First education hubs in Ajara in the middle of XX c

Abstract

As you know over the years, numerous individuals with remarkable biographies have worked within Adjara’s educational system. Their contributions extended far beyond the advancement of education in the region and the upbringing of successive generations; they also left an enduring legacy in the collective memory of the people. This is particularly true of the first generation of educators who began their work in Adjara during a most challenging period—at the dawn of Soviet rule, an era marked by profound historical and cultural transformations. The collective memory of local communities has preserved a wealth of vivid recollections concerning their professional activities, their interactions with the population, and their efforts to cultivate the cultural life of villages more broadly. These memories, at times, diverge significantly from the data presented in official historiography. They capture highly engaging aspects of Adjara’s past and substantially enrich the official historical narrative. It was precisely this realization that encouraged us, through communication with representatives of different generations, to study these stories preserved in people’s memory. Our aim has been to foreground the events experienced and internalized by respondents, and to examine a crucial and transformative process in the history of Adjara—the elimination of illiteracy and semi-literacy—through the prism of personal recollectionns and individual narratives.