THROUGH THE CHUVASH OAK FORESTS AND THE KALMYK STEPPES – THE ACADEMICIAN’S G. N. VOLKOV PATH

The published article is devoted to the life and scientific creativity of the creator of a new branch of knowledge – ethnopedagogy, academician of the Russian Academy of Education Gennady Nikandrovich Volkov. The last decade of G. N. Volkov’s scientific creativity in the Republic of Kalmykia is analyzed and comprehended. The research material was publications about G. N. Volkov in the Republic of Kalmykia by his students, like-minded people, associates and prominent scientists, as well as the authors’ memories from personal meetings with him. The use of this unique and rich material allowed an attempt to study the last decade of the academician’s life during the so-called Kalmyk autumn. As a result, an attempt was made to analyze and reveal the path of the pioneer in the field of scientific knowledge, the essence of the concept developed by him, as well as the tools of its research. Ethnopedagogics is a universal science, which reveals the heritage of any nation, its spiritual, moral and educational potential, traditions and customs – in the same vein. Academician from Chuvashia is the successor of great classical teachers J. A. Komensky, J. H. Pestalozzi and K. D. Ushinskiy. Gennadiy Volkov is a creator of a new scientific pedagogical school, which is still relevant today, which has many Students and followers in the near and far abroad. The great son of the Chuvash people appears as a pioneer, a discoverer; an adherent of the historical kinship of the Kalmyk and the Chuvash peoples; as a romantic who deifies nature and as a public person. The quintessence of his scientific views is the concept of “personality-symbol” introduced and revealed by him in pedagogics and life. The last period of the academician’s life and his activity in the Republic of Kalmykia is described from many different sides in the present article. The Academician G. Volkov’s activity in Kalmykia was marked by the organization of a number of international scientific and practical conferences, the training of a wide range of scientific personnel – doctors and candidates of pedagogical science. Today they continue their great teacher’s work. A research laboratory of ethnopedagogic innovations was opened at Kalmyk State University at his initiative. It has become a research center with a wide geography – from Belarus and Kazakhstan to Yakutia. A fundamental work of an encyclopedic nature “Ethnopedagogical Pansophy” was prepared and published here. In the article, the outstanding Chuvash scientist is considered as an innovator, a personsymbol and a public person as well.

ethnopedagogics, Gennadiy Nikandrovich Volkov – a founder of ethnopedagogics, great son of the Chuvash people, Kalmyk and Chuvash peoples, person-symbol, Kalmyk period of the academician