All-Russian Emergency Commission for the Elimination of Literacy
According to the 1897 census, the number of illiterate people in Russian Empire was about 60%, (infographic above). By 1916 the number of illiterate people had dropped to 20%. Particularly impressive is the increase in the number of literate people in last reign(1896-1917) (this is for those who like to speculate about the “weak-willed tsar-rag”). Additionally, the literally titanic efforts of the Russian Empire to eliminate illiteracy are illustrated by this diagram (the number of secondary schools in thousands): 
How was illiteracy “liquidated” in the USSR?
According to the 1937 census total number The number of illiterate people amounted to 62,521,486 people, as a result, among the adult population (excluding children under ten years of age), the percentage of illiterate people was 26% of the total population of the country.
What was a level LOWER THAN ACHIEVED IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE BY 1914!
But this is not the end yet detective story with the elimination of illiteracy in the USSR. Soviet authority and in the SIXties she still adopted resolutions on the elimination of illiteracy! Disgrace! For example, the resolution of the Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee for the RSFSR and the Council of Ministers of August 27, 1962 “On the completion of the elimination of illiteracy and illiteracy in the RSFSR.” And again there was no 100% result. For example, a 1965 report on the implementation of the 1962 decree in the Kemerovo region stated:
"On July 1, 1964, in cities and villages there were 725 illiterate people aged 16 to 49 years. This year, the elimination of illiteracy among workers at enterprises in the chemical, metallurgical and energy industries has been completed. As of July 1, 1965, there were 398 illiterate and 4,155 semi-literate people in the region. The regional committee of the CPSU, party, trade union, Komsomol organizations of cities and districts are taking measures to complete the education of the remaining illiterates during 1965".
But this is already Brezhnev’s time, it’s just a stone’s throw away from us!
Against the backdrop of endlessly repeated stories that the USSR became a country of complete literacy back in the early 1930s, all this Long story educational program looks really strange. But there was and is nothing strange. After all, collective farmers and workers, reduced to the status of serfs, had neither time nor energy left for reading and, especially, writing. So recurrent illiteracy, which Krupskaya spoke about in 1929 (that is, the loss of reading and writing skills without constant use, is forgotten foreign languages, for example), overtook them quickly and inevitably. And no amount of literacy campaigns could change this.
Moreover, the very first Soviet census showed a higher percentage of illiteracy than it was in 1916! The reason is the same: “recurrent illiteracy” after the revolution and civil war. And in what ways did the Soviet “kulturtreggers” act in the process of such “effective” “liquidation of illiteracy”? Quite familiar to them: employees of the VChKl/b (All-Russian Emergency Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy) tried to achieve the task at hand using the same methods as Felix Dzerzhinsky’s VChK - through coercion. Fortunately, the decree of 1919 opened up enormous opportunities for this.
For example, paragraph 1 of the decree stated:
"The entire population of the Republic aged 8 to 50 years who cannot read and write is required to learn to read and write.".
And paragraph 8 stipulated sanctions for violating the decree:
"Those who evade the duties established by this decree and prevent the illiterate from attending schools are subject to criminal liability
".
Locally, the requirements of the decree were clarified and supplemented by local rules for mandatory attendance at classes at literacy centers - liquidation centers. For example, the order of the Oryol provincial executive committee stated:
"1. All physically healthy illiterate population of the Oryol province of both sexes aged 14 to 35 years, subject to education for the 1923-1924 academic year, are required to attend emergency clinics.
2. The following are exempt from training at health centers:
a) the only owner or mistress in the family,
b) patients who have a medical certificate from a doctor or a certificate from the local village council for the duration of their illness,
c) defective,
d) persons involved in performing public duties until they are released,
e) pregnant women three months before childbirth (and women in labor one month after childbirth),
f) mothers with infants during breastfeeding up to 1 year".
In most provinces, various fines and punishments were established for failure to visit cleanup stations. But the violent fight against illiteracy did not give the most top scores not only in remote villages, but also in fairly prosperous cities. In Cherepovets, for example, in 1923-1925, out of 474 registered illiterate people, less than a third - 134 people - were educated. And this indicator was considered far from the worst.
