With the revolution in February, the socialist youth movement emerged out of young workers throughout Russia. They pushed for more education opportunities and education for everyone. This youth movement join with the Bolsheviks Party and they helped to create policies that would educate the youth of Russia.

At the end of 1917, there was a state commission on education. This brought about all different types of schools for the youth and a few for adults. These schools had great influence on the people on this time. With Bolsheviks giving more attention to the youth of Russia, they were focusing on the future opposed to trying to fix the issues of the present.

There was other focuses on education in the beginning on the Bolsheviks reign. Labor education and agriculture education were important for the continual growth of the agriculture systems so that there would be a reduced chance of famine and hunger with the growing population. This focus continued as the Soviet Union was formed and even after Lenin died.

Education continued to be a focus into the Cold War time but the government started to have more of a stress on science and technology because of the arms race with the United States. Higher education became easier to obtain with the desire to have a bigger and better military. An article from Nature says, that “professional knowledge does not correspond to the increased requirements for science and industry.”

With the education system that was created for the future of Russia, children became the “privileged class” of the Soviet Union. Education in the Soviet Union was free and mothers were able to stay home with their children until they were 18 months old to take care of them and start their education. Formal Education started when children were 7 years old and ended at 18 years old. During their education, children were integrated into the Communist Party and became a member Komsomol when they were 14 years old. The Soviet Union had all of the children taught the exact same way with the same information.

The education system in Russia was progressive in many ways. Before the revolution of 1917, the masses were uneducated and ignorant of how the government really affected them. After the Bolsheviks took power and implemented an education system that incorporated everyone, the ignorance decreased. There were more people who were able to do the basic of reading and writing and were able to be an active member of society. With the variety of schools that were created, society become more varied and people were able to move classes, become a specialist, and openly share new ideas with the community.

Work Cited

http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1917youth&Year=1917&navi=byYear

James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 201-202.

James Bunyan, ed., Intervention, Civil War, and Communism in Russia, April-December 1918 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1936), pp. 534-535.

Soviet Education Today
Richard E. Werstler and Wilma P. Werstler
The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 62, No. 10 (Jun., 1981), pp. 710-712
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20386108

State Children: Soviet Russia’s Besprizornye and the New Socialist Generation
Alan Ball
Russian Review, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 1993), pp. 228-247
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review
Article DOI: 10.2307/131345
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/131345

The Socialist Youth Movement in Revolutionary Petrograd
Isabel A. Tirado
Russian Review, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Apr., 1987), pp. 135-155
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review
Article DOI: 10.2307/130623
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/130623

Soviet Correspondent. “Soviet Education Policy.” Nature 239 (1972): 62. Print.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v239/n5367/pdf/239062b0.pdf

Photos:

http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&show=images&SubjectID=1917youth&Year=1917&navi=byYear

The October Manifesto was created out of the hope for changed, signed out of fear, and not fully used until the “Fundamental Laws” was written almost 6 months later.

The year of 1905 proved to hold the biggest trouble for the Russian Tsar. To kick off the year with Bloody Sunday, then continue it by the losses in the Russo-Japanese War, then massive strikes all over Russia, with the closing of factories, schools, and theaters. The autocracy needed to fix the unrest which was prevalent throughout his country. He turned to Sergei Witte for an answer. Military action or reform?

Sergei Witte was the “architect of the manifesto,” who had felt the “Russia had out grown its existing order and is striking towards a legal order based on civil liberty.” The October Manifesto was a means to give the people hope without taking too much power away from the autocracy. The Manifesto, which was signed on October 17, 1905, promised the people civil liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and that no laws would be implemented without the agreement of the Duma. Though it does not say anywhere in the Manifesto that the Duma can create new laws or act like a normally functioning legislative body like we know it in the West.

The Manifesto was well received at first, but the broadness of the Manifesto sparked more conflict. The workers and peasantry felt that they were not getting the proper change. They wanted immediate “practical social and economic change.” The Manifesto was a short term fix of the chaos that was erupting all over Russia. Nicolas II put a cork in the bottle of the Revolution without realizing that the bottle was going to shatter under the pressure. But the Tsar’s “failed implementation of the Manifesto” was the driving force in the Revolution of 1917.

Work Cited:

“The October Manifesto”. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2005. Web. 7 Sept 2014. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/october_manifesto.htm>.

“The Explosive October Manifesto.” Proquest. Proquest, Sept.-Oct. 2010. Web. 7 Sept. 2014. <http://search.proquest.com/docview/749234680?pq-origsite=summon>.

“The October Manifesto of 1905.” The October Manifesto of 1905. Durham, n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2014. <http://community.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/octmanif.html>.

Kropotkin, G. M. “The Ruling Bureaucracy and the “New Order” of Russian Statehood After the Manifesto of 17 October 1905.” Get VText Search Results. Russians Studies in History, 2008. Web. 07 Sept. 2014. <http://su8bj7jh4j.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+Ruling+Bureaucracy+and+the+%22New+Order%22+of+Russian+Statehood+After+the+Manifesto+of+17+October+1905&rft.jtitle=Russian+Studies+in+History&rft.au=Kropotkin%2C+G.+M&rft.date=2008-04-01&rft.issn=1061-1983&rft.eissn=1558-0881&rft.volume=46&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=6&rft.epage=33&rft_id=info:doi/10.2753%2FRSH1061-1983460401&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_2753_RSH1061_1983460401&paramdict=en-US>.

“Tsar Nicolas and the October Manifesto.” Cgscrussianrevolution2011. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2014. <http://cgscrussianrevolution2011.wikispaces.com/Tsar+Nicolas+and+the+October+Manifesto>.