Early Forms of Teachers’ Education in the Republic of Chuvashia

In the process of establishment of teacher education each region of the Russian Federation has its own characteristics. In the era of global natural and social disasters, the rapid spread of deadly viral diseases, the issues of organizing new forms of employees' work, including in the education system, are becoming urgent. The teacher ceases to be just a source of information, mobility is expected from him, readiness to apply non-standard forms of education, independence, readiness to learn new things. It seems to us valuable to study historical experience in the deployment of new forms of teacher education both in the country and in a single region of the Russian Federation. The author analyzes the period of the 1920s, the historical and pedagogical conditions for the birth of the first forms of mass training of pedagogical personnel in a critical era, the era of the establishment of a new social order in the territory of a separate subject the modern Republic of Chuvashia. Much attention is given to the need to develop new approaches and forms of retraining in connection with the creation of a unified labor school and the elimination illiteracy, the main stages of the development process of the system of teacher education is analyzed as well as the effectiveness of the models used. The leading research method was the comparative historical method, with the help of which a comparison was made of the development trends of the advanced training forms of pedagogical personnel of the Russian Federation considering regional characteristics. It is proved that Chuvash Autonomy, having inherited certain traditions in teacher education in the difficult socio-economic conditions, made attempts to organize the training of teachers for a rapidly growing network of schools. The educational authorities, following the instructions of the center, organized professional training in accordance with the tasks set by the state. The materials presented in the article make it possible to evaluate the educational level of Chuvash teachers, class composition, retraining content, forms and methods of advanced training in the 1920s.


Introduction
Education for schoolchildren and students in the context of rapidly changing realities, in particular in the prevailing socio-economic conditions associated with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, actualizes the problem of restructuring teacher work and preparing an army of teachers for new pedagogical conditions. Teaching staff is constantly forced to learn new forms of interaction with students, master modern technologies, develop new distance learning methods for them. The state-political, socioeconomic situation has always set the parameters and conditions for solving the problem of teacher training. In this regard, the early 1920s are of particular interest, which have become a kind of counterpoint in the process of training new staff of Soviet teachers through a system of short-term courses. The 1920s, on the one hand, were a period of socio-economic disasters (the end of the civil war, devastation, famine that erupted in the Volga region, the ensuing new economic policy), and, on the other hand, colossal cultural transformations, when the state posed concrete complex problems for the education system tasks such as the eradication of illiteracy, the widespread opening of schools, the connection of school education with the life and practice of socialist construction. The solution to these problems was sometimes almost impossible. However, the sequence of measures taken, clear regulation, analysis and accounting of errors made it possible to educate and train a huge mass of teachers in the regions of Russia, paving the way for the establishment of regional systems for the training and development of teachers.
The formation of a system of advanced training for teachers dates back to the mid-20s and the first half of the 30s XX century in the Russian Federation 20 century, when advanced training institutions began to operate in many sectors of the economy, including in the education system. However, the formation of any system is a long process that does not occur simultaneously and not from scratch. The introduction of general primary education in Chuvashia, an increase in the number of schools and teachers, and in connection with this the need for retraining of old pre-revolutionary cadres and accelerated training of new teachers, required the creation of new institutions, the development of forms and methods for improving the qualifications of teachers in Chuvashia.
The chronological framework of the study covers 1920-1927. The choice of the lower border is determined by the date of the official creation of the Chuvash Autonomous Region (June 24, 1920), which includes three counties of the Kazan province (Tsivilsky, Cheboksarsky, Yadrinsky), parts of the territories of a Olga G. Evgrafova / Proceedings IFTE-2020 501 number of counties of the Simbirsk province, a number of volosts of Kozmodemyansky, Buinsky districts, which were also previously located in the territory of Kazan and Simbirsk province. In 1925, the region was transformed into the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (CHSSR) with the inclusion of 3 volosts of the Alatyr district of the Simbirsk province. The choice of the upper boundary of the chronological period -1927, the year of the introduction of compulsory primary education in the territory of Chuvash Republic.

Purpose and objectives of the study
The purpose of the study is to analyze the historical and pedagogical conditions of the birth of the first forms of mass training of teachers in Chuvashia in 1920-1927, the level of education of national pedagogical personnel, proving that the rapid deployment of the network of primary schools and creation of Chuvash Autonomy encouraged public education authorities to develop new forms and methods of retraining.