On top of everything else, the People's Commissariat for Education received a stream of complaints from peasants dissatisfied with the pressure of the Chekl/b. So the conclusion inevitably suggested itself that forced training did not give the desired result, and Krupskaya began to advocate for its abolition. In June 1924, speaking at III All-Russian Congress on the Elimination of Illiteracy, she said:
"The question of coercion, which I want to dwell on, is a very sensitive issue. Some comrades treated my words with doubt when I expressed the idea at a conference of political educators that coercive measures are a double-edged sword. Meanwhile, when you get acquainted with the description of what is happening in the village, you are convinced of the correctness of this idea. In a village where there is no book, where there is no newspaper, a decree suddenly appears and is read on behalf of the village council that “those persons who will not visit the liquidation centers will be held accountable.” But there is no health center itself! What impression does such a resolution make on the peasants? Of course, it only causes ridicule from the peasants and bile speeches: “Well, they say, there is no school, the children are growing up illiterate, and they want to send sixty-year-old old women to the liquidation centers.” It turns out that there is no health center yet, let alone they will be held accountable for not visiting it".
It is clear that knowledge hammered in under pressure was forgotten especially quickly. Not to mention that any violence causes opposition. A phenomenon arose in pre-revolutionary Russia the unthinkable: AVOIDING illiterates from learning!
It's free higher education appeared in the USSR quite recently - under Khrushchev. Under Stalin, higher education was paid. And not only higher education, but also complete secondary education: for studying in grades 9-10 secondary school I also had to pay.
Encyclopedic YouTube
-
1 / 5
The curriculum required extensive organized training for teachers and others teaching staff. By the fall of 1920, only the bodies of the Cheka educational program created courses for teachers to eliminate illiteracy in 26 provinces.
The 1st All-Russian Congress on the Elimination of Illiteracy (1922) recognized the need for priority literacy training for workers industrial enterprises and state farms, trade union members and other workers aged 18-30 years. The training period at the medical center was set at 7 months (6-8 hours weekly).
It was during the fight against homelessness, combined with the simultaneous teaching of children to read and write, and then other disciplines, that the talent of the greatest Soviet teacher A. S. Makarenko, the author of the “Pedagogical Poem,” emerged.
Health centers and literacy schools
Every locality with the number of illiterate people over 15, there had to be a literacy school (liquid point). The duration of training in such a school was 3-4 months. The training program included reading, writing, and counting. In the early 1920s, it was clarified that classes at the medical center were aimed at teaching how to read clear printed and written fonts; do short notes, necessary in life and official affairs; read and write integers and fractional numbers, percentages, understand diagrams and diagrams; The students were explained the main issues of building the Soviet state. For adult students, the working day was reduced while maintaining wages, provision was made for priority supply of emergency treatment centers teaching aids, writing instruments.
Educational and methodological base
In 1920-1924, two editions of the first Soviet mass primer for adults were published by D. Elkina, N. Bugoslavskaya, A. Kurskaya (the 2nd edition - entitled “Down with Illiteracy” - included the widely famous phrase for learning to read - “We are not slaves, slaves are not us”, as well as poems by V. Ya. Bryusov and N. A. Nekrasov). In the same years, the Workers' and Peasants' Primer for Adults by V.V. Smushkov and the Primer for Workers by E. Ya. Golant appeared. Some of the benefits were printed abroad with payment from the republic’s currency funds. The publication of mass primers and other initial manuals for adults in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Chuvash, Uzbek and other (about 40 in total) languages was established.
At all times, teaching literacy was accompanied by the promotion of those ideological values, access to which was opened by the ability to read. During the reign of Catherine II, when many believed that “the mob does not need to be educated,” the most insightful figures (for example, the deputy from the Klin nobility Pyotr Orlov) insisted that even if literacy was taught,
then on the following basis: let the peasants, through literacy, find out on their own what they owe to God, the sovereign, the fatherland and, according to the law, to their landowner.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in 1925/26 academic year was introduced as mandatory into educational programs political literacy course: The ideological struggle, including within the party, was in full swing.
Difficulties of educational program and its results
In total, in 1917-1927, up to 10 million adults were taught to read and write, including 5.5 million in the RSFSR. The starting level was quite low. So, according to the census of November 1, 1920 ( Public education according to the main survey of 1920), there were only about 7.3 million students in schools (in primary schools - 6,860,328 children, and in secondary schools - 399,825), and schools in the European part Soviet Russia less than 59% of children aged 8-12 years attended (over 12 years old - much less).
see also
Notes
- Kahan, Arcadius. Russian economic history: the nineteenth century // University of Chicago Press. - 1989. - P. 244.
