Soviet Schools: Policy Pursues Practice, 1921–1928

Slavic Review ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry E. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
School Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
New Era ◽  
Party Members

Many Bolsheviks heralded the October Revolution of 1917 as the beginning of a new era in history; by 1921, however, much of this optimism had disappeared. Civil war, peasant rebellion, empty factories, closed schools, strikes in the industrial establishments that had survived, and the Kronstadt Revolt made many party members weary and cynical. A few, however, stubbornly adhered to an untarnished vision of a grand future. They could be found especially among those officials responsible for primary and secondary schools at the Commissariat of Enlightenment (Narkompros). Anatolii V. Lunacharskii, commissar of enlightenment from 1917 to 1929; Nadezhda K. Krupskaia, his chief assistant for school policy; and their colleagues still believed that they possessed the means to reshape not only the schools but also human behavior and society. While the party engineered a calculated retreat with the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the state slashed the educational budget, Narkompros remained determined to challenge the present and storm the future. It did so by launching a program of sweeping changes in the content and methods of school instruction. With a faith it hoped was infectious, Narkompros assumed that teachers would follow its lead. It would not be so simple.

Russian Protectionism: Problems of Institutional Heritage

2012 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
L. Tsedilin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
The Times ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article analyzes the pre-revolutionary and the Soviet experience of the protectionist policies. Special attention is paid to the external economic policy during the times of NEP (New Economic Policy), socialist industrialization and the years of 1970-1980s. The results of the state monopoly on foreign trade and currency transactions in the Soviet Union are summarized; the economic integration in the frames of Comecon is assessed.

Cicero and Milo

1974 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 62-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Lintott
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Political Realignment ◽  
Political Scene

The battle of Bovillae on 18th January, 52 B.C., which led to Clodius' death, was literally treated by Cicero in a letter to Atticus as the beginning of a new era—he dated the letter by it, although over a year had elapsed. It is difficult to exaggerate the relief it afforded him from fear and humiliation for a few precious years before civil war put him once more in jeopardy. At one stroke Cicero lost his chief inimicus and the Republic lost a hostis and pestis. Moreover, the turmoil led to a political realignment for which Cicero had been striving for the last ten years—a reconciliation between the boni and Pompey, as a result of which Pompey was commissioned to put the state to rights. Cicero's behaviour in this context, especially his return to the centre of the political scene, is, one would have thought, of capital importance to the biographer of Cicero. Yet two recent English biographies have but briefly touched on the topic. It is true that, in the background of Cicero's personal drama, Caesar and Pompey were taking up positions which, as events turned out, would lead to the collapse of the Republic. However, Cicero and Milo were not to know this, nor were their opponents; friendly cooperation between the two super-politicians apparently was continuing. Politicians on all sides were still aiming to secure power and honour through the traditional Republican magistracies, and in this pursuit were prepared to use the odd mixture of violence, bribery and insistence on the strict letter of the constitution, which was becoming a popular recipe. In retrospect their obsession with the customary organs of power has a certain irony. Yet it is a testimony to the political atmosphere then. Their manoeuvres are also important because both the instability caused by the violence of Clodius and Milo, and the eventual confidence in the rule of law established under Pompey's protection, helped to determine the political position of the boni associated with Pompey in 49 B.C. Cicero's relationship with Milo is at first sight one of the more puzzling aspects of his career. What had they in common, except that Milo, like most late Republican politicians, was at one time associated with Pompey? Properly interpreted, however, this relationship may not only illuminate Cicero's own attitudes but illustrate the character of the last years of Republican politics.

Pyrrhic Victories

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Baberowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The World ◽  
Red Army ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Military Victory ◽  
The Military

This chapter examines the aftermath of the Bolsheviks' victory over both the Whites, or counterrevolutionaries, and all rival socialists. The Bolsheviks broke the military resistance of the Whites, crushed the unrest and strikes of the peasants, and even restored the multiethnic empire, which, in the early months of revolution, had largely fallen apart. In spring 1921, when the Red Army marched into Georgia, the Civil War was officially over. For the Bolsheviks, however, military victory was not the end but rather the beginning of a mission, not simply to shake the world but to transform it. Although weapons may have decided the war in favor of the revolutionaries they had not settled the question of power. This chapter considers Vladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) that would implement economic reforms, the Bolsheviks' failure to carry power into villages, and the dictatorship's lack of support from the proletariat. It also describes the nationalization of the Russian empire and Joseph Stalin's rise to power.

THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIA: THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY (NEP) MODEL OF "MARKET SOCIALISM"

2020 ◽  
pp. 189-192
Author(s):  
V. V. Koltsov ◽  
Z. V. Busurkina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Market Socialism ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Hundredth Anniversary

This article discusses the main principles, problems and contradictions of the NEP economic model

Politics of Memory and Cinematography in Modern Russia: the October Revolution and the Civil War

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Egor M. Isaev
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The State ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
The Past

Abstract This article discusses the representation of the era of the October Revolution and the Civil War in contemporary Russian popular cinema. It describes the modern tools used by the state to create new images of the past and to reconstruct history in Russian popular culture. It also considers how Russian society has reacted to this official discourse.

The Problem of Market Relations and the State in Revolutionary Russia

1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Exchange ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Rosetta Stone ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
Market Relations

If the market has emerged in current Soviet and Western discourse as a notional Rosetta stone capable of deciphering the coded blueprints of post-Soviet reconstruction, its apparent destruction by the Bolsheviks during the Civil War and subsequent resurrection under the New Economic Policy (NEP) is often seen as a similarly defining element of the whole early Soviet project. As many would have it, the party's initial urge to control entirely the whole complex of economic exchange relations firmly situates Soviet totalitarianism in a Leninist political economy. The brutal repression of free traders and the mindless nationalization of production clearly evidences the calamitous utopianism of Bolshevik class-based ideology, while the reemergence after 1921 of limited market mechanisms, even if only a reluctant concession to political weakness and economic devastation, opened alternative paths to a non-Stalinist Soviet modernity involving elements of a civil social order. In a phrase, reified conceptions of the market broadly shape historical constructions of a unique and problematic Soviet past, just as they purportedly demonstrate what is peculiar about the post-Soviet present and necessary for the future.

scholarly journals THE CRIMINAL SITUATION IN UKRAINE DURING THE NEP

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Mykola Bondarchuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Destructive Processes ◽  
Historical Methods

The purpose of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the measures taken by the relevant Soviet authorities in the USSR during the period of the new economic policy (NEP) in order to eliminate the manifestations of organized crime. Objectives of the study: to determine the main causes of banditry and its manifestations in Soviet Ukraine in the NEP; to explore the ways and methods of struggle of the Soviet power against it. The methodological basis of the study are general scientific (logical, comparative), and special historical methods (problem-chronological). They allowed to determine this period, in which the problem of organized crime is studied specifically, in chronological and logical order. Comparative analysis was used to study individual phenomena of this process. The study is also based on the principles of scientificity, historicism and objectivity. The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the manifestations of organized crime in Soviet Ukraine in 1921-1928 and ways to combat them was carried out. New archival documents on this issue and materials of periodicals of those years were put into scientific circulation. An attempt has been made to give an objective, unbiased assessment of these phenomena and the actions of the Soviet authorities in those years. Conclusions. The new economic policy of the Soviet state during the 1920's was implemented against the background of increasing manifestations of various social anomalies. The struggle against them took place in a difficult socio-economic situation in which the society found itself after the First World War. According to the analysis of the archival sources, the Soviet authorities attached great importance to these measures, and first of all to their termination. These problems were caused by various factors, but primarily by the destructive processes in society itself and the struggle of the Bolsheviks for the establishment of their power. This also applies to the events of the recent Civil War in the former Russian Empire and the state liberation struggle in Ukraine in 1917-1921. One of the main reasons for the growth of organized crime was a difficult economic situation caused by the effects of military communism. In the period under study, namely in the first half of the 1920's, the process of formation of the law enforcement system of the Soviet power took place. The main burden of responsibility for the state of the criminogenic situation in the country rested with the local police.

scholarly journals Attitude to the New Economic Policy in the RCP (B) Party Organizations of the Vyatka Gubernia in 1921-1923: Archival Materials

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-179
Author(s):  
Yuri N. Timkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