Literature review
The problem of advanced training of teaching staff has always attracted the attention of researchers. The first to address the issues of continuing teacher education of teachers were Bubnov (1931), Lunacharsky (1976), Krupskaya (1919) and others. In their studies, along with questions of the development of the school and the strengthening of its material and technical base, issues of teacher training were raised. Many issues of training and advanced training of teachers at various stages of development of a comprehensive school are highlighted in the works of Belozertsev (1989), Blonskiy (1917), Zaripov (1979), Zevina (1975, Korolev, Korneychik & Ravkin (1961), Panachin (1975), Khudominsky (1986), Chernik (1984), Mukhametzyanova and Shaykhutdinova (2014), Zevina (1975), etc.
However, the forms of teacher education and advanced training of teachers of Chuvashia during such a relatively short period of time (1920)(1921)(1922)(1923)(1924)(1925)(1926)(1927) have not yet been studied in comparison with all-Russian trends and in accordance with the development trends of the entire education system. 502 Olga G. Evgrafova / Proceedings IFTE-2020

Methodology
To write the article, we used general scientific methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, induction and deduction, as well as special historical methods: systematization, problem-chronological, specifically historical, as well as critical approaches to sources and historiography on the issue. A historiographic review and analysis of the material is carried out on the basis of a chronological-thematic research method.
When processing digital material, a statistical research method was used. The study was conducted in comparison with the development of a continuing education system for teachers in the country. The comparative historical method made it possible to identify changes that occurred in the process of teacher training in Chuvashia during the study period in comparison with the general trends of the Russian Federation.

Early forms of teacher education and retraining of personnel in Chuvashia by 1920
The development of the education system in the territory of Chuvashia cannot be considered outside of all-Russian trends. The revolutionary transformations of 1917 in the political and economic life of the country affected culture in general and school education in particular. The leadership of public education outlined its programmatic vision of a teacher in a communist society in the documents: "The Regulation on a Unified Labor School" (1918) and "Basic principles of a unified labor school" of October 16, 1918 RSFSR (State Education Commission. Basic principles of a unified labour school, 1918). According to these ones the goals and content of upbringing changed, the entire old system of educational and educational institutions was liquidated, the previous pedagogical theory was rejected, the secular nature of instruction was introduced. Religious, class, national and other restrictions in obtaining education were abolished. The right to create national schools in their native language was guaranteed to all peoples of Russia. School was called to make contact with life, to educate a new person. That required the elimination of the political apathy of the teacher, methodological illiteracy, the development and implementation of new curricula in practice. Therefore, in the first years of Soviet power, the People's Commissariat of Education turned to the experience of conducting pedagogical courses, verified even in the pre-revolutionary times.
In the territory of modern Chuvashia, before the revolution, teachers were trained in two teacher's seminaries (in Kanash and Poretsk) and one pedagogical course, as well as through second-class schools, of which there were three, and a two-year missionary brotherhood of St. Guria school (in Ishaki) (Efimov, 2003). From other educational institutions of tsarist Russia, more or less accessible to the Chuvash was a former Simbirsk Chuvash teacher's school. In 1919, the reform of teacher education began, all seminaries Olga G. Evgrafova / Proceedings IFTE-2020 503 were closed, and instead of them it was recommended to open "institutes of public education" in big cities, and where there was no opportunity to open an "institute", open three-year teacher training courses (Efimov & Efimov, 2002).
By the time of the organization of the Chuvash Autonomous Region (June 1920), five pedagogical technical schools worked in the territory of Chuvashia (Kanashsky, Cheboksary, Krasnochetaysky, Poretsky and Vurnarsky). To a large extent Ulyanovsk and Kazan Chuvash pedagogical schools served Chuvashia (Efimov & Efimov, 2002).
So, technical schools for teachers were organized either on the basis of previous teacher's seminaries, teacher training courses or second-class schools (Khudominsky, 1986).