30.12.2017
The Literacy Campaign (from 1919 to the early 1940s) - mass literacy training for adults and adolescents who did not attend school - was unique and the largest social and educational project the entire history of Russia.
Illiteracy is primarily among rural population, – was blatant. The 1897 census showed that out of 126 million men and women registered during the survey, only 21.1% were literate. For almost 20 years after the first census, the literacy rate remained almost unchanged: 73% of the population (over 9 years old) were simply illiterate. In this aspect, Russia was last on the list of European powers.
Noting that the justice system is perceived as corrupt, the expert noted that women's access to justice remains limited and unstable, including the fact that legal aid remains very limited. She asked about the functioning of the legal aid fund and the new rules for paying expenses.
Another expert mentioned that women should be a strategic element of the country's development and reform and questioned the specific actions of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in this regard. What role can women play in running the camps while security in the north of the country remains a major concern and even as the population's mistrust of the security forces is also being asked? expert? Are there any initiatives with women on this topic? The expert emphasized that the consolidation of the rule of law has important in the fight against insecurity before bemoaning abuses in this area.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the issue of universal education was not only actively discussed in society and the press, but also became a mandatory item in the programs of almost all political parties.
The Bolshevik Party, which won in October 1917, soon began implementing this program: already in December of the same year, an out-of-school department was created in the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR (A.V. Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar of Education) under the leadership of N.K. Krupskaya (since 1920 - Glavpolitprosvet).
According to her, the role of women in this regard is strategic. Another expert acknowledged the State party's efforts to combat discrimination, recalling that “temporary special measures” are intended to provide women with a certain period of time until the desired goals are achieved. Referring to Burkina Faso's 30% quota of women elected, she indicated that efforts to achieve this goal seemed to be stalled.
One of the experts asked about the existence of a mechanism for implementing the sustainable development goals. Could these goals be a stepping stone for women's development, she asked? While legislation governing civil marriages respects gender equality, traditional marriages, which make up the majority of marriages in the country, remain problematic, she said, before asking the delegation if Burkina Faso intended to legislate in this regard.
Actually, the educational campaign itself began later: on December 26, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars (SNK) adopted a decree “On the elimination of illiteracy among the population of the RSFSR.” The first paragraph of the decree declared compulsory literacy training in their native or Russian language (optional) for citizens aged 8 to 50 years, in order to provide them with the opportunity to “consciously participate” in political life countries.
One expert stressed the need for the country to clearly examine the scope and characteristics of trafficking in persons and wanted to know whether Burkina Faso intended to develop effective plan actions to combat human trafficking. She asked if there was an identification mechanism and reception centers for victims? For example, are there awareness-raising measures for women who may be exploited as migrant workers in the Arab Gulf countries? Moreover, is Burkina intervening in measures against child petition, in particular by prosecuting the maraboons who exploit them?
Concern for the basic education of the people and the priority of this task are easily explained - first of all, literacy was not a goal, but a means: “mass illiteracy was in blatant contradiction with the political awakening of citizens and made it difficult to implement the historical tasks of transforming the country on a socialist basis.” New power required new person, who fully understood and supported the political and economic slogans, decisions and tasks set by this government. In addition to the peasantry, the main “target” audience of the educational program were workers (however, the situation here was relatively good: the professional census of 1918 showed that 63% of urban workers (over 12 years old) were literate).
Noting that fewer than one in four diplomats were women, another Committee member inquired about measures to promote women in leadership positions. Too many children are not registered at birth, worries the expert. In this context, is it envisaged to use new technologies to register all births, including by mobile phone?
One expert wished the delegation to strongly address the issue of sex education and point out the actions envisaged to promote it. She failed to notice that without proper sex education, family planning is illusory. She expressed her skepticism about measures taken against forced marriage in a country where half of girls are married before the age of 18.
In a decree signed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) declared the following: every locality where the number of illiterate people was more than 15 was to open a literacy school, also known as a literacy center - a “liquidation point”, training lasted 3-4 months. It was recommended to adapt all kinds of premises for treatment points: factories, private houses and churches. Students had their working day reduced by two hours.
