In record time, illiteracy of the population was eliminated, education became publicly available.
There were many Nobel laureates and winners of international Olympiads. Soviet schoolchildren won international olympiads, including those in the natural sciences.
The well-known innovative teacher Viktor Shatalov said: “In the post-war years, the space industry arose in the USSR, the defense industry rose. All this could not grow out of nothing. Everything was based on education. Therefore, it can be argued that our education was not bad.”
There were indeed many positives. Let's not talk about the mass character and accessibility of the school level of education: today this principle is preserved. Let's talk about the quality of education: people like to compare this property of the Soviet past with the quality of education in modern society.
Despite the fact that a powerful number of leading subjects stood out in the Soviet school, among which were the Russian language, biology, physics, mathematics, the study of disciplines that give a systematic view of the world was mandatory. As a result, the student left the school bench, having almost encyclopedic knowledge. This knowledge became that solid foundation on which it was possible to “build” anything and subsequently educate a specialist in any profile.
The key to quality education was the synchronization of acquired knowledge in different subjects. The facts learned by students in physics lessons echoed the information obtained in the study of chemistry and mathematics. Thus, new concepts and terms were introduced in parallel, which helped to structure knowledge and form a complete picture of the world in children.
Today, teachers are sounding the alarm: schoolchildren lack motivation to study, many high school students do not feel responsible for their own future. In Soviet times, it was possible to create motivation due to the interaction of several factors:
1. The grades in the subjects corresponded to the acquired knowledge. In the USSR, they were not afraid to put deuces and triples even in a year. Class statistics certainly played a role, but were not of paramount importance. A loser could be left for the second year: it was not only a shame in front of other children, but also a powerful incentive to take up studies. It was impossible to buy an assessment: you had to study, because it was impossible to earn an excellent result in another way.
2. The system of patronage and guardianship in the USSR was an indisputable advantage. A weak student was not left alone with his problems and failures. The excellent student took him under his care and studied until the poor student achieved success. For strong children, it was also a good school: in order to explain the subject to another student, they had to work out the material in detail, independently learn to apply optimal pedagogical methods. The system of paternalism brought up many Soviet scientists and teachers, who later became laureates of prestigious international awards.
3. Equal conditions for all. The social status and financial situation of the student's parents had no effect on the results at school. All children were in equal conditions, studied according to the same program, so the road was open to everyone. School knowledge was enough to enter the university without hiring tutors. Compulsory distribution after graduation, although perceived as an undesirable phenomenon, guaranteed work and the demand for acquired knowledge and skills.
4. The emphasis is not only on training, but also on education. The Soviet school covered the student's free time, was interested in his hobbies. Sections, extracurricular activities, which were mandatory, left almost no time for aimless pastime and generated interest in further education.
5. Availability of free extracurricular activities. In the Soviet school, in addition to the compulsory program, electives were regularly held for those who wished. Classes in additional disciplines were free of charge and available to anyone who had the time and interest to study them.
6. Material support for students - scholarships accounted for almost a third of the country's average salary.
The combination of these factors gave rise to a huge incentive to study, without which Soviet education would not have been so effective.
A teacher in a Soviet school is an image with a high social status. Teachers were respected and treated as a valuable and socially significant work. Films were made about the school, songs were composed, presenting teachers in them as intelligent, honest and highly moral people who need to be equaled. Being a teacher was considered an honor.
There were reasons for this. High demands were placed on the personality of a teacher in the Soviet school. The teachers were people who graduated from universities and had an inner calling to teach children.
This situation continued until the 1970s. Teachers had relatively high salaries even compared to skilled workers. But closer to the "perestroika" the situation began to change. The development of capitalist relations contributed to the decline in the authority of the teacher's personality. The focus on material values, which have now become achievable, has made the profession of a teacher unprofitable and unprestigious, which led to the leveling of the true value of school grades.
So, Soviet education was based on three main "pillars":
1. Encyclopedic knowledge, achieved through versatile learning and synchronization of information obtained as a result of studying various subjects.
2. The presence of a powerful incentive for children to study, thanks to paternalism and free extracurricular activities.
3. Respect for teaching work and the institution of the school as a whole.
Looking at the Soviet education system from the "bell tower" of modernity, some shortcomings can be noted. We can say that they are something like a brick that we, many years later, could add to the temple of science built by a great country.
We will not touch on the problem of the abundance of ideology and the subordination of the humanities to it. Criticizing the ideological system of that time today is like criticizing the history of your country. Let's look at some of the shortcomings that can serve as an invaluable experience for us.
1. Emphasis on theory, not practice. A. Raikin's famous phrase: "Forget everything you were taught at school, and listen ..." was not born from scratch. Behind it lies an intensified study of theory and a lack of connection between the acquired knowledge and life. Nevertheless, the lack of practical experience did not prevent the education of great designers and engineers.
2. Low level of teaching foreign languages. The lack of experience in communicating with native speakers gave rise to the study of languages based on stamps that did not change in textbooks from year to year. Soviet schoolchildren, after 6 years of studying a foreign language, could not speak it even within the limits of everyday topics, although they knew grammar very well. The inaccessibility of educational foreign literature, audio and video recordings, the lack of the need to communicate with foreigners relegated the study of foreign languages to the background.
3. Lack of access to foreign literature. The Iron Curtain created a situation in which it became not only shameful, but also dangerous to refer to foreign scientists in student and academic papers. The lack of a fresh stream of information has given rise to some conservation of teaching methods. In this regard, in 1992, when Western influences became available, the school system seemed outdated and in need of reformation.
4. Lack of home education and external studies. It is difficult to judge whether this is good or bad, but the lack of opportunity for strong students to take subjects externally and move to the next class hindered the development of future advanced personnel, equalized them with the bulk of schoolchildren.
But no matter how hard we try today to find a "fly in the ointment" in the Soviet education system, its merits remain obvious. Perhaps the time will come when we will return to the experience of the USSR, having mastered its positive aspects, taking into account the modern requirements of society.
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It is impossible to talk about any merits of the Soviet education system without understanding how, when and where it came from. The basic principles of education for the near future were formulated as early as 1903. At the II Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, it was stated that education should be universal and free for all children under 16, regardless of gender. In addition, estate and national schools should be liquidated, as well as the school should be separated from the church. 9 1917 is the day of the establishment of the State Commission for Education, which was supposed to develop and control the entire system of education and culture of the vast country of the Soviets. The regulation "On the Unified Labor School of the RSFSR", dated October 1918, provided for compulsory school attendance by all citizens of the country aged 8 to 50 who still could not read and write. The only thing that could be chosen was to learn to read and write (Russian or native).
At that time, most of the working population was illiterate. The country of the Soviets was considered far behind Europe, where general education for all was introduced almost 100 years earlier. Lenin believed that the ability to read and write could give an impetus to every person to "improve their economy and their state."
By 1920, over 3 million people were literate. The census of the same year showed that more than 40 percent of the population over the age of 8 could read and write.
The 1920 census was incomplete. It was not carried out in Belarus, Crimea, Transcaucasia, in the North Caucasus, in the Podolsk and Volyn provinces, and in a number of places in Ukraine.
Fundamental changes awaited the education system in 1918-1920. The school was separated from the church, and the church from the state. The teaching of any creed was forbidden, boys and girls now studied together, and now there was nothing to pay for the lessons. At the same time, they began to create a system of preschool education, revised the rules for admission to higher educational institutions.
In 1927, the average time of study for people over 9 years old was just over a year, in 1977 it was almost 8 full years.
By the 1930s, illiteracy as a phenomenon was defeated. The education system was organized as follows. Almost immediately after the birth of a child, he could be sent to a nursery, then to a kindergarten. Moreover, there were both day care and round-the-clock kindergartens. After 4 years of primary school education, the child became a secondary school student. Upon graduation, he could get a profession at a college or technical school, or continue his studies in the senior classes of a basic school.
The desire to educate trustworthy members of Soviet society and competent specialists (especially in engineering and technology) made the Soviet education system the best in the world. It underwent a total reform during the liberal reforms in the 1990s.
