HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT'S ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE THE PROVISION OF EDUCATION?

Summarise why historians see education as 'one of the great successes of Soviet social policy'.

- Historians have highlighted the enourmous expansion of educational provision at all levels and the reduction of illiteracy.

- Most of this was achieved despite a lack of resources.

What was education like in Tsarist Russia?

- It had been largely limited to the rich, especially at secondary and university level.

- Many schools were provided by the Russian Orthodox Church and there were several thousand peasant-run schools, but for most children education was not an important part of their life.

- They never made attendance compulsory and many of those who attended school dropped out before completing 4 years.

- 88% of children in rural areas failed to complete primary education.

Who was Anatoly Lunachevsky and what impact did he have?

- He was the head of the Commissariat of Education (Narkompros).

- Launched an ambitious programme to provide free, universal and compulsory education for all children aged 7-17.

- Higher education expanded.

- Existing church schools taken over by government in 1918.

- All children received the same education.

What were the limitations of Lunachevsky's reforms?

- The aim of universal compulsory education did not materialise during Lunachevsky's lifetime, due to a lack of resources caused by the civil war of 1918-21.

- Narkompros could only supply 1 pencil for every 60 students.

- Students had to write using pieces of coal.

- Teachers were poorly paid, and were expected to teach classes of 40 or more as well as devote unpaid time to cleaning the school.

- Drop-out rates were very high; in 1926, the average child attended school for 2.77 years.

What were the achievements of the education system in the 1930s?

- The goal of providing universal compulsory education was largely achieved, particularly in urban areas.

- Number of children in education increased from 14 million in 1929 to over 20 million in 1931.

- 1930s saw access to education extended to children of 'alien social elements' (those whose parents from the aristocracy, bourgeoisie or 'enemies of the people')

- Standard of teaching rose in rural areas during the 1930s as schools benefited from the large number of teachers deported to isolated areas during the Great Terror.

What were the limitations of these achievements in the 1930s?

- Most school children failed to continue their education beyond the first 2 years of secondary education.

What was the system established in 1934?

- The basic pattern of Soviet schooling was established.

- System of general academic schools that provided four years of primary-level education, each year with its own class teacher.

- Followed by 3 years of 'incomplete secondary education' where students were taught by subject teachers.

- After this period of study, students could go on for two or three more years of 'complete secondary education'.

What changes were made in the 1980s to educational structure?

- Soviet government turned many general academic schools into specialist schools. for subjects such as mathematics, science or foreign languages and demand for admission was high.

- Open to boys and girls, although participation by girls declined with age.

What were the key limitations to education in the 1920s?

- The key obstacle was a lack of resources, which, during the 1920s, was a consequence of the impact of the civil war, but remained a limiting factor thereafter.

- Under the NEP, state spending on schools declined and the nummbers attending school shrank.

- Lack of resources meant many schools closed during the winter as there was no heating.

Why were some rural families unable to keep their children in school?

- Rural schools were especially affected by a lack of teachers, poor teaching and inadequate facilities.

- School transport had been underfunded, and the cost had to be borne by parents until 1965.

- Tuition fees were introduced for the the last years of secondary education in 1940.

- Although these fees were withdran in 1956, parents were expected to pay for textbooks, individual equipment and uniforms.

For poor rural families, these costs could force children to leave school before the final years of secondary education.

What impact did WW2 have on education?

- WW2 stretched resources further.

- A large number of teachers were killed in action, and 82,000 schools were physically destroyed in the fighting.

- Post-war recovery was difficult; many schools worked a 2- or 3-shift day to cope with the lack of classrooms.

What impact did 'traditional values' have on education?

- Traditional attitudes were often hard to overcome.

- Attendance at rural schools was problematic, especially at harvest time.

- Khrushchev was concerned about the different levels of education experienced by rural children compared to those who lived in towns.

What policies did Khrushchev introduce to combat this and what impact did it have?

- Collective farmers were sent to colleges for specialised education, and college places were reserved for those who had two years of work experience on collectives.

- These policies failed to have much impact before they were withdrawn after Khrushchev's dismissal in 1964.

- Even when competing for places at colleges specialising in agricultural sciences, students from a rural background remained at a disadvantage.

