Elena Borisovna Lukieva,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Baltic Immigrants in Tomsk Province in the 1920s
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2025-5-7
The present article examines the establishment of schools and cultural and educational centres for national minorities in Siberia during the 1920s, using Tomsk Province and district as a case study. The study is grounded in the documents of the state archives of the Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions. In the 1920s, Tomsk Province constituted one of the most expansive multi-ethnic regions of Siberia. The population was approximately 1 083 042 people, representing 65 different nationalities. A further notable aspect of the demographic profile of the region is the significant presence of non-Russian ethnic groups, accounting for 26.5 % of the total population. This diversity is distributed across both rural and urban areas, reflecting a balanced integration of these communities into the region’s social and cultural fabric. Consequently, the Soviet authorities allocated particular attention to the subjects of cultural enlightenment, taking into account the ethnic specificity of the region. The establishment education and enlightenment system was of paramount importance for both the multinational region of Siberia and the Tomsk Province, as it represented a novel concept in the absence of such an institution. The October Revolution of 1917 precipitated considerable changes in the situation of the peoples inhabiting the Russian Empire, including national minorities. In the aftermath of the revolution, the “Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” was adopted, thus establishing the principle of equal rights as a fundamental tenet of the state. The establishment of a network of national schools was deemed imperative, serving as a conduit for the resolution of cultural and educational challenges. These educational institutions were required to incorporate educational programmes that reflected the ethnic specificity of their respective communities, a notable example being the introduction of a bilingual approach. Furthermore, the development of a network of cultural and educational centres, encompassing institutions such as clubs, libraries and theatres, was identified as a crucial measure to ensure the preservation of the national identity of minority communities within a non-national environment. The findings of the study demonstrate the significance of the system of multinational education and cultural-educational activities in Tomsk Provinceand district, as well as in Siberia as a whole, in the early Soviet period among national minorities. The primary accomplishment of the implemented educational activities was the establishment of a systematic approach, integrating the principles of unification (the Soviet model) and the specificity of the ethno-cultural component, to facilitate the integration of national minorities through education and culture. This approach reflected the general policy of the Soviet authorities in multinational regions.
Publishing: 28/10/2025
The article has been received by the editor on 30/06/2025
How to cite: Lukieva E.B. Baltic Immigrants in Tomsk Province in the 1920s // Historical Courier, 2025, No. 5 (43), pp. 76–83. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2025/ISTKURIER-2025-5-07.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2025
Keywords: national minorities; national education; non-Russian population; immigrants and cultural traditions; Estonian and Latvian colonists; schools of national minorities