ANALYSIS OF SOURCES ON THE HISTORY OF SCHOOL EDUCATION IN THE TERRITORY OF CHUVASHIA (late XVIII – first third of the XX century)

School education system in Russia passed a difficult and thorny path in its evolvement and development. Compared with its Western European counterpart, domestic secondary school has a shorter history. In our country, the first primary and secondary educational institutions providing general education appeared only at the end of the XVIII century. Throughout the XIX century, they were repeatedly reformed; as a result, noticeable quantitative and qualitative changes took place. However, despite this, we can talk about certain continuity in the evolution of the Russian school until the beginning of the XX century. The fundamental breakdown of established general education system occurred as a result of the establishment of Soviet power. During the 1920s and 1930s, all levels and links of the education sector were reorganized. The purpose of the study is to analyze historical sources on the problem of formation and development of the general school education system in the territory of modern Chuvashia. Materials and methods. The study was carried out on the basis of regulatory and archival documents. In our work, we relied on the principles of historicism, consistency and objectivity, considering events in their historical interrelation, analyzing diverse historical sources on the topic of research. Historical-comparative and historical-typological methods of research were used. Based on them, it was possible to identify the main groups of sources and give them a scientific analysis. The scientific novelty is determined by the fact that in regional historiography, it is for the first time that the main groups of historical sources on the topic of evolvement and development of the general school education system in the region are analyzed starting from the end of the XVIII century and up to the 1920s, i.e. until the time of creating the Soviet school education system. Most archival sources are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Study results. The article characterizes two main groups of historical sources on the topic «The History of School Education in Russia». These are regulatory documents and archival materials. They are the most multinomial and important for studying the topic. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that its main provisions can help to better understand the current state and prospects for the development of domestic educational system. The results obtained can also be used to develop generalizing works on the history and culture of the region. This study is not exhaustive. In the future, it is necessary to pay attention to such interesting groups of historical documents as memoirs, letters and memoirs of participants in the educational process, i.e. teachers, students and educational organizers of the late XVIII – first third of the XX century. Conclusions. Historical sources on the topic «The History of School Education in the Territory of Modern Chuvashia at the end of the XVIII – first third of the XX century» are numerous and diverse. They are representative, giving the opportunity to study different aspects of the topic and help to recreate the general course of the regional school development the within the period under review and identify its specifics.