Public Education in the Union Republics

The rate at which the number of schools and pupils, institutions of higher learning, libraries, and other educational establishments is increasing in the eastern Union Republics of the U.S.S.R., the Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Regions, and National Areas is amazing even against the general background of the tremendous cultural advance of the U.S.S.R. The indigenous population of these republics and areas is made up of the non-Russian peoples of the multi-national Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

With few exceptions the peoples of the East and North of the U.S.S.R. had been culturally backward before the Great October Socialist Revolution. The tsarist government consciously hampered their cultural growth. The local rich and the clergy of these peoples (shamans and mullahs) likewise obstructed the spread of education, especially for girls.

Literacy was at a very low level. The census for 1926 (although much had already been done by that time to promote public education in the period after the October Revolution) shows that the percentage of literacy was:

In pre-Soviet times the territories of the present Union Republics and National Areas populated by non-Russian peoples had an insignificant number of schools. There were some schools in the big cities, but these were for the children of the Russian officials, officers and clergy. Secondary schools in Central Asia and Azerbaijan rarely accepted boys from among the indigenous population, and when they did make a rare concession it was to accept the sons of the nobility and wealthy merchants. There was not a single institution of higher learning in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia (i.e., the territory of present-day Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenia). Nor were there any in Eastern Siberia and in the territories of the present Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics in the Volga country, with the exception of the Tatar Autonomous Republic; Kazan, its capital, had several institutions of higher learning, but Tatars and other peoples of the Volga country (Mari, Komi, Mordovians) were rare exceptions among the students even at Kazan University.

In the U.S.S.R., where capitalism and national oppression had been abolished, all the peoples rallied in a single multi-national socialist state on the basis of full equality and fraternal co-operation. The Russian people rendered enormous assistance to the other peoples of the Soviet Union to develop their national economy and culture, and to train qualified cadres.

In a short span of 36 years illiteracy was completely liquidated in all the republics of the Soviet Union (both Union and Autonomous) as well as in the National Areas. Every people have an extensive network of elementary, middle and secondary schools; all the Union and Autonomous Republics have institutions providing professional training, and each has several institutions of higher learning. Teaching in elementary and secondary schools is conducted in the native language of the pupils. Education among women in the national republics (percentage of literacy and percentage of graduates of secondary schools and institutions of higher learning) has risen to the same level as among women in the Russian Federation. All the peoples of the U.S.S.R. now have their own national intelligentsia.

Under the favourable conditions for cultural development created by the Lenin-Stalin national policy, the formerly backward peoples made a tremendous effort and came up to the level of the other peoples of the U.S.S.R. They successfully surmounted the enormous obstacles and difficulties that stood in their way to cultural advancement, such as an insufficient number of teachers, lack of school premises, extreme backwardness of the women, etc.

The Union Republics, especially those in Central Asia, had to develop a much faster rate of building new schools than the Russian Federation, in order to reach its level in the shortest possible time. The development of the network of schools in these republics was especially rapid beginning with 1930.

The growth of general educational schools (elementary, middle, and secondary) in various Union Republics prior to the Great Patriotic War is shown in the following table:

Number of General Educational Schools

From the above table we see that in the R.S.F.S.R. the number of schools in the 1938-39 school year was one and a half times greater than in 1914-15, while in the republics of Central Asia the increase was: 16-fold in Kirghizia, 23-fold in Turkmenia, 29-fold in Uzbekistan, and even 462-fold in Tajikistan.

Public pre-school upbringing of children – kindergartens and playgrounds – is receiving great attention. Each republic has many extra-school establishments for children, such as Young Pioneer houses, children’s libraries, and others. Some of the Union Republics pioneered new and original forms of extra-school upbringing of children. For instance, the first children’s railway, the Tbilisi line, was built in Georgia in 1935 and, subsequently, this example was followed by other republics (the R.S.F.S.R., the Ukraine and others).

Every type of cultural-educational establishment, such as recreation clubs, libraries, museums and lecture halls multiplied rapidly in all the Union Republics.

Some of the Union Republics (the Ukraine, Georgia and others) have scientific-research pedagogical institutes.

On the example of several Union Republics the following pages show education is successfully progressing in the post-war period among the different peoples of the U.S.S.R.

Byelorussia. Before the October Revolution literacy among the population in what is now the Byelorussia S.S.R. was a bare 18 per cent. The 1939 census showed that it had reached 78.9 per cent, and now Byelorussia is a country of universal literacy.

In tsarist times the number of pupils attending general educational schools was 266,000, but by 1950 this number soared to 1,490,000, in other words it increased 5.5 times.

Moreover, in 1949-50 the republic had types of educational establishments that were non-existent under tsarism. These include schools for young industrial workers with 27,400 pupils, schools for young agricultural workers with 25,500 pupils, and various extra-school institutions – 18 Young Pioneer palaces and houses, seven Young Technicians’ and 11 Young Naturalists’ centres, 19 physical-culture schools, four children’s stadiums and recreation parks, 44 children’s libraries.

While in 1913-14 the network of special secondary educational establishments was limited to several technical schools and 11 teachers’ colleges, in 1949-50 Byelorussia had 108 secondary vocational schools (technical schools, pedagogical colleges, medical schools, and others) with an enrolment of 34,650.

Before the October Revolution, Byelorussia did not have a single institution of higher learning, but in 1949-50 the republic had 28 higher educational establishments with a student body of 17,870.

Libraries were set up throughout the republic: the Byelorussia Lenin State Library in Minsk had by 1949-50 a total book fund of 2,148,000 volumes. The republic had 12 regional, 175 district, 52 city and 352 rural libraries. That same year the network of recreation clubs for adults included 2,498 rural reading-rooms, 106 rural clubs, 172 district and 8 city clubs, and 197 rural houses of culture.

It should be noted that in Byelorussia, which had been attacked in the first days of the war, the fascist barbarians feverishly destroyed, burned and pillaged cultural and educational establishments. But five years after the war Byelorussia not only restored her seats of culture but developed them considerably.

The Ukraine. The tsarist government did its utmost to hold up the cultural development of the Ukrainians as in the case of other peoples. Before 1917 there were 19,568 general educational schools with 1,678,000 pupils, but in 1940-41 the republic already had 27,314 schools with 6,054,000 pupils.

Most of the schools in the Ukraine were destroyed by the fascists during the war, but as soon as the invaders had been driven out, the Ukraine network of schools was speedily restored and substantially enlarged. In the Ukraine there are about 30,000 schools with 6,500,000 pupils. Many new schools were opened particularly in Western Ukraine (Transcarpathian Region) which, having been formerly outside the borders of the U.S.S.R., was conspicuously behind in public education. By 1952 the Transcarpathian Region had 13 times more middle and secondary schools than before the war.

The 19 institutions of higher learning with their 26,700 students that the Ukraine had in 1914 expanded by 1939 into 142 universities and institutes with a student body of 123,135.

In 1952/53, the Ukraine already had 144 institutions of higher learning with 177,000 students.

That same year saw more than 200,000 persons studying in technical schools.

The republic has its own Academy of Sciences, 480 scientific-research institutions and establishments, scores of theatres and tens of thousands of clubs and libraries.

Azerbaijan. Before the October Revolution this republic was culturally backward despite its tremendous industrial importance. The tsarist government kept the number of schools down, and in the few schools that did function, teaching in the native language was forbidden.

In the years of Soviet power the number of general educational schools in Azerbaijan and their enrolment registered the following change: in 1914-15 there were 976 schools with 73,109 pupils, while in 1948-49 there were 3,475 schools with 583,100 or eight times more pupils.

In 1949 Azerbaijan had 19 institutions of higher learning with 29,000 students, and 80 secondary vocational schools. That year there were 1,129 rural clubs, 91 houses of culture and other cultural-educational establishments.

Georgia. The general educational schools in the republic had 723,000 pupils in 1949-50 as against 156,000 pupils in 1914-15.

In 1949 Georgia had 19 institutions of higher learning and 118 secondary vocational schools.

The extensive network of cultural-educational establishments in 1950 included 95 houses of culture, 1,117 recreation clubs, 691 rural reading-rooms, 28 recreation parks, and 4,753 libraries, the biggest of which is the State Republican Library in Tbilisi, which has about 2,000,000 volumes.

The problem of teaching in the native language presented great difficulty in Georgia as the country is populated by a large number of small peoples. Nevertheless the republic has creditably solved this problem by organizing schools for each of these peoples, where the teaching is conducted in the native language.

Armenia. During the last years of tsarism Armenia had only 459 schools with 34,738 pupils. In the years following the October Revolution the number of pupils increased 9-fold and in 1948-49 was 302,000; in addition the republic had 447 schools for young industrial and agricultural workers with 13,800 pupils.

That year Armenia had 218 kindergartens and 567 playgrounds, which accommodated 38,000 children.

Fifteen institutions of higher learning (seven more than at the outbreak of the war) functioned in the republic in 1948-49. The student body numbered 10,124, not counting 3,032 correspondence students.

The republic has 970 recreation clubs and 2,110 libraries of which the State Republican Library in Erevan is the biggest.

Kirghizia. Before the Great October Socialist Revolution Kirghizia was among the most backward territories of the Russian empire – literacy among the indigenous population was no higher than 2-3 per cent. Today the republic has, in the main, implemented universal middle-school education. The number of pupils in general schools in 1952 reached the high figure of 315,000 as against 7,041 in 1914-15.

In 1952, Kirghizia had 10 institutions of higher learning and 26 technical schools with enrolment of 20,000 students. There is a branch of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. in the republic, as well as 34 scientific-research establishments.

Latvia. In 1940 the working people of Latvia overthrew the fascist dictatorship of Ulmanis and established Soviet power. Already in her first year Soviet Latvia saw the number of pupils in her elementary and secondary schools increase by more than 30,000. However, in the following year, 1941, the development of education was cut short by the Hitlerite invasion. The fascist barbarians inflicted heavy losses on the republic’s economy and culture. After the expulsion of the invaders in 1944, the republic pressed the work of restoring and building schools and other educational establishments. In 1951-52 there were already 1,534 general educational schools in Latvia with an enrolment of 278,000 pupils, or an increase of 75,000 compared with 1940. In 1950, Latvia had 76 secondary vocational schools with 25,000 pupils, and 10 institutions of higher learning with 13,000 students, instead of three institutions of higher learning that the country had when it was ruled by the bourgeoisie. A total of 1,280 libraries, more than 800 recreation clubs, houses of culture and other cultural establishments functioned in the republic in 1950.