Creation of the Chuvash Autonomous Region (1920) and development of personnel training for public education institutions
In 1920, the number of primary and secondary schools within Chuvashia reached 893 units, instead of 463 schools of pre-revolutionary times, and separately the number of primary schools -up to 857, instead of 426 schools in 1913 (Izorkin, Klement'ev & Aleksandrov, 2001) Fugure 1. The number of primary and secondary schools in Chuvashia in 1913 and1920 (schools) The number of teachers in them reached 1566 people instead of 822 ones of the pre-revolutionary time.
The number of incomplete secondary and secondary schools in the same 1920 reached 36, there were 215 teachers in them.
Thus, the first 2 -2,5 years of the post-revolutionary period gave an increase in the network of primary schools a little less than 100%. In addition to primary and secondary schools such types of children establishments began to function as kindergartens, which had not existed before throughout Chuvashia.
By 1921, the number of schools reached 960. However, the quality of the work of schools, as well as other types of cultural and educational institutions, was low. The predominance of the agrarian nature of production, the low level of urbanization, the multinationality of the population influenced the composition and nature of the activities of teachers in this region. Factors that adversely affected the education system of the republic include insufficient funding for institutions with a rapid depreciation of the ruble, lack of workers and facilities for newly opened cultural and educational institutions, equipment, in short, the country's poverty and economic ruin caused by imperialist and civil war. The drought and the ensuing famine in the Volga in 1921 affected the education system, the primary task of which was to provide food and organizational assistance to starving children. Oblono (regional department of education) sent the whole trains of children from Chuvashia to the grain-growing regions -Moscow, Minsk, Ukraine and other places. Schools have turned into nutrition points. Trofimov pointed out that in Chuvashia 2097 canteens were organized in 1921. For the years 1921-22, in reports on the educational program, there is only an empty line indicating that to eliminate illiteracy these two years did not give anything among the adult population and were simply crossed out (Trofimov, 1935).
In Russia as a whole, researchers note that the period from 1918-1924, in terms of teacher retraining, is characterized by the struggle against political illiteracy of teachers and familiarizing them with the innovations of the People's Commissariat of Education, and district, volost, provincial, and regional courses held during this period covered only a small part of teachers and were ineffective (Yalozina, 2014).
In the first years after the October Revolution of 1917, the Chuvash Commissariat headed the Chuvash public education (created in March 1918 within the former Kazan province under the Kazan Provincial Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies). The general management of public education among the Chuvash was carried out by the department of education of national minorities, where a special Chuvash subdivision was organized. In fact, this division began its activities only in May 1920, when one of the most energetic teachers Sergeyev was appointed as a manager. Since that time, the Chuvash sections were organized at the provincial and district departments of public education with the Chuvash population.
However, as some researchers note, there was no sufficient guidance from the Chuvash subdivision of the Narcompros of RSFSR and as well as from the Kazan Chuvash Commissariat (Izorkin, Klement'ev & Aleksandrov, 2001). Olga G. Evgrafova / Proceedings IFTE-2020 505 In 1921 the Chuvash Autonomous Region filed a petition with the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR to open the Institute of Public Education in Cheboksary. "An urgent need for the region is the creation of a research institute of local history and public education," says Oblono in a memorandum (Trofimov, 1935).
Then it is pointed out, that it must be Institute of Public Education (IPE), not a university for which there are no scientific means or forces. The latter shall: 1) prepare public education workers, 2) create footage researchers to completely unexplored Chuvash oblast (area) directing this study in the scientific mainstream (Trofimov, 1935). However, this was not possible.
It should be noted that at the same time in the Tatar Autonomous Republic there was Higher Institute of Public Education (VINO, formerly Kazan Pedagogical Institute) which allowed new schools in Tatar already to receive their first teaching staff in the 1918/1919 academic year (Klimov, 1960). Consequently, Chuvashia had weaker capabilities in terms of teacher training than neighboring regions. remained 585, i.e. decreased by 45% (Trofimov, 1935) Fugure 2. The number of primary schools on July, 1 and September, 1 1921 The number of students over the same time decreased by 16%, the number of teachers -by 50%. A network of schools served 55.3% of primary school aged children out of 30,000 ones. The remaining 44.7% were left out of school (Trofmov, 1935). 506 Olga G. Evgrafova / Proceedings IFTE-2020

