Письмо в Турккомиссию о состоянии образования в Хиве Letter to the Turkestan Commission on the state of education in Khiva

Translation

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<<Stamp:  Turkomission 1 June 1920 incoming No. 4982>>

1. Use briefly in the summary.

2.  Call on comrade Perovskaya for a personal report

V. Kuibyshev

27/VI

To the VTsIK commission for Turkestan affairs

A report

From the Turkommission official sent to Khiva, S. Vlasova-Perovskaya, Head of the Department for Culture and Enlightenment in Khiva.

I was appointed Head of the Department for Culture and Enlightenment in Khiva after the departure of comrade Broido.  On the arrival of the expedition in Khiva, we found People’s Enlightenment [Kompros] in terrible condition:  there was not a trace of new-method schools, reading and writing were taught by the same old methods, i.e. by the “palaktan” sticks through the most awful and barbaric memorization of cacophonous passages from the Koran that the children did not at all understand.  The Khiva government’s view of Kompros was quite intolerable.  They looked on the Commissariat of Enlightenment as on a completely unnecessary, superfluous thing, and the Commissariat itself existed as if by mistake, in name only.  No clerical personnel, no program of activities, no goals, no assignments for Kompros, no work, and absolutely no funds.  There was one Commissar for the Khivans, an educated and honest person, but completely lacking in character and weak-willed.  That is the condition in which the Khiva expedition found People’s Enlightenment in Khiva.  To report on the first steps of the Russians concerning the People’s Enlightenment in Khiva I think is unnecessary, I believe that the report of the first Head of the Department of Culture and Enlightenment in Khiva, comrade N. Broido, was sufficiently accurate, in-depth, encompassing, and correct, all the same I find it necessary to report on the situation People’s Enlightenment in Khiva found itself on comrade N. Broido’s departure or, more accurately, at the beginning of my activity in this endeavor.

Comrade N. Broido laid, so to speak, the cornerstone of the of Khiva Enlightenment structure.  Under her the First Khiva Model school-commune (that I initially had to head) was opened, teachers’ courses [introduced], a Handicrafts’ School started.  Besides this, she had deposited about 3 million [rubles] in the Khiva Bank for Kompros.  The repair of the Khiva        

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hospital and pharmacy was restarted.  It was agreed to start a Khiva Museum.  The best building in Khiva was taken over by Kompros and the boarding school “Children’s House”—now the Palace of Enlightenment—the former harem of the Khan.

All this had just been created and still rested on a very shaky basis.  To my lot fell a different part of the work, namely not to let everything that had been created go under and, as much as possible, to expand and strengthen the activity of the Khiva Kompros.  But even this relatively easy task proved to be quite difficult for me.

I had had no previous instruction, no experience (since I myself had only recently completed my studies), no experienced, reliable coworkers, no extensive knowledge, so I had to work in the dark, more by feeling, led only by my own opinions and understanding.  At first, after comrade N. Broido’s departure, I had to strengthen and put in good order the institution she had created.  A director was appointed for the school; he was also Chairman of the pedagogic school council.  A Kompros collegium was appointed and confirmed, the entire staff of Children’s House was given precise instructions and a program for teachers and educators; a time-table for the life of the boarding school was drawn up and with great difficulty the economy of this boarding school was put in order.  At the teachers courses a pedagogical council was organized and elected a responsible Chairman.  The rates for compensating pedagogues and students were determined and confirmed.  There was a small expansion in the program of courses—political talks, gymnastics, and readings were introduced.    

The Khiva Handicrafts School is distinct from all other schools.  This school, according to comrade Broido’s idea, was organized for improving and elevating the morals of the Khivans.  In Khiva a terrible form of amusement had taken hold with so-called “bechi” or “bochi” [“bacha bazi” trans.] —dancers something like the former cabaret singers of the lowest morality.[1]  We placed these corrupted boys (9 under Broido), and later as many as 27 people, in the School for Craftsmen.  It was a boarding school in which, as time passed, it became necessary to institute military-like discipline.  Besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, they were also taught handicrafts.  So far they’ve only managed to start up pottery and joinery, but they’re considering shoemaking and metalworking in the near future.  With the completion of repairs, the Khiva hospital began to function with a capacity of 75, 150 people visit the pharmacy daily.     