An Academy of Sciences with 16 scientific-research institutes was set up in Latvia in 1946. These institutes have, in collaboration with workers in industry, given the country a number of valuable inventions and scientific discoveries.

Public education developed with similar speed and scope in all the other Union Republics of the Soviet Union.

Pre-School Education

Public pre-school upbringing of children was in an embryonic state in pre-revolutionary Russia. Throughout Russia there were only 285 nurseries, kindergartens and other children’s establishments. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev and some of the other large cities had 10-15 so-called “public” kindergartens for children of the working people. These kindergartens were run by public charities, societies for the pre-school upbringing of children and others. The rest were privately-owned, expensive and catered to a small number of children from wealthy families.

On the eve of the October Revolution there were not more than 5,000 children in pre-school establishments throughout the whole of Russia.

Although the foremost Russian pedagogues of the beginning of the 20th century (S.T. Shatsky, E.E. Solovyova, A.M. Kalmykova, E.I. Tikheyeva, L.K. Shleger, and others) sought to promote the development of pre-school education and selflessly gave all their energies to this work, their efforts were hampered by tsarist officials.

After the October Revolution the organization of pre-school education underwent a fundamental change.

Nurseries, children’s homes and kindergartens appeared in all parts of the country as state-operated establishments. Firm principles and a finely planned Soviet system of pre-school education were worked out.

The guiding state document on pre-school education – Kindergarten Rules – outlines the aims, problems and organization of pre-school education. Its most important points are:

The kindergarten is a state institution for the public Soviet education of children between the ages of three and seven, and its aim is to ensure children with all-round development and upbringing. Simultaneously, the kindergarten facilitates the participation of mothers in industrial, state, cultural, public, and political activity.

In carrying out these aims the kindergarten:

looks after the health of children and ensures a correct physical development and toughening of their bodies;

develops the child’s mental faculties, speech, will-power and character, provides him with art training and acquaints him with the surrounding world;

inculcates in children self-dependence, teaches them to look after themselves, makes them hygiene-minded, and develops in them working habits;

teaches them to love their Motherland and the Soviet people.

The upbringing a child receives in a kindergarten later helps him successfully to pursue his studies in school.

Kindergartens are organized by district public education departments, factories and plants, rural and town Soviets, co-operatives and collective farms.

Kindergartens can have three or four groups of 25 children in each. Every group is made up of children of the same age.

Children spend 9-10-12 hours a day in kindergartens, depending on their working and home conditions of the parents. The 9-10 hour stay is the most frequent as this takes into account the usual eight-hour working day of the parents and the time necessary to bring and fetch the children.

There are kindergartens with special groups where the children stay overnight if their parents work in night shifts and there is no one at home to look after them. Such an organization of kindergartens most vividly reflects the concerns the Soviet Government evinces for maternity and child welfare.

During their 9-10 hour stay in a kindergarten the children are fed three times, while during a 12-hour or night-and-day stay they are given four meals.

Every group is in charge of a specially trained teacher, in addition to whom there are a music teacher, a doctor and a medical nurse.

Parents’ committees are organized to help in the work of the kindergartens; these committees are elected at annual parents’ general meetings.

The essence and method of the work in kindergartens is different for each age-group depending on the psychological and physical features of children of each age.

The primary and basic aim of the kindergarten is to safeguard the health of children and to ensure their proper physical training.

This training is carried out in the hygienic surroundings of the kindergarten, by a strict time-table, correct nourishment, toughening of the child’s body, developing his movements and inculcating hygienic habits. Children spend not less than 3-4 hours in the open air daily.

The mental development of children is an important part of the kindergarten programme. With this in view the kindergarten pays great attention to the development of the senses (sight, hearing, feeling, etc.). The teacher helps the child to develop his discriminative powers, an eagerness for knowledge, perception, speech, to use his native language correctly and to broaden his understanding of nature and society.

No less important is the moral upbringing of children. The children are taught to love their parents, to respect their elders, to play in a team spirit, to give in to each other and to be obedient. Will-power, courage, perseverance, and self-control are developed gradually in them. They are taught to be truthful, modest, and conscientious towards their duties. The pedagogue teaches his charges to love their country, its nature, develops in them a feeling of friendship and respect for all the peoples of the Soviet Union and the working people of other countries. This is done by talks, by reading of folk-tales, singing songs and so on.

The kindergarten attaches great importance to art training. This is attained by appropriately furnishing the kindergarten, and by music, singing, modelling, and drawing lessons.

Games, ably directed by the teacher, are the principal form of pre-school education.

Games help to develop children physically and mentally, contribute to their moral and artistic training, develop their initiative, perception, and dexterity, and teach them to live and work collectively and to approach problems creatively.

The teacher gradually introduces elements of work into the life of children: they lay the table for breakfast and dinner, put away their toys and educational appliances, look after plans, feed the poultry and rabbits, and do other little jobs.

In kindergartens the children are taught to count. By the time they are ready to leave the kindergarten, the children of the senior groups must know how to count up to 20-30, compare numbers, add and subtract within limits of one to ten; they must know what measures are – kilogramme, metre, litre; they must know the days of the week and how to tell the time with an accuracy up to one hour. The children must know how to express their thoughts with a sufficient reserve of words, correctly form sentences, tell a short story so that the other children would understand it, describe an event in their lives, and know by heart several poems.

Through these lessons the children of senior groups in kindergartens are gradually prepared for school.

The time-table at the kindergarten is different for each age-group. The approximate time-table for children of four to five years of age is:

A large number of playgrounds open in summer-time in towns and rural localities. The time-table is approximately the same as at the kindergarten.

Kindergartens maintain a close contact with parents. The teachers visit the homes of the children, and hold regular talks and consultations on problems of upbringing. They participate in pedagogical propaganda among the population, help to organize lectures and radio broadcasts on the upbringing of children, and other measures.

As has already been said kindergartens and playgrounds cater to millions of children. The network of children’s establishments is steadily expanding. Between 1951 and 1955 the number of places in kindergartens will be increased by 40 per cent.

The U.S.S.R. has many pedagogical colleges with a three-year course training teachers for kindergartens and playgrounds. There are also pedagogical schools that have pre-school departments where elementary-school teachers are trained.

In the R.S.F.S.R. and other Union Republics there are pedagogical institutes where special departments train qualified teachers for work in kindergartens and other pre-school establishments.

Scientific-research work on pre-school upbringing is conducted by the chairs of pre-school pedagogics at these institutes and at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the R.S.F.S.R.

The Ministries of Education of the Union Republics have republican pre-school methodological centres, while many regional public education departments have local pre-school methodological centres.

Literature on pre-school upbringing is being published systematically. Pre-School Upbringing, a monthly magazine, has been coming out regularly since 1926.

Tremendous success in the sphere of pre-school education in the U.S.S.R. has been achieved as a result of the attention given to pre-establishments by the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, and by the whole of Soviet society.

Elementary (Four-Year) School

In the Soviet Union the elementary (four-year) school is the first independent link in the uniform Soviet school system and is closely connected with the next link, the middle school. It has four grades and is attended by children between the ages of seven and ten.

The elementary school is co-educational and free.

It lays the basis for all-round development of children and for their education in the spirit of communist morality.

The study plans and school curricula in the different Union Republics are basically uniform.

The study plan providing for four lessons a day in each class in elementary schools in the R.S.F.S.R. is given below. The third and fourth grades have five lessons one and three days a week respectively. Lessons last 45 minutes.

(Figures in brackets indicate hours in second half-year)

The Russian language programme aims:
1) to teach pupils to read correctly, fluently, intelligently and with expression, and to write grammatically;
2) to acquaint pupils with Russian literature suitable to their age – verse, fables, excerpts form the prose of the best Russian writers;
3) to develop the pupils’ speech and to cultivate in them the ability to express their thoughts in verbal and written form on subjects suitable to their age;
4) to give pupils an elementary knowledge of grammar (parts of speech, structure of the simple sentence); to teach pupils the rules of spelling.

Already in the 1st grade the children become practically acquainted with phonetics, learn to break up speech into words, syllables and sounds; acquire an elementary knowledge of vowels and consonants. In the 2nd grade the children are taught the morphological composition of words (root, prefix, etc.). In the 3rd and 4th grades, pupils are taught the parts of speech and the rudiments of syntax (definition of the sentence, an understanding of the subject and the predicate, and their connection with other words in the sentence). The children are taught to compose short stories and to express their thoughts intelligently.

In the 4th grade the children master oral and written expression to such an extent that they are able to retell in writing the stories read by them, write short compositions on set subjects and subjects of their own choice. They must also be able to write a short business note (receipt, power of attorney, etc.).

In arithmetic the elementary school programme includes counting, the four operations of arithmetic on concrete numbers of any magnitude, the metric system and measures of time, vulgar fractions, and the elementary rules of object geometry. The programme gives prominence to the solution of arithmetic problems. The course of arithmetic gives the child an insight into quantitative relations and spatial forms, inculcating in the child valuable habits for practical life and developing his faculty for thinking.

Natural science is taught as an independent subject beginning with the 4th grade; in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades the children are given an elementary knowledge of natural science through explanatory reading at the Russian language lessons. In the 1st grade the children are given concrete information on the seasons, water, air, stones, metals, and soil. The children are acquainted with forests, fields, orchards, vegetable fields and receive an elementary knowledge of physiology.

In the 2nd grade the children are acquainted with deciduous and coniferous trees, shrubs, grasses, while teaching of physiology is continued. In 3rd grade the children study the primary agricultural plants, domestic and wild animals. The teaching of physiology continues with information on contagious diseases. All this is learned at the Russian language lessons through talks, observations and reading corresponding articles from the chrestomathy. In the 4th grade the children are given a short course in inanimate nature (water, air, minerals, soil). This course provides for observations, the simplest practical lessons, and excursions.

The natural science course in the elementary school aims at awakening and deepening the children’s interest and love for nature, to equip them with an elementary knowledge of nature necessary in the succeeding grades for the study of botany, zoology, anatomy and human physiology. In a form suitable to their age children learn from their natural science course that objects of nature do not remain unchanged, that there is a connection between natural phenomena, that by his interference and work man is changing nature. Thus, already the natural science course lays in children the fundamentals of a materialistic world outlook and exposes superstition and prejudice.

Geography is taught in close connection with natural science. In the 2nd and 3rd grades elementary geography is taught at the Russian language lessons through explanatory reading, and talks during excursions.