- 2/3rds of of students came from urban schools and possessed good academic qualifications.

What impact did cultural influences have?

- These also limited the expansion of education.

- State education was seen by many from ethnic minorities as a vehicle for Russification, the policy of imposing Russian language and culture on the ethnic minorities of the USSR.

- All schoolchildren had to learn Russian, even if other subjects were taught in the ethnic language of the region.

- Teachers were often Russian, and in Muslim areas, women teachers commanded very little respect.

- Cultural attitudes limited the number of Muslim women entering higher levels of secondary education.

- Girls made up only 26% of the school population in the final two years of secondary education in the Uzbek Republic in 1955.

What evidence is there to suggest other governmental policies had a significant impact on educational policies?

- The forced collectivisation of agriculture in 1928 removed many teachers from village schools. They were often seen as elements of the 'old world' to be swept away in the name of socialist progress.

- Many were labelled kulaks and deported to labour camps.

- The Cultural Revolution of 1931-32 accelerated this trend; education in rural areas was brought to a standstill as attacks on 'bourgeois' elements saw many teachers removed from schools.

- Students keen to see the back of unpopular teachers informed on them to Party officials.

- Ultimately, some schools had no teachers at all.

Had the government created a 'classless education system'?

- No; changes that aimed to create a classless society were often limited by the Soviet elite, who preferred a system that separated their children from those of the masses.

- An academic education that involved the completion of secondary schooling remained the desired route for those who wished their children to better themselves, but it was dominated by the children of a white-collar and managerial elite.

What impact did Khrushchev have on adult education?

- As a former rabfak student, Khrushchev recognised the the importance of providing opportunities for those who had dropped out of education at an early age.

- There was an expansion in opportunities to enable others to return to education as part-time students.

- By 1964, there were 2 million attending such courses.

What was provided by the 1970s/80s to adults wishing to further their education?

- In the 1970s, adults could continue their education through an extensive programme of adult education.

- Diplomas and degrees were offered by vocational colleges and provided a useful strategy for updating workers' skills as well as offering a route to higher education.

- By the 1980s, such courses were sometimes supported by TV and radio programmes.

- These courses were usually studied part-time in the evenings, which put additional demands on the worker.

What did the Bolsheviks do initially to attempt equality in higher education?

- After 1917, Narkompros declared that universities should be open to all, and courses were laid on to prepare those without formal qualifications for university study.

- This programme was resisted by the universities, so the government took control of higher education, appointing a Communist rector for each institution, a move designed to ensure equality of access.

How, in 1929, did the government attempt to widen participation?

- By dropping requirements for entry.

- A quota system was introduced, whereby 70% of places in higher education had to be allocated to those of working-class origin.

What impact did the attempt to widen participation have?

- This figure was only achieved once, and attempts to meet it resulted in a drop-out rate of 70%, as many students failed to finish courses for which they were ill-prepared.

- This system was abolished in 1935.

- The end of the quota system put the emphasis in higher education back on quality rather than quantity, and as the number of working-class students fell, the intelligentsia benefited.

What impact did Khrushchev have on higher education?

- The expansion of higher-education institutions specialising in technical subjects helped to widen participation.

- In 1964, half a million were studying in higher education on a part-time basis.

- The establishment of many new higher-education colleges specialising in technical subjects helped this process.

What evidence is there to suggest the numbers participating in higher education increased dramatically across the Soviet Union?

- In 1914, the number of students attending higher education was 150,000. In 1980, the number rose to around 5.4 million.

- In 1914, the number of higher educational institutions was around 100. In 1959, the number of higher educational institutions was around 760.

How did the Bolsheviks initially attack the illiteracy problem in Russia?

- In 1919, the Bolsheviks launched a campaign to bring about the 'liquidation of illiteracy'.

- The initial aim was to make all Soviet citizens aged between 8-50 literate.

- The Party saw this as necessary to ensure modern technical skills could be taught and learnt as well as opening up the population to a wider range of propaganda.

What methods to reduce illiteracy were there, and what was the result of these policies?

- Methods included:

- Setting up tens of thousands of 'liquidation points' in towns and rural areas, where people could undertake basic literacy courses. Between 1920-26, 5 million people completed these courses.

