Illiteracy Eradication Policies in the USSR in the 1950-1960s

Abstract

With evidence from newly introduced archival materials, the paper studies the eradication of illiteracy among the USSR’s adult population during the 1950-1960s. It analyzes the causes for the increase in the number of illiterate citizens in the postwar period and concludes that the miserable situation largely resulted from repressive deportations and arrangements of ‘special settlements’ (Rus. ‘spetsposeleniya’). Many children from families of the deported and ‘special settlers’ (Rus. ‘spetsposelentsy’) had no real opportunities to learn the basics of how to read and write. For example, over 23 % of Kalmyk school-age children did not attend school. The government planned to eradicate illiteracy in the USSR during the mid-1950s, however, the lack of funding and poor organization of the work on the identifi cation and training of illiterates impeded the realization of the plans. The attempt by the Ministry of Education to shift the concern for the elimination of illiteracy among trade union members onto trade union organizations had yielded no positive results. The article provides the fi rst attempt to investigate the state illiteracy eradication program. This policy was set in motion throughout the country after enactment of the confi dential decree “On Illiteracy Eradication among the Population” dated 4 January 1958. The paper analyzes the implementation of the decree and its results. In 1958, half a million illiterate citizens aged 16 to 49 years, including 1 611 Kalmyks, were trained in the RSFSR. The 1959 population census showed that the work on elimination of illiteracy had not been completed. The greatest number of illiterates in the RSFSR (as a percentage of the total population of the region) was found in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR (5.6 % of the total population of the autonomous republic) and in the Yakut ASSR (2.3 %). In the Kalmyk ASSR, the census revealed 3 935 illiterates (2.2 % of the total population of the region). In the author’s opinion, such a situation is largely an echo of the policy of deportations and special settlements. The article contains extensive statistical materials on the number of illiterates and semi-literates in the country and its regions.