ABSTRACT
The accumulation, preservation and transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next are major functionalities of the education system in any society. The turning points in the history of a people inevitably will bring about changes in educational content and systems. One turning point was the Russian conquest of the contemporary states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and the inclusion of their lands into the Russian Empire. A demand for secular education emerged in response to the needs of the Russian colonial administration. Armenia and Georgia previously have created their own unique alphabets, in which the primary religious texts in their national languages have been translated. National alphabets functioned as symbols of identity, but as a consequence they also strengthened the links between the religious congregations and the concept of nationhood. The Soviet period from 1920 featured three prevailing trends in education: the rejection of religion and the religious segment in nationhood; the promotion of communist ideology; and Russification.