One of the most significant advantages of the Soviet school system was its accessibility. This right was enshrined constitutionally (Article 45 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1977).
The main difference between the Soviet education system and the American or British one was the unity and consistency of all parts of education. A clear vertical level (elementary, secondary school, university, doctoral studies) made it possible to accurately plan the vector of one's education. Uniform programs and requirements were developed for each stage. When parents moved or changed schools for any other reason, there was no need to re-learn the material or try to understand the system adopted in the new educational institution. The maximum trouble that a transition to another school could bring was the need to repeat or catch up with 3-4 topics in each discipline. Textbooks in the school library were issued free of charge and were available to absolutely everyone.
Soviet school teachers provided basic knowledge in their subjects. And they were quite enough for a school graduate to enter a higher educational institution on his own (without tutors and bribes). Nevertheless, Soviet education was considered fundamental. The general education level implied a broad outlook. There was not a single school graduate in the USSR who did not read Pushkin or did not know who Vasnetsov was.
Now in Russian schools, exams can be mandatory for students even in primary grades (depending on the internal policy of the school and the decision of the pedagogical council). In the Soviet school, children took the final final exams after the 8th and after the 10th grade. There was no mention of any testing. The method of knowledge control both in the classroom and during the exams was understandable and transparent.
Each student who decided to continue his studies at the university was guaranteed to get a job upon graduation. Firstly, the number of places in universities and institutes was limited by the social order, and secondly, after graduation, mandatory distribution was carried out. Often, young professionals were sent to virgin lands, to all-Union construction sites. However, it was necessary to work there only a few years (this is how the state compensated for the cost of training). Then there was an opportunity to return to their hometown or stay where they got on the distribution.
It is a mistake to assume that in the Soviet school all students had the same level of knowledge. Of course, the general program should be assimilated by all. But if a teenager is interested in some particular subject, then he was given every opportunity to study it additionally. At schools there were mathematical circles, circles of lovers of literature, and so on. In addition, there were specialized classes and specialized schools, where children got the opportunity to study certain subjects in depth. Parents were especially proud of their children studying at a mathematical school or a school with a language bias.
Soviet education in certain circles is considered to be the best in the world. In the same circles, it is customary to consider the current generation as lost - they say, these young "victims of the Unified State Examination" cannot stand any comparison with us, the technical intellectuals who went through the crucible of Soviet schools ...
Of course, the truth lies far away from these stereotypes. A Soviet school diploma, if it is a sign of the quality of education, is only in the Soviet sense. Indeed, some people who studied in the USSR amaze us with the depth of their knowledge, but at the same time, many others no less amaze us with the depth of their ignorance. Not knowing Latin letters, not being able to add simple fractions, not physically understanding the simplest written texts - alas, for Soviet citizens this was a variant of the norm.
At the same time, Soviet schools also had undeniable advantages - for example, teachers then had the opportunity to freely give deuces and leave “not pulling” students for the second year. This whip created the mood necessary for study, which is so lacking now in many modern schools and universities.
Let's get right to the point of the post. A long overdue article on the pros and cons of Soviet education was created on the Patriot's Handbook by the efforts of a team of authors. I am publishing this article here and I ask you to join the discussion - and, if necessary, even supplement and correct the article directly on the Directory, since this is a wiki project that is available for editing to everyone:
This article examines the Soviet education system in terms of its advantages and disadvantages. The Soviet system followed the task of educating and shaping a personality worthy of realizing for future generations the main national idea of the Soviet Union - a bright communist future. This task was subordinated not only to the teaching of knowledge about nature, society and the state, but the education of patriotism, internationalism and morality
== Pros (+) ==
Mass character. In Soviet times, for the first time in the history of Russia, almost universal literacy was achieved, close to 100%.
Of course, even in the era of the late USSR, many people of the older generation had only 3-4 grades of education behind them, because far from everyone was able to complete a full course of schooling due to the war, mass migrations, and the need to go to work early. However, virtually all citizens learned to read and write.
For mass education, one must also say thanks to the tsarist government, which for 20 pre-revolutionary years almost doubled the literacy rate in the country - by 1917 almost half of the population was literate. The Bolsheviks, as a result, received a huge number of literate and trained teachers, and they had only the second time to double the proportion of literate people in the country, which they did.
Wide access to education for national and linguistic minorities. During the process of so-called indigenization, the Bolsheviks in the 1920s and 1930s. for the first time introduced education in the languages of many small peoples of Russia (often creating and introducing alphabets and writing for these languages along the way). Representatives of the outlying peoples got the opportunity to become literate, first in their native language, and then in Russian, which accelerated the elimination of illiteracy.
On the other hand, this very indigenization, which was partially curtailed in the late 1930s, managed to make a significant contribution to the future collapse of the USSR along national borders.
High accessibility for the majority of the population (universal free secondary education, very common higher education). In tsarist Russia, education was associated with class restrictions, although as its availability grew, these restrictions weakened and blurred, and by 1917, with money or special talents, representatives of any class could receive a good education. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, class restrictions were finally lifted. Primary and then secondary education became universal, and the number of students in higher educational institutions increased many times over.
High motivation of students, respect of society for education. Young people in the USSR really wanted to study very much. In Soviet conditions, when the right to private property was seriously limited, and entrepreneurial activity is practically suppressed (especially after the closure of artels under Khrushchev), getting an education was the main way to advance in life and start making good money. There were few alternatives: far from everyone had enough health for Stakhanov’s manual labor, and for a successful party or military career it was also necessary to improve their level of education (illiterate proletarians were recruited without looking back only in the first decade after the revolution).
Respect for the work of the teacher and teacher. At least until the 1960s and 1970s, while illiteracy was being eliminated in the USSR and the system of universal secondary education was being established, the teaching profession remained one of the most respected and demanded in society. Comparatively literate and capable people became teachers, moreover, they were motivated by the idea of bringing enlightenment to the masses. In addition, it was a real alternative to hard work on the collective farm or in production. A similar situation was in higher education, where, in addition, during the time of Stalin there were very good salaries (already under Khrushchev, however, the salaries of the intelligentsia were reduced to the level of workers and even lower). Songs were written about the school, films were made, many of which were included in the golden fund of national culture.
Relatively high level of initial training of those entering higher educational institutions. The number of students in the RSFSR at the end of the Soviet era was at least two times lower than in modern Russia, and the proportion of young people in the population was higher. Accordingly, with a similar population in the RSFSR and in the modern Russian Federation, the competition for each place in Soviet universities was twice as high as in modern Russian ones, and as a result, the contingent was recruited there with a better and more capable one. It is with this circumstance that the complaints of modern teachers about a sharp drop in the level of preparation of applicants and students are primarily associated.
Very high quality technical education. Soviet physics, astronomy, geography, geology, applied technical disciplines and, of course, mathematics, were without a doubt at the highest world level. A huge number of outstanding discoveries and technical inventions of the Soviet era speaks for itself, and the list of world-famous Soviet scientists looks very impressive. and inventors. However, even here we must say special thanks to pre-revolutionary Russian science and higher education, which served as a solid foundation for all these achievements. But it is impossible not to admit that the Soviet Union succeeded - even despite the mass emigration of Russian scientists after the revolution - to fully revive, continue and develop at the highest level the domestic tradition in the field of technical thought, natural and exact sciences.
Satisfaction of the state's colossal demand for new personnel in the face of a sharp increase in industry, the army and science (thanks to large-scale state planning). In the course of mass industrialization in the USSR, several new branches of industry were created and the scale of production in all branches was significantly increased many times and dozens of times. Such impressive growth required the training of many specialists capable of working with the most modern technology. In addition, it was necessary to make up for significant losses of personnel as a result of revolutionary emigration, civil war, repressions and the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet education system successfully coped with the training of many millions of specialists in hundreds of specialties - thanks to this, the most important state tasks related to the country's survival were solved.
Relatively high scholarships. The average scholarship in the late USSR was 40 rubles, while the salary of an engineer was 130-150 rubles. That is, scholarships reached about 30% of salaries, which is much higher than in the case of modern scholarships, which are large enough only for honors students, graduate students and doctoral students.
