Soviet Education System - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

give me four years to teach the children and the seed i have sown will never be uprooted this is a statement that's popularly attributed to vladimir illidge lenin although it is suspect if he ever actually said this specifically but whether he did or not is irrelevant the statement exemplifies the importance that the soviet union placed on education sure it was an education system that was used for indoctrination but to a degree all education systems do that i'm your host david and today we are

going to talk about the soviet education system with a particular look at the reforms instituted by khrushchev in the 1950s this is the cold war i've learned in my venerable age that sleep is extremely important so i am glad to be using the sponsor of this video endow a uniquely useful application that creates personalized soundscapes to help you focus relax or sleep if you're having a hard time focusing on your studies or work if you suffer from stress and anxiety making you unproductive or are

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support our channel since the inception of the soviet union one of the key stated goals proclaimed by the new worker state was free and compulsory education for all citizens this meant all citizens irrespective of social status gender or even if they wanted to study or not people had to go to school after all in theory the more education a person has the more options become open to them in terms of further skills and production capability so compulsory education was good for the worker and good

for the state right well yes but also a literate population was easier to direct propaganda towards it was deemed crucial that soviet citizens be able to read so they could absorb marxist propaganda ensuring they were aware of the main tenets of marxist teachings so how is the education system structured well it started even from preschool the soviet union developed a widespread network of preschools and kindergartens which were actively used by soviet citizens children were accepted into these

preschools from as young as two months old the purpose of this of course was allowing women to remain in the workforce and therefore increase production for the state and the preschools proved to be very popular and were actively used by families where women wanted to remain in the workforce the additional salary was very often a welcome often needed addition to the monthly budget of course children would remain in preschool until they reached the age of six at which point they would begin prima

ry school since 1932 primary school consisted of four years of schooling followed by three years of secondary school and then followed a gain by three years of high school or vocational school depending on the choice of the student with that 1932 structure came a mandatory seven years of schooling for all soviet children with university or vocational school optional what resulted from this was a dramatic increase in the number of citizens who stayed in school and received an education the knock-

on effect from this however was a drop in the number of citizens entering the labor force something that the 1930s soviet union desperately needed so to counteract this in 1940 tuitions were introduced for any student wishing to continue their education past the mandatory seven years high school and vocational school tuitions varied depending where the school was located in moscow and leningrad and the capitals of the republics tuition was 200 rubles well in most other places it was 150 rubles a

bout 10 percent of a worker's annual wage university tuition was more ranging between 300 and 500 rubles per year these tuition fees remained in place until 1956 when they were removed and all education was made free again a part of the khrushchev reform package that followed stalin's death and speaking of the lord of the corn and his reforms let's take a deeper look at some of them as they relate to education like with many aspects of soviet life khrushchev introduced a series of reforms in edu

cation designed to improve the lives of everyday citizens but also with the aim of building a stronger soviet union over the long term for example 1954 saw the abolition of separate education for boys and girls which had been introduced in 1943 as part of a deepening conservatism espoused by stalin and his circle of leadership but 1958 saw one of the most significant and long-reaching reforms and it stemmed from that 1956 abolition of tuition fees that i just mentioned even before the 1956 refor

m the soviet government like it had been in the 1930s was unhappy with the decreasing number of young soviets entering into industrial and manufacturing jobs once they had completed high school this was a difficult balance to strike khrushchev knew that it was vital for the country to have more skilled and educated scholars academics scientists doctors and other highly educated members of society in order for the soviet union to compete on the world stage of course in order to achieve this young

people delayed their entry into the workforce while they received their education with their removal of tuition fees a significant barrier to entry was removed and more students enrolled into higher education programs along with this came a sense however that those with more education were further removed and out of touch with the needs and desires of life in the soviet union this sparked a debate that was carried out in both everyday media as well as in academic publications on how best to app