This preliminary knowledge enables the introduction in the 4th grade of a special geography course aimed chiefly at teaching children what natural conditions influence the economic activity of people and how man’s labour is remaking nature. The course starts by giving children a general knowledge of the globe; the second theme is “A brief review of the U.S.S.R. physical map.” Further, the children study the natural zones of the U.S.S.R.; the course ends with a brief political review of the U.S.S.R. (sixteen Union Republics). The children are given an idea of the chief natural resources of the U.S.S.R. and become acquainted with the mighty development of socialist industry and with the great Soviet construction works.

Children receive their first knowledge of history in the 2nd and 3rd grades.

From their teacher’s stories and explanatory reading the children learn of the forefathers of the Russian people – the Slavs, of how, in feudal and capitalist society, some people work, while others live idly, exploiting the labour of those who work, of how the oppressed working people struggle against their exploiters, and so on.

In the 4th grade the children are given an elementary course in the history of the U.S.S.R., are acquainted in chronological order with historical information on the U.S.S.R., learn of peasant uprisings against landlords, the workers’ movement, and of the 1905 Revolution.

The cardinal theme of the course is the Great October Socialist Revolution. Children learn to understand that this Revolution freed Russia from exploiters, transformed her, made her an advanced country politically, economically and culturally, and opened the road to freedom from capitalist oppression for the working people of all countries.

The history course in the Soviet school sets important aims. Already in elementary school it must make children understand that in life everything changes, that the old and moribund gives way to the new and advanced. This course teaches children to understand the connections between historical phenomena and by giving them a knowledge of the past it teaches them to understand the peasant.

Drawing lessons aim to facilitate the esthetical development of children – to educate them in the arts, to cultivate their artistic tastes, to help awaken their creative talents, to rouse their interest for the fine arts and love for the artistic culture of their country; to train in children a power of observation; to develop in them a knowledge of dimensions.

The drawing course in the elementary school includes drawing from nature, decorative drawing (patterns), thematic drawing, as well as talks on art with the showing of reproductions of the best paintings.

The teaching of singing aims at cultivating a taste for music, to make children love music and singing, and to develop their talent for singing. For the most part these lessons are devoted to choral singing. The children learn to sing the Soviet National Anthem and songs suitable to their age by Soviet composers and by the great Russian composers of the past (Chaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and others), as well as songs of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. In the elementary school, children are taught to read music.

Physical training aims to build up the health of children, to strengthen their bodies, and to develop courage, self-control, and dexterity.

Physical training lessons include exercises, walking, active games, skiing.

The school year in the elementary school, like in the middle and secondary schools, begins on September 1 and is divided into four terms: the first three terms are from September 1 to November 5, from November 9 to December 29, and from January 11 to March 23. The fourth term is from April 1 to May 20 for the first three grades, and to May 24 for the 4th grade (because of examinations).

The pupil’s level of knowledge is rated according to a system of five marks: 5 (excellent), 4 (good), 3 (fair), 2 (poor), and 1 (bad). The pupils of the first three grades pass from one grade to another on the basis of their progress without examinations. Fourth-grade pupils have to pass examinations in the Russian language and arithmetic before going on to the 5th grade. In addition to these examinations pupils in non-Russian schools have to pass an examination in their native language.

About a fourth of all elementary schools are single-group schools. The lessons in all the four grades are conducted by the same teacher, who sometimes conducts his classes in two shifts, with two grades in each shift. In such schools the teacher receives 150 per cent of the usual salary. All other schools (multi-group schools) have two, three and more teachers (not more than 40 pupils to each teacher). The number of single-group schools is steadily decreasing.

To bring the school closer to the entire population it is permissible to organize schools in small villages where there are 15 and more children.

In the elementary school (like in all other schools) the lesson is the principal form of instruction. As a rule this is a mixed lesson at which sufficient time is set aside for imparting new knowledge, going over what the pupils had already learned, and checking their progress.

The dull, pedantic and patternized methods of teaching children, characteristic of the old school, have been done away with long ago in the Soviet school. Efforts were made to abolish these methodological shortcomings in elementary education already in the 1860’s and 1870’s by such great Russian pedagogues as K. D. Ushinsky and L. N. Tolstoy. The Soviet school used their experience and progressed further: in each child it sees a creative personality, and its approach to every pupil is not guided by a ready-made recipe but by a desire to help him to master knowledge consciously and develop his faculty for independent thinking. Without sacrificing systematic study of the fundamentals of science the Soviet school strives to show the pupil that everything he learns is associated with life.

The methods of study in the Soviet school, particularly in the elementary school, are: narration and explanation by the teacher, talks, lessons in which text-books and other books are used, written and graphic work by pupils, demonstrations and illustrations (the object lesson), and excursions.

In the succeeding grades (5th -10th) these methods are supplemented by laboratory work (in natural science, physics, and chemistry) and lectures.

Beginning with the 1st grade the Soviet school carries out a great educational task – its mission is to prepare a generation able to build and strengthen communist society.

The lesson – the process of teaching – is the principal form of instruction; a considerable part of it is conducted in the process of extra-class and extra-school activity (school socials and celebrations, excursions, extra-class reading, work in pupils’ circles and so on). Great importance is attached to a correct school time-table, cleanliness and order in school, beauty of the building and quality of its equipment. The Young Pioneer Organization plays an important role in school. Its educational value and activities will be dealt with in a separate chapter. The authority of the teacher is a necessary attribute for fruitful educational work.

Pupils’ Rules, approved in 1945, are compulsory for pupils of all school (elementary, middle and secondary), and it is namely in the elementary school that children are taught undeviatingly to observe these rules.

The most important of these rules are:

Every pupil must:

Master knowledge insistently and perseveringly in order to become an educated and cultured citizen and bring the maximum benefit to the Soviet Motherland.

Study diligently, attend classes regularly and arrive in school on time.

Come to school neatly dressed, clean and combed.

Listen attentively to the teacher’s explanations in class and to the answers of his classmates; not talk or do anything not concerned with the lesson.

Keep a precise record of his home-work in a diary or an exercise book set aside for this purpose and regularly show this record to his parents; do his home-work by himself.

Be respectful to the headmaster of the school and to the teachers.

Be polite to his elders, behave modestly and decorously in school, in the street, and in public places.

Be considerate and courteous to old people, small children, the weak and the sick, help them in the street, give them his seat in public vehicles and render them every assistance.

Obey his parents, help them, and look after his small brothers and sisters.

Help to maintain cleanliness at home and tie that his clothes, shoes and bed are neatly.

Uphold the honour of his school and class of his own.

Explanation of these rules begins on the 1st day that children come to school.

The soviet school carries on an extensive activity among parents, organizes visits by teachers to the families of the pupils, consults parents individually and collectively on various questions of upbringing, calls parents’ meetings (class and school). Every school has a parents’ committee elected at class parents’ meetings for one year. These committees meet every month.

The difference between the study plans and curricula in Russian and non-Russian schools is very small. The chief difference is in the language in which the teaching is conducted. All lessons are conducted in the native language and this language is the subject of study and teaching. In addition to their native language pupils of the elementary school, beginning with the 2nd grade, study the Russian language as a compulsory subject. By the time they finish elementary school, children of all the nationalities in the U.S.S.R. are able to speak, read and write in Russian.

Some of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (Daghestan, Buryat-Mongolia, Yakutia, and others) are at liberty to open preparatory classes. Some non-Russian schools have hostels.

The place that the Soviet elementary school occupies in the U.S.S.R. school system makes it basically different from the elementary school in capitalist countries, where quite frequently the scanty and unsystematic knowledge it offers, the squalid premises, and the poor qualification and low salary of the teachers make them rather a parody than a school. This feature is especially characteristic of the public school in the U.S.A.

Middle (Seven-Year) School

The increased material security of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. and the rapid advance of their culture pre-conditioned the swift development of middle- and secondary-school education. In 1952 alone enrolment in the 5th -7th grades rose by more than 500,000.

The number of middle and secondary schools is growing continuously.

At present the middle (seven-year) school is universal throughout the country. Simultaneously, in accordance with the targets set by the five-year plan for the development of the U.S.S.R. in 1951-55, the country started upon the transition to universal secondary (ten-year) education in the large cities, and is preparing the conditions for introducing universal secondary education on a nationwide scale in the next five-year plan period.

A comparison of the study plan of the first four grades of the middle school with the plan of the elementary school (given above) will show that they are identical. The curricula are identical, too. The 5th grade of the middle school is the direct continuation of the elementary school 4th grade.

The study plan of the middle school is as given in the table on page 81.

Let us examine the subjects studied in the 5th-7th grades of the middle and secondary schools.

Russian language and reading includes a systematic course in grammar; pupils are acquainted with the best works of Russian literature and with the elements of science on literature.

Reading serves an educational and instructive purpose. Acquaintanceship with the best works of Russian literature (pre-revolutionary and Soviet) develops in pupils a socialist attitude to work, teaches them to love their country and people and instils in them a spirit of friendship and comradeship. The reading course is an introduction, as it were, to the course in the history of literature, which is taught in the 8th -10th grades.

Mathematics covers a systematic course in vulgar fractions, decimals, percentages and proportions. Algebra and geometry are studied beginning with the 6th grade.

(Figures in brackets indicate hours in second half-year)

In teaching mathematics great attention is paid to linking theory with practice. Pupils must know how to apply their knowledge of mathematics when solving problems of the interrelated subjects (physics and chemistry), of technique and agriculture. They must be able to do some of the practical exercises not only on paper; they must also know how to apply them practically (measure plots of land, determine distances, make surveys and so on).

This connection with practice makes the course of mathematics as taught in the school sharply different from the course taught in the pre-revolutionary Russian secondary school, where it was abstract and formalistic.

Natural science covers a systematic course in botany and zoology.

This course is taught on the basis of the materialistic teachings of Ivan Michurin, the great remaker of nature. Plants and animals are studied in union with the conditions of their environment and development. The theoretic course is closely linked with practical agricultural problems such as plant and animal breeding.

Natural science is supplemented by work in the laboratory with the microscope and observations in nature as well as in school experimental gardens. Excursions are organized to collective and state farms and to museums. Pupils are given practical tasks which they do during the summer holidays. Many schools have Young Naturalists’ circles, whose activity is directed by the Young Naturalists’ centres. The course in natural science, especially botany and zoology, studied in the middle school, facilitates polytechnical education, since it gives pupils the grounding for mastering the fundamentals of agriculture.

The course in history, after a short introduction, that gives pupils an idea of primitive society, covers the history of the ancient East, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the early Middle Ages, the later Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history (up to the French bourgeois revolution of 1789).

This course is of great instructive importance and leads pupils to a Marxist-Leninist understanding of history; it reviews the development of class society and reveals its antagonistic character, shows the class struggle and the inevitable overthrow of the exploiting social systems.

