Issues of Education and National Culture in the Work of North Caucasian Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Empire (1907-1912)

The objective of the study is to analyze the activities of the North Caucasian deputies of the third-convocation State Duma of the Russian Empire in addressing issues of education and national culture. The people's deputies were focusing on the most relevant and vital questions of the Russian reality: democratization of political life, the problem of national and religious relations, education and enlightement, as well as many others. The role of North Caucasian deputies in the consideration of draft laws on the development of national education and the empowerment of indigenous languages of the region is defined. The analysis of the transcripts shows that the people's deputies constantly paid attention to the violation of the civil rights of the local population and discrimination on religious and national grounds (in particular, the prohibition of local judicial proceedings in the native language). In the State Duma of the third convocation, the North Caucasian deputies were able to amend the law "On the Transformation of the Local Courts", according to which judges were obliged to speak local languages (the law was approved by the Emperor on June 15, 1912). They also supported bills on the development of teaching in local languages, on the establishment of national and religious equality, on the development of culture and school management. After analyzing the materials and sources, the author comes to the conclusion about the high activity of the deputies in the elaboration of religious bills, as well as in solving the problems of national culture and education. However, the establishment of the June 3rd model of formation of the Duma led to ignoring the need for representation of the outskirts of the Empire in the all-Russian Parliament, which, in turn, brought about the stagnation and subsequent collapse of the entire political system.