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Many Americans know little about the educational system in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1945. In fact, we know little about the Soviet Union in general because of the Cold War. After the coup that brought down the Soviet empire, Russia released many of its secrets including those involving its education. After 1917, Russia based its entire school system on the teachings of German philosopher Karl Marx. Marxism states that one should achieve freedom through giving up the self to benefit the state. This Marxist theory created an unpopular form of government from a democratic point of view; however, it made Communism an efficient educator. 1
Joseph Stalin gained complete control of the Communist Party with the help of officials he had appointed in 1927. He was the party’s general secretary, which was an important role in the party. His ruling of the Soviet Union indicated the start of an economic, social, and political revolution, which had better results than in 1917. Joseph Stalin modernized the Soviet Union through the Five Year Plan, developed collectivization operated by the government, and achieved his goals by controlling the party bureaucracy and purged any opposition. Stalin introduced collectivization to increase agricultural production. Collectivization was a system in which private farms were eliminated and peasants worked on land owned by the government. In the first Five-Year Plan, livestock dramatically fell and wheat remained at a steady level. In the second Five-Year Plan, livestock slowly began to rise, and wheat nearly doubled production. There was a cost to Stalin’s plans. Stalin’s collectivization led to 4.5 to 7 million starving people in Ukraine.2
As the Soviet economy grew more complex, it required more and more complex disaggregation of control figures (plan targets) and factory inputs. As it required more communication between the enterprises and the planning ministries, and as the number of enterprises, trusts, and ministries multiplied, the Soviet economy started stagnating. The Soviet economy was increasingly sluggish when it came to responding to change, adapting cost−saving technologies, and providing incentives at all levels to improve growth, productivity and efficiency. Most information in the Soviet economy flowed from the top down and economic planning was often done based on faulty or outdated information, particularly in sectors with large numbers of consumers. As a result, some goods tended to be under produced, leading to shortages, while other goods were overproduced and accumulated in storage. Some factories developed a system of barter and either exchanged or shared raw materials and parts, while consumers developed a black market for goods that were particularly sought after but constantly under produced.3