From Imperial Russia to the Soviet Union: formal and non-formal vocational education in Kyrgyz lands in 1917-1918

This study aims to examine the vocational training activities carried out in Kyrgyz lands during the transition from Imperial Russia to the Soviet Union and the role of these activities in the construction of a new society. The study focuses on the norms and institutions involved rather than on the curriculum of these schools introduced by the Soviet reform. The role of agricultural vocational schools changed after the February and October Revolutions in 1917. Two prominent vocational schools, Pishpek Agricultural School (1890), established by the Russian Empire, and the Zhetysu Agricultural School (1918), were operated in Kyrgyz lands. These schools aimed to meet the need for qualified workers in the field of industry and food production. After Russia's defeat in World War I (1914-1918), the most urgent problems addressed by the Bolsheviks were regaining the trust of the peoples in the lands controlled by Imperial Russia, solving the consequences of the economic crisis, and transforming society by using, among other means, vocational education.