USSR -- Education, 1970 w. photos Part II

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: USSR -- Education, 1970

We have looked at leaflets regarding education in the Soviet Union before in the posts USSR Today -- Education, 1975 w. photos Part I and USSR Today -- Education, 1975 w. photos Part II. As we noted then, "One of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the modern world was the feat that the Soviet Union accomplished in building an extensive and free educational system that dragged its republics and peoples out of a state of neo-feudalism, mass ignorance and illiteracy." 

This booklet touches on these accomplishments again with an emphasis on the astonishing defeat of illiteracy in the Soviet republics -- where illiteracy rates of as high as 99% were overcome to achieve near 100% literacy between 1917 and 1970 -- as well as on the huge strides forward in the numbers of schools of all kinds.

As the first part of our look at this booklet noted -- as just one example -- prior to the revolution there were but 150 kindergartens in all of Russia which were exclusively for the wealthy. By 1969 there were over 75,000 of these and they were all free.

In this part we see other striking examples through a variety of graphics. This part also reminds that in the Soviet Union not only was education at all levels free but so were the textbooks, facilities, etc. "The state bears all expenses of a student in getting an education". Students received significant subsidies of other kinds that are detailed. The booklet also briefly touches on the USSR's internationalist efforts with regard to educational infrastructure and students in developing countries. 

This is the second of two parts. The first part can be found here.

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com