It would have been better, perhaps, to choose a more modest title. The Soviet Union comprises an area of one-sixth of the earth's land surface, and has a population of one hundred and sixty million people of diverse tongues and racial origins; and it would tax the ingenuity of a single foreign observer to include in this brief survey a series of reports on education in Kazakstan, in the Caucasus, in the Urals, and among the Bashkir and Kirghiz and Yakut peoples. It is possible, however, whether or not one has first-hand knowledge of educational practice in those regions, to give an account of the general theory of Soviet education, since this is more or less uniform throughout the continent. Such an account may be supplemented by personal impressions of the way the educational system works in various localities. In any attempt to describe education in the Soviet Union at the present day, it is necessary to take into account many other things besides education; above all it is essential to approach the subject from the standpoint of Soviet internal politics. By politics in this instance one means, of course, Bolshevik political science, the Communist dictatorship and tenets of Communism, the theories of Marx, Engels and Lenin. It is also essential to pay detailed attention to the economic development of Soviet Russia if the development of the Soviet educational system is to be adequately understood.