In the middle school and, later, in the secondary school, the leading idea in the history course is the progressive development of human society, the inevitable overthrow of the old and moribund order and the victory of the new and more advanced system. In the middle schools this idea is strikingly evident during the study of the disintegration of the ancient slave-owning world and its replacement in the Middle Ages by the feudal system, which in its turn, with the development of capitalism and the growth of the bourgeoisie, was replaced through revolution by the capitalist system.

The course acquaints pupils with the struggle for liberation waged by the peoples and gives them a concrete conception of just wars (non-predatory wars of liberation) and unjust (predatory) wars.

The history course must give the pupil a sound knowledge of the origin and development of each social system. He must know historical facts, the conditions that called them forth and the laws that govern them; he must know historical personages and have a profound understanding of the people as the maker of history.

The course in the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. gives the pupil a knowledge of the state structure of the U.S.S.R., makes him understand that the Soviet system is a higher form of democracy, that the rights of the citizen of the Soviet Union proclaimed in the Constitution are carried out in practice. This course shows the pupil the leading and guiding role of the Communist Party, acquaints him with the tremendous achievements of the Soviet Union, and convincingly explains that the great victories of the Soviet Land were made possible only because of the immense advantages of the socialist system.

Geography starts as a general course in physical geography, followed by a physical-geographic review of various parts of the world (Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Australia) and a course in the physical geography of the U.S.S.R. Pupils are acquainted with the vast expanses of their country and its natural wealth, which is used in the interests of the people.

In physics pupils are taught mechanics and the rudiments of heat and electricity.

The main aims of the chemistry course are to give pupils the knowledge necessary for a scientific understanding of the processes taking place in nature, an understanding of the problems connected with the wide-spread employment of chemistry in the country, to acquaint them with the scientific principles of the chemical industries and to promote the development in pupils of a materialistic world outlook. These aims are realized in the process of the entire course which is divided into four years (7th-10th grades).

In the 7th grade, pupils are taught the fundamental conceptions and laws of chemistry.

Middle-school pupils study one foreign language: English, German, or French.

The foreign language course aims to teach pupils: 1) to read fluently with correct pronunciation and intonation, and to understand everything they read; 2) to understand foreign speech, to be able to answer questions correctly and to ask questions within the limits of what they had been taught; to be able after reading a text to retell its contents; 3) to be able to translate from the foreign language an unfamiliar average text with a minimum use of the dictionary; 4) to be able to express with correct spelling their thoughts in writing within the limits of the lexical material and grammar rules they have passed. These aims, naturally, must be realized in the process of the entire course in the foreign language from the 5th to the 10th grades.

The content of educational work with pupils in the middle school deepens in conformity with the age peculiarities of the pupils (11-13 years). At this age the interests of children already become more clearly defined. It marks the beginning of the transition period when it is especially important to direct the interests of the pupil, his reading, to discipline him, and help to form his will and character.

It is namely at this age, in the middle school, that a very important educational role is played by the Young Pioneer Organization, inasmuch as the vast majority of the Young Pioneers are middle-school pupils.

One of the most important tasks of the middle school, as of the elementary and secondary schools, is the training of discipline.

The main method of training conscious discipline in the Soviet school consists of persuasion and influencing the consciousness of the pupil. Good discipline is attained by harmonious and able teaching of the subjects, a strict regime, the creation in the school of close-knit body of pupils, active Young Pioneer and Young Communist League organizations, well-organized extra-class and extra-school activities. Encouragement and reprimand are applied in schools of all types. Measures of encouragement are:

Praise by the teacher, classmaster, the director of the curriculum department, and the headmaster.

Letter of thanks by the headmaster with its announcement to the class or at a general meeting of pupils.

Award of books, prizes and certificates of merit.

Award of gold and silver medals for excellent and outstanding success in study and exemplary conduct, with an entry on the Board of Honour.

Measures of reprimand include:

Reproof by the teacher, classmaster, director of the curriculum department, and the headmaster.

After-school detention to do undone home-work or classwork.

Summons for admonition before the school council.

Reprimand announced throughout the school in an order by the headmaster.

Lowering the conduct mark.

Expulsion (in rare cases).

The Soviet school does not reject punishment, but corporal punishment is categorically forbidden. The usual measures of punishment are explanation, reproof and reprimand.

The 5th and 6th grades sit for end-of-year examinations and the 7th grades sit for middle school-leaving examinations.

Graduation from the middle school gives the right to pass to the 8th grade in a secondary school or to enrol in a secondary vocational school.

Secondary (Ten-Year) School

Enrolment in secondary (ten-year) schools has increased considerably due to the start made in introducing universal ten-year education. In 1953 alone enrolment in the 8th-10th grades rose by 1,307,000 (including 518,000 pupils in rural localities).

The ordinary Soviet secondary school has ten grades. Children are enrolled in the 1st grade at the age of seven and finish the 10th grade when they are seventeen.

In 1928 girls made up 37.6 per cent of the enrolment in secondary schools. In 1938 the figure stood at 51.6 per cent and this is the approximate level at present.

Note should be made of the multiplying percentage of girls among secondary-school pupils in the republics of the peoples of the East – Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenia. By 1938 the percentage was 35-40, or somewhat less than the figure for the rest of the U.S.S.R. If account is taken of the humble position of Eastern women before the Revolution it will be clear what an immense cultural advance has been and is being made by the peoples of the eastern part of the U.S.S.R., thanks to the national policy of the Soviet Government.

Until the autumn of 1943 the secondary school in the U.S.S.R. (like the schools of all other types and grades) was co-educational. Co education was introduced in the Soviet school in 1918, immediately after the October Socialist Revolution. That was necessary at the time, firstly, as a measure in the struggle to achieve full equality of men and women (the curriculum in the secondary schools for girls in pre-revolutionary Russia covered a smaller field than the curriculum in the boys’ schools), and, secondly, in order to make secondary education accessible to all.

To have maintained separate secondary schools in that period, when there were not enough schools in general, would have hampered the promotion of women’s secondary education. With only a boys’ school open in a small town or village, girls could not have received a secondary education, even if their parents had been desirous of giving it to them. The economy of the young Soviet Republic, which had been undermined by World War I, was at that time in no position to develop a broad network of separate boys’ and girls’ secondary school, which would ensure opportunities to everyone eager to receive a secondary education.

More than a third of a century has passed since then. The principle of full equality of men and women has taken firm root in the consciousness and life of the peoples of the Soviet Union. The network of secondary schools has greatly expanded. The educational policy of the past few years was aimed at improving the educational system in the school, and figuratively speaking, at putting the finishing touches to the edifice built.

Under these conditions the time has arrived to take into account the specific features of the physical development of boys and girls, which become most pronounced at secondary-school age; the difference in the requirements in the physical training of boys and girls; a certain difference in preparing them for practical life.

Separate instruction was first introduced as an experiment in 1942-43 in a number of secondary schools in Moscow. On the basis of this experiment, secondary schools in the big cities went over to separate instruction for boys and girls. This did not affect the educational standards of study plans and curricula of the boys’ and girls’ schools; likewise the demands with regard to studies remained the same as did the rights of the graduates.

Among parents and teachers in the U.S.S.R. there was a section favouring co-education which declared that with co-education discipline among pupils would be better and progress higher. Advocates of separate schools had put forward their arguments with no less passion.

To date there were two types of secondary schools in the U.S.S.R. – separate and co-educational. The majority of the secondary schools were co-educational. Separate schools have now been acknowledged as inexpedient. Taking into account the desire of parents of school children and the opinion of schoolteachers, the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. decreed the introduction of co-education in schools in Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities beginning with the 1954-55 scholastic year.

The study plan and curriculum of the first seven secondary-school grades are entirely identical with the study plan and curriculum of the middle school. That is why the table below gives the study plans for the senior (8th -10th) grades only.

(Figures in brackets indicate hours in second half-year)

A comparison between the study plan of the Soviet secondary school and the study plans of secondary schools before the Revolution shows that more time is now given to general educational subjects. This has been achieved as a result of: 1) the exclusion in Soviet schools of religious instruction; 2) more school days in the Soviet school than in the pre-revolutionary school, where many days were missed because of religious holidays; 3) study of only one foreign language and the exclusion of Latin (studied only in a few Soviet schools).

The Soviet school gives considerably more hours to the study of the Russian language and literature, as well as mathematics. More hours, too, are given to natural science, physics and chemistry.

In the 8th-10th grades literature is studied from the angle of its historical development. The pupils learn about the role and importance of literature in the life of Russian society; about the national and patriotic character of Russian literature and the big role it played in the struggle for emancipation. They learn to understand the ideological essence of a literary work, its composition, plot, characters, and language; they are acquainted with the main period in the development of literature and the principal literary trends (classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism), especially with the socialist realism of Soviet literature.

Russian literature, beginning with the 10th century and ending with the literature of the 20th century (including Soviet literature), as well as the literature of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. are studied in the 8th-10th grades. Furthermore, the pupils study the outstanding works of such Western authors as Shakespeare, Goethe and others. The course in literature must give pupils an idea of the great influence of Russian literature on world literature.

Great attention is given to the Russian language and literature in the Soviet school. In addition to the many hours devoted to the study of these subjects, the pupil is given material for extra-class study and themes for compositions. Love for literature is promoted by literary circles, school socials, and festivals dedicated to the memory of great writers.

The course in mathematics includes algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Compared with the pre-revolutionary secondary school, the Soviet school gives a greater range of knowledge in mathematics.

The course in natural science covers instruction on anatomy and the physiology of man and on the principles of Darwinism. The teaching of these subjects is built on the firm natural-scientific and materialistic principles of Ivan Pavlov and Ivan Michurin, the great Russian scientists.

Compared with the natural science course in the pre-revolutionary school, the course given in the Soviet secondary school is bigger and broader: it is based not on description but on the laws governing nature.

Pupils finish the course in modern history and study the history of the U.S.S.R. A general characteristic of the history course, taught in Soviet schools, is contained in the preceding chapter.

Modern history shows the restricted character of bourgeois revolutions, which simply lead to a replacement of one form of exploitation of the working people by another; it shows the historic importance of the October Socialist Revolution, which liquidated all forms of exploitation.

The course in the history of the U.S.S.R. fosters love for the socialist Motherland, inculcates pride in the heroic past of the Russian and other peoples of the U.S.S.R., shows the country’s great attainments in the field of political life, state structure, economy and culture, and shows the U.S.S.R. as the country leading the world peace movement.