Drawing on archival materials from the State Archive of the Kirov Region and the State Archive of Social and Political History of the Kirov Region, the article analyzes attitudes to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the party organizations of the RCP (B) of the Vyatka guberina in 1921. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that the author draws on archival documents to investigate the attitude of communists to the decision of the X Congress of the RCP (B) to replace surplus tax by tax in kind (prodnalog) and other measures for the development of the NEP in 1921. It turns out that party workers in position of responsibility and ordinary members of the party, as a rule, understood and perceived the NEP in their own way, reading into it the interests and needs of different social and professional groups. Moreover, there emerged some ideological differences due to different understanding of the political goals of the New Economic Policy. For the first time in local historiography, the author has introduced into scientific use some previously unknown archival facts. The analysis of the archival material allows the author to conclude that the attitude to the NEP of party workers in position of responsibility and of rank-and-file members differed. If the “top” of the party discussed the ideological aspects of the NEP, the “bottom” members, as a rule, were interested in its practical orientation. There was no unanimous support for the NEP not just among the responsible party workers, but also among the rank-and-file members. The author comes to the conclusion that the lack of clear understanding of the nature of the New Economic Policy caused disagreements in the party ranks, which, in absence of the tradition of broad discussion of controversial issues, was fraught with danger of a split. The Military Communism ideology and low literacy (including political one) that prevailed in the party ranks did not promote good understanding of the new party course and its creative application under specific regional conditions. Critics and open opponents of the NEP faced “organizational conclusions.”

Extending State Authority

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-97
Author(s):  
Matthew Rendle
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The State ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Central State ◽  
State Authority ◽  
Party Members ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Military

Chapter 2 examines how the creation of a justice system, like other institution-building exercises, formed an important part of re-establishing central state authority during this period. The Bolsheviks inherited a shattered state and their weaknesses, alongside widespread opposition, exacerbated the problem initially. As political courts targeting a wide variety of counter-revolutionary crimes, staffed by party members who proactively targeted criminals, tribunals were better placed to convey the authority and objectives of the state than other courts. Law became the ‘emissary of the state’, extending the state’s reach across Russia. This chapter explores the steady expansion of tribunals, including the establishment of military tribunals, transport tribunals, and travelling sessions of tribunals, as a means of exerting state authority from the end of 1918. Gradual unification of the system followed, but the Bolsheviks had re-established the state by 1922, and this achievement, the end of the civil war, and the publication of new law codes rendered many tribunals obsolete. Law’s purpose changed in a more stable Soviet Union, moving from revolutionary consciousness to revolutionary legality, although this chapter finishes by exploring the legacy of exceptional forms of justice and its continuance in the military and in the form of show trials.

Orphans during the Civil War: from homelessness to concentration camps

2019 ◽  
pp. 260-271
Author(s):  
Pavel Shcherbinin ◽  
Aleksei Chubarov ◽  
Ylia Shcherbinina
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Red Army ◽  
Chronological Period

We investigate specifically and comprehensively the orphans situation and transformation of social protection system in the Civil War years and its ultimate phase Tambov Rebellion in the Tambov Governorate through the lens of children’s everyday life and policy of the Soviet government. On the basis of a wide complex of primary materials attraction, first of all archival documents, we representatively and specially investigate various little-known aspects of the scien-tific problem declared in study. We generalize practices of children survival in the incredibly bloody and violent clashes of rebels and parts of the Red Army in one region – Tambov Gover-norate. We reveal the conditions of children placement in concentration camps, as well as attempts of the authorities to regulate their situation, to stabilize the morbidity of children and catastrophic child mortality. We provide the specific data on the peculiarities of orphans charity in the conditions of Civil War, Tambov Rebellion, new economic policy at the regional and county level, which allows to evaluate not only the social policy of the Soviet government, but also the survival of children’s society in the chronological period under consideration. We clarify the consequences of taking rebel family members (residents of the region who joined A.S. Antonov) hostage and using children as an attractive mechanism to combat “banditry”. We specially consider the influence of “party and class” selection of children at their admission to orphanages, as well as taking into account their social origin, the position of parents. We reveal the main results of the new economic policy (NEP) impact on children’s social protection and the constriction of the existing practice of orphans charity in the conditions of the actual cessation of funding for many children’s institutions. We draw conclusions about the historical experience, traditions and features of the children survival, including orphans at the regional level (governorate and county) in the conditions of hunger strikes of the 20s of the 20th century, which allowed to successfully reconstruct the actual population situation of the Tambov Governorate in the post-revolutionary period. We give the characteristics of the local authorities’ policy, the interaction of the capital and the regions in the conditions of almost incessant cataclysms and social disasters of the first years of Soviet power.

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