roach this growing divide i should point out of course that the public debate was still carefully staged managed by the central government but unlike many policy decisions in the soviet union this one saw some discourse largely between academic and political circles and what were the talking points well some people favored extending the length of compulsory education which could theoretically discourage some people from pursuing higher education while others talked about the benefits that would

come from the introduction of disciplines and classes that would prepare students to enter the workforce with some labor skills already in hand khrushchev was also reportedly unhappy with the proportion of university students from the most progressive classes the proletariat and peasantry which stood at only 30 to 40 percent and he wanted to increase that what was concluded from the public discourse was that the soviet education system was largely preparing youth to enter the university system r

ather than for lack of a better term real life real life in this case meaning a manufacturing or labor job whose production materially benefits the soviet state this conclusion had been reached as early as 1954 when it was recognized just how vital it was to prepare students from an early age to the importance of productive labor part of this conclusion was also to find a way of combining education with productive labor for older students in universities starting at the beginning of the 1954-195

5 school year new classes were introduced into the curriculum this included a class called truth or labor for students in the first four years of primary school as well as the introduction of practical lessons held in workshops and practice sites for students in years five through seven from years eight to ten practical lessons on mechanical and electrical engineering were offered as well as classes on agriculture the following year 1955 production brigades were formed from students in rural are

as who could be used as additional labor when required all of this was done to help teach children practical skills and introduce them to the soviet workforce okay so all of these changes and reforms were finalized in 1958 with the introduction of the law of the supreme soviet of the ussr on strengthening the connection between school and life and on further development of the system of public education in the ussr just rolls right off the tongue anyway the law saw mandatory education extended f

rom seven to eight years of schooling and would be enforced across the entire country something that was accomplished by 1962. a complete education was to be attained over 11 years instead of 10 but we should point out that the 11-year program didn't work as expected and the 10-year program was reintroduced in 1963. the university entrance system was modified to favor students who had work and labor experience and even when accepted into university classes and studying were to be largely done in

the evenings as students in the first three years of their programs were expected to have jobs during the day all of this introduced by the reform law was designed to ensure that all soviet citizens had some ability to work in a production job and even for those destined for jobs in administration or academia and policy they would have work experience and be familiar with the conditions and realities of other soviet citizens this practice of combining education and work was to be employed by th

e soviet union for years to come khrushchev made other changes in the education system as well one of the tools he introduced to help bring education and literacy to all citizens was the internats a network of boarding schools largely designed for orphans and the children of poor or deprived families children both lived and went to school in these facilities khrushchev really believed strongly in the internats as he saw them as a place where the students there free from the possible negative inf

luences of older generations who could transfer old ways of thinking and the narrow-minded concerns of daily living instead the internets would be the quote builders of a new society raised under communism the initial plan when the internets were introduced was to enroll orphans children with only one parent and the children of the poor long-term plans were for all soviet children to be sent to the internets to be raised and taught the program started off strongly with over 320 000 students enro

lled by 1960. of course we should also note that the international had the not unintended effect of not only educating youth but of breaking down ethnic and cultural traditions creating soviet citizens regardless of ethnic and cultural background the soviet boarding school system is an interesting topic in its own right especially as the system changed in the 1980s let us know in the comments if you're interested in a separate episode about this now let's talk a little bit more about the univers

ity system it too like so much else in the soviet union was the subject of reformation by the kukuriznik the soviet union used a centralized university admissions system that was based on a combination of written and oral examinations but like so many other things in the soviet union and the rest of the world corruption and nepotism also took on a prominent role in the admissions process the mujic with the missiles offered a public criticism of this stating not those who are better prepared get

admitted to the universities but those with influential moms and dads this is shameful and following this in 1957 changes were made school gold medalists those students who achieved straight a grades and who had at least two years of work experience would be admitted to university without having to take the examinations in addition to this change the path for military conscripts who had completed their service to enter university was also streamlined reforms were also made to increase the propor

tion of university students coming from industrial and agricultural backgrounds starting in 1959 coal hoses sold hoses industrial facilities and construction sites all had reserved university positions to ensure access of course the flip side to this is that it made it difficult for those without work experience to gain admission to university this was you'll remember one of the goals that khrushchev wanted to achieve through his reforms greater and wider access to higher education for those fro