- 'Rabfaki' were set up for workers who had left school without basic literacy and numeracy skills. These were usually located at factories and millions attended.

- All soldiers recruited into the Red Army had to attend literacy classes.

- Emphasis was placed on women, who were more likely to be illiterate. 14 million of the 17 million who were illiterate in 1917 were women.

- By 1939, literacy rates had improved markedly. The census for that year put literacy rates at 94% for the urban population and 86% of the countryside.

- By 1959, these figures had improved to 99% and 98% respectively.

Why did the government take control of the curriculum immediately?

- As it was an instrument of social control and propaganda.

- Education could play a vital role in the transformation of society and its values and attitudes.

What were the key purposes of the curriculum?

- To instill socialist values and attitudes into the population.

- It would help create the 'new socialist man and woman'.

- Propaganda could be conveyed to children from a young age to support the indoctrination of socialist ideas into young minds.

- It would act as a vehicle to attack traditional attitudes and beliefs, including reducing the hold of religion over the population, and as an attack on patriarchal attitudes.

- It would be an important method of Russification.

- It would enable the population to acquie the technical skills and expertise needed in a modern economy.

What evidence is there of 'early radicalism' in education during the initial phase of the Soviet Union?

- Teaching was to be delivered according to progressive methods that emphasised discovery, play and group work.

- Children would study themes, such as farming or nature, rather than traditional subjects.

- Tests were abolished and corporal punishment forbidden.

- Classrooms were renamed 'laboratories of learning' and children were to have an influential voice in the running of their schools.

What result did these 'early radicalism' policies have?

- The authority of teachers declined dramatically and some were dismissed by their own classes.

- Many teachers merely ignored government orders and stuck to their traditional methods of lecturing students.

- The chaotic situation grew worse during the Cultural Revolution of 1931-32 and the government became concerned enough to impose order over the school system.

What impact did the 'Great Retreat' (1936) have on education?

- It saw a return of more traditional measures.

- Traditional discipline was stressed to ensure individuals knew their duty to the collective.

- Textbooks were prescribed by the government, and traditional subjects and formal examinations were reintroduced.

- Authority within schools was returned to teachers and teaching methods were based on lectures that required mechanical learning of information.

- Compulsory pigtails for schoolgirls was required.

What subjects were studied following the 'Great Retreat' (1936)?

- Russian Literature, which involved the study of 19th-century classics.

- Schools usually offered one modern foreign language, with English being the most popular.

- Particular attention was placed on maths and science.

What was Lysenkoism?

- Based on the ideas of Trofim Lysenko, a self-proclaimed agricultural expert.

- He did not accept the science of genetics. Instead he believed in the princple of acquired characteristics through environment (for example, if a plant was stripped of all its leaves, its seeds would produce leafless plants).

- His ideas were not based on scientific research or fact.

How was history taught throughout each of the following leaders time in power:

Stalin

- History became a political minefield and required Stalin's personal intervention before the standard history book could be agreed.

- 'The History of the All-Union Communist Party' was published in 1938, and presented the official view of developments under Stalin.

- The Short Course, as it became known, was a required reading and a whole generation of Soviet citizens was educated into its views.

How was history taught throughout each of the following leaders time in power:

Khrushchev

- In light of his Secret Speech, history exams had to be cancelled in 1956.

- His de-Stalinisation policy led to a hurried rewriting of history and students noticed 'the difficulties of their history teachers...when it was impossible to forsee what, tomorrow, would happen to yesterday'.

- A committee of historians was appointed to prepare a new text, led by Boris Ponomaryov.

- The new official 'History of the Communist Party' was published in 1959, and accused Stalin of economic mistakes and errors, and systematically removed Stalin's name from any favourable connection, with credit being given to the Party and the people instead.

How was history taught throughout each of the following leaders time in power:

Brezhnev

- During the Brezhnev years, Stalin was simply ignored in the Russian books produced in the USSR.

- It was as if Stalin, and the famine of 1932 and the Gulag, had not existed.

How did Khrushchev attempt to change the curriculum and what impact did this have?

- Khrushchev's educational reforms of 1958 increased emphasis given to technical and vocational education.

