Reconstruction of the image of Orthodoxy in its “educational edition” (based on books for teaching reading to Karelian schoolchildren at the turn of the XIX–XX and XX–XXI centuries)
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation, ilyukha.olga@mail.ru
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Based on content analysis and comparative methods, the article examines the problem of representation of Orthodoxy in books for teaching reading to Karelian schoolchildren.
Objective: to reconstruct aspects of Orthodox culture and faith, which are presented on the pages of textbooks of prerevolutionary and post-Soviet times; to show the approaches of the authors to their representation.
Research materials: ABC and other books for teaching reading that are officially recommended for use in the Karelian school system at the turn of the XIX–XX and XX–XXI centuries).
Results and novelty of the research: the analysis of texts and illustrations of textbooks for Karelian schoolchildren was carried out for the first time from the point of view of representation of Orthodoxy in them. It is shown that during the imperial period, Orthodox culture and faith were presented to young readers as the natural content of human life, defining the entire order of life; alphabet books of that time normalize the spiritual practices of schoolchildren. After seven decades of state atheism, the Russian school, which was secular in nature, conveyed the idea of spiritual rebirth. The textbooks of the post-Soviet period reveal elements, individual signs and symbols of Orthodox culture, the main part of which is presented in historical and ethnographic terms, in the paradigm of the “faith of the ancestors”.
Key words: the image of Orthodoxy, books for teaching reading, alphabet book, history of education, history of textbook, Karelian language
Acknowledgments: the article was performed within the framework of the State Assignment of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, topic № 125032004283-0 “Spiritual traditions of the peoples of Karelia: texts and contexts”. The author expresses the gratitude to Doctor of Philological Sciences I. P. Novak for consultations on Karelian language issues.
For citation: Ilyukha O. P. Reconstruction of the image of Orthodoxy in its “educational edition” (based on books for teaching reading to Karelian schoolchildren at the turn of the XIX–XX and XX–XXI centuries) // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2025; 15 (3/62): 518–528.