She would also like to know what the involvement of medical personnel was in contributing to the consequences of female genital mutilation. One Committee member stated that prison conditions were poor and even alarming, especially in the areas of nutrition and health. In addition, women held in pre-trial detention are held together with convicted prisoners; Is Burkina Faso committed to correcting this practice, she asked?
The delegation said that the reform process was ongoing, especially with regard to the Persons and Family Code. She added that reflections and discussions continue, including at the ministerial level. The will to progress is very real, the delegation was assured; but it is impossible to specify a time frame. The same applies to the adoption of the new Constitution, since the authorities are aware of the need to involve women in the commission responsible for its development. One can, of course, regret the slowness of the processes; but we should not act too hastily because we risk later finding that the adopted texts were insufficient, the delegation said.
The People's Commissariat of Education and its departments could recruit the entire literate population of the country (not conscripted into the military) to work in educational programs “as a form of labor service,” “with payment for their labor according to the standards of educators.” Those who evaded the execution of maternity orders faced criminal liability and other troubles.
Apparently, in the year after the adoption of the decree, no noticeable actions were taken to implement it, and a year later, on July 19, 1920, a new decree appeared - on the establishment of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy (VChK l/b), as well as its departments “on the ground” (they were called “gramcheka”) - now the commission was engaged in the general management of the work. The Cheka had a staff of traveling instructors who assisted their districts in their work and monitored its implementation.
On the basis of the extracurricular department of the People's Commissariat for Education, the Main Political and Educational Committee (Glavpolitprosvet) was formed, to which the created All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Literacy, consisting of five members approved by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on the recommendation of the People's Commissariat, was transferred.
The commission took control of the organization of educational courses, teacher training, publication educational literature. Material support and assistance in creating textbooks were provided to her by Maxim Gorky, Lydia Seifullina, Valery Bryusov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Demyan Bedny, as well as scientists Nikolai Marr, Vladimir Bekhterev and others.
Every locality with more than 15 illiterate people was required to have a literacy school (liquid center). The training program included reading, writing, and counting. In the early 1920s, the program was refined: classes at the medical center were aimed at teaching how to read clear printed and written fonts; make short notes necessary in life and official affairs; read and write whole and fractional numbers, percentages, understand diagrams and diagrams; The students were explained the main issues of building the Soviet state.
To facilitate the education of illiterate adult students, the working day was reduced while wages were maintained, and priority was given to supplying health centers with educational aids and writing materials.
In 1920-1924, two editions of the first Soviet mass primer for adults were printed by Elkina, Bugoslavskaya, Kurskaya. In the same years, Smushkov's "Workers' and Peasants' Primer for Adults" and Golant's "A Primer for Workers" appeared. The publication of mass primers and other initial manuals for adults in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Chuvash, Uzbek and other languages (about 40 in total) was established.
Public education authorities were allowed to use folk houses, churches, clubs, private houses, suitable premises in factories and factories and other institutions. The People's Commissariat for Education and its local bodies were given the right to involve all people in the education of illiterate people. public organizations, as well as the entire literate population of the country in the form of labor service.
Great help The commission was supported by the voluntary society “Down with Illiteracy” created in 1923, headed by Mikhail Kalinin. The society, through the publishing house of the same name, published newspapers and magazines on literacy, primers, propaganda and methodological literature. According to data for 1924, in the RSFSR the “Down with Illiteracy” society contained over 11 thousand emergency centers (over 500 thousand students). In the second half of the 1920s, it transferred its main work to the villages, where the mass of illiterate people were concentrated, and directed its efforts towards sponsorship assistance from the city to the villages in eliminating illiteracy.
In total, in 1917-1927, up to 10 million adults were taught to read and write, including 5.5 million in the RSFSR. However, overall, the USSR ranked 19th in Europe in terms of literacy levels.
In 1928, on the initiative of the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League (VLKSM), work to eliminate illiteracy was launched as an all-Union cultural campaign. Its support centers were Moscow, Saratov, Samara, Voronezh, where the bulk of the illiterate were educated by the public. Thousands of volunteers were involved in the elimination of illiteracy during the cultural campaign.
A resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On universal compulsory primary education" was issued, which accelerated the elimination of illiteracy among the population of the USSR.
