WHY STALIN REINTRODUCED EDUCATION: MODERNISE RUSSIA

REASONS FOR EDUCATION REFORMS: S Support for the state P Propaganda I Indoctrination R Raising literacy rates I Increasing political consciousness T Training for military/careers

AIMS/TARGETS FOR EDUCATION: 1928 65% of higher technical education to be of working class 1929 70%, with 14% women REALITY: 30% in 1928/9 to 58% in 1932/3

CHANGES IN EDUCATION: S Specialist courses in schools and universities encouraged to aid the needs of the FYPs O Only state-prescribed textbooks used U Uniforms T Traditional and Marxist theory subjects emphasized H Higher education was no longer free P Primary education compulsory for 4 years, in 1930 and then later 7 A Adult classes to improve literacy R Reintroduction of tests and examinations K Komsomol and other youth groups/camps after school

OTHER ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION: N Newspapers available at low prices and free to factory workers Y Yearning created to become like the Soviet role models created C Classics and other literature at low prices and accessible

Context Lenin and the Bolsheviks shut down schools, threw books away, abolished exams for the schools open a few days a week and encouraged the young to learn trades and engage in practical activities. Book learning and traditional academic subjects were seen as bourgeois. Stalin believed that in order to modernize, the population had to be literate; many parents and employers were complaining of the lack of education in reading and writing. The Purposes of Education: Support for the state Propaganda o The means by which the government conveyed its propaganda o More education means more understanding allowing more propaganda to be used Indoctrination o Loyalty and unity to/under Stalin o Creates loyal members for Stalin's party o Increases productivity by reducing distractions o Stresses control, discipline and subjugation to the government o Teaches the difference between rights and privileges o Any deviation from the norm must be addressed and halted Raise the literacy rate o Therefore raising the USSR's standard of living and position in the world Increase in political consciousness o Awareness of punishments o Properly follow laws Training for military or other careers o Replaced those who had been purged (many army officials gone) o Assigned careers o Prepared people to become productive members of society Aims:

1928, pronounced that 65% of those entering higher technical education were to be of working class, raised to 70% in 1929 with 14% being women Went up from 30% in 1928-29 to 58% in 1923-33

Changes in Education: Primary education became compulsory in 1930 for 4, then later 7, years o Designed to condition society for Soviet Russia Adults encouraged to take classes to improve literacy Traditional education was emphasized on traditional subjects and Marxism-Leninism Universities with specialized departments (especially in Marxist specialties) were set up Students encouraged to study specialist courses themselves to serve for the needs of the FYPs Only the use of state-prescribed textbooks Tests and examinations reintroduced and regular homework Uniforms reintroduced (conformity) Higher education was no longer free (secondary education was not compulsory, and university)

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Had to be a Bolshevik to have the money to learn Created value in education Was a sort of selection process, that was not egalitarian, but was by ability, not class as was under tsarist rule Higher respected jobs such as doctors, administrators, scientists and managers needed the training and education for such - those who continued education after 15 were marked to become the specialists in the future from an earlier time and the government provided grants Hypocritical - further education was elitist in nature; only the intellectuals, the rich, or the party-affiliated could continue education The Party had the right to nominate those for higher grade training and access to university; between 1928 and 1932, one third of all undergraduates were Party nominees

Other areas concerning education Newspapers were available at low prices and free to factory workers Russian classics and foreign literature available at low prices becoming accessible to the people Youth camps reinforced sense of community after school Creation of easily recognizable Soviet role models Universities The Academy of Sciences; based on the tsarist Imperial Academy, included about 250 major research organizations and over 50 000 individual members Sciences refer to arts, agriculture, medicine and management 1935, brought under government control In return for increased academic and social privileges, they pledged themselves to Stalin and the building of a new Soviet state - kept with Stalinist values History was interpreted and shaped as Stalin wanted in order to maintain their reputation and be accepted by the others - no more genuine historical research and analysis; became lackey to the regime The Lysenko Affair Best example of academic subservience: In the 1930s, Trofim Lysenko claimed he had discovered a way to develop "super-crops" which grew in any season and produced up to 16 times greater than traditional methods Stalin was convinced that this "socialist science" existed and was superior to the bourgeois West, giving Lysenko full support Lysenko became unchallengeable, and those who protested were removed from their posts and sent to the gulags Later revealed to be false, but by then, it already had played its part in creating the famines under Stalin Results of the changes in education: 96% literacy for males in 1939 82% literacy for females in 1939 Literacy rate of people over age of 9 increased from 51% to 88% Between 1929 and 1940, the amount of children attending school rose from 12 to 35 million

By 1939, schooling for 8 to 14 year olds was universal in urban areas Changes in the form and structures of schools and classes Emphasis on narrow specialist courses Preferences to proletarian background was withdrawn

Historiography Lynch By the time Stalin came to power it was generally accepted that the dismissal of the old ways had gone too far His driving aim was to modernize the Soviet Union and he believed that to achieve this the population, especially the young, must be made literate It made little sense to insist on strict rules of conduct for workers in factories, if schools allowed pupils to behave in a free and easy manner. The education system must develop the same serious, committed attitude that prevailed in the workplace ...but the argument was that it was selection by ability, not, as in the corrupt tsarist days or in the decadent capitalist world, by class The intelligentsia that formed the nomenklatura appreciated that education was the key to opportunity Their reputation and acceptance as scholars depended on their presenting history shaped and interpreted as Stalin wanted The tragedy was that by then they had played a part in creating the famines that so frequently ravaged Stalin's Soviet Union [concerning the Lysenko affair] Historians queried whether the term totalitarian should be used to describe Stalinism, their argument being that the limited technology of the time simply did not allow total control to be imposed

Geoffrey Hosking By the end of 1930 all schools were required to attach themselves to an enterprise the proportion of political instruction was also increased The dismissal of schoolteachers who were not party members opened up opportunities for social mobility

Mimmack The children of the better-educated were more likely to go on to higher education, but appeared to perpetuate an elitist system Urbanization and more access to education did lead to more social mobility as, for many people, opportunities they could hardly have imagined previously now appeared At the end of the 1920s, the importance of class meant that a humble background was advantageous, especially during the period of the purges Lynch: The cult osf personality was not a spontaneous response of the people. It did not come from below; it was imposed from above.

Roy Medvedev Stalin did not rely on terror alone, but also on the support of the majority of the people; effectively deceived by cunning propaganda, they gave Stalin credit for successes of others and even for achievements that were in fact totally fictitious

David Williamson Historians working from the totalitarian model see the Stalin cult as something imposed on the people from on high

Moshe Lewin, Rittersporn and Stites; revisionist and structuralist historians A reciprocity existed between official and traditional popular values. For instance, many Stakhanovites, soldiers and even intellectuals who had benefited from Stalin were ready to see Stalin as the architect of the achievements of the USSR