Education during a Period of Transition (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes

Education during a Period of Transition

Introduction: The transitional period

After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Lenin and other Communist leaders believed that the Soviet Union was in a period of transition – a stage between capitalism and communism. This idea had a profound effect on educational policy, as leaders debated what kind of education system would be appropriate for a society that was neither fully capitalist nor fully communist. The transitional nature of this period meant that Communist leaders often had to make compromises between their socialist principles and the practical realities of rebuilding society, particularly after the devastating Civil War.

The goals of education

There were significant disagreements within the Communist Party about the purpose of education in the new Soviet state. These different views reflected contrasting ideas about what education had been under the Tsarist regime and what it should become under communism.

Lenin's perspective: Education for industrialisation

Lenin believed that education was fundamentally important for building socialism. From his perspective, a high level of education – starting with basic literacy – was essential for the Soviet Union's future. Lenin argued that socialism would require industrialisation, and industrialisation in turn needed an educated workforce capable of understanding complex industrial processes.

In this view, education served the long-term goals of the revolution by laying the foundations for industrial development. The first priority was to liberate Soviet people from ignorance by teaching them to read and write. This practical approach focused on education as a tool for economic and social transformation.

Lunacharsky's perspective: Education for individual liberation

By contrast, Anatoly Lunacharsky, the People's Commissar of Enlightenment (the government minister responsible for education), held a different view. Lunacharsky believed that the primary goal of education was to allow individual students to develop and flourish.

Communists like Lunacharsky argued that the revolution should liberate the student, rather than simply making education serve the revolution's goals. Lunacharsky also supported new teaching methods and a general education that would not restrict students' future choices. He favoured progressive teaching methods based on the theories of American educators such as John Dewey. These methods included learning through activities and play, rather than traditional approaches like rote-learning, using textbooks, or formal lectures.

Working alongside Lunacharsky was Nadezhda Krupskaya, an educational theorist who was also Lenin's wife. Together, they initially directed Soviet educational policy.

The problems of education

Communist leaders faced both ideological questions and practical challenges when developing educational policy.

Ideological questions

Education in Tsarist Russia had been traditionally associated with privilege and status. Only children from relatively wealthy backgrounds had access to schooling. This raised difficult questions for the new Communist government:

• Should the Soviet Union continue with traditional forms of education, or create an entirely new kind of revolutionary education?
• Should Communist leaders work with educated people, even though they had been part of the traditional elite?
• How should the government educate the millions of workers who had little or no formal education?

Practical challenges

These ideological debates were complicated by serious practical problems:

• Low levels of literacy: In 1914, only around 32 per cent of the population could read and write
• Educational inequalities: Russians tended to be better educated than non-Russians, and urban education was generally better than rural education

The impact of the transitional period

The notion that Russia was in a 'period of transition' rather than being a fully socialist society added further complexity. Some Communists argued that, in the short term, compromises were necessary between socialist principles and the need to rebuild society after the Civil War. These questions and concerns led to frequent changes in educational policy between 1918 and 1936.

The growth of education, 1918–28

Unified labour schools (October 1918)

In October 1918, the Soviet Government issued a decree introducing major educational reforms. These reforms established unified labour schools and included the following provisions:

• Free polytechnic education for all children aged 8 to 17
• Banned religious instruction in schools
• Introduced co-educational schools, ending the gender segregation that had existed under the Tsarist system
• Abolished corporal punishment (physical punishment of students)
• Abolished homework and exams
• Promised free breakfasts for schoolchildren and free medical examinations
• Allowed church buildings to be converted into schools
• Made education compulsory

Polytechnic education

The concept of polytechnic education was central to Marxist educational theory. Marxists criticised traditional education that forced students to specialise in one area, arguing that this trapped students in a specific field.

Instead, Marxists advocated for polytechnic education: a general education that taught many technical skills. This approach would allow students to enter whatever branch of industry they chose and to move between different industries throughout their working lives. The aim was to create well-rounded workers rather than narrowly trained specialists.

