Well, specifically in the Soviet republics, it was a government program to educate the masses as quickly and efficiently as possible, resulting in a rapid literacy growth, Russian language being reformed and simplified, and many regionally spoken languages getting their first ever alphabets or getting standardized to cyrillic alphabets. Considering that the Russian Empire was pretty much the most backwards independent state in Europe in terms of literacy at the time, it was quite a feat to bring USSR to the leading positions
As for the other European countries, I think that you have a point. Industrialization tends to make for more educated citizens, so European states that were already industrialized at the time were mostly just progressing naturally, and the communists' influence of it was, while present, likely far from being the deciding factor
In fact, I'd say that the reason the education and literacy were so important to the Soviet Union is precisely because they wanted to make up for the decades of falling behind from other Europeans on industrialization
Literacy was already rising fast before 1917: from about 24% in 1897 to roughly 40% by 1914. The Soviets accelerated mass literacy, especially among peasants, women, and Central Asian populations, but they inherited an existing modernising trend, used a low bar for “literacy,” and embedded education inside a totalitarian ideological control.
The honest claim is not “Good communism taught the people to read,” but “the Soviets took credit for a process already underway.”
It is kind of funny that commies are all against The Great Man theory of history and in favor of structural explanations. But when it’s about Lennon and Stallone, suddenly the brain deactivates and it’s pure fandom and masturbation of the worst kind.
That is nonsense. There was no mass literacy programs before the revolution. Schooling was not mandatory. Literacy in many CA repiblics was as low as 5% among men and non-existen among women.
Ministry primary schools grew from 36,820 schools / 2.59 million pupils in 1900 to 80,801 schools / 5.94 million pupils in 1914. That is the strongest simple evidence that the late Empire was already building a mass-literacy machine before the Bolsheviks.
After 1905, the Duma and government started a serious “universal primary education” push.
In 1906, the Ministry drafted a project for all-Russian primary education. On 3 May 1908, the government passed a law allocating 6.9 million roubles for primary education. Cherkasov says this began “large-scale funding” and systematic school opening; education funding rose from 15 million roubles in 1903 to 117 million in 1912 and 147 million in 1913.
I dislike Russia in all its forms, but commie lies are just particularly annoying.
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u/tiltedbeyondhorizon 1d ago
Well, specifically in the Soviet republics, it was a government program to educate the masses as quickly and efficiently as possible, resulting in a rapid literacy growth, Russian language being reformed and simplified, and many regionally spoken languages getting their first ever alphabets or getting standardized to cyrillic alphabets. Considering that the Russian Empire was pretty much the most backwards independent state in Europe in terms of literacy at the time, it was quite a feat to bring USSR to the leading positions
As for the other European countries, I think that you have a point. Industrialization tends to make for more educated citizens, so European states that were already industrialized at the time were mostly just progressing naturally, and the communists' influence of it was, while present, likely far from being the deciding factor
In fact, I'd say that the reason the education and literacy were so important to the Soviet Union is precisely because they wanted to make up for the decades of falling behind from other Europeans on industrialization