- All schools were required to provide vocational training, or allow students to transfer to colleges that offered such provision.

- Undertaking 'productive economic work' became a requirement of going to university.

- Khrushchev aimed to bring the educated into closer touch with real life.

- The impact was that it was unpopular with those students and their parents who wished to pursue a more academic education.

- These reforms were dropped when Brezhnev came into power.

- Thereafter, work experience was expected to take place within the school workshop or garden.

How was Marx-Leninist theory involved in education?

- The Marxist-Leninist Theory course was compulsory at all levels of compulsory education, and in higher education too.

- Surveys of students from the 1980s reveal that this was the most boring part of the curriculum, but many accepted that it had to be studied and exams passed to secure further progress in their chosen field.

- Even in kindergarten, there would be posters and little shrines of 'Uncle Lenin'. Children were encouraged to place ribbons around a small bust of Lenin.

What evidence is there of gender equality in education?

- There was no difference between what was offered to boys and girls.

- During WW2, boys were given basic military training, while girls had lessons in nursing.

- However, this policy was only ever partly applied before reverting back to a policy of co-educational schools in 1954.

How might Stalin have been preparing students for his police state?

- Stalin's restoration of traditional school systems in 1936 placed authority for school discipline back with the teacher, yet students were given a role.

- Each class had a representative, usually elected by the students, whose job was to inform the teacher of any misbehaviour by members of the class.

- They also had a role in arranging for brighter students to help those who were falling behind with their school work.

- This system reinforced the duties of the students to socialism and the state.

How significant were the changes after Stalin's death?

- Changes to the system were minor, as the system of Soviet education was well established by the 1950s.

What evidence was there of change after Stalin's death?

- The main attempt to bring different emphasis to the system was that of Khrushchev's reforms of 1958-59.

- His attempts to expand higher and adult education for the children of workers and place greater emphasis on technical and vocational education faced opposition from the Party, who saw them as restricting the availability of an academic education for the children of the Party elite.

- As a result, Brezhnev dropped the most controversial changes, and the academic route remained the preferred path into higher education.

What were the Octobrists?

- They were for children aged 5-9 and were organised informal gatherings, where nursery rhymes were learnt and simple games could be played.

What were The Pioneers?

- They covered children from the ages of 10-14.

- Most children joined the Pioneers, undergoing an initiation ceremony at school or in a purpose-built Pioneers' Palace.

- Members had to promise to love their country and follow the teachings of Lenin and the Communist Party.

- Only members were allowed to wear the uniform, red neckerchief and badge of the Pioneers.

- They encouraged good behaviour in schools but also provided activities that extended the range of opportunities offered.

- Sport, drama and other leisure activities were provided.

Who were the Komsomol?

- They were for those aged 14-28, and were the Young Communist League.

- This was a more serious group and as seen as essential for progress into the Party itself.

- Their enthusiasm was used by Stalin to help carry through key changes.

- Members were called upon to build new industrial centres during the first 3 FYPs, and they were at the forefront of the CR, rooting out class enemies.

- It grew from 2.3 million members in 1929 to 10.2 million in 1940.

- Khrushchev called upon them to provide volunteers for his Virgin Lands Scheme.

What impact did the Komsomol have (up to 1985)?

- Activists were expected to support community schemes, which might involve clearing overgrown vegetation from public spaces or supporting Party campaigns.

- Sometimes used to report on unacceptable behaviour by youths who listened to foreign music.

- By 1982, it had soared to over 40 million members, a sign that many saw it as a route to career success.

What evidence is there of totalitarian control of the education system?

- All aspects of the curriculum were controlled by the state; subjects delivered, materials and textbooks used, training of the teachers who delivered the curriculum.

- The emphasis on socialist values and duty to the state were instilled from a young age.

- The rigorous approach of memorising knowledge did not suit students who wished to be creative or think for themselves, although most students accepted the system.

What evidence is there of success of this approach?

- Although academic standards in the humanities and the sciences often suffered because of restrictions, the Academy of Sciences had the largest scientific-technological intelligentsia in the world during the 1970s.

- Eight Soviet scientists were awarded Nobel prizes for science.