In connection with the reorganization of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR and the liquidation of the Glavpolitprosvet, the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR dated February 13, 1930, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy was renamed the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy and Illiteracy, and on September 12, 1930 it was abolished with the transfer of functions to the Central Headquarters of the educational campaign, which was formed at the All-Russian Conference on the Elimination of Illiteracy (September 12-17, 1930).
The problem of illiteracy and low literacy in the USSR was finally resolved with the widespread introduction of universal primary education.
The central headquarters of the educational campaign ceased its activities in connection with the implementation of a general primary education.
By the early 1950s, the USSR had become a country of almost complete literacy.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
General illiteracy, syphilis, what else did the tsarism so dear to us provide, but was saved by the Soviet power that we so hated?
Happy holiday to everyone involved in the DAY OF KNOWLEDGE!After October revolution in Russia, the struggle for universal literacy has become one of the decisive prerequisites for fundamental changes in the spheres public relations, National economy and culture.
The beginning of this struggle was the creation in December 1917 in the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR of an out-of-school department under the leadership of N.K. Krupskaya (from 1920 - Glavpolitprosvet), one of the main tasks of which was to organize the elimination of illiteracy in the country.The elimination of illiteracy unfolded in conditions Civil War and foreign military intervention. According to the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the elimination of illiteracy among the population of the RSFSR" (December 1919, the project was prepared in the People's Commissariat for Education on the initiative of participants in the 1st Congress on out-of-school education) the entire population of the republic aged 8 to 50 years who could not read or write , was obliged to learn to read and write in their native or Russian language (optional).
Elimination of illiteracy was seen as an indispensable condition ensuring the conscious participation of the entire population in the political and economic life of the country. The People's Commissariat for Education was given the right to involve all literate persons in teaching illiterate persons on the basis of labor service. The decree also provided for the organization of education for children school age, not covered by schools. This problem was solved through the creation of schools for overage children, and also - in the context of the fight against homelessness - through schools at orphanages, colonies and other institutions that were part of the Glavsotsvos system.
Mass public organizations were involved in the elimination of illiteracy. On July 19, 1920, the Council of People's Commissars created the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Educational and Illiteracy (VChK l/b), which was subordinate to the People's Commissariat for Education.
The commission took control of organizing educational courses, training teachers, and publishing educational literature. Material support and assistance to the commission in creating textbooks were provided by M. Gorky, L.N. Seifullina, V.Ya. Bryusov, V.V. Mayakovsky, Demyan Bedny, as well as prominent scientists N.Ya. Marr, V.M. Bekhterev and etc.
Every locality with more than 15 illiterate people was required to have a literacy school - a liquidation center.
The curriculum included reading, writing and counting. In the early 1920s, the program was refined: classes at the medical center were aimed at teaching how to read clear printed and written fonts; make short notes necessary in life and official affairs; read and write whole and fractional numbers, percentages, understand diagrams and diagrams; The students were explained the main issues of building the Soviet state. The training period was 3-4 months.The curriculum required extensive organized training for teachers and other teaching staff. By the fall of 1920, only the bodies of the All-Russian Cheka in 26 provinces created courses for teachers to eliminate illiteracy. To facilitate the education of illiterate adult students, the working day was reduced while wages were maintained, and priority was given to supplying health centers with educational aids and writing materials.
In 1918, a reform of Russian spelling was also carried out, which significantly simplified learning to read and write. Work was carried out to create a written language for peoples who previously did not have one. Since 1922, the Latinization of the alphabets of the Turkic and Mongolian languages of the peoples of the USSR was carried out as a temporary measure, making it easier for adult students to master reading and writing. At the end of the 1930s, the writing of some peoples was transferred to Russian graphics. These measures were aimed at expanding the scale of literacy elimination. At the same time, they are assessed ambiguously, since the change in the graphic basis of writing to a certain extent made it difficult for many peoples to master them cultural heritage. In addition, the change in graphics made the literacy skills that adults had mastered in previous years ineffective.
The People's Commissariat for Education developed methods for teaching literacy using slogans that were politically relevant and understandable to adult students and simple texts. Teaching methods were focused on developing skills in academic work and independent thinking. The publication of special primers began.
In 1920 - 1924, two editions of the first Soviet mass primer for adults were published by D. Elkina, N. Bugoslavskaya, A. Kurskaya (the 2nd edition - entitled “Down with Illiteracy” - included slogans such as, for example, “We are not slaves, slaves - not us,” as well as poems by V.Ya. Bryusov and N.A. Nekrasov).
