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Bolshevik Utilitarianism and Educational Experimentalism: Party Attitudes and Soviet Educational Practice, 1917–1931

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Larry E. Holmes
Larry E. Holmes*
Affiliation:
University of South Alabama
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Soviet education of the 1920s has attracted much attention from both historians and educators. (1) Until 1931 Soviet educational authorities sponsored a flurry of measures many of which were initially advanced in the writings of such western educators as John Dewey, Helen Parkhurst, and Maria Montessori. Study of this “romantic and experimental period” (2) in the history of Soviet education is therefore understandable.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , Winter 1973 , pp. 347 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 by New York University 

References

Notes

1. There are available in the English language a number of informative studies. These include: Harper, Samuel Northrup, Civic Training in Soviet Russian (Chicago, 1929), pp. 242–298; Hans, Nicholas and Hessen, Sergius, Educational Policy in Soviet Russia (London, 1930); Counts, George S., “Education in Soviet Russia,” Soviet Russia in the Second Decade, ed. Chase, Stuart, Dunn, Robert, and Tugwell, Rexford Guy (New York, 1928), pp. 268–303 (also printed in an abberviated version under the title “The Educational Program of Soviet Russia,” National Education Association of the United States, Addresses and Procedures. 1928., pp. 593–602); Counts, George S., The Soviet Challenge to America (New York, 1931); Fitzpatrick, Sheila, The Commissariat of Education: Soviet Organization of Education and the Arts under Lunacharsky, October 1917–1921 (Cambridge, 1970); Widmayer, Ruth, “The Communist Party and the Soviet Schools—1917–1937,” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University 1952; Dorotich, Daniel, “History in the Soviet School, 1917–1937,” Diss. McGill University 1964. Important Soviet studies include: Konstantinov, N. A. and Medynskii, E. N., Ocherki po istorii sovetskoi shkoly RSFSR za 30 let (Moscow, 1948); Istoriia Moskovskogo universiteta (Moscow, 1955), II; V. V. Ukraintsev, , KPSS—organizator revoliutsionnogo preobrazovaniia vysshei shkoly (Moscow, 1963); Korolev, F. F., Ocherki po istorii sovetskoi shkoly i pedagogiki, 1917–1920 (Moscow, 1958); Korolev, F. F., Korneichik, T. D., and Rabkin, Z. I., Ocherki po istorii sovetskoi shkoly i pedagogiki, 1921–1931 (Moscow, 1961); Bushchik, L. P., Ocherk razvitiia shkol'nogo istoricheskogo obrazovaniia v SSSR (Moscow, 1961).Google Scholar

2. Counts, George S., The Challenge of Soviet Education (New York, 1957), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

3. Shimoniak, Although Wasyl in his Communist Education: Its History, Philosophy and Politics (New York, 1970) stresses the party's efforts to politicize education generally, he neglects to discuss party attitudes and educational practice in the 1920s.Google Scholar

4. See Dewey, John, Impressions of Soviet Russia (New York, 1929); Strong, Anna Louise, “Education in Modern Russia,” Progressive Education, I (1924): 157–159; Nearing, Scott, Education of Soviet Russia (New York, 1926); Wilson, Lucy L. W., The New Schools of New Russia (New York, 1928).Google Scholar

5. Dewey, , Impressions of Soviet Russia, pp. 128–129.Google Scholar

6. Counts, George S., “Education in Soviet Russia,” Soviet Russia in the Second Decade, ed. Chase, Stuart, Dunn, Robert, and Tugwell, Rexford Guy (New York, 1928), p. 268.Google Scholar

7. Excellent studies of institutions for political education and of party schools are available in the English language: Katz, Zev, “Party-Political Education in Soviet Russia,” Soviet Studies, VII (1956):237–247; Harper, Samuel Northrup, Civic Training in Soviet Russia (Chicago, 1929), pp. 271–298. In the Russian language, see essays by Ivanova, L. V. in Ocherki istorii istoricheskoi nauki v SSSR, ed. Nechkina, M. V. (Moscow, 1966), IV, pp. 117–145, 226–232 and Ivanova's U istokov sovetskoi istoricheskoi nauki (Podgotovka kadrov istorikov-marksistov 1917–1929) (Moscow, 1968), pp. 50–82, 122–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. These policies were soon revised. By 1920 some entrance examinations were required and admission quotas set. A well-researched study of party objectives for university education from 1917 to 1921 is McClelland, James C., “Bolshevik Approaches to Higher Education,” Slavic Review, 30 (December, 1971):818–831.Google Scholar

