They were the first ones (about the first Tatar teachers in Soviet Turkmenistan)

In the 1920s, due to shortage of teachers in new Soviet schools in Central Asia, the USSR began mobilizing literate people in the USSR regions with Turkic population. Their aim was to organize the educational process in primary schools and literacy programs. At that time, representatives of the Tatar, Bashkir, Azerbaijani and other Turkic peoples arrived in Turkmenistan. There was a particularly large number of Tatar teachers among them. The article author has collected biographical data on several Tatar teachers who came to the Turkmen SSR and taught Turkmen children in the 1920s and 1930s. The paper highlights the challenges that teachers had to face upon arrival at their places of work. There were not enough premises for holding classes; the teaching staff was not provided with sufficient school supplies and basic amenities. They often worked from hand to mouth, froze in the winter, and suffered from the extreme Karakum heat in the summer, which they had not gotten used to. Not infrequntly, fearing for their lives, the teachers went into hiding from the Soviet regime oppositionists. Significant difficulties came up in work with Turkmen women, due to the fact that their education was condemned by society. Tatar female teachers made considerable contribution with their efforts to convince men to allow their wives and daughters study in new schools. Despite all the challenges, the first Tatar teachers were able to provide real help to the Turkmen people in mastering the new Soviet culture. The governments of the USSR and the TSSR highly appreciated the merits of Tatar teachers.