m working class backgrounds and how successful was this well by 1958 70 of students enrolled in soviet universities had at least two years of work experience so generally it was successful in opening more opportunities for more citizens from all walks of life to access higher education while not depriving much needed labor from the workforce but and here is the butt that you all knew was coming problems continued to exist in the system bribery and nepotism continued to be an issue in the admissi

ons process right until the collapse of the soviet union there was also a decline in the percentage of enrolled students who completed their full programs for example of the cohort of students who began their studies in the 1953-54 school year 79.7 percent of them graduated by contrast of those admitted in the 1959-1960 academic year only 59 graduated some of this could have been the result of student unhappiness with the requirement to both work and study for many students despite the salary th

at they earned they felt that their jobs impacted their ability to study they were also often unhappy with the duties they were assigned to their jobs as they tended to be the most physically demanding but there was arguably one overarching problem in the soviet system which no tweaking or modification was going to alter that was the marxist-leninist ideological framework which underpinned everything and also prevented independent critical thought the soviet education system introduced ideologic

al teaching starting as early as primary school and continued throughout a citizen's entire education in addition there were three state-sanctioned extracurricular organizations for school and university students all designed with ideological indoctrination in mind the first was the little octoberists the organization was meant for children between seven and nine years old and all children were automatically members the little octoberists laid the ideological groundwork for the next graduated st

ep the young pioneers which all children were enrolled into at age nine the young pioneer organization was based on the same principles as the scouting movement found in other parts of the world young pioneers helped organize sporting events collect waste paper and metals did agricultural work and other similar things but while the scouting movement stressed a duty to god young pioneers were brought up with a stress on the principles of communism soviet patriotism and discipline one of the most

famous and often repeated stories of the pioneers which was designed to exemplify these characteristics was that of the pioneer pavel promotovic von rozov as the story goes in 1932 thirteen-year-old pavlik discovered that his father was selling forage documents to bandits and other anti-soviet elements pavlek as a dedicated and responsible communist reported his father to the secret police and the father was promptly sent into the camp system pavlik's family unhappy at this murdered the boy a cr

ime for which they were all shot while the story of public was held up as an example of loyalty and duty to the state we should point out that the actual research into the events conducted in the 1980s demonstrated that the story was largely falsified to create a murder but why let the truth stand in the way of a good story right okay beyond the young pioneers was the last ideological indoctrination organization the com somal the communist youth league it was open to membership for those between

the ages of 14 and 28 but was not mandatory membership in the com somal came with certain responsibilities including expectations of living a manner which upheld the ideals of the soviet state and of communist living the study of the works of communism including marx and lenin were mandatory in exchange however comsol members gained certain privileges including favored access to scholarships and employment opportunities active participation in the consumer was also seen as a necessary step to m

embership in the communist party there comes the acomsomal were organizers of party work they acted as propaganda tools in the universities and even abroad and also as eyes and ears reporting on politically unreliable elements to the authorities by the time of khrushchev the acomsomal were being used as a weapon to counteract an emerging subculture in soviet society the stiliagi these were young people who dressed in western styles listened to western music and followed western culture although

not illegal the government saw them as a threat and used the comsol to help counteract them tactics used ranged from public condemnation to physical violence the ideology and propaganda that was taught through these organizations and through the schools permeated everything everything was to be studied through the lens of marxist-leninist ideology this as you might expect stifled creative independent and critical thought something which was to have a significant impact on the progress of the sov

iet union as the cold war progressed khrushchev embarked on his reforms of the education system with the best of intentions after all don't we all he was willing to try new concepts and make modifications keeping what worked and abandoning what didn't but fundamentally the ideological constraints forced on the system choked out the significant opportunity for real growth in soviet education we hope you've enjoyed today's episode and to make sure you don't miss all of our future episodes please m

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