9. Valuable discussions of the intriguing complex and project methods are contained in Zepper, John T., “N. K. Krupskaya on Complex Themes in Soviet Education,” Comparative Education Review, 9 (February, 1965) 33–37; Nearing, Scott, Education of Soviet Russia (New York, 1926), pp. 40–42, 98–105; Bushchik, L. P., Ocherk razvitiia shkol'nogo istoricheskogo obrazovaniia v SSSR (Moscow, 1961), pp. 191–208, 226–228; F. F. Korolev and others, Ocherki po istorii sovetskoi shkoly i pedagogiki, 1921–1931 (Moscow, 1961), pp. 69–100, 450–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Kommunisticheskaia partiia sovetskogo soiuza v rezoliutsiiakh i resheniiakh s'ezdov, konferentsii i plenumov TsK (Henceforth KPSS v rez.), 8th ed. (Moscow, 1970), II, pp. 48–49, 81.Google Scholar

11. Lenin, V. I., “Proekt programmy RKP (b),” Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 5th ed. (Moscow, 1958–1965) 38, 117.Google Scholar

12. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia (Moscow-Leningrad, 1930), p. 120.Google Scholar

13. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva o narodnom obrazovanii; sbornik dokumentov za 1917–1947gg. (Moscow-Leningrad, 1947), II, p. 9.Google Scholar

14. KPSS v rez., III, p. 287.Google Scholar

15. KPSS v rez., IV, p. 473.Google Scholar

16. KPSS v rez., IV, p. 475.Google Scholar

17. McNeal, Robert H., Bride of the Revolution: Krupskaya and Lenin (Ann Arbor, 1972), pp. 200–202. Many of Krupskaya's comments on education to this effect are available in English: Krupskaya, N. K., On Education: Selected Articles and Speeches (Moscow, 1957).Google Scholar

18. Russell, Sylvia, “The Philosophy of Anatoli Vasil'evich Lunacharsky, Commissar of Education, 1917–1929,” Ph.D. diss., Indiana University 1970, pp. 69–144.Google Scholar

19. Bukharin, N. and Preobrazhensky, E., The ABC of Communism (Ann Arbor, 1967), p. 233.Google Scholar

20. For these statements by Lenin on education, see his Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 36, pp. 420–421; 37, pp. 76–77, 420–421, 431–432; 41, pp. 298–318, 336. See also Lenin o narodnom obrazovanii: Stat'i i rechi (Moscow, 1957) and Lilge, Frederic, “Lenin and the Politics of Education,” Slavic Review, 27 (June, 1968):230–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. For decrees on these institutions of political eduation, see Direktivy VKP po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 179–236.Google Scholar

22. For official resolutions on party schools, see Direktivy VKP po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 198–209; see also syllabi for courses of study at party schools in Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika (Moscow, 1921).Google Scholar

23. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, p. 134.Google Scholar

24. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, II, p. 10; KPSS v rez., III, pp. 104, 111.Google Scholar

25. KPSS v rez., II, pp. 456, 509–511, 513; III, p. 461.Google Scholar

26. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 116–117, 120.Google Scholar

27. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 284–285, 304–305, 333–334.Google Scholar

28. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 131–143, 146–147,209–218,342–344.Google Scholar

29. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 146, 148, 343–345.Google Scholar

30. KPSS v rez., III, p. 64.Google Scholar

31. Istoriia Moskovskogo universiteta (Moscow, 1955), II, pp. 81, 102.Google Scholar

32. “Sovnarkom RSFSR ob akademicheskoi proverke,” Pravda, 22 August 1924, p. 4; “TsK RKP o vysshei shkole,” Pravda, 22 August 1924, p. 5.Google Scholar

33. Karlgren, Anton, Bolshevist Russia, trans. by Barwell, Anna (New York, 1927), p. 291.Google Scholar

34. Istoriia Moskovskogo universiteta, II, p. 43; Ukraintsev, V. V., KPSS-organizator revoliutsionnogo preobrazovaniia vysshei shkoly (Moscow, 1963), p. 55.Google Scholar

35. A discussion of these changes in school management may be found in Korolev, , Ocherki po istorii sovetskoi shkoly i pedagogiki, 1921–1931, pp. 327–330, 336–341; Hans, Nicholas and Hessen, Sergius, Educational Policy in Soviet Russia (London, 1930), pp. 116–117, 123.Google Scholar

36. Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii, 1921, no. 65, st. 486.Google Scholar

37. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, II, pp. 70–71. 70–71.Google Scholar

