History of the development of primary education in the Caucasian educational district in the late XIX - early XX centuries

The article is devoted to the study of the development of primary education in the Caucasian educational district in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. The novelty of the article lies in an integrated approach to the study of primary education in the Caucasian educational district in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. For the first time, the work combines statistics, analyzes the typology of primary schools and changes in educational strategy. This allows us to trace not only the quantitative development of the school network, but also its qualitative transformations in the context of the social and cultural specifics of the region. During the study, special attention was paid to highlighting the reasons for the instability of the educational structure of primary education in the Caucasian educational district. This is due to the dependence of funding on public sums from the population and a shortage of qualified teachers. The article highlights the importance of the activities of public organizations and local societies, provides examples of initiatives of rural societies, such as the allocation of funds for the construction of schools and teachers’ salaries. The article provides a comparative analysis of the development of primary schools in the North Caucasus region and in Transcaucasia. It turned out that the factor of Muslim education played a great importance in Transcaucasia, so there were fewer secular schools there. The conclusions of the article emphasize the need for interaction between local societies and government agencies in the development of the educational system. The historical experience of the Caucasian school district is relevant for the modern education system, which focuses on the importance of developing an ethnocultural component.