Teaching courses as the main form of teacher education in Chuvashia
As we have already mentioned, the People's Commissariat of the Russian Federation since 1918 organized regional courses in places. Among the courses that were held in the 1919-1920s we can name the following: Shikhransky, Tetyushsky, Bolshe-Churashevsky, Suncheleevsky, Cheboksary and Ufa. They made a certain contribution to the beginning of the creation of a training system for pedagogical personnel in Chuvashia, However, most of them were located in the territory, which after the formation of the Chuvash Autonomy in 1920 did not enter the territory of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and this fact certainly affected the slowdown in the acquisition of these courses and the use of teaching staff released by these courses (Efimov, 2003).
Of the available pedagogical courses in the Chuvash region, public education authorities reorganized the courses into pedagogical technical schools, which were 4 in 1921, where 393 people studied. In addition, pedagogical classes are being created in secondary (II level) schools. In 1921, five-month courses were held for employees of preschool institutions, 1,5-month courses for all teachers of the region, 3-month courses for graduates of II level and poorly trained teachers, Chuvash language courses, and teacher training courses for teenage schools. 49 teachers worked at pedagogical courses, 201 at schools of the II level, 25 teachers at agricultural and forestry technical schools. In subsequent years, in connection with the introduction of general education, when the need for pedagogical staff increased even more, the network of pedagogical schools was expanded (in 1934 there were 7 pedagogical schools in the republic) (Andreev, 1928).
In connection with the revision of the school network in 1922, the following types of schools were in Chuvashia: elementary school with a 4-year course of study; elementary school with a 6-year course of study; 8-year school with 4 senior years of study; II -level school with a 4-year course of study, after 6 years (a full course of study has been set for 10 years) (Trofimov, 1935).
For teachers, often the only and rare opportunity that allowed them to learn about school innovations was to communicate with instructors in public education departments or at congresses of school workers. Their agenda, in addition to general organizational issues of the state of schools, included discussions on sociopolitical topics (Yalozina, 2014).
In early 1923, the country's public education authorities noted a low level of political and pedagogical training of school workers and their inconsistency with the requirements set by the Soviet government for school. The IV All-Russian Congress of Education Workers (December 1922) was dedicated to the preparation issue, this was also discussed at the congresses of the Gubsotsvos heads (March 1923), where the most acceptable forms and methods of courses work were outlined, as well as the need for introduction of regularity, systematic and accounting REF. In connection with the introduction of New Economic Policy (NEP), the authorities feared that this ideology would overwhelm that part of the teaching that had not yet developed a firm communist worldview. The immediate tasks were set for department of people education -to maximize the use of summer vacations to conduct a broad campaign on political education and pedagogical qualifications of teachers, especially rural and city schools of the I-st level, to work closely and under the guidance of the RCP(b) (Russian Communist Party) (Yalozina, 2014).
In Chuvashia in 1923/24, the growth of the school network began again and the teachers who were fired (due to reduction) returned to their previous jobs. Deprived of the most necessary repairs during the years of imperialist and civil wars, many school buildings required major repairs. In 1922, for the first time, funds were allocated for school repairs -2,000 pounds of rye. Cost per capita from 14 kopecks. (in gold rubles) in the 1922-23 academic year rose to 3 rubles 40 kopecks in the 1926-27 year (Trofimov, 1935). The gradually developing system of teacher education is closely intertwined with the emerging system of retraining teachers. The program-methodical department of the People's Commissariat for Education provided three main forms of teacher retraining as the main ones: retraining in the process of work (circles, seminars, short-term pedagogical conferences, workshops), periodic long-term conferences, and systematic short-term courses. Curricula and programs were developed for them: the political cycle included the study of questions of historical materialism, the history of the party and the revolutionary movement; The program of the general educational cycle included acquaintance with questions of psychology and hygiene of childhood, the problems of children's defectiveness, the agricultural cycle included botany, zoology, as well as elements of geography, chemistry, physics. In addition to the lecture form of mastering the program, reports and speeches of the teachers themselves were planned, various excursions, theme parties, meetings with various representatives of the press, party and trade union organizations (Public education,1923). Thus, the courses held from May 10 to August 30, 1923 throughout the country, including Chuvashia, were designed to help strengthen the work of schools and improve the education level of rural teachers with low qualifications. However, many truncated allocations for the arrival of teachers led to a reduction in the planned number of cadets from the outback. Instructions, programs, circulars, lowered from the center were often late, and local officials often themselves developed retraining methods and programs for courses and conferences, which violated the programmatic and methodological unity of a single line of work. In 1925, by education, primary school teachers of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were characterized as follows: about 65% of all teachers had special pedagogical education, approximately 35% had lower education than was required by the new labor school (Efimov & Efimov, 2002).

