13.1.3: Education in the Industrializing Nations:

 13.1.3: Education in the Industrializing Nations: Russia Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, the czar had been expanding Russia’s educational system beyond the children of the elite (Peretyatko and Zulfugarzade 2019). The Soviet Communist party continued this expansion until education encompassed all children. True to the sociological principle that education reflects culture, the new government saw education as a way to undergird the new political system and made certain that socialist values dominated its schools. Schoolchildren were taught that capitalism was evil and communism was the salvation of the world. Every classroom was required to prominently display photographs of Lenin and Stalin. Under the Soviets, education, including college, was free. Just as the economy was directed from central headquarters in Moscow, so was education. Each school followed the same state-prescribed curriculum, and all students in the same grade used the same textbooks. Schools stressed mathematics and the natural sciences. To prevent critical thinking, which might lead to criticisms of communism, under Stalin sociology was banned, replaced by mandatory studies of Marxism. Students were taught not to think but to memorize course materials and repeat lectures on oral exams (Karady and Nagy 2019). Russia’s switch from communism to capitalism brought a change in culture—especially new ideas about profit, private property, and personal freedom. This, in turn, meant that the educational system had to adjust to the country’s changing values and views of the world. Not only did the photos of Lenin and Stalin come down, but also, for the first time, private, religious, and even foreign-run schools were allowed. For the first time as well, teachers were able to encourage students to think for themselves. The problems that Russia confronted in “reinventing” its educational system were mind-boggling. Tens of thousands of teachers who had been teaching students to memorize Party-dictated political answers had to learn new methods of teaching. As the economy faltered during Russia’s early transition to capitalism, school budgets dwindled. Some teachers went unpaid for months; instead of money, at one school, teachers were paid in the strange combination of toilet paper and vodka (Deaver 2001). Teachers are now paid regularly (and in money), but the salaries are low, and tens of thousands of academics have left Russia (Grove 2015; Lazareva and Zakharov 2019). With teachers and texts able to shape minds, politicians around the world are interested in their country’s educational system. Russia is no exception. After Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, declared that the new history books did not do justice to Russia’s glorious past (Rapoport 2009), he eliminated most of the publishing competition and arranged for his old friend and judo partner to become the publisher of “patriotic” texts that “match Russian values” (Becker and Myers 2014). With or without Putin, we can be certain that Russia’s educational system will glorify Russia’s history and reinforce its values and world views—no matter what direction those values and views may take. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, detests the blow to Russia’s prestige that followed the breakup of the Soviet empire. To make up for this humiliation, he ordered Russia’s textbooks revised to glorify the country. He also projects an image of strength to Russian citizens and to the world through confrontations with the West and, as you can see, by publicity photos of his own macho persona. Credit: SPUTNIK/Alamy Stock Photo