“Mobilization of Ethnicity” as Europe-Asian Project: Constructing a Higher Education Policy

Abstract

The article discusses the ethnic policy in the field of higher education in Russia between the First and Second World Wars. The "mobilization of ethnicity" in the educational policy of the first years of Soviet power is presented in the study as the "European-Asian project" of Soviet Russia - an attempt to create a single supranational economic, political and cultural space in a significant part of Eurasia. Based on the materials of the multicultural region of the Middle Volga region, the authors analyze the process of integration of the Volga peoples (Tatars, Mordovians and Chuvash) into the higher education system. The study showed that at the first stage of designing the new policy (1920s), the key direction was to provide ethnic groups with relative cultural autonomy (preserving and supporting national languages, religious customs and social traditions) in exchange for recognizing the legitimacy of the new government. At the second stage (1930s), the national educational policy of the state became more straightforward, integration processes intensified and, as a result, the mutual economic dependence of the capital and regions.