To what extent was education radically reformed between 1917 and 1985?

Theme 4 Q

Introduction

Bolsheviks saw need to radically alter education in Russia in 1917 to sustain the regime and aid industrialisation.

Between 1917 and 1985, levels of reform fluctuated from grand ambitions of earlier years to some significant issues remaining by 1985.

Considering educational provision present in 1917 it is highly accurate to suggest at all levels, education was radically reformed.

Paragraph themes

• Primary and secondary education

• Higher education and adult education

• Curriculum

What were literacy rate during the Tsarist regime?

• 65% with little attempt to improve during war

What was the 1917 ‘Liquidation of Illiteracy’ campaign?

• Goal to make all Soviet citizens between 8 and 50 literate

What was the impact of ‘liquidation points’?

• Tens of thousands of ‘liquidation points’ were set up between 1920 and 1926

• 5m people completed courses

How had literacy rates improved by 1939?

• 94% of the urban population literate

• 86% of the countryside were literate

How had literacy rates improved by 1953?

• Literacy rates were almost at 100%

Who was Lunacharsky?

• Head of Narkompros (Commissariat for Education) 1917

• Announced there would be free compulsory education for all children to 17 years old

How successful was compulsory education?

• By the 1930s most school children only completed 2 years of secondary education

• From 1934-1980s, only 3 years of education were actually compulsory during secondary

What elements of bourgeois education remained?

• Low funding for schools

• Low wages for teachers

• Lack of emphasis on education

• Tuition fees not removed until 1956 - parents expected to pay for textbooks, uniforms and equipment

How were educational reforms limited by war?

• During WW2 over 400,000 schools destroyed

• Students had 2-3 day shifts of school - lack of resources

What was Khrushchev’s target for compulsory education?

• Set target of 10 year compulsory education 1951

• Only 8 years achieved

How did inequality continue?

Children of managers and elites within the nomenklatura system dominated education

How was the influence of the Church on education reduced?

• 1918 all church schools closed

What were initial reforms to the curriculum?

Thematic learning and classroom renamed ‘laboratories of learning’

How were reforms to the curriculum reversed?

• 1936 Great Retreat

• Traditional subjects returned and memorisation for exams, alongside less focus on creativity

How were reforms to the curriculum changed over time?

• History books highlighted Stalin’s importance in history of the regime

• Under Khrushchev, Stalin and his actions were denounced

• Under Brezhnev, Stalin’s existence was ignored

How did higher educational institutions expand?

• In 1914 there were just over 80 higher educational institutions in Russia

• Expanded to nearly 800 by 1959

How successful were reforms to higher education entry?

• 1929 policy dropped requirements for entry and introduced a 70% quota for working class students

• Drop out rate was then 70% and the policy was abandoned in 1935

How was education made more accessible under Khrushchev?

• 40% of engineering spaces at universities reserved for women

How was reform limited in certain areas?

• Only 26% of students in higher education were women in Uzbeck in 1960s - religious influence

How did higher education increase?

• Tens of thousands studying prior to 1917

• 1964, half a million people were studying part-time in education

• In total by 1980 there were approximately 5.5 million students

What shows genuine desire to further university education?

• Abolishing tuition fees for university (1956),

• Establishing polytechnic institutions

• Broadening non-Russian universities (such as Brezhnev’s 18 universities in the republics)

What was the impact of reforms to adult education?

• 2 million people studying in part-time courses for workers and further provision for evening courses.

Proof that adult education was successful?

• Khrushchev was a beneficiary of adult literacy classes

Conclusion

• Education system within the Soviet Union saw significant set-backs across the period

• But reasonable to suggest the reforms could be deemed as ‘radical’.

• Many reforms were either intentionally scaled back or were simply not provided the necessary resources

• But compared with the hugely unequal education system seen in 1917, it would be inaccurate to suggest these reforms were not radical.

• Simply being provided with further literacy (especially in rural areas) and a basic sense of education would have been transformative.

• Clearly continuities within the system throughout, such as chronic underfunding and some elitist attitudes

• But education was radically reformed between 1917 and 1985.