Pupils study the economic geography of the U.S.S.R., the People’s Democracies and the principal capitalist states. On the concrete material offered, the pupils convincingly see the tremendous advantages of the socialist system of economy, the rapid growth of the economy of all the republics of the U.S.S.R., and the steady rise of the economy of the People’s Democracies.

The three senior grades take a full course in physics: mechanics, which they study systematically, and hydro-and aero-mechanics; molecular physics and the structure of the atom; changes in the aggregate state of bodies; the operation of gas and steam; electricity and optics. Much time is devoted to work in the laboratory.

The practical application of physics is stressed throughout the course, which is especially important from the standpoint of polytechnical education. Primarily, this concerns such subdivisions as mechanics, the operation of gas and steam, and electricity-School physics laboratories are usually fitted out with workshops in which pupils are shown how to handle the simplest implements of production.

The course in chemistry covers inorganic chemistry and certain aspects of organic chemistry. Pupils must learn to apply chemical formulae, conduct experiments, use chemical utensils, Bunsen burners, and so on.

A short course in astronomy – the structure, movement and development of the celestial bodies – is taught in the 10th grade.

Methods of teaching are a systematic oral exposition by the teacher of the material (narration, explanation; lectures in the senior grades); work by the pupils with text-books and books; written and graphic work by the pupils; demonstrations and illustrations, laboratory classes (in physics, chemistry, nature study), and excursions.

The lesson is usually mixed, i.e., time is given for checking the home-work and the progress of the pupils, repeating the material already gone over and fixing it in the minds of the pupils, and imparting fresh knowledge.

To further the socialist educational importance of the general educational school and to ensure pupils finishing secondary school with the conditions for freely choosing a profession, the introduction of polytechnical education in secondary schools was started in the fifth five-year plan (1951-55) period. At the same time, the necessary measures are being taken to introduce universal polytechnical education.

Pupils finishing secondary school sit for their school-leaving certificates. They are examined in the following subjects: Russian language and literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the history of the U.S.S.R.

The school-leaving examinations test the extent and soundness of the examinees’ knowledge, development, independent reasoning and ability to link knowledge with life, and theory with practice.

For example, at the written Russian language and literature examination the examinee must demonstrate a correct understanding of the theme and an ability to express his thoughts clearly, consecutively, in good literary language. At the oral examination he must show his understanding of the historical development of Russian literature, his knowledge of the leading works of literature, the biographies of the greatest Russian writers, the features of their art, and also his knowledge of the fundamentals of the theory of literature.

In mathematics the written examination requires of the examinee the ability to solve problems of geometry with the help of trigonometry, and give a detailed explanation and a substantiated plan of the solution. At the oral examination he must show his knowledge of the laws and rules of algebra within the limits of the full course.

Pupils finishing secondary school receive school-leaving certificates. A gold medal is awarded to pupils who receive the “5” mark for the principal subjects and for conduct. A silver medal is awarded to pupils who receive the “5” mark for their native language and “5” and “4” marks (not more than three “4” marks) for the other principal subjects.

The educational work in every class is directed by the classmaster appointed by the headmaster from among the teachers.

Every secondary school has its Young Communist League and Young Pioneer organizations.

The role that the Y.C.L. and Young Pioneer Organization play in educational work is described in the next chapter.

Educational Work of the Young Communist League and Young Pioneer Organization

The Young Pioneer and Young Communist League organizations carry on extensive educational work in schools.

The Lenin Young Pioneer Organization was set up in the U.S.S.R. by the Communist Party in 1992. It is a voluntary organization of school pupils between the ages of nine and 14. To date the organization has 19 million school pupils. The Party entrusted the Y.C.L. with the direct leadership of the Young Pioneer Organization.

The Young Pioneer Organization helps the school to work for a high level of progress and discipline, cultivates in children a love for knowledge and work, trains them in a spirit of devotion to the Soviet Motherland, in a spirit of friendship among peoples.

Young Pioneers set all pupils examples of conscientious study and good conduct.

Young Pioneers are organized in groups of 40 pupils of the same or contiguous classes. The group is headed by a council of 5-7 children elected annually at the group meeting, and its work is supervised by a Young Pioneer leader, who is at the same time a member of the Y.C.L. The groups are divided into smaller groups called links with 10-20 children in each link. If the school has several groups they comprise a detachment headed by an annually elected detachment council. The detachment works under the leadership of the Senior Young Pioneer leader, who is also a member of the detachment council.

Young Pioneer group meetings accept new members into the organization, and examine the progress and conduct of the Young Pioneers. Among other activities there are talks on political, scientific and literary subjects, reading circles, singing, games and the passing of established physical training tests.

Some group meetings are conducted on a definite subject such as “In memory of V.I. Lenin,” “What to be?” and so on.

Daily activities are conducted in the Young Pioneer link, which is a close-knit body of children. The link infuses its members with a spirit of team work, friendship and comradeship, it watches the progress and discipline of each of its members, and helps them over difficulties.

Young Pioneers go on excursions to interesting historical places. Summer hikes are very popular; they are very important educationally, invigorate the children’s health, develop their endurance, dexterity and initiative, knit the collective still closer, and stimulate the children’s interest in nature.

Young Pioneers make themselves useful to society by sharing in the planting of greenery in towns and villages, and in laying out school experimental plots and gardens. During the Great Patriotic War Young Pioneers collected scrap metal, helped in the work of the collective farms, stored up firewood for schools and for the families of men serving in the army.

Young Pioneer summer camps, that accommodate several shifts of Young Pioneers each season, give town children an opportunity to spend their holidays in the country.

In 1953 more than 5,500,000 children and juveniles spent the summer at suburban and town Young Pioneer camps, children’s sanatoriums, excursion and tourist centres; many of them were taken out to the countryside for the holidays.

Special mention may be made of the Artek Young Pioneer camp which has splendid premises on the southern shore of the Crimea. In the time that it has been in existence, tens of thousands of Young Pioneers from all the republics of the Soviet Union spent their summer holidays there and took away with them indelible impressions.

An extensive and varied extra-school activity is conducted by Young Pioneer palaces and houses, which in 1951 numbered more than 1,200. These institutions have beautiful buildings with spacious halls for concerts, meetings, lectures, and socials.

For instance, one of the Young Pioneer palaces in Leningrad occupies the former imperial Anichkov Palace. It has its technical, science, art, and physical culture sections, a library and general activities departments. The technical section at this palace is subdivided into departments which include: aviation engineering, transport, photography and cinema, communications (radio, telephone, and telegraph), power, a mechanics and an art room, a woodwork and mechanical shop, a machine-designing room, and so on.

Technical, art, and physical-culture circles are especially active in Young Pioneer palaces and houses.

The Moscow City Young Pioneer House likewise teems with a many-sided activity. For instance, a lecture with the help of diapositives or a cinema is usually on in the lecture hall. At the same time in the big hall there is a concert, a theatrical performance or an all-Moscow meeting of Young Historians, Geographers or Artists. Meetings are often arranged between Young Pioneers and scientists, writers, and artists. Various circles carry on their activities in the different rooms.

The entire make-up of the Moscow Young Pioneer House, beginning with the park around it and the flower-beds, and ending with the elegant simple furnishing of every room, its entire plan and varied activities, is, as in many other Young Pioneer houses, permeated with love for children, solicitude for their welfare, understanding of their interests, and an aspiration to develop their creative abilities.

All middle and secondary schools have organizations of the Lenin Young Communist League.

The Y.C.L. is a mass non-Party organization of working and peasant youth which aims to give the Party all-out assistance in the work of building communism and training the rising generation. The Party created and reared the Y.C.L. as its dependable reserve, from which it draws new workers for all branches of state, economic and cultural construction. Formed in 1918, the Y.C.L. now unites 18 million young men and girls. It has travelled a long and glorious path. The deeds of its members in the Civil War are immortal. In the Great Patriotic War the Soviet youth displayed an unswerving devotion to their country, great courage and staunchness. In the years of peaceful work, members of the Y.C.L. led the entire Soviet youth in the most difficult sectors of socialist construction. Soviet young men and girls are setting examples of conscientious labour in industry, in the transport, and in agriculture. The Y.C.L. actively helps the Communist Party in state and economic construction.

The Twelfth Congress of the Young Communist League, held in March 1954, defined the tasks of the Y.C.L. in the school. The Congress recognized that an important duty of the Y.C.L. was to assist in further advancing the Soviet school and improving the training and upbringing of pupils and students.

The Y.C.L. was called upon to help the youth in every way possible to master knowledge and advanced science and technique and to be able skilfully to apply this knowledge in practice.

Y.C.L. organizations must infuse pupils with love for their socialist Motherland; they must help teachers to train children to be industrious, to strive for knowledge, to care for public property, and to be honest and truthful.

Because it attaches great importance to raising the general educational standard of the working youth, the Y.C.L. must encourage young men and girls to study at evening schools, correspondence and evening institutes, and technical schools.

The Young Communist League bent every effort to help organize public education in the U.S.S.R. Special note must be made of the great role played by the Y.C.L. in introducing universal education, in the organization of schools for young industrial and agricultural workers, schools of the labour reserve system (vocational, railway, and factory schools), in promoting physical culture and sports, etc. The Y.C.L. shared actively in every big-scale undertaking in the field of public education.

Extra-School and Extra-Class Work with Children

Extensive extra-school and extra-class work is carried on with children in the Soviet Union.

Extra-class work is any educational undertaking conducted in school over and above the curriculum before or after lessons. Extra-class work is one of the best ways of providing polytechnical education.

Extra-school work is the work of special institutions, which together with and supplementing the school, cater to the various interests of children and sensibly organize their spare time.

There are two forms of extra-class work in school: circle work and mass undertakings.

Circles are organized for school children beginning with the 3rd grade. The different circles may be classed into the following main groups:

General educational (literature, history, geography, Young Naturalists’, mathematics, etc.).

Art (dramatic, choir, music, painting and drawing, choreography, etc.).

Work and technical (“Skilful Hands” circle for pupils of the 3rd-5th grades, circles for the study of the tractor, photography, circles of wireless amateurs, aircraft model builders, dress-making circles, etc.).

Physical culture circles.

Children participate in the work of circles on a wholly voluntary basis. They are grouped in whatever circle they wish, irrespective of their grade or age. Every circle is supervised by a teacher and has its own plan of work which it seeks to make useful to and needed by society. This can be seen from the fact that during the Great Patriotic War, school art circles performed with prepared programmes (singing, music, declamations, excerpts from plays) in hospitals. Young Technicians’ and Naturalists’ circles work on the preparation of many schoolroom appliances (apparatuses, herbariums, collections).

