The 1928 Literacy courses on a cooperative farm in the Voronezh Region (Central Russia)
From Socialism: Principles, Practice, Prospects Magazine, 1984:
The Great October Socialist Revolution (1917), which marked the beginning of humanity’s transition from capitalism to socialism and communism, ushered in the epoch of society’s cultural revival.
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Cultural revolution figured high up in Lenin’s plan for building socialism in the USSR. As he noted, socialism is inconceivable without rise in the cultural standards of the working masses, without highly skilled specialists employed in national economy, and without a new people’s intelligentsia. This is the case because only educated people are able to master complex technology and use it most efficiently.
What is cultural revolution?
Cultural revolution includes the universal spread of literacy, and then scientific knowledge among the working people; the assimilation of humanity’s cultural heritage acquired throughout the history of humanity and the creation, on this basis. of a more advanced culture, national in form, socialist in content. and international in character; the rise of a new intelligentsia dedicated to the cause of socialism; a change in people’s spiritual make-up, and the consolidation of socialist ideology. Cultural revolution is not a fleeting action. It is an entire period in the cultural development of the whole people. It is not a spontaneous, but a creative, organized process, directed by the Communist Party and the socialist state, which set the tasks and determine the nature of cultural changes and organize the masses for implementing these changes.
Students of the Physics Department of the Turkmen State University doing practical work
THE CULTURAL AND POLITICAL EDUCATION OF THE MASSES
Under the Party Programme, a network of educational facilities for the masses was set up throughout the country immediately after the October revolution in a relatively short time. It included libraries, village reading-rooms, workers’ clubs, palaces of culture, museums, theatres, cinemas, the radio, press, literature, and the arts. The Soviet state placed the entire wealth of material and spiritual culture at the disposal of the working people. Moreover, in performing its cultural and educational function, it actively helped the masses to enjoy the entire wealth of the centuries-old culture of the peoples.
In the period immediately following the establishment of Soviet power, the main objective of political and educational activities was to bring home to the broad masses the historical significance of the triumphant revolution, to explain to them the content of the first decrees on peace and on land, the Declaration of Rights of the Peoples of Russia, the Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People. Frequent meetings were the most popular form of mass political education at that time. True and well-balanced information facilitated the political education of the working people and strengthened their trust in Soviet power.
Workers’ patronage played an important role in the political education of the peasantry. Factory workers organized all kinds of cultural and study groups, sent books for village libraries, reading-rooms and schools, gave lectures and talks.
The press and radio had a particularly important role to play in the political education of the people. Just as important was the mass publication of the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and other outstanding figures in the international communist and working class movement.
These women, graduates of the Frunze the Teacher Training Institute receiving their secondary school-teacher diplomas.
EDUCATION FOR THE PEOPLE
Mass illiteracy was a grim legacy of tsarism.
On December 26, 1919, the Soviet government adopted a decree “On the Elimination of Illiteracy Among the Population of the RSFSR”, which started a mass literacy campaign. The decree stated that the entire population of the Republic of Soviets in the 8-50 age bracket who were illiterate must learn to read and write, in Russian or in their native tongue, as they so wished. It also provided for setting up special schools for illiterate adults alongside the existing ordinary schools for children. The Leninist decree shook the whole country.
Despite the immense difficulties arising from military intervention and the Civil War, the country wide popular movement to eliminate illiteracy had yielded positive results by the time the Civil War ended (1918-1920).
Several million people had learned to read and write over the three years of the war. The literacy campaign subsequently gained momentum. More than 50 million completely illiterate and some 40 million semi-literate people were given the necessary schooling between 1923 and 1939. These figures show that the Soviet state was successfully carrying out Lenin’s behest to eliminate illiteracy throughout the country.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET SCHOOL SYSTEM
There were very few schools in pre-revolutionary Russia. About four-fifths of the children and adolescents of Russia were deprived of the opportunity to study. Following the victory of the October Socialist Revolution the Soviet state began to fundamentally reorganize the school system. A uniform labour school system was introduced throughout the country. It was divided up into elementary schools (5 year schooling) for children aged 8 to 13, and secondary schools (4-year schooling) for 13-17-year olds. School education was free, and schools were mixed. All nations and nationalities were granted the equal right to educate schoolchildren in their native language.
Hundreds of thousands of teachers had to be trained and their skills improved. The Soviet public education bodies used the most varied forms and methods of training and retraining teachers. They expanded and reorganized teacher-training facilities, opened numerous teacher-training courses, set up general-education schools with a teaching bias, etc. The system of short-term teacher training and refresher courses made it possible to staff the schools with the required number of teachers.
The elimination of illiteracy was a major cultural achievement of the Soviet people. Yet it did not ensure universal literacy. In 1930, the Soviet government adopted the Law on Universal Compulsory Primary Education, under which all 8-year-olds were to have four year primary schooling.
It was not an easy job to enforce the law. Yet it was done within two or three years. By late 1932, 93 per cent of children within the 8-to-11 year age bracket were attending primary schools.
THE FORMATION OF THE PEOPLE’S INTELLIGENTSIA
The formation of a new, Soviet intelligentsia proved to be an even more complex task facing the cultural revolution. There was lack of specialists in the early years of Soviet power despite the fact that a large number of bourgeois specialists identified themselves with the Soviet regime.
Lenin set the task of training specialists in all fields from among the workers and peasants in the shortest possible time.
A special institution was set up for the first time ever, a system of workers’ faculties at higher educational establishments. They were to prepare young workers for their studies at institutions of higher learning. In 1923-1928, the workers’ faculties trained 35,000 young men and women for admission to higher educational establishments. In 1934, workers’ faculty graduates accounted for 45 per cent of the new student body.
The social make-up of the student body changed substantially due to the introduction of class qualifications in admitting students to universities and colleges. In 1928, young people from the proletariat made up some 53 per cent of the students.
The Soviet higher school system successfully coped with the task of training highly qualified specialists for all branches of the national economy and culture. As many as 868,000 young specialists were trained during the first five year periods. As early as 1938/39, the USSR had a greater number of students than did 22 European countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy. As of January 1, 1941, 2,401,000 specialists with higher or secondary specialized education were employed in the Soviet national economy. The country’s demand for various professional groups had largely been met. Soviet higher education had thereby considerably contributed to the triumph of socialism and the cultural revolution.
From the book "Socialism in the USSR How it Was Built”, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1982
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