The Country Council Work on Extracurricular Enlightenment of Adults in the Volga-Ural Region

The article reveals the activity of the Volga and Ural country councils to create a system of extracurricular enlightenment of adults in the later period of the existence of the Russian empire. The article is based on the statistical and mass sources, including office records from regional archives. The authors, resorting to a comparative multiaspect approach to the study of the country councils’ forms and methods of work to organize extracurricular establishments and popular educational events, make an overview of tendencies and directions, progress and problems in their development. The belated formation of the extracurricular adult education system the authors explain by the country councils; focus on primary education. The study revealed the dominant poison of country councils in the sphere of extracurricular enlightenment, a financial and pedagogical availability of this education form for great masses of population of this education form, combining general knowledge and professional skills. The social and cultural activity of country councils in the late XIXth – early XXth c.c. was profound and diverse as far as enlightenment is concerned, and helped achieve top results within a short period of time