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Following the opening of the Kurultai, the Khiva People’s Museum was opened which later began opening twice weekly for the public.  The most difficult matter for me was leading the work of Kompros because the Commissar categorically declared that we came to teach them and that we must leave all our knowledge in Khiva, i.e., in other words, I had to do everything myself, on my initiative, while the Commissar always subscribed to my opinion, approving my work with his stamp and his signature.  I had to compose and write up the program of the activities of the Commissariat, put together the staff and the estimate, which the Commissar changed before my departure (the estimate, drafted by me, was 2,000,000 rubles, but he increased it to 60,000,000 rubles).  After the departure of comrade N. Broido, two grammar schools were opened and a reform of the old schools—the madrassas—was put through, an examination by the mullahs—the teachers in the old schools—was set up, and as far as possible it was seen that instruction was done according to the new method.  All the teachers in Khiva were granted a certain salary which has yet to be paid; on the whole the teacher-mullahs lived on handouts from their students’ parents, and that is why it was impossible to demand from them an honest and impartial relationship to their students.    

The Khiva Kom[so]mol took part in organizing political courses and a theater.

3 parish schools of the new method and 1 parish school for women “The First Islamic-Khodzhinskaya Women’s School.”

A library was founded and it has begun to organize youth circles.

In addition, in Khiva uezd there are now 5 new-method schools:  in Gurlen, Darganty, Ket, and Khazaris parishes, and a boarding school in Urgench

At the end of my activities, when I had with great difficulty managed to see to it that Khiva Kompros stood on the same level as the other Commissariats, it became harder and harder for me to get along with the Commissar of Enlightenment; he began to see the effect of his stamp and his signature, how behind the boarding school students (when they walked in pairs, all dressed alike, in an orderly fashion, singing) a crowd of 500-700 persons followed,  

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he expressed the desire to work independently and began to show initiative, and only asked that I leave some instructions for the leadership of the school organizations and the boarding schools and, of course, I did.  The precise and detailed financial estimate for Khiva Kompros and the staff is now in Khiva Kompros because they were written by me in a single copy, but the draft of the Resolution on Khiva Kompros and its work program are with me and are attached here.  Every day it became more difficult for me to work for the following reasons:  of the seven teachers brought in by Comrade Broido, Comrade Izmailov let three go back, funds got very low and, unfortunately, the relationship of our Russian Representative, comrade Izmailov, to Kompros was not very serious:  he looked on our Commissariat and on all my work as amusement for children.  In general, by the end, I began to understand quite clearly that prolonging my stay in Khiva under these conditions served no good purpose.

Without funds, without teachers, without textbooks, without help from senior comrades continued success would prove impossible.

This, in general, was the situation of Khiva People’s Enlightenment at my departure.

Details can be given in the oral report.

20/VI Head of the Cultural-Enlightenment Department in Khiva, S. Vlasova-Perovskaya

The program of Kompros activities.

(Organizational diagram of Kompros) 

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I.  The goals of Kompros:

That in the Khiva Republic there will not be a single illiterate, and that the people will become more conscious.  “Only science makes people equal.”

The Commissar.

The commissar leads all the activity of Kompros:  instructs department heads, offers ideas, sees to the realization of his plans, calls together as necessary all manner of meetings except those that are regularly scheduled, tries to organize local Departments of Popular Education, decides principle questions at Collegium sessions, is the Chairman of the latter, is required to keep one or two Collegium members informed of his activity in case of his sudden replacement.  He sees to his coworkers’ conscientious relation to their work. 

