V. I. Lenin and Methods of Communist Education

Abstract

Marxist-Leninist teaching on the communist education of the younger generation is integrally connected with the theory of scientific communism and serves the popular struggle to build a new society. In the process of developing the teaching of K. Marx and F. Engels on education, V. I. Lenin formulated and substantiated a highly important principle of communist education: its relevance to the tasks of socialist construction and the policies of the Communist Party. In elaborating upon the Marxist principle of the basic objective of communist education —comprehensive development of the individual — Lenin articulated basic principles characterizing the essence and tasks of education, of forming a scientific world-view in children and youth, and their moral, esthetic, and physical education. He attached maximum importance to the polytechnical and labor education of pupils in comprehensive development of the individual. Lenin emphasized in his historic speech at the Third Congress of the Russian Communist Youth League (October 1920) that only a combination of teaching with the participation of youth in the construction of a new society along with the workers and peasants could ensure a truly communistic education. Lenin's ideas on communist education have been reflected further in the programs and decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union [CPSU] and the Soviet government and in the speeches and works of L. I. Brezhnev and other Party and government leaders.