Developed and free extracurricular education. In the USSR, there were thousands of palaces and houses of pioneers, stations for young technicians, young tourists and young naturalists, and many other circles. Unlike most of today's circles, sections and electives Soviet extracurricular education was free.
The world's best sports education system. From the very beginning, the Soviet Union paid great attention to the development of physical culture and sports. If in the Russian empire, sports education was just in its infancy, then in the Soviet Union it reached the forefront in the world. The success of the Soviet sports system is clearly visible in the results at the Olympics: the Soviet team has consistently won first or second place in every Olympics since 1952, when the USSR began to participate in the international Olympic movement.
== Cons (−) ==
Low quality of liberal education due to ideological restrictions and stamps. Almost all the humanities and social disciplines in schools and universities of the USSR were to one degree or another loaded with Marxism-Leninism, and during the life of Stalin - also with Stalinism. The concept of teaching the history of Russia and even the history of the ancient world was based on the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, according to which the entire world history was presented as a process of maturing the prerequisites for the 1917 revolution and the future building of a communist society. In the teaching of economics and politics, the main place was occupied by Marxist political economy, in the teaching of philosophy - by dialectical materialism. These directions in themselves are worthy of attention, however, they were declared the only true and correct, and all the others were declared either their predecessors, or false directions. As a result, huge layers of humanitarian knowledge either completely fell out of the Soviet education system, or were presented in a dosed and exclusively critical way, as “bourgeois science”. Party history, political economy and diamat were compulsory subjects in Soviet universities, and in the late Soviet period, they were among the least loved by students (as a rule, they were far from the main specialty, divorced from reality and at the same time relatively complex, so their study was mainly reduced to memorizing formulaic phrases and ideological formulations).
Blackening of history and distortion of moral guidelines. In the USSR, school and university the teaching of history was characterized by the denigration of the tsarist period in the history of the country, and to the early Soviet period, this denigration was much more ambitious than the post-perestroika denigration of already Soviet history. Many pre-revolutionary statesmen were declared "servants of tsarism", their names were deleted from history books or mentioned in a strictly negative context. Conversely, outright robbers, like Stenka Razin, were declared "people's heroes", and terrorists, like the murderers of Alexander II, were called "freedom fighters" and "advanced people." In the Soviet concept of world history, a lot of attention was paid to all kinds of oppression of slaves and peasants, all kinds of uprisings and rebellions (of course, these are also important topics, but by no means less important than the history of technology and military affairs, geopolitical and dynastic history, etc.) . The concept of "class struggle" was implanted, according to which representatives of the "exploiting classes" were to be persecuted or even destroyed. From 1917 to 1934 history in universities not taught in general, all historical faculties were closed, traditional patriotism was condemned as "great power" and "chauvinism", and instead "proletarian internationalism" was planted. Then Stalin abruptly changed course towards the revival of patriotism and returned history to universities, however, the negative consequences of post-revolutionary denial and distortion of historical memory are still felt: many historical heroes were forgotten, for several generations of people the perception of history was sharply torn between periods before the revolution and after, many good traditions have been lost.
The negative impact of ideology and political struggle for academic personnel and separate disciplines. As a result of the revolution and civil war in 1918-1924. about 2 million people were forced to emigrate from the RSFSR (the so-called white emigration), and most of the emigrants were representatives of the most educated segments of the population, including a lot of scientists and engineers who emigrated and teachers. According to some estimates, about three-quarters of Russian scientists and engineers died or emigrated during that period. However, already before the First World War, Russia ranked first in Europe in terms of the number of students in universities, so there were a lot of specialists trained in tsarist times in the country (although, for the most part, quite young specialists). Thanks to this, the acute shortage of teaching staff that arose in the USSR was successfully filled in most industries by the end of the 1920s (partly due to an increase in the load on the remaining teachers, but mainly due to the enhanced training of new ones). Subsequently, however, Soviet scientific and teaching cadres were seriously weakened during the repressions and ideological campaigns carried out by the Soviet government. The persecution of genetics is widely known, because of which Russia, which at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the world leaders in biological science, by the end of the 20th century moved into the category of lagging behind. Due to bringing many prominent scientists of the humanities and social areas (historians, philosophers and economists of a non-Marxist persuasion; linguists who participated in discussions on Marrism, as well as Slavists; Byzantologists and theologians; Orientalists - many of them were shot on false charges of spying for Japan or other countries because their professional connections), but representatives of the natural and exact sciences also suffered (the case of the mathematician Luzin, the Pulkovo case of astronomers, the Krasnoyarsk case of geologists). As a result of these events, entire scientific schools were lost or suppressed, and in many areas there was a noticeable lag behind world science. Overly ideologized and politicized there was a culture of scientific discussion, which, of course, had a negative impact on education.
Restrictions on access to higher education for certain groups of the population. In fact, the opportunities to receive higher education in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s were almost non-existent. the so-called dispossessed were deprived, including private merchants, entrepreneurs (using wage labor), representatives of the clergy, and former policemen. Children from families of nobles, merchants, clergy often faced obstacles when trying to get a higher education in the pre-war period. In the union republics of the USSR, representatives of the titular nationalities received preferences for admission to universities. In the post-war period, the percentage rate for admission to the most prestigious universities was tacitly introduced in relation to Jews.
Restrictions on acquaintance with foreign scientific literature, restrictions on international communication of scientists. If in the 1920s pre-revolutionary practice continued in Soviet science, involving very long trips abroad and internships for scientists and the best students, constant participation in international conferences, free correspondence and unlimited receipt of foreign scientific literature, then in the 1930s. the situation began to change for the worse. Especially in the period after 1937 and before the war, having foreign connections became simply dangerous for the lives and careers of scientists, since so many were then arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage. In the late 1940s during the ideological campaign against with cosmopolitanism it got to the point that references to the works of foreign authors began to be regarded as a manifestation of "groveling before the West", and many were forced to necessarily accompany such references with criticism and stereotyped condemnation of "bourgeois science". The desire to publish in foreign journals was also condemned, and, most unpleasantly, almost half of the world's leading scientific journals, including publications like Science and Nature, were removed from the public domain and sent to special safekeeping. This “turned into the hands of the most mediocre and unprincipled scientists”, for whom “mass separation from foreign literature made it easier to use it for covert plagiarism and pass it off as original research.” As a result, in the middle of the 20th century, Soviet science, and after it education, in conditions of limited external relations, they began to fall out of the global process and “stew in their own juice”: it became much more difficult to distinguish world-class scientists from compilers, plagiarists and pseudoscientists, many achievements of Western science remained unknown or little known in the USSR. In the post-Stalin period, the situation with the “pupation” of Soviet science was only partially corrected, as a result, there is still a problem of low citation of Russian scientists abroad and insufficient acquaintance with advanced foreign research.
Relatively low quality of teaching foreign languages. If in the West in the post-war period the practice of attracting foreigners - native speakers to teaching, as well as the practice of large-scale student exchange, in which students could live in another country for several months and learn the spoken language in the best possible way, was established, then the Soviet Union lagged far behind in the teaching of foreign languages. due to closed borders and the almost complete absence of emigration from the West to the USSR. Also, for censorship reasons, the entry into the Soviet Union of foreign literature, films, recordings of songs was limited, which by no means did not contribute learning foreign languages. Compared to the USSR, in modern Russia there are much more opportunities for learning languages.
Ideological censorship, autarky and stagnation in artistic education in the late USSR. Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and the early USSR were among the world leaders and trendsetters in the field of artistic culture. Avant-garde painting, constructivism, futurism, Russian ballet, the Stanislavsky system, the art of film editing - this and much more aroused admiration from the whole world. However, by the end of the 1930s. the variety of styles and trends was replaced by the dominance of socialist realism imposed from above - in itself it was a very worthy and interesting style, but the problem was the artificial suppression of alternatives. was proclaimed reliance on their own traditions, while attempts at new experiments began to be condemned in many cases (“Muddle instead of music”), and borrowings from Western cultural techniques were subjected to restrictions and persecution, as in the case of jazz, and then rock music. Indeed, not in all cases experiments and borrowings were successful, however, the scale of condemnation and restrictions were so inadequate that this led to to destimulation innovations in art and to the gradual loss of world cultural leadership by the Soviet Union, as well as to the emergence of an "underground culture" in the USSR.
