Pre‐Revolutionary in Form, Soviet in Content? Wartime Educational Reforms and the Postwar Quest for Normality

Abstract

The war and the postwar years were an important and generally underestimated phase in the history of theSoviet educational system, since the school system created during this period continued to the end of the regime with some modifications. Although many of the reforms were discussed and planned during the 1930s, the war proved an ideal time for sweeping reforms—far less resistance to some of the more controversial and economically inefficient changes. The reforms included selective rehabilitation of features of the pre‐revolutionary schools, a policy with a number of high‐level supporters and promoters. The combination of reforms and funding patterns reflected the Soviet state's ideological and economic priorities, as it used the school system to enshrine and perpetuate a particular vision of the new Soviet social order, one characterized by hardening social barriers when it came to quality of life, access to education and other social mobility opportunities.