From time to time at school socials these circles organize exhibitions of their achievements. Big schools have up to ten different circles, and small schools have from two to five circles.

Mass extra-school work consists of school socials and celebrations, plays, concerts, exhibitions, excursions, meetings between school children and writers and scientists, school lectures, etc.

Every school has a library. In addition to lending books these libraries carry on a varied activity. Children are taught the proper use of catalogues; libraries hold readers’ conferences (at which children speak of the most interesting books they read) and literary evenings, recommend new books, and so on.

Big schools have clubs that unify and direct all extra-class work. General supervision of the school club is in the hands of the headmaster, but the immediate work is carried on by the club board which is made up of teachers and pupils.

Some schools carry on interesting and original forms of mass work. The 110th Secondary School in Moscow, for instance, holds annual reunions of old pupils. Among them are people of several generations; students, and people of different professions, who had parted with the school and student desks long ago: engineers, doctors, teachers, agronomists, artists, and others. At these reunions old pupils toast the pupils of the senior grade and the teachers, report on their work, and share reminiscences. The atmosphere at these gatherings is always gay, warm, and intimate.

The U.S.S.R. has numerous extra-school children’s establishments of various types, most important of which are Young Pioneer palaces and houses. There is a large number of children’s libraries.

The country also has a vast network of children’s libraries and children’s departments at libraries for adults. These libraries have reading-rooms and carry on educational work on a big scale: they organize story-telling circles, book exhibitions, etc.

Young spectator theatres and children’s cinemas function in many cities, as do children’s art houses, whose activity is directed by the Scientific-Research Institute for the Artistic Training of Children of the Academy of Pedagogical Science of the R.S.F.S.R. The institute’s activity in providing children with music, fine arts and other artistic training is considerable.

Young Naturalists’ centres dot the entire country. Their work is unified and directed by the Young Naturalists’ Central Station in Moscow. These extra-school institutions seek to cultivate in children a love and interest for nature, to train their powers of observation, and to teach them the fundamentals of agriculture. Young Naturalists conduct experimental work on plots of land belonging to each centre, plant fruit-trees, berry bushes, select seeds, and so on.

Similar aims in technique are pursued by Young Technicians’ centres, whose work is guided by the Central Young Technicians’ Station.

Children’s railways with 5-10 kilometre-long tracks, that have been built in a number of Union Republics, are an original form of extra-school work. These railways are run entirely by children, who act as stationmasters, mechanists, dispatchers, etc.; this develops a sense of accuracy, punctuality, and responsibility.

Extra-school physical culture work is conducted by children’s ski stations, skating rinks, and so on.

The Central Children’s Excursion and Tourist Station has a big programme of extra-school work. The Vorontsov Secondary School, Adler District, Krasnodar Territory, may be pointed out as an example of how important the results of well-organized tourist work can be. During excursions and hikes the pupils of this school discovered new mineral deposits, dug up many valuable archeological remains, and opened a new medicinal spring.

Parallel with special extra-school children’s institutions, extra-school work is also conducted in big blocks of flats or by the joint efforts of the tenants of several houses. Here the tenants organize children’s clubs with libraries, playgrounds, playrooms, etc. This work is carried on by parents in contact with the nearest schools and Young Pioneer houses.

Schools for Adults

Already in the early years after the Great October Socialist Revolution the Communist Party and the Soviet Government launched upon an intensive activity to educate semi-literate adults, widely drawing the Soviet public into this work. Schools for adults were opened beginning with 1920. These were evening schools which taught the usual elementary-school course in two years. The annual number of adults attending these schools was very high, reaching 4,200,000 in 1933.

In addition to these elementary schools, advanced schools were opened, which later were recognized into middle and secondary schools for adults.

The graduation examinations were the same as in the ordinary middle and secondary school and entitled the graduates to the same status. There are tens of thousands of engineers, doctors, teachers, agronomists, and other qualified professional men in the Soviet Union today who received their secondary education in schools for adults before entering an institution of higher learning.

The number of middle and secondary schools for adults naturally diminished during the first years of the Great Patriotic War. Later, the educational system for adults was reorganized.

In place of the middle and secondary schools for adults there are now correspondence secondary schools. Schools of a new type were opened, these being schools for young industrial and agricultural workers.

The necessity for opening these schools arose because during the Great Patriotic War large numbers of juveniles and young people had to leave school and go to work at factories and plants, offices, hospitals, etc. At the same time they strove to continue their education.

There are two types of schools for young industrial workers: the middle school consisting of the 5th, 6th, and 7th grades, and the secondary schools consisting of 5th-10th grades. There used to be preparatory groups for young people who had not finished elementary school, but since 1953 there are elementary schools for young industrial workers.

These schools accept young workers of both sexes between the ages of 14 and 25, employed at factories and plants, mines, the railway, and offices.

Graduates sit for their middle school-leaving examinations (for seven classes) and for their school-leaving certificate upon completion of the 10-year secondary school.

The lessons are adapted to the conditions in production, and are conducted in shifts (morning, afternoon, evening). Insofar as lessons in these schools are attended by young people engaged in production, the curriculum is different from that of the ordinary (children’s) middle and secondary schools and the lessons are organized accordingly.

The usual programme in the middle and secondary schools for young industrial workers is passed in about two-thirds of the study time set for children’s schools. Nevertheless the pupils of these schools manage to master the curriculum in this compressed time, and not only do they pass the entrance examinations to technical schools and institutes, but, according to professors in institutions of higher learning, they display outstanding ability for conscientious study. This is due to several reasons:

The majority of people entering schools for young industrial workers are young me and women with a certain experience of life, great will and persistence, enthusiasts eager for knowledge. Great will and an ability to surmount difficulties are needed to combine work in production and several years of study. The pupils attending these schools comprise the advanced youth in factories and plants.

Individual coaching by teachers and consultations are well organized in these schools, and already in the 5th-6th grades pupils are able to work independently.

The Communist Party and the Soviet Government devote much attention and care of these schools. Pupils sitting for school-leaving examinations are allowed additional 20 days’ leave with pay, and those sitting for middle-school graduation examinations – 15 days. The enterprise employing them is obliged to give pupils leave to sit for the examinations whenever they request it. Tuition is free in all grades. Pupils are exempt from work when it conflicts with the time necessary for their studies.

Evening schools for young agricultural workers accept pupils between the ages of 14-25. Study hours do not conflict with the working day of the pupils.

There are two types of schools: elementary (1st-4th grades) and middle (1st-7th grades) schools. Lessons are held five days a week for four hours a day from November 1 to May 1.

Evening classes are organized in cases when there is an insufficient number of pupils to warrant opening a full school (elementary or middle). This makes it possible to ensure education even to small groups of young agricultural workers.

After finishing middle school these young people may enter a technical school.

Schools for young industrial and agricultural workers are developing successfully. In 1953 their enrolment was 1,700,000.

Children’s Homes

In the U.S.S.R. state educational establishments for orphans are called children’s homes.

Organization of these homes began with the establishment of Soviet power.

Socialist humanism and the constant care and attention given children by the Communist Party, the Soviet Government, and the entire Soviet people are vividly expressed in the organization of children’s homes.

In the U.S.S.R. the upbringing and education of orphans is looked upon as a matter of state importance.

In the years when our country lived through great trials (the foreign intervention during the Civil War, the Great Patriotic War), these homes saved many hundreds of thousands of children who had lost their parents.

Children’s home differ according to the age of their inmates and the purpose they serve.

Age is taken into account in the organization of homes for children of pre-school age (three-to seven) and for children of school age (seven to 14-16).

Special purpose homes include homes for children who lost their parents in the Great Patriotic War, homes of a sanatorium type and others.

In training and educating children these homes base their work on the general aims of the communist upbringing of Soviet youth. They see that children receive an all-round development – mental education, physical, moral and esthetic training, and polytechnical education.

Many of the boys and girls from these homes have received a higher education and are now engineers, agronomists, doctors, and pedagogues. Many of them fought courageously for their country during the Patriotic War and were awarded military Orders and Medals. Some were decorated with the honoured title of Hero of the Soviet Union, others became prominent scientists, artists and musicians.

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Matrosov, whose courage and valour brought him immortal fame, grew up in a children’s home. Heroes of the Soviet Union Bokov, Moyseyev and Selsky lived in a children’s home in Barnual. Ivanov, the well-known Soviet conductor and talented musician, too, lived in a children’s home. Numerous similar examples may be cited.

Such results are attained because the children’s home with its clear-cut regime, well-organized educational work, industrious routine of the entire body of teachers and pupils, and intelligent arrangement of leisure develops in the children a conscious discipline, firm will and ability to overcome difficulties. Amateur art work is at a very high level in many children’s homes.

While living in these homes the children attend the nearest school in the vicinity in order to receive a general education.

Middle-school education is compulsory for all children in children’s homes. Gifted children as well as those who excel in their studies may continue their education in the 8th-10th grades and later enter an institution of higher learning.

Labour upbringing and labour training form a component part of education in children’s homes. This is done to infuse children with a love and habit for work in order to master a profession. For this purpose all homes for children of school age have workshops. Furthermore, children help in the housekeeping, in the field, vegetable garden, orchard, and take part in the work of technical circles.

Different circles work is very wide-spread in children’s homes: literary, local lore, Young Naturalists’, history, and especially amateur talent – dramatic, choral and music, choreographic, fine arts. Many children’s homes have big libraries. For instance, the children’s home at the Pravda Railway Station, Moscow Region, has a library of 13,000 books. In many homes there are physical-culture circles, chess circles, and so on.

Tens of thousands of pedagogues are working in children’s homes throughout the country, and many have dedicated their lives to bringing up children who lost their parents.

A large share of the educational work is taken by the Y.C.L. and Young Pioneer organizations. Most of the children in these homes are Young Pioneers, while more than 40 per cent of the older children are members of the Y.C.L.

In conclusion I would like to say a few words about educational establishments like the special children’s home directed by Anton Semyonovich Makarenko, the remarkable educator. This type of school is undoubtedly of great pedagogical interest.

In 1920 the Provincial Department of Public Education in Poltava commissioned A.S. Makarenko to organize near the city a labour colony for juvenile delinquents.

This work had to be started under extraordinarily difficult conditions – the colony was given a small estate with tumble-down premises that had neither doors nor floors. The juveniles sent to the colony were undisciplined and refused to work.

Makarenko selflessly put all his energy into the work and in three years he had a model institution – the Maxim Gorky Labour Colony with a close-knit and industrious body of inmates and a splendidly organized household.