Degradation of education in the field of architecture, design, urban planning. During Khrushchev's "struggle with architectural excesses" seriously affected the entire system of architectural education, design and construction. In 1956, the Academy of Architecture of the USSR was reorganized and renamed the Academy of Construction and Architecture of the USSR, and in 1963 it was completely closed (until 1989). As a result, the era of the late USSR became a time of decline in design and a growing crisis in the field of architecture and the urban environment. The architectural tradition was interrupted and was replaced by the soulless construction of microdistricts inconvenient for life; instead of a “bright future”, a “gray present” was built in the USSR.
Cancellation of teaching of fundamental classical disciplines. In the Soviet Union, such an important subject as logic was excluded from the school curriculum (it was studied in pre-revolutionary gymnasiums). Logic was returned to the program and a textbook was released only in 1947, but in 1955 it was removed again, and, with the exception of physics and mathematics lyceums and other elite schools, logic is still not taught to schoolchildren in Russia. Meanwhile, logic is one of the foundations of the scientific method and one of the most important subjects that gives skills to distinguish between truth and lies, to conduct discussions. and opposition manipulation. Another important difference between the Soviet school curriculum from pre-revolutionary the gymnasium was the abolition of the teaching of Latin and Greek. Knowledge of these ancient languages may seem useless only at first glance, because almost all modern scientific terminology, medical and biological nomenclature, and mathematical notation are built on them; in addition, the study of these languages is a good gymnastics for the mind and helps to develop the skills of discussion. Several generations of prominent Russian scientists and writers who worked before the revolution and in the first decades of the USSR were brought up in the tradition of classical education, which included the study of logic, Latin and Greek, and the almost complete rejection of all this hardly had a positive effect on education in the USSR and Russia.
Problems with the education of moral values, partial loss of the educational role of education. The best Soviet teachers have always insisted that the goal of education is not only the transfer of knowledge and skills, but also the upbringing of a moral, cultured person. In many ways, this task was successfully solved in the early USSR - then it was possible to solve the problem of mass child homelessness and juvenile delinquency that developed after the civil war; managed to raise the cultural level of significant masses of the population. However, in some respects, Soviet education not only failed to educate morality, but in some ways even exacerbated the problem. Many educational institutions of pre-revolutionary Russia, including church education and institutions for noble maidens, directly set themselves the main task of educating a moral person and preparing him either for the role of a spouse in the family, or for the role of a “brother” or “sister” in the community of believers. Under Soviet rule, all such institutions were closed, specialized analogues were not created for them, the education of morality was entrusted to an ordinary mass school, separating it from religion, which was replaced by propaganda of atheism. The moral goal of Soviet education was no longer the education of a worthy member of the family and community, as it was before, but the education of a member of the working collective. For the accelerated development of industry and science, perhaps this was not bad. However, such an approach could hardly solve the problems of a high level of abortions (for the first time in the world legalized in the USSR), a high level of divorces and a general degradation of family values, a sharp transition to having few children, growing mass alcoholism and extremely low life expectancy for men in the late USSR by world standards.
Almost complete elimination of home education. Many outstanding figures of Russian history and culture received home education instead of school, which proves that such education can be very effective. Of course, this form of education is not available to everyone, but either to relatively wealthy people who can hire teachers, or simply to intelligent and educated people who can devote a lot of time to their children and personally go through the school curriculum with them. However, after the revolution, home education in the USSR was by no means encouraged (largely for ideological reasons). The external study system in the USSR was introduced in 1935, but for a long time it was designed almost exclusively for adults, and a full-fledged opportunity external training for schoolchildren was introduced only in 1985–1991.
Non-alternative co-education for boys and girls. One of the dubious Soviet innovations in education was the compulsory joint education of boys and girls instead of pre-revolutionary separate education. At that time, this step was justified by the struggle for women's rights, the lack of staff and facilities for the organization of separate schools, as well as the widespread practice of co-education in some of the leading countries of the world, including the United States. However, the latest research in the United States shows that separate education improves student outcomes by 10-20%. Everything is quite simple: in joint schools, boys and girls are distracted by each other, there are noticeably more conflicts and incidents; boys are lagging behind in learning until the last grades of school from girls of the same age, because the male body develops more slowly. On the contrary, with separate education, it becomes possible to better take into account the behavioral and cognitive characteristics of different sexes to improve performance, self-esteem of adolescents is more dependent on from success, and not from any other things. Interestingly, in 1943, separate education for boys and girls was introduced in the cities, which, after the death of Stalin, was again eliminated in 1954.
The system of orphanages in the late USSR. While in Western countries in the middle of the 20th century they began to massively close orphanages and place orphans in families (this process was generally completed by 1980), in the USSR the system of orphanages was not only preserved, but even degraded. compared to pre-war times. Indeed, in times of struggle with homelessness in the 1920s, according to the ideas of Makarenko and other teachers, labor became the main element in the re-education of former homeless children, while the pupils of labor communes were given the opportunity to self-government, in order to develop skills of independence and socialization. This technique gave excellent results, especially considering that before the revolution, civil war and famine, most homeless children still had some experience of family life. However, later, due to the prohibition of child labor, this system was abandoned in the USSR. By 1990, there were 564 orphanages in the USSR, the level of socialization of orphanage residents was low, and many former orphanage residents fell into the ranks of criminals and outcasts. In the 1990s the number of orphanages in Russia almost tripled, but in the second half of the 2000s, the process of their liquidation began, and in the 2010s. it is close to completion.
Degradation of the system of secondary vocational education in the late USSR. Although the USSR in every possible way extolled the man of labor and promoted working professions, by the 1970s. The system of secondary vocational education in the country began to clearly degrade. “If you study poorly at school, you will go to vocational school!” (vocational technical school) - something like this parents said to negligent schoolchildren. In vocational schools they took poor and triple students who did not enter universities, forcibly placed juvenile criminals there, and all this against the background of a comparative surplus of specialist workers and poor development of the service sector due to lack advanced entrepreneurship (i.e. alternatives in employment, as now, then it was not). cultural and educational work in vocational schools turned out to be poorly organized, students "vocational schools" began to be associated with hooliganism, drunkenness and a general low level of development. The negative image of vocational education in working specialties persists in Russia to this day, although qualified turners, locksmiths, millers, plumbers are now among the highly paid professions, whose representatives are in short supply.
Insufficient education of critical thinking among citizens, excessive unification and paternalism. Education, like the media and Soviet culture in general, nurtured faith in citizens into a mighty and a wise party that leads everyone, cannot lie or make major mistakes. Of course, faith in the strength of one's people and state is an important and necessary thing, but in order to support this faith, one cannot go too far, systematically hush up the truth and severely suppress alternative opinions. As a result, when during the years of perestroika and glasnost, these very alternative opinions were given freedom, when previously hushed up facts about the history and modern problems of the country began to massively emerge, huge masses of citizens felt deceived, lost confidence in the state and in everything that they were taught in school in many humanities. Finally, citizens were unable to resist outright lies, myths and media manipulation, which ultimately led to the collapse of the USSR and the deep degradation of society and the economy in the 1990s. Alas, the Soviet educational and social system could not bring up a sufficient level of caution, critical thinking, tolerance to alternative opinions, culture of discussion. Also, the education of the late Soviet model did not help to instill in citizens sufficient independence, the desire to personally solve their problems, and not wait until the state or someone else does it for you. All this had to be learned from the bitter post-Soviet experience.
== Conclusions (−) ==
In assessing the Soviet education system, it is difficult to come to a unified and exhaustive conclusion due to her inconsistencies.
Positive points:
The final eradication of illiteracy and the provision of universal secondary education
- World leadership in the field of higher technical education, in natural and exact sciences.
- The key role of education in ensuring industrialization, victory in the Great Patriotic War and scientific and technical achievements in the postwar period.
- High prestige and respect for the teaching profession, a high level of motivation of teachers and students.
