This article sheds light on a paradox in the Soviet educational landscape: the development of specialised foreign-language schools in the context of a purported egalitarian society. These schools endured, and even thrived, through the collapse of the Soviet Union. First, a historical overview for Soviet-era development of specialised-school…

This paper explores relations between literacy education, ideology and politics, based on an analysis of educational reforms during Soviet and US military occupation in North and South Korea. Following the end of the Second World War, anti-illiteracy campaigns in the two Koreas became important means of political socialisation for Koreans amid the…

The purpose of this article is to outline the evolution of biology education in Soviet schools in the 1920s and 1930s. After some introductory consideration of the ideological changes taking place in the field of genetics that impacted on the teaching of science and led to botany being favoured over biology in schools, the first part outlines the…

After the Sputnik shock of 1957, the United States initiated education reform, based in part on the hope that technology could facilitate efficient school learning. This development was largely driven by the confrontation between the eastern and western Blocs: on both sides of the Iron Curtain, reformists promoted educational technology for the…

The paper compares the American and Soviet transformations at Kabul University, Afghanistan, during the 1960s to the 1980s explained in terms of Americanisation and Sovietisation. Using new declassified documents from both American and former Soviet archives, the author reveals that both powers attempted to impose their rival models of university…

This article examines how education unfolded as a science in Estonia in the period 1944-1991, i.e. from the second Soviet occupation to the fall of the USSR. Historical analysis of the way prominent scholars and institutions succeeded in overcoming the adverse conditions of that period is conducted by viewing their respective contributions through…

This article engages with the influence of Soviet educational models and Western European contacts, mediated by historical institutional and cultural legacies in producing specifically Eastern educational variants. A first level of analysis will identify the reasons behind the emergence of these variations. A second and higher level of analysis…

The Popular Front line made the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) a more hospitable place for "brain workers." The emphasis the line placed on mass ideological and cultural struggle against fascism meant that they became important allies to be won for the working class. As the principal transmitters of ideology and culture to the…

This study focuses on the Soviet introduction of local studies to Ukrainian schools during the 1920s. It argues that, through their efforts at pedagogical reform, educational planners sought a fundamental re-imagining of place. The Ukrainian Commissariat of Education asked teachers and their students to engage the "productive" world…

In the Soviet Union, the decade of the 1930s saw a remarkable rate of educational expansion, as state schools enrolled millions of pupils in higher proportions and for longer periods of time than ever before. Much of this expansion occurred in the "non-Russian" regions, where the native language of children and thus the primary language…

The war and the postwar years were an important and generally underestimated phase in the history of the Soviet educational system, since the school system created during this period continued to the end of the regime with some modifications. Although many of the reforms were discussed and planned during the 1930s, the war proved an ideal time for…

This study examines Soviet strategies for education during its first four decades as they may be deduced from the resources put at its disposal. Despite the political importance for education and for proletarian empowerment at the workplace ("vydvizhenie"), the total enrolment ratio was only one-third higher than in the Tsarist period,…

Analyzes the problems of educational funds and scholarships in Polish areas incorporated within Russia after the third partition of the Commonwealth. Traces the history of educational funding during the early 1800s and provides statistics on the breakdown of monies appropriated by government, religion and individuals. (RW)