprosvet served as a base for the professional Tatar Theater. The DPR had a library and a reading room with literature and the press in the Tatar, Bashkir and Russian languages. In 1932, celebration of the Tatar Sabantuy holiday was resumed in Leningrad. The change of the Soviet national policy vector in the mid–1930s – from korenization to unification – led to the elimination of the entire system of state institutions for national minorities. The Tatar DPR, along with other national education houses, was liquidated by the decision of the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU (b) in October 1937. The tradition of organized secular cultural life of the Leningrad Tatars and Bashkirs had been paused for a long time. The article is based on archival materials, most of which are being introduced into academic circulation for the first time.