- High level of development of sports education, wide promotion of sports activities.
- The emphasis on technical education made it possible to solve the most important tasks for the Soviet state.
Negative points:
Lagging behind the West in the field of liberal arts education due to the negative influence of ideology and foreign policy situations. The teaching of history, economics and foreign languages was particularly hard hit.
- Excessive unification and centralization of school and, to a lesser extent, university education, coupled with its small contacts with the outside world. This led to the loss of many successful pre-revolutionary practices and to a growing lag behind foreign science in a number of areas.
- Direct guilt in the degradation of family values and the general decline in morals in the late USSR, which led to negative trends in the development of demography and social relations.
- Insufficient education of critical thinking among citizens, which led to the inability of society to effectively resist manipulation during the information war.
- Art education suffered from censorship and high ideological content, as well as from obstacles to mastering foreign techniques; one of the most important consequences of this is the decline of design, architecture and urban planning in the late USSR.
- That is, in its humanitarian aspect, the Soviet education system ultimately not only failed to solve the key tasks of preserving and strengthening the state, but also became one of the factors in the moral, demographic and social decline of the country. Which, however, does not negate the impressive achievements of the USSR in the field of the humanities and arts.
PS. By the way, about logic. A textbook of logic, as well as other entertaining materials on the art of civilized discussion, can be found here:
P.P.S. Tails on Election Day fritzmorgen decided not to release, without the political component they would have turned out too insipid. However, taking the opportunity fritzmorgen asks you today to vote not with your heart, as in 1996, but still with your brain.
p3s. If you make malicious remarks about the Unified State Examination, please immediately indicate in the comments whether you tried to solve problems from the Unified State Examination personally, or about the Unified State Examination “Moysha sang” to you.
P4S. Just in case. The article's discussion page in the Patriot's Handbook is located at this address:
Annotation This article analyzes two education systems in the Russian Federation - modern and Soviet. A comparison is made and the problem is identified, from the very initial stages of education (kindergartens) to higher education.
Key words: education, crisis of the traditional system, Soviet system of education, modern educational system in the Russian Federation, corruption, quality of education.
Keywords: education, crisis of the traditional system of the Soviet education system, modern educational system in Russia, corruption, the quality of education.
Progress has been going on rapidly in our country for almost thirty years, many things are changing, people, society, economy, politics, and naturally, this has affected another important part of society, such as education. Now, many are wondering about the quality of education, which affects not only the intellectual potential of the younger generation, but also the future of the country, the development of the national economy. The former Soviet system of education has been destroyed, but the new system of education is in the process of formation. The crisis of the Russian education system is affected not only by the change in the political system, but also by the ever-increasing globalization.
In the Soviet Union, teachers had a special status: parents did not doubt the professional suitability of teachers and did not question their recommendations for the upbringing and development of children. Preschool education in the USSR was perhaps the first of the most important stages in the development of a Soviet citizen. Kindergartens were built throughout the country, during this period there was a system of preschool education, which in turn covered all children from birth to the age of seven. At the age of two, they were first sent to a nursery, then from three they moved to a kindergarten, where they went until the age of seven. Despite many social problems of that time, the system of preschool education in the USSR ensured the competent upbringing of children.
During perestroika, there was a decline in the birth rate, there is such a thing as "natural population decline", many buildings of preschool education passed into private hands. As a result of this process, many have lost such an institution within walking distance, and taking a child to a preschool every day is an overhead measure. For a very long time, the process of closing preschool sectors took place, as a result of which an active shortage of places began, an overabundance in groups of children, and some of which could not even be given away, either during the child, or did not take the children to school at all.
It should be noted that in the past few years, this situation has begun to improve and new, modern kindergartens are being opened, equipped with the latest technology, and old kindergartens are being reconstructed. But the problem of lack of places is still quite acute, besides, the corruption cases of kindergarten employees have led to the fact that even if there are empty places in the kindergarten, it is very difficult to get there without expensive gifts or financial support. In addition, monthly fees for various needs have appeared, although kindergartens, like schools, which we will discuss later, receive their funding in full.
General primary education - schools Under the USSR, there were three types of schools, which were divided into primary (from first to third grade), eight-year (from first to eighth grade) and ten-year, providing a full cycle of education. There was also a uniformity of education, so that the student could easily move from one educational institution to another. An important role in the system of school education was played by boarding schools and “extension schools”, which allowed parents not to worry about their children. A feature in Soviet times was not school education, pioneer organizations, pioneer houses, palaces, circles, stations for young specialists and technicians, and much more, any of the school students could choose an activity to their liking and interests, and most importantly, the activity was free. Such classes taught children the future, perhaps their professions, received knowledge in various fields. There is no need to talk about free circles and sections in modern Russia.
You will have to pay for everything, and even electives in some schools also exist exclusively on a commercial basis. Many parents cannot afford this. An important point in the Soviet school system was the system of medals. Graduates of the senior level, who received semi-annual, annual and examination marks "excellent" in all subjects, were awarded a gold medal, and those who had one mark "good" - a silver one. In addition to moral satisfaction, the medal gave benefits when entering a university in the traditional form. Currently, schooling takes 11 years and the main goal of education is admission to a university. At the end of school, students take the Unified State Examination (USE), which is mandatory in mathematics and the Russian language, graduates choose the rest of the subjects themselves based on their needs. With the introduction of the Unified State Examination, all benefits, such as medals, lost their meaning and were canceled.
The issuance of medals is made only as a moral encouragement. The system of the Unified State Exam causes some criticism, both from teachers and parents, in addition, many experts show that this exam does not reflect knowledge, because the last two years of schooling students are trained to solve specific test problems, and do not develop all-round thinking. It is worth noting that the introduction of the USE was also to reduce corruption among schools. The high level of corruption in educational institutions blocks the possibility of vertical mobility through quality education for children from disadvantaged families. Endless school fees, financial aid to schools for medals and other extortion have become commonplace in the education system of modern Russia.
To replenish the workforce in the USSR, vocational schools were created, which allowed not only to gain knowledge, but also to master a working specialty, which usually did not need highly qualified specialists. In modern Russia, most of the technical schools have been transformed into colleges. The name has changed, but the essence remains the same. Technical schools and colleges teach in specialties in which secondary vocational education can be obtained in 3.10 years, and in certain specialties - 2.5 years. One of the achievements of the Soviet education system is higher education, which could rightfully be considered the best in the world at that time. The system of higher education was represented by institutes and universities, and if the former mainly specialized in the training of technical specialists, then the second category of universities was focused on the training of humanitarians and teachers. In addition to the direct training of specialists, universities in the USSR had an extensive scientific and research base, which made it possible to engage in scientific and innovative activities. Higher education in the USSR was free, and students were paid scholarships based on their grades. The average scholarship in the USSR was 40 rubles. Is it a lot? Given that the salary of an engineer was 130-150 rubles, students could afford to live quite well.
In addition, it was in the USSR that the system of correspondence education was born. The first in the world! Despite the fact that tensions between the USSR and political opponents were not uncommon, the education system of the USSR, especially in engineering and technical specialties, occupied a leading position in the world. If we turn to the document "Forecast of the long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030", then we can see that we are waiting for no small changes that should make good changes in the education system of the Russian Federation. A necessary condition for the formation of an innovative economy is the modernization of the education system, which is the basis for dynamic economic growth and social development of society. Within the framework of the state program, it is necessary to provide funding for the development of vocational education, the development of general education and additional education for children; accessibility of education; updating the quality of education.
Since 2013, the implementation of the first stage of the state program of the Russian Federation "Development of Education" for 2013-2020, approved by the order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated November 22, 2012 No. 2148-r (hereinafter referred to as the State Program), has been implemented. The total amount of financial support for the State Program from the federal budget in 2013-2020 in current prices is 3992.2 billion rubles (an average of about 0.85% of GDP in the corresponding years). At the same time, the annual volume of financial support increases from 446.9 billion rubles in 2013 to 631.2 billion rubles in 2020.