The Collegium.

The Commissariat has a Collegium consisting of the Department Heads.  The Commissar is the Collegium Chairman.  The Collegium’s activities are:

a)  resolve complicated, responsible problems that must be decided at Collegium sessions by majority vote, the Chairman’s vote is decisive.

b) Confirm the staffs and financial estimates of Kompros.

c) The Collegium is simultaneously a legislative and an executive organ.  All members of the Collegium are required to carry out its resolutions.  Experts on various questions may be invited to Collegium sessions as needed.

d) Department heads who fall under the Commissar’s authority must lead work on their own initiative.  All important measures can only be put into effect with the Commissar’s knowledge.

e) The Head of the Finance Department must keep accurate account of all Kompros balances:  income, expenditures, advances and payments to accounts to issue monthly wages to all Kompros employees, and in general all monetary operations must be conducted through the finance department.  Among the other duties of the finance department

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are the drafting and verification of the financial estimate.  The head of the finance department is held responsible for inaccurate accounting of the monetary balances of Kompros.  In his work the Head of the Finance Department is permitted:  a treasurer who keeps all financial books and a chief clerk who maintains current correspondence.  The Head of the Finance Department is, at the same time, the Head of two sub-departments subordinate to him:  Waqf [Vakufnyi] and Supply. 

1) The Waqf Sub-department—(the sub-department head) takes account of every waqf of Kompros, constantly monitors it, observes the correct expenditure of sums and eliminates unnecessary expenditures.  The staff of the Waqf Sub-department:  the sub-department head, a Controller, and a specialist.

2) The Supply Sub-department is the supply apparatus not only for Kompros, but also its departments.  Staff:  Sub-department Head, Warehouse Manager, and clerk.

The School department.

The Head of the School Department.  The goal:  to provide a school education to all the children of Khiva Republic, which necessitates teachers, textbooks, and libraries.  It is necessary to organize schools for parishes and school-communes.  In the School Department, besides clerks there must be conscious worker-teachers who must take part of the organizational work on themselves.  The Head of the School Department must, as best as possible, see to it that children 7 to 15 years old attend school. The program of the primary schools (to read, to write, and to count) must be as popular as possible. The teaching method is new.  For work to succeed it is necessary to work in contact with teachers for which there must be meetings of pedagogues.  The resolutions of the pedagogical meetings are binding on all teachers and pupils.  It is necessary to organize a children’s club and a theater to expand the activity of Kompros.  On pedagogues, in addition to the educational task, also rests the behavioral; pedagogues themselves must provide an example by their conduct and, when observing any misbehavior, are required to make every effort to eliminate the latter.  Children’s House and its life.  The life of Children’s House …must proceed according to the schedule:  from 7 o’clock in the morning until…   

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the time when the children must rise, wash, and make their beds.  Orderlies must sweep up.  At nine o’clock, morning time ends.  From 9 to 12, lessons.  From 12-1 free, time.  From 1-2, dinner.  After dinner, orderlies wash dishes.  From 3 to 5 o’clock, teachers must engage in useful talks and games with them.  From 5 to 6, gymnastics, from 6 to 7, free time.  From 7 to 8 o’clock, tea.  From 8 to 8:30, washing and preparing for bed, and by 9, bed.  To put this schedule into effect, not only the House Manager, but teachers and tutors, and all lower personnel must keep watch.  There must be no fewer than 2 tutors.  They must monitor in turns so that the children are never left alone without elders for even a minute.  The goal of the school-commune is not only to provide a primary education, but to nurture conscientious citizens of the republic.  

The External School Department.

The Head of the External School Department.  The goal:  to see to the reduction of the number of illiterate citizens older than school age and to spread, as much as possible, enlightenment and knowledge among the masses.  This necessitates adult courses, literacy schools, lectures of general interest, museums, and exhibitions which also necessitate comrade pedagogues who conscientiously and carefully relate to their work.