A model discipline and a tradition of its own were established in this model colony thanks to Makarenko’s pedagogical talent. The juveniles learned the meaning of civic duty and held high the honour of their colony.

The principles on which Makarenko based his teaching were: training in a collective spirit, training in work, training discipline, a sense of duty, dignity, and honour, imbuing the spirit of Soviet patriotism. With their labour the juveniles satisfied all the needs of the colony and studied in school at the same time.

The work of the juveniles was organized in groups, each group consisting of a different number of boys and girls of various ages, and led by one of the juveniles. A commanders’ council was organized and under Makarenko’s supervision it decided the most important questions of the life and work of the inmates, examined any misconduct on the part of the inmates and recommended the punishment, which was imposed by Makarenko as the head of the colony.

This remarkable teacher knew how to combine the authority of a pedagogue with extensive rights for the members of the colony; he was exacting to his charges but he combined this with affection for them. In organizing the educational work in the colony he skilfully coupled elements of work and games.

Great importance was attached to traditions and symbolatry: signals of the bugler, reports, simple uniform, banner, brass band, etc. These elements embellished the life of the juveniles and contributed towards establishing discipline.

In 1926 the colony left its splendidly organized establishment near Poltava on its own initiative (by permission of the People’s Commissariat for Public Education) and moved to a colony of juvenile delinquents in Kuryazh, near Kharkov, where because of incompetently arranged educational work 280 inmates had got out of hand completely and came to the colony to sleep and eat. The extensive land of the Kuryazh colony was not cultivated.

With skilful methods and assisted by his pupils, Makarenko quickly subordinated the Kuryazh juveniles to his influence; these unruly juveniles speedily became disciplined members of the Gorky Colony.

After visiting the colony in 1928, Maxim Gorky wrote:

“Who could change so unrecognizably and re-educate hundreds of children whom life had so cruelly and rudely injured? The organizer and director of the colony is A.S. Makarenko. He is unquestionably a talented pedagogue.”

In a letter to Makarenko in 1933, Gorky wrote:

“In my opinion your very valuable and amazingly successful experiment is of world importance.”

Makarenko’s pedagogical activity at the Dzerzhinsky Labour Commune (1927-1935) in the outskirts of Kharkov was a continuation and development of his work in the Gorky Colony. This was an educational establishment for waifs and juvenile delinquents.

Two complex industrial enterprises (producing cameras and electric drills) were organized at the Dzerzhinsky Commune. All the children worked in these enterprises four hours a day and gave the rest of their time to study in secondary school.

The economic effectiveness of this industry of the members of the commune is attested to by the following data: all capital investments in factory premises and equipment were defrayed in a few years as were all the running expenses for the upkeep of several hundred pupils and a teaching staff; moreover, on January 1, 1934 the commune had 3,600,000 rubles on its current in the bank.

At the Dzerzhinsky Commune A.S. Makarenko brilliantly proved in practice the possibility of combining successful study in middle-school with paid productive labour of children and juveniles in highly technical production.

Extra-school work was varied and organized on a big scale. This included such activities as educational, technical, art and physical-culture circles, the recreation club, theatre, cinema and the library.

After finishing secondary school at the commune, its members successfully passed the entrance examinations to institutions of higher learning.

The educational establishments directed by A.S. Makarenko made new people of former waifs and juvenile delinquents. They became people of socialist society: aviators, engineers, agronomists, teachers, doctors, skilled workers, chauffeurs, and so on. During the Great Patriotic War many of them were awarded Orders and Medals for valour, while some were decorated with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Gorky Colony is artistically described by Makarenko in his book The Road to Life,* while another book that he wrote, Learning to Live,** deals with the Dzerzhinsky Commune. These books are read with pleasure not only by the young, but also by people of all ages. In addition, Makarenko theoretically generalized his remarkable pedagogical experience in pedagogical articles and lectures, and in his A Book for Parents.***

Today all the Union Republics of the U.S.S.R. have scores of homes for orphans where educational work is organized on a sound basis.

Teaching and Training Blind, Deaf-and-Dumb, and Mentally Backward Children

In pre-revolutionary Russia children with physical and physical deficiencies (blind, deaf-and-dumb, mentally backward children) were neglected by the state. The few schools and asylums that did exist depended on public charity for their maintenance. These charity asylums were organized with the sole purpose of teaching the inmates a trade, in other words, this “charity” was a means of creating cheap labour.

In the Soviet Union the teaching of blind, deaf-and-dumb, and mentally backward children is organized on a completely different basis.

The humane and sympathetic attitude of the Soviet Government and Soviet society to physically deformed and mentally backward children resulted in the setting up of several scientific-research institutions and many special schools. The state publishes many textbooks for blind (on the Braille principle), deaf-and-dumb, and mentally backward children, and has established defectology faculties for the training of teachers for these children.

Through the efforts of prominent Soviet defectologists like Professors L.V. Zankov, F.A. Rau, D.I. Azbukin, B.I. Kovalenko, and others, the following have been elaborated as special branches of pedagogical science: typhlopedagogy (teaching and training the blind), surdopedagogy (teaching and training the deaf-and-dumb), oligophrenopedagogy (teaching and training mentally backward children), and logopedia (correcting physical defects in the speech of children).

Special schools and other institutions provide physically deformed and mentally backward children with general-educational knowledge and professional training. All these are boarding-schools where the children live and study at state expense, irrespective of whether they have parents or not.

There are special elementary, middle and secondary schools for the blind, where the term of study is only a year longer than in the usual school. During this time the pupils of schools for the blind, in addition to getting the same education as in a general educational school, receive a professional training that enables them to work in some field.

After finishing the special secondary school, many blind pupils successfully continue their studies at universities, pedagogical institutes, and certain other institutions of higher learning. Thus do Soviet special schools for the blind essentially differ from the pre-revolutionary charity asylums for the blind, which gave blind children an elementary learning and were chiefly concerned with training them in some trade.

Schools for the deaf-and-dumb offer a nine-year study course in which the children learn to speak intelligently and distinctly, get an elementary-school education and a vocational training. Since 1943 experiments have been conducted to raise the education of deaf-and-dumb children to the level of the middle school. These experiments have already yielded positive results: deaf-and-dumb children finishing these schools were successful at entrance examinations to industrial vocational schools. Some mass schools have logopedical centres (in the R.S.F.S.R. there are more than 150 such centres) staffed by qualified specialists, where the speech of children is corrected.

Auxiliary schools for mentally backward children offer a seven-year study course during which they give their pupils the usual elementary-school education and a vocational training.

Extensive educational work – socials, celebrations, lectures and so on – is carried on in special schools; while different circles are also very active.

Some pedagogical institutes (in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev) have defectology faculties that train qualified teachers for these special schools. Salaries for teachers in these schools are 25 per cent higher than in ordinary schools.

At present the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the R.S.F.S.R has Scientific-Research Institutes of Defectology with clinics and laboratories. There is such an institute in Kiev as well.

A striking example of the signal achievements of Soviet defectology pedagogues is the training and education of Olga Ivanovna Skorokhodova, a blind and deaf-and-dumb girl.

Olga Skorokhodova was born in a peasant family. At the age of five she turned blind and deaf following a severe illness, and when she was about nine years old she lost her speech. She was ten years old when she was brought to Kharkov and placed in a special institution for the blind and deaf-and-dumb. Here she learned to speak and received an education.

In her book The World as I Perceive It, published in 1947 exactly as Olga Skorokhodova wrote it, she says:

“It is only in our country where the demarcation line between the physical and mental labour of man is being obliterated, where we can all put our knowledge to good purpose in any sphere of life, that a blind and deaf-and-dumb girl like me can become an equal member of society, a politically conscious daughter of her beloved socialist Motherland; although deaf and blind I am a member of the Young Communist League; now that I have regained the faculty of speech I can address T.C.L. meetings; due to the fact that my education, training, and mental development was guided by such a talented specialist as I. A. Sokolyansky, I developed normally and came to love many good things of life. Constant reading (and I read much) developed my literary language and urged me on to write. I do not claim any credit and do not consider myself as extraordinary. I consider myself an ordinary Soviet girl who passionately wants to learn and learn. Without the slightest doubt or bragging I say of myself that I love to work: from morning till night I am busy with something and looking for things I can do.”

Olga Skorokhodova is thoroughly acquainted both with Soviet fiction and the Russian classics, and with the greatest works of world literature. She has a fine feeling for criticism. She is very keen on the works of Pushkin and Gorky and dreams of devoting herself to a study of Gorky’s art. She does modelling and has a delicate sense for the beauty of sculptural work. She possesses a rich literary talent, as may be judged from her poem. It is beautiful in form and profound in content, emotion and poetic ideas, and has been printed in the book mentioned above. To cite but a few lines from this poem:

Thought It Is By Many

Thought it is by many – those acute of hearing,
Those who see the sunlight, and the moon who see:
“What knows she of beauty, one bereft of seeing,
What deaf ear can fathom springtide’s melody!?”

Well I sense the odours and the damp of meadows,
And my skipping fingers feel the flutt’ring leaf,
As I roam at twilight deep aimed the shadows
Where there’s love and visions and no place for grief.

I’ve my soul to see with, I’ve my heart to hear with,
And with winged ambition I’ll embrace the earth.
Is it every human that is stirred by beauty,
Though he hears and sees it from his very birth?

The World as I Perceive It, written on the basis of long years of self-observation, undoubtedly contains much material for scientific study by psychologists and defectologists. To date Olga Skorokhodova has written a second book, The World as I Imagine It. It must be expected that this book contains still more material for scientific conclusions in the sphere of defectology.

The results of the training and education received by Olga Skorokhodova – her materialistic world outlook, high ideological and political level, rich intellect, artistic development, literary talent, will and cheerfulness, her striving for work, vivacity, her aversion to mysticism and philistinism – place her incomparably higher than Helen Keller, the blind and deaf-and-dumb woman celebrated abroad.

Olga Sokorokhodova is vivid proof of the great advances made by Soviet pedagogy, by the Soviet educational system.

Elementary and Secondary Vocational Training

Elementary Vocational Training

Vocational schools were instituted in 1920 to train skilled workers for the industrial enterprises where they had been opened.

In 1921 there were 43 vocational schools with an enrolment of 2,000, but by 1939 the country already had 1,535 such schools with more than 242,000 pupils.

The construction of large plants requiring huge numbers of skilled workers, the rapid growth of socialist industry, and the necessity of constantly supplying it with workers, raised the question of organizing under state supervision the training of cadres from among town and rural youth – the creation of labour reserves.