It is very important to try either to return the Soviet system of education - to correct and adjust it to a new style, or to adjust Western education systems and identify ours - our own style of teaching and education in general. Despite all the current problems, the hope is that higher education, and indeed the entire education system in modern Russia, will not only reach the level of education in the USSR, but also surpass it, become much more efficient and better due to modern technologies and scientific progress.
Literature: 1. Vert N. History of the Soviet state 1900 - 1991. - M., 1992.
2. "Forecast of the long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030" from 2013
3. Leonidova G. V. “Problems of the effectiveness of public administration. The sphere of education of territories. State and development prospects” Vologda, 2014 ISBN: 978-5-93299-262-3
4. http://www.strana-Soviet education
5. http://www.bibliofond.ru
6. http://fulledu.ru - site "Education Navigator"
Borisova Veronika Sergeevna, Molokova Elena Leonidovna
Soviet education in certain circles is considered to be the best in the world. In the same circles, it is customary to consider the current generation as lost - they say, these young "victims of the Unified State Examination" cannot stand any comparison with us, the technical intellectuals who went through the crucible of Soviet schools ...
Of course, the truth lies far away from these stereotypes. A certificate of graduation from a Soviet school, if it is a sign of the quality of education, is only in the Soviet sense. Indeed, some people who studied in the USSR amaze us with the depth of their knowledge, but at the same time, many others no less amaze us with the depth of their ignorance. Not knowing Latin letters, not being able to add simple fractions, not physically understanding the simplest written texts - alas, for Soviet citizens this was a variant of the norm.
At the same time, Soviet schools also had undeniable advantages - for example, teachers then had the opportunity to freely give deuces and leave “not pulling” students for the second year. This whip created the mood necessary for study, which is so lacking now in many modern schools and universities.
Let's get right to the point of the post. A long overdue article on the pros and cons of Soviet education was created on the Patriot's Handbook by the efforts of a team of authors. I am publishing this article here and I ask you to join the discussion - and, if necessary, even supplement and correct the article directly on the Directory, since this is a wiki project that is available for editing to everyone:
This article examines the Soviet education system in terms of its advantages and disadvantages. The Soviet system followed the task of educating and shaping a personality worthy of realizing for future generations the main national idea of the Soviet Union - a bright communist future. This task was subordinated not only to the teaching of knowledge about nature, society and the state, but the education of patriotism, internationalism and morality.== Pros (+) ==
Mass character. In Soviet times, for the first time in the history of Russia, almost universal literacy was achieved, close to 100%.
Of course, even in the era of the late USSR, many people of the older generation had only 3-4 grades of education behind them, because far from everyone was able to complete a full course of schooling due to the war, mass migrations, and the need to go to work early. However, virtually all citizens learned to read and write.
For mass education, one must also thank the tsarist government, which in the 20 pre-revolutionary years practically doubled the level of literacy in the country - by 1917, almost half of the population was literate. The Bolsheviks, as a result, received a huge number of literate and trained teachers, and they only had to double the proportion of literate people in the country for the second time, which they did.Wide access to education for national and linguistic minorities. During the process of so-called indigenization, the Bolsheviks in the 1920s and 1930s. for the first time introduced education in the languages of many small peoples of Russia (often creating and introducing alphabets and writing for these languages along the way). Representatives of the outlying peoples got the opportunity to become literate, first in their native language, and then in Russian, which accelerated the elimination of illiteracy.
On the other hand, this very indigenization, which was partially curtailed in the late 1930s, managed to make a significant contribution to the future collapse of the USSR along national borders.
High accessibility for the majority of the population (universal free secondary education, very common higher education). In tsarist Russia, education was associated with class restrictions, although as its availability grew, these restrictions weakened and blurred, and by 1917, with money or special talents, representatives of any class could receive a good education. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, class restrictions were finally lifted. Primary and then secondary education became universal, and the number of students in higher educational institutions increased many times over.
High motivation of students, respect of society for education. Young people in the USSR really wanted to study very much. Under Soviet conditions, when the right to private property was severely limited and entrepreneurial activity was practically suppressed (especially after the closure of artels under Khrushchev), getting an education was the main way to advance in life and start making good money. There were few alternatives: far from everyone had enough health for Stakhanov’s manual labor, and for a successful party or military career it was also necessary to improve their level of education (illiterate proletarians were recruited without looking back only in the first decade after the revolution).
Respect for the work of the teacher and teacher. At least until the 1960s and 1970s, while illiteracy was being eliminated in the USSR and the system of universal secondary education was being established, the teaching profession remained one of the most respected and in demand in society. Comparatively literate and capable people became teachers, moreover, they were motivated by the idea of bringing enlightenment to the masses. In addition, it was a real alternative to hard work on a collective farm or in production. A similar situation was in higher education, where, in addition, during the time of Stalin there were very good salaries (already under Khrushchev, however, the salaries of the intelligentsia were reduced to the level of workers and even lower). Songs were written about the school, films were made, many of which were included in the golden fund of national culture.
Relatively high level of initial training of students entering higher educational institutions. The number of students in the RSFSR at the end of the Soviet era was at least two times lower than in modern Russia, and the proportion of young people in the population was higher. Accordingly, with a similar population in the RSFSR and in the modern Russian Federation, the competition for each place in Soviet universities was twice as high as in modern Russian ones, and as a result, the contingent was recruited there with a better and more capable one. It is with this circumstance that, first of all, the complaints of modern teachers about a sharp drop in the level of preparation of applicants and students are connected.
Very high quality technical education. Soviet physics, astronomy, geography, geology, applied technical disciplines and, of course, mathematics, were without a doubt at the highest world level. The huge number of outstanding discoveries and technical inventions of the Soviet era speaks for itself, and the list of world-famous Soviet scientists and inventors looks very impressive. However, even here we must say special thanks to pre-revolutionary Russian science and higher education, which served as a solid foundation for all these achievements. But it is impossible not to admit that the Soviet Union succeeded - even despite the mass emigration of Russian scientists after the revolution - to fully revive, continue and develop at the highest level the domestic tradition in the field of technical thought, natural and exact sciences.
Satisfaction of the state's colossal demand for new personnel in the face of a sharp increase in industry, the army and science (thanks to large-scale state planning). In the course of mass industrialization in the USSR, several new branches of industry were created and the scale of production in all branches was significantly increased many times and dozens of times. Such impressive growth required the training of many specialists capable of working with the most modern technology. In addition, it was necessary to make up for significant losses of personnel as a result of revolutionary emigration, civil war, repressions and the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet education system successfully coped with the training of many millions of specialists in hundreds of specialties - thanks to this, the most important state tasks related to the country's survival were solved.
Relatively high scholarships. The average scholarship in the late USSR was 40 rubles, while the salary of an engineer was 130-150 rubles. That is, scholarships reached about 30% of salaries, which is much higher than in the case of modern scholarships, which are large enough only for honors students, graduate students and doctoral students.
Developed and free extracurricular education. In the USSR, there were thousands of palaces and houses of pioneers, stations for young technicians, young tourists and young naturalists, and many other circles. Unlike most of today's circles, sections and electives, Soviet extracurricular education was free.
The world's best sports education system. From the very beginning, the Soviet Union paid great attention to the development of physical culture and sports. If in the Russian Empire sports education was only in its infancy, then in the Soviet Union it reached the forefront in the world. The success of the Soviet sports system is clearly visible in the results at the Olympics: the Soviet team has consistently won first or second place in every Olympics since 1952, when the USSR began to participate in the international Olympic movement.
== Cons (−) ==
Low quality of liberal arts education due to ideological restrictions and clichés. Almost all humanitarian and social disciplines in schools and universities of the USSR were loaded to one degree or another with Marxism-Leninism, and during Stalin's lifetime - also with Stalinism. The concept of teaching the history of Russia and even the history of the ancient world was based on the “Short Course in the History of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks”, according to which the entire world history was presented as a process of maturing the prerequisites for the 1917 revolution and the future building of a communist society. In the teaching of economics and politics, the main place was occupied by Marxist political economy, in the teaching of philosophy - by dialectical materialism. These directions in themselves are worthy of attention, however, they were declared the only true and correct ones, and all the others were declared either their predecessors or false directions. As a result, huge layers of humanitarian knowledge either completely fell out of the Soviet education system, or were presented in a dosed and exclusively critical way, as “bourgeois science”. Party history, political economy and diamat were compulsory subjects in Soviet universities, and in the late Soviet period they were among the least loved by students (as a rule, they were far from the main specialty, divorced from reality and at the same time relatively difficult, so their study is mainly came down to memorizing formulaic phrases and ideological formulations).
