Olga V. Bodenova

The article presents the results of the study of public preschool education system development in Karelia during the period of war communism and the new economic policy. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that this topic has not become the subject of a special examination, which prevents the creation of a holistic picture of the development of preschool education institutions in the Republic of Karelia, the study of regional features of the content and methods of education. The aim of the study was to define the specific features of the organization of preschool education institutions in Karelia in the period from 1917 to 1928. The methodological basis of the study is the principle of historicism and scientific objectivity. The work uses methods that ensure a comprehensive analysis of the problem under study: historical and comparative, frontal study of archival funds, identification, analysis, comparison, generalization, systematization of archival and published sources. The specific features of the work of preschool education management bodies in Karelia, the procedure for opening and functioning of the first permanent and temporary preschool institutions, their material and technical base, and difficulties typical for preschool education institutions are identified and described. Statistical data on the number of preschool institutions in Karelia are presented within the boundaries of the period under study in comparison with all-Russian indicators, and elements of everyday life in preschool institutions are described. It has been found out that the development of the network of preschool institutions in Karelia was influenced by government policy measures and was subject to all-Russian trends: in the first years of the Soviet power, there was an increase in preschool institutions number, which stopped during the period of the new economic policy; an increase in the number of preschool institutions during the period of completion of the new economic policy was achieved by opening temporary institutions – playgrounds, but in Karelia this work faced great difficulties. The demand for preschool institutions was significantly higher in the city than in villages, and their attractiveness for the population was determined by measures of material and food provision, and not by the content of education. The theoretical significance of the research is due to the fact that its results deepen and expand scientific knowledge on the history of the public education system development in Karelia in general and public preschool education in particular. Тhe archives of the Republic of Karelia have been brought into scientific use. The practical significance lies in the possibility of using the obtained data in scientific research on similar topics, in the content of academic disciplines on the history of preschool pedagogy, the history of education in Karelia, in the exhibitions of the preschool education museum of the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology of Petrozavodsk State University.