The Kremlin and the Schoolhouse: Reforming Education in Soviet Russia, 1917-1931

"... an exciting, first-rate contribution to our understanding of Soviet history on several levels... and the relationship between tsarist and Soviet educational policies and practices." --Ben Eklof

"Larry E. Holmes' book is a fine, expert study of a difficult topic." --The Historian

"... this first-rate work definitely points the way toward a new understanding of the Soviet Union in the 1920s." --Journal of Modern History

"... a succinct and original study of early Soviet education and an engaging disaggregation of the convoluted relations among ideology, politics, and social reality in a revolutionary society... This well-researched, innovative, and insightful study is required reading for any serious student of early Soviet history." --The Russian Review

"... elegantly written, a pithy fast paced, and intersting book..." --East West Education

Larry Holmes examines Soviet school policy from 1917 to 1931 in its ideological, political, institutional, and social dimensions.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [153]-208) and index.

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration

Introduction

Part One: The Idea and the Reality, 1917-1921

I. A New School for a New Society

II. In Search of a Policy

III. In Search of a School and a Public

IV. Narkompros under Siege

Part Two: Change and Permanence in the 1920s

V. NEP and the Progressive Curriculm

VI. SLow History

Classroom Practice

VII. Teachers

A Preference for the Customary

VIII. The ABC's beyond the School

Part Three: Compromise, 1925-1928

IX. Policy Running After Practice

X. Komsomol and the Technical Lobby

XI. A Threat of Failure

Part Four: Compromise Betrayed

XIII. Purges and Projects, 1929-1930

XIV. Slower History

XV. Policy Meets Practice, 1931

Conclusion

Statistical Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index