In those same years, “Workers’ and Peasants’ Primer for Adults” by V.V. Smushkov and “A Primer for Workers” by E.Ya. Golant appeared. Some of the benefits were printed abroad with payment from the republic’s currency funds.
Mass newspapers (“Bednota” and others) published materials on thematic literacy lessons on their pages or in special supplements. Poets V.V. Mayakovsky (poetry “Soviet ABC”, 1919), Demyan Bedny and others took part in the work to eliminate illiteracy.
The publication of mass primers and other initial manuals for adults in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Chuvash, Uzbek and other languages was established.
With the country's transition to the NEP and the transfer of out-of-school educational institutions to the local budget, the network of emergency rooms has significantly decreased. Under these conditions, the 1st All-Russian Congress on the Elimination of Illiteracy (1922) recognized the need for priority literacy training for workers at industrial enterprises and state farms, trade union members and other workers aged 18-30 years. The training period at the medical center was set at 7 months (6-8 hours weekly).
In the fall of 1923, the All-Russian Voluntary Society “Down with Illiteracy. After the 1st All-Russian Congress of the United National Movement (1926), commissions were created within the Central Council: for work among national minorities, an agitation commission for the leadership of grassroots cells, and others.
Mass societies similar to ODN arose in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan.
In 1926, the literacy rate of persons aged 9 - 49 years was 56.6% (in 1920 - 44.1%). In total, in 1917 - 1927, up to 10 million adults were taught to read and write, including 5.5 million in the RSFSR. However, in general, the USSR occupied only 19th place in terms of literacy compared to other European countries, behind countries such as Turkey and Portugal. Literacy of the population of autonomous national territorial entities remained low: in Yakutia - 13.3%, in Dagestan - 12.2%, in Kabardino-Balkaria - 23.6%, in Ingushetia - 23.8%, in Kalmykia - 12.1% . Significant differences remained in the literacy levels of the urban and rural population (in 1926 - 80.9 and 50.6%, respectively), men and women (in the city - 88.6 and 73.9%, in the village - 67.3 and 35.4%).The all-Union cultural campaign, launched in 1928 on the initiative of the Komsomol, also played a significant role in expanding the movement to eliminate illiteracy. The main centers of the cultural campaign were Moscow, Saratov, Samara and Voronezh, where the bulk of the illiterate were educated by the public. Thousands of volunteers were involved in eliminating illiteracy during the poster-cultural campaign. By mid-1930, the number of cultural members reached 1 million, and the number of students in registered literacy schools alone reached 10 million.
During this period, basic literacy ceased to satisfy the needs of the economic and cultural reconstruction of the country. Classes on the technical minimum and the agricultural minimum began to be introduced into the programs of educational schools.
The introduction of universal primary education in 1930 created certain guarantees for the spread of literacy. In the course of eliminating illiteracy, there were inevitable costs associated with financial difficulties, shortage of teachers, weak methodological preparation many groups of literacy workers, as well as the predominance in a number of places of team methods and administrative-oriented approaches to organizing and evaluating the results of work. However, on the whole, relying on the public to eliminate illiteracy has paid off.In the mid-1930s, it was recognized that the ODN had completed its task. The elimination of illiteracy was now entrusted to the corresponding sections under local Soviets. At the same time, educational programs for educational schools, designed for 330 training sessions(10 months in the city and 7 months in the countryside). The fight against illiteracy, which had become a noticeable obstacle to the normal organization of industrial production, was now considered an urgent task.
By 1936, about 40 million illiterates had been educated. In 1933 - 1937, more than 20 million illiterate people and about 20 million semi-literate people studied in registered literacy schools alone.
By the end of the 1930s, illiteracy had lost its character of acute social problem. According to the 1939 census, literacy among those aged 16 to 50 was close to 90%.
By the beginning of the 40s, the task of eliminating illiteracy was basically solved.
And by the beginning of the 1950s, illiteracy in the USSR had been practically eradicated.According to it, the entire population of Soviet Russia between the ages of 8 and 50, who could not read or write, was obliged to learn to read and write in their native language or in Russian (optional). The People's Commissariat of Education was given the right to involve all literate persons in teaching the illiterate on the basis of labor service. The decree also provided for the creation of schools for overage children, schools at orphanages, colonies and other institutions that were part of the Glavsotsvos system.