Blackening of history and distortion of moral guidelines. In the USSR, school and university teaching of history was characterized by denigration of the tsarist period in the history of the country, and in the early Soviet period this denigration was much more ambitious than the post-perestroika denigration of Soviet history. Many pre-revolutionary statesmen were declared "servants of tsarism", their names were deleted from history books or mentioned in a strictly negative context. Conversely, outright robbers, like Stenka Razin, were declared "people's heroes", and terrorists, like the murderers of Alexander II, were called "freedom fighters" and "advanced people." In the Soviet concept of world history, a lot of attention was paid to all kinds of oppression of slaves and peasants, all kinds of uprisings and rebellions (of course, these are also important topics, but by no means less important than the history of technology and military affairs, geopolitical and dynastic history, etc.) . The concept of "class struggle" was implanted, according to which representatives of the "exploiting classes" were to be persecuted or even destroyed. From 1917 to 1934 history was not taught in universities at all, all historical departments were closed, traditional patriotism was condemned as "great power" and "chauvinism", and instead "proletarian internationalism" was implanted. Then Stalin abruptly changed course towards the revival of patriotism and returned history to universities, however, the negative consequences of post-revolutionary denial and distortion of historical memory are still felt: many historical heroes were forgotten, for several generations of people the perception of history was sharply torn between periods before the revolution and after, many good traditions have been lost.
The negative impact of ideology and political struggle on academic staff and individual disciplines. As a result of the revolution and civil war in 1918-1924. about 2 million people were forced to emigrate from the RSFSR (the so-called white emigration), and most of the emigrants were representatives of the most educated segments of the population, including an extremely large number of scientists, engineers and teachers who emigrated. According to some estimates, about three-quarters of Russian scientists and engineers died or emigrated during that period. However, already before the First World War, Russia ranked first in Europe in terms of the number of students in universities, so there were a lot of specialists trained in tsarist times in the country (although, for the most part, quite young specialists). Thanks to this, the acute shortage of teaching staff that arose in the USSR was successfully filled in most industries by the end of the 1920s (partly due to an increase in the load on the remaining teachers, but mainly due to the enhanced training of new ones). Subsequently, however, the Soviet scientific and teaching staff were seriously weakened during the repressions and ideological campaigns carried out by the Soviet authorities. The persecution of genetics is widely known, because of which Russia, which at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the world leaders in biological science, by the end of the 20th century moved into the category of lagging behind. Due to the introduction of ideological struggle into science, many outstanding scientists of the humanities and social areas suffered (historians, philosophers and economists of a non-Marxist persuasion; linguists who participated in discussions on Marrism, as well as Slavists; Byzantologists and theologians; Orientalists - many of them were shot on false charges spying on Japan or other countries because of their professional connections), but representatives of the natural and exact sciences also suffered (the case of the mathematician Luzin, the Pulkovo case of astronomers, the Krasnoyarsk case of geologists). As a result of these events, entire scientific schools were lost or suppressed, and in many areas there was a noticeable lag behind world science. The culture of scientific discussion was excessively ideologized and politicized, which, of course, had a negative impact on education.
Restrictions on access to higher education for certain groups of the population. In fact, the opportunities to receive higher education in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s were almost non-existent. the so-called dispossessed were deprived, including private merchants, entrepreneurs (using hired labor), representatives of the clergy, and former policemen. Children from families of nobles, merchants, clergy often faced obstacles when trying to get a higher education in the pre-war period. In the union republics of the USSR, representatives of the titular nationalities received preferences for admission to universities. In the post-war period, the percentage rate for admission to the most prestigious universities was tacitly introduced in relation to Jews.
Restrictions on familiarization with foreign scientific literature, restrictions on international communication between scientists. If in the 1920s In Soviet science, pre-revolutionary practice continued, involving very long business trips and internships for scientists and the best students, constant participation in international conferences, free correspondence and unlimited flow of foreign scientific literature, then in the 1930s. the situation began to change for the worse. Especially in the period after 1937 and before the war, the presence of foreign connections became simply dangerous for the lives and careers of scientists, since so many were then arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage. In the late 1940s in the course of the ideological campaign against cosmopolitanism, it came to the point that references to the works of foreign authors began to be regarded as a manifestation of "cow-worship before the West", and many were forced to accompany such references with criticism and stereotyped condemnation of "bourgeois science". The desire to publish in foreign journals was also condemned, and, most unpleasantly, almost half of the world's leading scientific journals, including publications like Science and Nature, were removed from the public domain and sent to special safekeeping. This “turned into the hands of the most mediocre and unprincipled scientists”, for whom “mass separation from foreign literature made it easier to use it for covert plagiarism and pass it off as original research.” As a result, in the middle of the 20th century, Soviet science, and after it education, in conditions of limited external relations, they began to fall out of the global process and "stew in their own juice": it became much more difficult to distinguish world-class scientists from compilers, plagiarists and pseudoscientists, many achievements of Western science remained unknown or little known in the USSR. » of Soviet science was only partially corrected, as a result, there is still a problem of low citation of Russian scientists abroad and insufficient familiarity with advanced foreign research.
Relatively low quality of teaching foreign languages. If in the West in the post-war period the practice of attracting foreigners - native speakers to teaching, as well as the practice of large-scale student exchange, in which students could live in another country for several months and learn the spoken language in the best possible way, was established, then the Soviet Union lagged far behind in the teaching of foreign languages from -for the closed borders and the almost complete absence of emigration from the West to the USSR. Also, for censorship reasons, the flow of foreign literature, films, and recordings of songs to the Soviet Union was limited, which did not at all contribute to the study of foreign languages. Compared to the USSR, in modern Russia there are much more opportunities for learning languages.
Ideological censorship, autarky and stagnation in art education in the late USSR. Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and the early USSR were among the world leaders and trendsetters in the field of artistic culture. Avant-garde painting, constructivism, futurism, Russian ballet, the Stanislavsky system, the art of film editing - this and much more aroused admiration from the whole world. However, by the end of the 1930s. the variety of styles and trends was replaced by the dominance of socialist realism imposed from above - in itself it was a very worthy and interesting style, but the problem was the artificial suppression of alternatives. Reliance on their own traditions was proclaimed, while attempts at new experiments began in many cases to be condemned (“Muddle instead of music”), and borrowings from Western cultural techniques were subjected to restrictions and persecution, as in the case of jazz, and then rock music. Indeed, experiments and borrowings were not successful in all cases, but the scale of condemnation and restrictions were so inadequate that this led to the discouragement of innovation in art and the gradual loss of world cultural leadership by the Soviet Union, as well as the emergence of an "underground culture" in the USSR.
Degradation of education in the field of architecture, design, urban planning. During the period of Khrushchev's "fight against architectural excesses" the entire system of architectural education, design and construction was seriously affected. In 1956, the Academy of Architecture of the USSR was reorganized and renamed the Academy of Construction and Architecture of the USSR, and in 1963 it was completely closed (until 1989). As a result, the era of the late USSR became a time of decline in design and a growing crisis in the field of architecture and the urban environment. The architectural tradition was interrupted and was replaced by the soulless construction of microdistricts inconvenient for life; instead of a “bright future”, a “gray present” was built in the USSR.