38. Hans, and Hessen, , Educational Policy, p. 107.Google Scholar

39. Harper, , Civic Training, p. 267.Google Scholar

40. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, p. 320; Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, II, p. 10. In 1920 and 1921, the Council of Peoples Commissars reached identical conclusions on the universities: Sobranie uzakonenii i rasporiazhenii, 1920, no. 93, st. 503 and 1921, no. 19, st. 119.Google Scholar

41. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, II, pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

42. KPSS v rez., III, pp. 95, 106, 119; Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, II, p. 10; Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, p. 321.Google Scholar

43. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, p. 321.Google Scholar

44. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, p. 27.Google Scholar

45. See Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, p. 138; Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 283–285, 330, 344.Google Scholar

46. Moskovskii universitet za piat'desiat let sovetskoi vlasti (Moscow, 1967), p. 61; Istoriia Moskovskogo universiteta, II, p. 92.Google Scholar

47. Istoriia Moskovskogo universiteta, II, pp. 87–88.Google Scholar

48. See the discussion of the application of the complex in Bushchik's Ocherk, pp. 196–200. For an example of a highly politicized treatment of the complex theme “October revolution,” see Zhavoronkov, B., Kak rabotat' po obshchestvovedeniiu (na I stupeni) (Moscow, 1925), pp. 100–101.Google Scholar

49. Karlgren, , Bolshevist Russia, p. 282.Google Scholar

50. See syllabi for historical projects in the soviet party schools, Spravochnik partiinogo rabotnika (Moscow, 1921), pp. 59–63.Google Scholar

51. KPSS v rez., II, p. 513; III, pp. 57, 104, 109, 114.Google Scholar

52. KPSS v rez., II, pp. 509–511, 513; III, pp. 52, 57, 94.Google Scholar

53. See, for example, Krivtsov, S. S., “Mesto istorii v programmakh ob-shchestvenno-ekonomicheskikh vuzov,” Istorik-Marksist, 2 (1926):231; Mamet, L. P., “Programmo-metodicheskie voprosy prepodavaniia istorii na rabochikh fakultetakh,” Istorik-Marksist, 4 (1927): 188; “Vsesoiuznaia konferentsiia istorikov-marksistov,” Istorik-Marksist, 12 (1929):316.Google Scholar

54. Ioannisiani's opinions may be found in the following of his contributions to Istorik-Marksist: rev. of Bor'ba za obshchestvovedenie i shkol'naia praktika poslednikh let, ed. by Dziubinskii, S. I. and Zhavoronkov, B., 2 (1926):288; “Istoriia v shkole II stupeni,” 3 (1927): 154, 165; “Rabochie knigi po obshchestvovedeniiu,” 7 (1928):207–208.Google Scholar

55. For important party and state directives issued from 1924 to 1980 on professional education, see Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, pp. 38, 50–51, 55, 57 and II, pp. 32, 55–60; Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 153–157, 239, 244. The two most important decrees, both of which were issued by the Central Committee, one on July 12, 1928 and the other on November 17, 1929, may be found in complete form in KPSS v rez., IV, pp. 111–118, 334–345.Google Scholar

56. The dispute over vocational training in the secondary schools is best discussed in Fitzpatrick, , The Commissariat of Education, pp. 59–68, 210–220; Hayashida, Ronald Hideo, “Lenin and the Third Front,” Slavic Review, 28 (June, 1969): 314–324.Google Scholar

57. Lenin, , Polnoe sobranie, 52, pp. 87, 228–230.Google Scholar

58. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, pp. 26–27.Google Scholar

59. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

60. Lenin, V. I., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 4th ed. (Moscow, 1950), 35, p. 411.Google Scholar

61. Stalin, J. V., Works (Moscow, 1946–1949) 7, pp. 77–89; 11, pp. 79–82.Google Scholar

62. KPSS v rez., III, p. 293; Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, p. 136; Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, p. 51.Google Scholar

63. “Sovnarkom RSFSR ob akademicheskoi proverke,” Pravda, 22 August 1924, p. 4; “TsK RKPo vysshei shkole,” Pravda, 22 August 1924, p. 5. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 132, 136, 149, 344; Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, p. 38.Google Scholar

64. Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, pp. 218, 245, 333; KPSS v rez., IV, pp. 111–118, 334–341.Google Scholar

65. KPSS v rez. IV pp. 117, 341; Direktivy VKP(b) po voprosam prosveshcheniia, p. 140.Google Scholar

66. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, pp. 152–155, 161–164; II, p. 84.Google Scholar

67. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, pp. 153, 159; II p. 85.Google Scholar

68. Direktivy VKP(b) i postanovleniia sovetskogo pravitel'stva, I, pp. 153–155, 158–159; II, pp. 87–88.Google Scholar