Ministry of Education (Soviet Union)

The Ministry of Education of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Министерство просвещения СССР), formed on 3 August 1966, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Education (Russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения), or Narkompros, until 1946. Narkompros was a Soviet agency founded by the State Commission on Education (Russian: Государственная комиссия по просвещению) and charged with the administration of public education and most of other issues related to culture.

Ministry of Education of the USSR
Министерство просвещения СССР
All ministry seals of the Soviet Union used the Soviet coat of arms
Agency overview
Formed3 August 1966
Dissolved5 March 1988
Superseding agency
    • State Committee for People's Education (1988–1991)
    • Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (1991–1996)
    • Ministry of Science, High School and Technical Policy of the Russian Federation (1991–1993)
JurisdictionGovernment of the Soviet Union
HeadquartersMoscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Its first head was Anatoly Lunacharsky. However he described Nadezhda Krupskaya as the "soul of Narkompros".[1] Mikhail Pokrovsky and Evgraf Litkens also played important roles.

Despite Lunacharsky's efforts to protect most of the avant-garde artists such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin and Vsevolod Meyerhold, the official policy after Joseph Stalin put him in disgrace.

Narkompros had a number of sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g.,

  • Likbez, a section for liquidation of illiteracy,
  • "Profobr", a section for professional education,
  • Glavlit a section for literature and publishing (also in charge of censorship in publishing),
  • "Glavrepertkom" (Главрепертком), a commission for approval of performers' repertoires.
  • Department of the Mobilisation of Scientific Forces, to which the Russian Academy of Sciences reported to after 1918.
  • A Theatre Department which published Vestnik Teatra
  • Vneshkol'nyi Otdel, the adult Education Department run by Krupskaya

Some of these evolved into separate entities, others discontinued.

History

The Ministry's predecessor, the People's Commissariat for Education of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), was established by a decree of the second convocation of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 8 November [O.S. 26 October] 1917 and was part of the Sovnarkom. The first Commissar was Anatoly Lunacharsky appointed in 1917.

The Ministry of Education, at the all-Union level, was established on 3 August 1966. It was merged, on 5 March 1988, with the Ministry of Higher and Middle Special Education and the State Committee for Vocational and Technical Education to form the State Committee for People's Education of the Soviet Union headed by Gennady Yagodin from 11 March 1988 to 10 December 1991.[2]

Commissars and ministers
Anatoly Lunacharsky was the first and longest serving Soviet Narkom of Education.

The following persons headed the Commissariat/Ministry as commissars (narkoms) and ministers:[3][4]

NameTook officeLeft officeDuration
People's Commissar for Education of the RSFSR
Anatoly Lunacharsky26 October 191712 September 192911 years, 321 days
Andrei Bubnov12 September 192912 October 19378 years, 30 days
Pyotr Tyurkin12 October 193729 March 19402 years, 169 days
Vladimir Potemkin29 March 194023 February 19465 years, 331 days
Minister of Education of the RSFSR
Aleksei Kalashnikov9 April 194624 January 19481 year, 290 days
Aleksandr Voznesensky24 January 194815 July 19491 year, 172 days
Ivan Kairov15 July 194928 March 19566 years, 257 days
Yevgeniy Afanasenko28 March 19564 May 196610 years, 37 days
Mikhail Prokofiev4 May 196624 December 1966234 days
Alexander Danilov13 February 196727 November 198013 years, 288 days
Georgiy Veselov15 January 198126 July 19887 years, 193 days
Minister of Education of the USSR
Mikhail Prokofiev24 December 196620 December 198417 years, 362 days
Sergei Shcherbakov20 December 19845 March 19883 years, 76 days

Note

The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education of the Russian Empire, which was formed by combining:

and directed the spiritual affairs of all faiths in Russia and the institutions of public education and science, trying to restore rights in East Slavic culture of Russian Federation.

See also

References
  1. The Commissariat of Enlightenment
  2. "Портал о здоровье и заболеваниях позвоночника. Информационный портал".
  3. "14161".
  4. ru:Список министров просвещения России

Bibliography
  • Bird, Alan. A History of Russian Painting. G.K. Hall Painting, Russian, 2007.
  • Graham, Loren R. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. Science—Soviet Union, 1993.
  • Constantin, Nathan. A Study of Bolshevism. Free Press, 1953.
  • Smele, Jon. The Russian Revolution and Civil War. Continuum International, 2003.
  • Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Commissariat of Enlightenment. Cambridge University, 1970.
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