Cancellation of teaching of fundamental classical disciplines. In the Soviet Union, such an important subject as logic was excluded from the school curriculum (it was studied in pre-revolutionary gymnasiums). Logic was returned to the program and the textbook was released only in 1947, but in 1955 it was removed again, and, with the exception of physics and mathematics lyceums and other elite schools, logic is still not taught to schoolchildren in Russia. Meanwhile, logic is one of the foundations of the scientific method and one of the most important subjects that gives skills to distinguish between truth and falsehood, to conduct discussions and resist manipulation. Another important difference between the Soviet school curriculum and the pre-revolutionary gymnasium was the abolition of the teaching of Latin and Greek. Knowledge of these ancient languages may seem useless only at first glance, because almost all modern scientific terminology, medical and biological nomenclature, and mathematical notation are built on them; in addition, the study of these languages is a good gymnastics for the mind and helps to develop the skills of discussion. Several generations of prominent Russian scientists and writers who worked before the revolution and in the first decades of the USSR were brought up in the tradition of classical education, which included the study of logic, Latin and Greek, and the almost complete rejection of all this hardly had a positive effect on education in the USSR and Russia.
Problems with the education of moral values, partial loss of the educational role of education. The best Soviet teachers have always insisted that the goal of education is not only the transfer of knowledge and skills, but also the upbringing of a moral, cultured person. In many respects, this task was successfully solved in the early USSR - then it was possible to solve the problem of mass child homelessness and juvenile delinquency that developed after the civil war; managed to raise the cultural level of significant masses of the population. However, in some respects, Soviet education not only failed to educate morality, but in some ways even exacerbated the problem. Many educational institutions of pre-revolutionary Russia, including church education and institutions for noble maidens, directly set themselves the main task of educating a moral person and preparing him either for the role of a spouse in the family, or for the role of a “brother” or “sister” in the community of believers. Under Soviet rule, all such institutions were closed, specialized analogues were not created for them, the education of morality was entrusted to an ordinary mass school, separating it from religion, which was replaced by propaganda of atheism. The moral goal of Soviet education was no longer the education of a worthy member of the family and community, as it was before, but the education of a member of the working collective. For the accelerated development of industry and science, perhaps this was not bad. However, such an approach could hardly solve the problems of a high level of abortions (for the first time in the world legalized in the USSR), a high level of divorces and a general degradation of family values, a sharp transition to having few children, growing mass alcoholism and extremely low life expectancy for men in the late USSR by world standards.
Almost complete elimination of home education. Many outstanding figures of Russian history and culture received home education instead of school, which proves that such education can be very effective. Of course, this form of education is not available to everyone, but either to relatively wealthy people who can hire teachers, or simply to intelligent and educated people who can devote a lot of time to their children and personally go through the school curriculum with them. However, after the revolution, home education in the USSR was by no means encouraged (largely for ideological reasons). The system of external studies in the USSR was introduced in 1935, but for a long time it was designed almost exclusively for adults, and a full-fledged opportunity for external education for schoolchildren was introduced only in 1985-1991.
Non-alternative co-education for boys and girls. One of the dubious Soviet innovations in education was the compulsory joint education of boys and girls instead of pre-revolutionary separate education. At that time, this step was justified by the struggle for women's rights, the lack of staff and facilities for the organization of separate schools, as well as the widespread practice of co-education in some of the leading countries of the world, including the United States. However, the latest research in the same US shows that separate education improves student outcomes by 10-20%. Everything is quite simple: in joint schools, boys and girls are distracted by each other, there are noticeably more conflicts and incidents; boys, up to the last grades of school, lag behind girls of the same age in learning, since the male body develops more slowly. On the contrary, with separate education, it becomes possible to better take into account the behavioral and cognitive characteristics of different sexes to improve performance, self-esteem of adolescents is more dependent on academic performance, and not on some other things. Interestingly, in 1943, separate education for boys and girls was introduced in the cities, which, after the death of Stalin, was again eliminated in 1954.
The system of orphanages in the late USSR. While in Western countries in the middle of the 20th century they began to massively close orphanages and place orphans in families (this process was generally completed by 1980), in the USSR the system of orphanages was not only preserved, but even degraded. compared to pre-war times. Indeed, during the struggle against homelessness in the 1920s, according to the ideas of Makarenko and other teachers, labor became the main element in the re-education of former homeless children, while the pupils of labor communes were given the opportunity to self-government, in order to develop skills of independence and socialization. This technique gave excellent results, especially considering that before the revolution, civil war and famine, most homeless children still had some experience of family life. However, later, due to the prohibition of child labor, this system was abandoned in the USSR. By 1990, there were 564 orphanages in the USSR, the level of socialization of orphanage residents was low, and many former orphanage residents fell into the ranks of criminals and outcasts. In the 1990s the number of orphanages in Russia almost tripled, but in the second half of the 2000s, the process of their liquidation began, and in the 2010s. it is close to completion.
Degradation of the system of secondary vocational education in the late USSR. Although in the USSR they extolled the worker in every way and promoted working professions, by the 1970s. The system of secondary vocational education in the country began to clearly degrade. “If you study poorly at school, you will go to vocational school!” (vocational technical school) - something like this parents said to negligent schoolchildren. In vocational schools they took poor and triple students who did not enter universities, forcibly placed juvenile criminals there, and all this against the background of a comparative surplus of specialist workers and poor development of the service sector due to the lack of developed entrepreneurship (that is, alternatives in employment, as now, then there were no It was). Cultural and educational work in vocational schools turned out to be poorly organized, students "vocational schools" began to be associated with hooliganism, drunkenness and a general low level of development. The negative image of vocational education in working specialties persists in Russia to this day, although qualified turners, locksmiths, millers, plumbers are now among the highly paid professions, whose representatives are in short supply.
Insufficient education of critical thinking among citizens, excessive unification and paternalism. Education, as well as the media and Soviet culture in general, instilled in citizens faith in a powerful and wise party that leads everyone, cannot lie or make major mistakes. Of course, faith in the strength of one's people and state is an important and necessary thing, but in order to support this faith, one cannot go too far, systematically hush up the truth and severely suppress alternative opinions. As a result, when during the years of perestroika and glasnost, these very alternative opinions were given freedom, when previously hushed up facts about the history and modern problems of the country began to massively emerge, huge masses of citizens felt deceived, lost confidence in the state and in everything that they were taught in school in many humanities. Finally, citizens were unable to resist outright lies, myths and media manipulation, which ultimately led to the collapse of the USSR and the deep degradation of society and the economy in the 1990s. Alas, the Soviet educational and social system failed to bring up a sufficient level of caution, critical thinking, tolerance for alternative opinions, and a culture of discussion. Also, the education of the late Soviet model did not help to instill in citizens sufficient independence, the desire to personally solve their problems, and not wait until the state or someone else does it for you. All this had to be learned from the bitter post-Soviet experience.
== Conclusions (−) ==
In assessing the Soviet education system, it is difficult to come to a single and exhaustive conclusion due to its inconsistency.
Positive points:
The final eradication of illiteracy and the provision of universal secondary education
- World leadership in the field of higher technical education, in natural and exact sciences.
- The key role of education in ensuring industrialization, victory in the Great Patriotic War and scientific and technological achievements in the post-war period.
- High prestige and respect for the teaching profession, a high level of motivation of teachers and students.
- High level of development of sports education, wide promotion of sports activities.
- The emphasis on technical education made it possible to solve the most important tasks for the Soviet state.Negative points:
Lagging behind the West in the field of liberal arts education due to the negative influence of ideology and the foreign policy situation. The teaching of history, economics and foreign languages was particularly hard hit.
- Excessive unification and centralization of school and, to a lesser extent, university education, coupled with its small contacts with the outside world. This led to the loss of many successful pre-revolutionary practices and to a growing lag behind foreign science in a number of areas.
- Direct guilt in the degradation of family values and the general decline in morals in the late USSR, which led to negative trends in the development of demography and social relations.
- Insufficient education of critical thinking among citizens, which led to the inability of society to effectively resist manipulation during the information war.
- Art education suffered from censorship and high ideological content, as well as from obstacles to mastering foreign techniques; one of the most important consequences of this is the decline of design, architecture and urban planning in the late USSR.
- That is, in its humanitarian aspect, the Soviet education system ultimately not only failed to solve the key tasks of preserving and strengthening the state, but also became one of the factors in the moral, demographic and social decline of the country. Which, however, does not negate the impressive achievements of the USSR in the field of the humanities and arts.
PS. By the way, about logic. A textbook of logic, as well as other entertaining materials on the art of civilized discussion, can be found here.
