Domestic policies: social policies
Education
Note- When Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, their radical vision aimed to dismantle the existing bourgeois educational framework, which they viewed as elitist and disconnected from proletarian needs.
- This led to a brief but dramatic rejection of traditional academic disciplines and methodologies: textbooks were discarded, formal examinations abolished, and schools either closed or operated on a severely limited basis.
- The Bolsheviks promoted practical, vocational training over theoretical knowledge, emphasizing skills that could directly serve the revolutionary economy.
- By the time Stalin consolidated power in the late 1920s and 1930s, there was a clear shift in priorities. Stalin recognized that modernizing the Soviet Union required a literate, disciplined population capable of supporting industrialization.
- Unlike the Bolshevik period of experimentation, Stalin’s education policies reinstated rigorous standards, formal curricula, and state control to ensure a consistent ideological and practical training of youth.
- Stalin’s education system included:
- Compulsory schooling for ten years: This was a major expansion of educational access aimed at eradicating illiteracy.
- A core curriculum: Subjects such as reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, geography, Russian language, and Marxist theory were standardized across schools.
- State-prescribed textbooks and exams: These ensured ideological conformity and uniformity in education.
- School discipline and regulations: Uniforms, homework, and controlled classroom behavior were introduced to foster order and a work ethic mirroring industrial labor discipline.
- Fees for upper secondary education (ages 15-18): Although this appeared contradictory to egalitarian ideals, it was justified as selection by merit rather than class, with scholarships available to support gifted students regardless of background.
- The results of these reforms were notable: school attendance more than doubled between 1929 and 1940, with near-universal schooling in urban areas and a sharp rise in literacy rates from 51% to 88%.
- The Soviet state effectively transformed its population into a more educated workforce, crucial for the ambitious Five-Year Plans.
- Despite these achievements, the system remained highly selective and served the interests of the state’s industrial and ideological goals rather than purely educational advancement.
- University education and academic research were subordinated to political control, epitomized by the 1935 government takeover of the Academy of Sciences. Intellectual freedom was severely curtailed, with historians and scientists expected to produce politically acceptable work.
- One infamous example was the Lysenko affair, where Trofim Lysenko, backed by Stalin, rejected established genetic science in favor of pseudo-scientific agricultural claims. This not only damaged Soviet biology but contributed to agricultural failures and famines, illustrating the dangers of politicizing science.
The Lysenko Affair
- It was a major scientific and political controversy in the Soviet Union, centered around the rise of Trofim Lysenko and his rejection of Mendelian genetics in favor of a pseudo-scientific theory known as Lysenkoism.
- Emerging in the 1930s and peaking under Stalin’s patronage in the late 1940s, Lysenko claimed that environmental factors could directly alter the heredity of plants, a view aligning with Marxist ideology that emphasized the transformative power of the environment over innate qualities.
- Lysenko rejected the concept of genes, calling them a "bourgeois abstraction," and instead advocated for vernalization, a process of artificially stimulating plant growth by cold treatment.
- With Stalin’s support, Lysenko rose to power within Soviet scientific institutions. In 1948, the Soviet Academy of Agricultural Sciences officially denounced Mendelian genetics, effectively outlawing it in favor of Lysenko’s theories.
- Scientists who opposed Lysenkoism, including leading geneticists like Nikolai Vavilov, were silenced, imprisoned, or executed. Vavilov himself died in prison in 1943. The suppression of genetic science significantly damaged Soviet agricultural productivity and retarded biological research for decades.
- If you are working with Mao as an alternative case for Authoritarian States, compare the Lysenko Affair with the details of the Great Leap Forward, another example where science and pseudo science served political aims.
Health
- From Lenin’s early decree establishing the People’s Commissariat of Health in 1918, the Soviet government aspired to provide universal, free healthcare. Yet, chronic resource shortages, political upheavals, and economic disruptions severely limited these ambitions during Stalin’s rule.
- The Civil War and subsequent famines (most notably the catastrophic 1930s famine caused by forced collectivization) overwhelmed the fragile healthcare infrastructure, particularly in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, where medical services were unable to cope with widespread malnutrition and disease.
- While certain improvements occurred in less affected regions, such as an increase in trained medical personnel and specialized facilities like tuberculosis sanatoria and maternity clinics, these advances disproportionately benefited the political elite and key workers rather than the general population.
- The state’s emphasis on industrial output and rapid urbanization often took precedence over public health concerns, exemplified by regimented childcare policies that prioritized factory schedules over maternal and child welfare.