Secondary schooling was designed to be vocational. The government proposed creating factory schools or professional schools where young people would spend four hours a day in factories learning practical skills and four hours a day being taught in school.

Reality versus vision

In practice, schooling fell far short of Lunacharsky's ambitious vision during the early years of the revolution. The conditions of the Civil War (1918-1921) meant there were insufficient resources to invest in education:

• Free compulsory education to the age of 16 was not achieved until the 1950s
• Schools did not have the resources to provide free meals or medical check-ups
• Teachers continued to use traditional methods because there was no reliable system for training them in the new progressive approaches

Education under the NEP

The New Economic Policy (NEP), introduced in 1921, was a period of economic compromise following the Civil War. This policy of compromise affected education as well as the economy more broadly.

Initial decline (1921)

Educational provision actually declined in the first years of the NEP. Facing severe financial problems, the government in 1921:

• Forced some schools to close to save money
• Introduced fees for primary and secondary education for all except the poorest children and children of those unable to work due to war injuries
• Scrapped plans for opening children's homes linked to schools for the 7 million children orphaned by the Civil War

The impact was dramatic: in the first 18 months of the NEP, the number of children in education halved, as did the number of schools.

Expansion in the mid-1920s

As the economy stabilised from the mid-1920s onwards, education began to expand. From 1927, fees for primary schools were abolished, and from that point the majority of children received a four-year primary education.

By 1928, about 60 per cent of Soviet children of primary school age were in school – around 10 per cent more than before the revolution. However, significant inequalities remained in the system. In towns and cities, children in education typically received the full four years of primary education, whereas in the countryside children were unlikely to complete even three years of education.

Secondary education during the NEP

Secondary education took an unexpected direction during the 1920s. Because education was funded locally rather than by the Commissariat for Education, central government had difficulty controlling how education developed. Instead of following the polytechnic schools programme outlined in 1918, local soviets simply took over existing gymnasia – schools that had been established by the Tsarist regime.

This led to several problems:

• Around 97 per cent of students paid fees to attend, meaning schools tended to be dominated by children of the wealthy
• Around 90 per cent of middle-class students started secondary school and around 25 per cent finished, whereas only 40 per cent of working-class students started and only 3 per cent finished
• The vast majority of teachers in the former gymnasia had been trained before the revolution, so they continued to teach in traditional ways
• Teachers' approach to subjects such as history remained traditional – they taught the history of Russia and particularly the achievements of the Tsars, rather than the history of class struggle and the working class as the government wanted

Young people's groups in the 1920s

The Communist Party established youth organisations to provide ways for young people to express support for communism, learn about political campaigning, and enjoy communal recreation.

Komsomol and the Young Pioneers

Two main youth organisations were created:

• The Young Pioneers (established 1922): for children aged 10 to 15
• Komsomol (the Young Communists' League, founded 1918): for people aged 16 to 28

Communist Party leaders assumed that young people would be naturally attracted to communist values, believing that youth and radicalism went hand in hand.

Activities

Members of both organisations:

• Wore uniforms
• Took part in activities such as camping and hiking
• Attended talks from local factory workers, Red Army soldiers, and farm workers
• Received posters of Lenin, Trotsky and other leading government figures

Komsomol members were also involved in various campaigns:

• Monitoring prices in markets
• Distributing Communist Party leaflets
• Participating in anti-religious campaigns

Reality versus expectations

In theory, Komsomol members were meant to be disciplined and enthusiastic supporters of the Communist Party. However, the reality was often quite different:

• Komsomol members often had a reputation for drunkenness, promiscuity and hooliganism
• Young people rarely attended the political meetings organised by Komsomol
• Komsomol parties and dances were extremely popular, suggesting young people were more interested in socialising than politics

Party leaders were aware of these issues. In 1926, they issued a directive that Komsomol leaders should discourage drinking, dancing and sex, and instead encourage 'healthy forms of entertainment'.