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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2025.97.58.005

THE ROLE OF V.P. POZHIDAEV IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND TEACHING OF CAUCASIAN STUDIES AND ETHNOGRAPHIC DISCIPLINES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN NORTH OSSETIA IN THE 1920S

Gostieva, Larisa K.
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2025. Issue 58 (97). P.57-67.
Abstract:

This article, for the first time in Russian historiography, highlights the work of scholar and educator Vasily Pavlovich Pozhidaev in the establishment and development of Caucasian studies, Caucasian ethnography, and general ethnography as academic disciplines in higher education institutions in North Ossetia in the 1920s. It also mentions his organization of a Caucasian studies department at the Terek Institute of Public Education, founded in 1920. In subsequent years, the institute was repeatedly reorganized, and its name was changed. In 1924, it was renamed the Gorsk Pedagogical Institute, and in the 1924/1925 academic year, a Caucasian Studies department opened there, with Pozhidaev becoming one of its leading instructors. The author emphasizes the importance of his development of the first systematic lecture course on “Introduction to Caucasian Studies” and the writing of related curricula. The lecturer’s use of extensive ethnographic fieldwork, collected during numerous ethnographic expeditions in the North Caucasus region, is noted. Pozhidaev’s development of teaching methods and the conduct of seminars on the course “Ethnography of the Caucasus” is systematically examined. An analysis of the topics of coursework and reports read by students during seminars attests to their ethnographic focus, with the ethnography of Ossetia occupying a significant place in these courses. Beginning in 1925, Pozhidaev taught the course “General Ethnography” for the first time in the Ethnological and Linguistics Department. In 1927, one of the courses he taught in the Caucasus Studies Department was “History and Ethnography of the Ossetian People.” It has been established that Pozhidaev was one of the organizers and leaders of the local history circle established at the institute in 1924. The work of the scholar and educator as one of the founders and board members of the Scientific Society of Ethnography, Language, and Literature, established in 1927 at the Pedagogical Institute, is also examined. The study concludes that Pozhidaev’s work was significant in the establishment and development of Caucasus studies, the ethnography of the Caucasus, and general ethnography as academic disciplines in the higher education system of North Ossetia in the 1920s.

Keywords: V.P. Pozhidaev, Terek Institute of Public Education, Gorsky (North Caucasus) Pedagogical Institute, Caucasian studies, Caucasian ethnography, Ossetian ethnography, local history circle.
Language:: Russian Download the full text  
For citation:: Gostieva, L.K. The role of V.P. Pozhidaev in the development and teaching of Caucasian studies and ethnographic disciplines in higher education in North Ossetia in the 1920S // Izvestia SOIGSI. 2025. Iss. 58 (97). Pp.57-67. (in Russian). DOI 10.46698/VNC.2025.97.58.005
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