The Cultural and Communicative Frontier in the Sphere of Private Girls' Schools of the Russian Empire in the Early 20th Century (on the Example of the City of Kazan)

The city of Kazan in the early 20th century was an important center of women's education for the Volga-Ural region, where the population was mixed (Orthodox, Muslims, and others). Almost a dozen private girls' schools in Kazan were equivalent in status to gymnasiums. These aspects of regional and ethnic history require analysis through the lens of cultural interaction in a borderland context, because Kazan, as a frontier city, gave rise to new socio-cultural models. The purpose of the study is to examine the historical experience of Kazan in the field of women's education, the ethno-confessional diversity of students in private schools and alternative educational practices, as well as patterns of cultural influence. The first private educational institutions for girls opened in Kazan at the beginning of the 19th century; their founders were foreigners. A hundred years later, gymnasiums were most often opened by Orthodox women who held a teacher’s license. Muslim Tatar women were a significant part of the population of the Kazan province and the Volga region; they formally had access to imperial-type girls’ schools, but remained a minority in them. For them, the Fatiha Aitova Gymnasium, with Tatar as the language of instruction, became an alternative educational option. However, this school was influenced by other girls' educational institutions in Kazan. The article also presents an account of the cooperation of the schools of Fatiha Aitova and Lidiya Shumkova. The article is intended for historians and anyone interested in the history of the Russian Empire

Cultural center · Curriculum · Diversity (politics) · Empire · Ethnic group · Frontier · Population · Tatar · Educational Practices and Challenges · Emergency Medicine Education and Research · Psycholinguistics and Behavioral Studies