Story
Organizational basis
The curriculum required extensive organized training for teachers and other teaching staff. By the fall of 1920, only the bodies of the Cheka educational program created courses for teachers to eliminate illiteracy in 26 provinces.
The 1st All-Russian Congress on the Elimination of Illiteracy (1922) recognized the need for priority literacy training for workers at industrial enterprises and state farms, trade union members and other workers aged 18-30 years. The training period at the medical center was set at 7 months (6-8 hours weekly).
Health centers and literacy schools
Every locality with more than 15 illiterate people was required to have a literacy school (liquid center). The duration of training in such a school was 3-4 months. The training program included reading, writing, and counting. In the early 1920s, it was clarified that classes at the medical center were aimed at teaching how to read clear printed and written fonts; make short notes necessary in life and official affairs; read and write whole and fractional numbers, percentages, understand diagrams and diagrams; The students were explained the main issues of building the Soviet state. For adult students, the working day was reduced while wages remained the same, and priority provision of educational aids and writing materials was provided for aid stations.
Educational and methodological base
In 1920-1924, two editions of the first Soviet mass primer for adults were published by D. Elkina, N. Bugoslavskaya, A. Kurskaya (the 2nd edition - entitled “Down with Illiteracy” - included the now widely known phrase for teaching reading - “We - not slaves, slaves are not us”, as well as poems by V. Ya. Bryusov and N. A. Nekrasov). In the same years, the Workers' and Peasants' Primer for Adults by V.V. Smushkov and the Primer for Workers by E. Ya. Golant appeared. Some of the benefits were printed abroad with payment from the republic’s currency funds. The publication of mass primers and other initial manuals for adults in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Chuvash, Uzbek and other languages (about 40 in total) was established.
At all times, teaching literacy was accompanied by the promotion of those ideological values, access to which was opened by the ability to read. During the reign of Catherine II, when many believed that “the mob does not need to be educated,” the most insightful figures (for example, deputy from the Klin nobility Pyotr Orlov) insisted that even if literacy was taught,
then on the following basis: let the peasants, through literacy, find out on their own what they owe to God, the sovereign, the fatherland and, according to the law, to their landowner.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in the 1925/26 school year. was introduced as mandatory into educational programs political literacy course: The ideological struggle, including within the party, was in full swing.
Difficulties of educational program and its results
In total, in 1917-1927, up to 10 million adults were taught to read and write, including 5.5 million in the RSFSR. The starting level was quite low. Thus, according to the census of November 1, 1920 (Public Education according to the main survey of 1920), only about 7.3 million students studied in schools (in first-level schools - 6,860,328 children, and in second-level schools - 399,825) , and less than 59% of children aged 8-12 years attended schools in the European part of Soviet Russia (over 12 years old - much less).
During the NEP years, the rate of decline in illiteracy was far from desired. The adult population employed in the private sector did not have social guarantees that allowed them to combine study with work. In general, the USSR by 1926 ranked only 19th among European countries in terms of literacy, behind countries such as Turkey and Portugal. Significant differences remained in the literacy levels of the urban and rural population (in 1926 - 80.9 and 50.6%, respectively), men and women (in the city - 88.6 and 73.9%, in the village - 67.3 and 35.4%).
In 1928, on the initiative of the Komsomol, the so-called cultural campaign was launched. Its support centers were Moscow, Saratov, Samara and Voronezh, where the bulk of the illiterates were educated by the public. By mid-1930, the number of cult soldiers reached 1 million, and the number of students in registered literacy schools alone reached 10 million.
The introduction of universal primary education in 1930 created certain guarantees for the spread of literacy. The elimination of illiteracy was now entrusted to the corresponding sections under local Soviets. At the same time, educational programs for educational schools were revised, designed for 330 training sessions (10 months in the city and 7 months in the countryside). The fight against illiteracy was now considered an urgent task.
By 1936, about 40 million illiterates had been educated. In 1933-1937, more than 20 million illiterate and about 20 million semi-literate people studied in registered literacy schools alone.
According to the 1939 census, literacy among those aged 16 to 50 was close to 90%. By the early 1940s, the situation with illiteracy in most regions of the USSR ceased to be catastrophic.