Fugure 3. Teachers' education of Chuvashia in 1925
Especially felt the acute shortage of specialists in the Chuvash language and the history of the Chuvash in higher schools and technical schools. Once again, it is worth mentioning that a significant number of teaching staff of Chuvashia received from the pedagogical technical schools of the Chuvash diaspora -Kazan, Ufa, Ulyanovsk (Efimov & Efimov, 2002). On the basis of the Kazan technical school, for example, during the summer holidays in the 1924/25 academic year, central training courses for teachers with sectors: Tatar, National Minorities and Russian were functioning (Evgrafova & Mukhametshin, 2014).
From the report of the government of CHASSR for 1925/26 we see that there were 962 Chuvash teachers in 1025 Chuvash sets of schools at the 1st level, the remaining 63 sets were taught by teachers who did not know the Chuvash language (Bogdanov, 1964). Gradually, the improvement of forms was taking place as well as the expansion of teacher education in the Chuvash Republic. In the second half of the 1920s the contingent of students of pedagogical schools was increased: most technical schools in the late 1920s and early 1930s were organized into 2-8 departments.
There is a special department for training workers in preschool institutions (at the Kanash pedagogical school), a physical education department (at the Yadrinsky pedagogical school), and a library department (at the Alatyr pedagogical school) are organized. Since 1931, a special department was opened at the Batyrev Pedagogical School for the preparation of teachers for Tatar schools. There was a special technical school (music technical school) for training workers in music and theatre. According to the researchers, a big shift has been made in improving the formulation of the case in pedagogical schools, but one cannot yet say that the work in all of them is quite satisfactory. The main drawback of the work of technical schools is the still poor preparation of graduates in general educational disciplines, as well as on methodological issues, which is explained by the poor equipment of classrooms and laboratories, the not very satisfactory composition of teachers, and the fact that incomplete secondary schools poorly prepare students for mastering the program of pedagogical schools. Training of teachers from among the Chuvash significantly lagged behind the network deployment Chuvash schools, where according to sources lacking 489 teachers (Andreev, 1928).

Discussions
In the context of the formation of the teacher education system in Chuvashia, an important part was assigned to coursework, however, often plans brought to the region were often frustrated due to the weak material base of public education, the impossibility of staffing coursework for courses, and the lack of incentives for working teachers to improve their skills. One of the reasons for the low district participation in the course activities was the remoteness from the district center, the low professional level of the method guides and lecturers of the courses. Teachers of pedagogical schools, institutes, All-Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks workers (VKP(b)), district inspectors familiarized students with the modern requirements for teaching disciplines, but their composition changed very often, among them were often recent students of district courses who did not have sufficient experience in lecture, theoretical and practical work (Evgrafova et al., 2017).
In addition, the national composition of the republic's population became a determinant of the fact that, of 1940, out of 1035 educational institutions of the republic, 556 were primary, among which Chuvash schools dominated -439 (79%), Russians only 97 (17.4%), Tatar 9 (1.6%), Mordovian -5 (0.9%) and 6 (1.1%) mixed. However, the absence and underdevelopment of the system of teacher education affected the poor results in satisfying the need for pedagogical personnel in the region. This fact contributed to the search and development of new forms of advanced training in the country as a whole and the region in particular.

Conclusion
From 1920 to 1927, in Chuvashia, despite the difficulties of a socio-economic nature, the formation of a labor school takes place, various groups of educational institutions are created, the first forms of advanced training of teachers are born, the initiative and creativity of teachers are encouraged, certain conditions for the deployment of national schools in which teaching was conducted in the mother tongue were created.
Observing the low level of political and pedagogical training of teachers, the state authorities of the region under the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Education and local party bodies expand the formation of the courses and improve their methods.
The appeal of the People's Commissariat for Education to the experience of launching mass retraining courses on the basis of existing pedagogical technical schools made it possible in a short time to solve the urgent problem of retraining and advanced training of teachers for working in the conditions of a Soviet school in a particular region -the Chuvash Autonomy. The main task in terms of preparing teachers in the early 1920s was the struggle against the political illiteracy of teachers, since the main contingent was from peasants. New forms of teacher education were congresses, circles, seminars, teacher conferences, methodological workshops. Program documents of the Central authorities tried to clearly regulate the procedure for conducting various forms of advanced training. However, the difficult socio-economic consequences of the Civil War, the devastation and famine in the Volga region were reflected in the lack of forms of this work and the lack of funds for the development of a large-scale process of advanced training.
However, these efforts laid the foundation for staffing schools in the republic. Gradually, universal compulsory primary education was carried out, the basis was prepared for the introduction of compulsory secondary education. The 1 (6) All-Chuvash Congress of Soviets, held January 26-31, 1926, noted that the existing network of primary schools covers only about 50% of school-age children. In pursuance of the decision of the congresses, the Government of Chuvashia adopted a decision on September 21, 1927 to partially introduce general primary education for children of 8 years of age in 44 schools of the republic. In fact, the decision was implemented in 47 schools with 86 sets. Thus, 1927 is a significant date, which opened a new page in the history of public education in Chuvashia. In subsequent years, the number of schools providing universal education has been steadily increasing. So, in the 1928-29 academic year universal education was introduced in 114 schools with a total of 373 sets (Efimov, 2003).