In October 1940 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. issued a decree “On State Labour Reserves of the U.S.S.R.” This decree explained the necessity for going over to a new system of training workers.

“Unemployment has been completely abolished in our country. Poverty and ruin in town and village have been done away with for all time. As a result, there are no people in our country knocking at the gates of factory and plant, asking for work and in this way spontaneously forming a permanent labour reserve for the industry.

“Under these conditions the Government is faced with the task of organizing the training of new workers from among the town and collective-farm youth, and of creating the necessary labour reserves for the industry.”

This decree established:

1) trade schools with a two-year course for the training of skilled workers – metal-workers, metallurgists, chemical workers miners, oil-industry workers, and others;
2) railway schools with a two-year course for the training of skilled workers for the railway transport;
3) factory and trade schools with a six months’ course for training workers for the general trades.

The pupils of all these schools are maintained by the state (free tuition, food, clothes, footwear, underwear, text-book; and schoolroom appliances, and living quarters). Pupils of vocational and railway schools wear uniforms.

An essential feature of the new organization of the training of skilled workers is that it is planned with great precision on a countrywide scale. Formerly when this training was given in vocational schools the attention that the training of workers received was different in the various enterprises, organizing these schools; there was extreme disharmony in the content and methods of training new workers; enrolment was confined almost exclusively to young people working in the industry. Now these schools embrace the collective-farm youth as well. An authoritative and powerful guiding centre appeared – the Ministry of Labour Reserves, now the Central Board of Labour Reserves at the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. It co-ordinated all matters pertaining to organization, study, and methodology. Experts on methodology were drawn into the work, and conditions created for the training and advanced training of teachers. Uniform study plans and curricula have been worked out for the different types of trades schools and they are in force throughout the Soviet Union.

Trades and railway schools enrol juveniles of both sexes between the age of 14-15, possessing at least an elementary education (actually the majority of pupils possess a middle school education).

The study plans of trades schools vary depending on the training they offer their pupils and on the general educational grounding received by the pupils before entering these schools; but all schools teach: 1) production and technology; 2) general educational and general technical subjects; and 3) physical culture.

In 1952 the study plan in schools teaching very wide-spread trades, such as repair fitter, industrial equipment assembly or installation fitter, and building machines assembly or installation fitter, was as given in the table on page 142 (total study hours for two-year course)

After finishing a trades or railway school the pupils pass a qualifying examination and are placed in industry where they are paid the same wages as other workers.

Factory schools enrol pupils between the ages of 16-18. The term of study is from six months to one year, depending on the trade. These schools train workers for the less complex and general trades such as plasterers, carpenters, coal-hewers, and so on.

Extensive educational work is carried on in the trades, railway and factory schools to raise the ideological and political level of the pupils, to strengthen their conscious discipline, to imbue them with a creative attitude to labour, and to train them esthetically and physically. Scores of houses of culture, about 600 recreation clubs and several thousand libraries were built and equipped at state expense for the pupils of these schools.

The system of training workers in trades and factory schools for factories, plants and construction works has yielded excellent results and was spread to other branches of the national economy. For example, mining industry vocational schools with a seven-year course and mining-industry schools (after the pattern of the factory school) have been opened for the children of miners to train skilled workers for the mining industry.

Schools for the mechanization of agriculture to train mechanization experts have been set up on the basis of the decisions of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on September 7, 1953 “On Measure for the Further Development of Agriculture in the U.S.S.R.”

In addition to the vocational schools described above there are courses offering elementary vocational training directly at industrial enterprises. Every factory and plant has various technical circles, schools and courses where the young worker can learn any trade or raise his skill. Another form of training cadres now widely practised is that of brigade and individual apprenticeship – the more skilled foremen and workers training novices on the job.

Secondary Vocational Training

Medium-level personnel for the different branches of industry, transport and agriculture are trained in technical schools (technicums). Medium-level medical personnel (midwives, doctor’s assistants) are trained in medical schools, while pedagogical schools train teachers for the elementary schools. There are also theatrical, music, art and other secondary schools.

To date there are more than 3,500 technical schools and other secondary vocational establishments. In 1953 these schools had 1,644,000 pupils (including those taking correspondence courses).

The training period is usually four years. Persons between the ages of 14 and 30, who have a middle-school education, are eligible on the basis of entrance examinations.

The curriculum includes general subjects (literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc.), special subjects in accordance with the vocation taught by the establishment, and practical work in industry.

The technical and other schools have well-equipped laboratories, workshops and classrooms. The lessons take the form of lectures, discussions, practical work in laboratories and workshops, and excursions. Considerable time is devoted to practical work: in industry and in agriculture, in hospitals (for medical schools) and in schools (for pedagogical schools).

On completing technical school the student sits for the final state examination, or submits his graduation thesis. All graduates are given posts according to their profession, or can, if they so wish, continue their studies in an institution of higher learning. Technical school students who graduate with honours do not have to work the required three years in their given profession before entering an institution of higher learning.

Thus, the secondary vocational school in the Soviet Union differs form similar establishments in bourgeois countries where entrance to institutions of higher learning is limited to children finishing the general educational secondary school (lycée, college, etc.).

In bourgeois countries the secondary vocational establishments, which are attended by juveniles who have finished elementary school, or, at best, an advanced elementary school, give their pupils almost exclusively a vocational training and do not broaden their meagre general knowledge. The secondary vocational school in the U.S.S.R., apart from providing a thorough vocational training, furnishes its pupils with the general education needed to enter an institution of higher learning.

The Teacher of the Soviet School

The lot of the teacher, especially of a teacher in a rural elementary school, was a bitter one in pre-revolutionary Russia. Characterizing the position of school teachers at that time, V.I. Lenin wrote that they received starvation wages, were surrounded by suspicion and “hunted” like rabbits.

Such is the condition of school teachers today in the capitalist countries.

The American press reports that in the state of Michigan, U.S.A., the teacher often receives less than the garbage collector; that in the state of Missouri the school teacher with a university degree earns not more than a hall-porter; that the milk delivery man usually earns twice as much as a teacher and that it is more profitable for young people to take up delivering milk or cleaning streets than to take up teaching. The woman teacher is paid less than the man for the same work, while salaries for Negro teachers are almost half the salaries received by the white teachers.

Especially bitter is the lot of country teachers in the U.S.A. A girl holds the job of school teacher until she has the first opportunity to get married; average service among teachers in U.S. elementary schools is extremely short – about two years. The school teacher is under constant political and religious supervision, always threatened with dismissal, and with finding himself “black-listed” for “dangerous thoughts.”

More than half the children in the U.S.A. attend single-group country schools; in some states these single-group schools (with one teacher) comprise 80-85 per cent of all elementary schools. This means that one teacher conduct 6-8 classes and gives each class very little time. Moreover, the teacher has to spend every evening preparing for 18-25 lessons (at least thee lessons for each of the 6-8 classes) and going through the written work of his pupils. All this makes the pedagogical work of U.S. elementary-school teachers unbearably difficult.

The position of the teacher in the U.S.S.R. is quite different. Soviet pedagogy attaches great importance to the teacher, who plays the main and decisive role in educational work.

A fervent patriot of his Motherland, the educator of the rising generation, the teacher, who actively helps the Party in the struggle to build communism, must have an integral scientific world outlook, a broad general and a profound theoretical knowledge, be highly proficient in his profession, and understand and love children. The teacher must be a moral example to his pupils; he educate them in the spirit of communist ideology and morals.

The teacher’s contribution to the common work of building communism is highly appreciated by the Communist Party and the Soviet Government. “The phalanx of school teachers,” J.V. Stalin stated as early as 1925, “is one of the most essential units of the great army of working people in our country who are building a new life on the basis of socialism.”*

* J. Stalin, Works, Vol. 7, p. 3.

By their work in the school, their participation in public life and their defence of the country in the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War, hundreds of thousands of Soviet teachers showed that they are worthy of the high trust placed in them by the people, and that they are honourably doing their duty to the Motherland.

With the cultural development of the Soviet land the army of teachers grew immensely. Increasing demands were made on them. In 1914-15 the general educational schools of pre-revolutionary Russia were staffed by 231,007 teachers. Today, the U.S.S.R. has considerably more than one and a half million teachers.

Work on a big scale was started to build a network of higher and secondary pedagogical institutions, courses, methodological centres, and other such establishments to train this vast number of teachers in a comparatively short space of time.

Teachers have been trained for the non-Russian schools and especially for the peoples, which formerly had no written language of their own. These include the Bashkir, Mordovian, Buryat, Nenets, Khakass, Komi, Mari, Kirghiz, and other peoples.

The U.S.S.R. has a stable body of teachers. This is explained to a considerable degree by the care and solicitude surrounding the teacher in the country. Teachers can be transferred from one school to another only by the regional department of public education. Headmasters are appointed only by the Ministry of Public Education of each Union Republic. The U.S.S.R. has numerous teachers with 20-25 years of pedagogical service. Many teachers with a long-service record continue to advance in their profession by studying at correspondence courses offered by pedagogical institutes.

The peoples of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Government hold the work of teachers in great esteem, and mark their services with high rewards.

V.I. Lenin wrote that “Our school teacher should be raised to a standard never achieved and unachievable in bourgeois society.”* The peoples of the U.S.S.R. show their esteem for the Soviet teachers by electing many of them to leading organs of the state: the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics; to area, district, city and rural Soviets of Working People’s Deputies.

* V.I. Lenin, Selected Works, Two-Vol. ed., Vol. II, Part 2, pp. 711-12.

In the Soviet state long and honourable activity in educating children is regarded as a labour exploit, a service to the people. A special act of legislature established the award to teachers of Orders and Medals for long and exemplary service. More than 100,000 teachers have been decorated with Orders and Medals of the Soviet Union.

Teachers in the Soviet Union enjoy a number of privileges and priorities. The title of Honoured Teacher has been instituted. The Soviet teacher receives the same salary as engineers and technical personnel. He gets periodical salary raises (for every five years of service). Teachers in outlying districts receive higher salaries. After 25 years of service teachers receive pensions. They have their sanatoriums and holiday homes in the Crimea, the Caucasus, and other health resorts, and they have their “Teachers’ centres” – recreation clubs with libraries and reading-rooms, study rooms, and concert halls – in every city of the Soviet Union.

It is but natural that the great solicitude shown by the Soviet state for the teacher, and the warm esteem he is held in by the people should make teaching in the U.S.S.R. one of the most important and honoured professions.

The most favourable conditions exist in the Soviet Land for advancing the honoured and responsible work of the teacher, for educating active, highly principled, and cultured builders and defenders of communist society.