The role of Tatar women in the formation of the Soviet educational system in Turkestan

The article analyzes the problem of organizing women’s education in Turkestan in the first years of the establishment of the Soviet power. The paper shows that the Soviet government, like the government of the Russian Empire, used Tatar women to promote its own policies. Tatar women were involved in organizing a new (Soviet) system of women’s education and attracting local girls to the school education system. Initially, the Bolsheviks paid particular attention to opening special-purpose schools for elimination of illiteracy (likbez) to solve the issue of women’s education. Most of the teaching staff was comprised of Tatar women. Later, the Soviet government began to create women’s departments in different regions of Turkestan. Actively involved members of the women’s department in Bukhara included Tatar communist M. Sharafatdinova and Bashkir communist M. Gafarova, who worked as an instructor in the women’s department in Tashkent. Both women spoke the languages of the peoples of Turkestan. Starting from 1920, instructor courses were opened in Soviet schools to help organize school affairs. The students were mainly comprised of Tatar women. There is information in sources that due to the work of instructor-activists in the region, the number of local women taking courses has noticeably increased.