Confronting the Countryside: The Training of Political Educators in 1920s Russia

Abstract

This article examines the role of the izba‐chital'nia (rural reading room) in the 1920s Bolshevik efforts to construct a system of political education for the Soviet countryside. It focuses on the development of a system of political training of the people who ran these reading rooms—the so‐called izbachi or ‘educators of the peasant masses’. The article unravels the cross‐purpose strategies of the authority in charge of political education—the politprosvet, and its employees in the countryside. While the politprosvet organized its courses in order to select and guide the izbachi, ensuring contact within the network by means of a vast correspondence, the izbachi themselves used these courses, and especially the acquisition of ‘Bolshevik‐speak’ in them, either to escape the village or to gain greater authority within it. This new authority that they acquired was based on their ability to undo the script of the new Soviet laws while passing on ‘politically correct’ information about the local situation to the higher authorities.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Andy Byford and Polly Jones for their help in improving my paper by their helpful remarks and linguistic advice.

Notes

¹ The Glavpolitprosvet was founded in November 1920 as the ‘organ of the State propaganda of communism’. See ‘Dekret Sovnarkoma o Glavpolitprosvete’, GARF (RSFSR), f. 2313, op. 1, d. 1, l. 26 (11 November 1920). GARF is the Russian Federation State Archive; it is made up of two sections: GARF SSSR for USSR institutions and GARF RSFSR for the institutions of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Russia. The collection of documents referred to here (f. 2313) is that of Glavpolitprosvet.

² According to E. N. Medynskii the term izba‐chital'nia was forged in 1915, in the Ufa province, well known for the educational and cultural activities sponsored by its zemstvo. See Medynskii, E. N. Vneshkol'noe obrazovanie v RSFSR. Moscow, 1923: 13.

³ ‘Polozhenie ob izbe‐chital'ne’, paragraph n° 16, 28 September 1921, RGASPI, f. 17, op. 60, d. 54, l. 8 ob. RGASPI is the Russian State Archive for Socio‐Political History (i.e. the Bolshevik Party archive).

⁴ Glavpolitprosvet obtained this figure by averaging the number cited in the formal census of reading rooms in 48 provinces (23,053) and the estimate of the number of ‘functioning’ institutions (17,312). Both of these statistics were obtained from the Central Statistical Direction (CSU) on 28 August 1920. GARF (RSFSR), f. 2313, op. 1, d. 117, ll. 11–12. This meant there was one izba‐chital'nia for every five villages (if one takes into account the front line during the Civil War).

⁵ Shalaginova, E. “Klub v gorode i klubnye uchrezhdeniia v derevne.” In Politiko‐prosvetitel'naia rabota v usloviiakh NEP‐a (Itogi i perspektivy). Moscow: Krasnaia Nov’, 1922: 33.

⁶ See the resolutions of the Third Congress of Political Education Sections in Kommunisticheskoe prosveschenie no. 6 (November–December 1923): 213. In 11 provinces there were no izby‐chital'ni left at all. However, instead of counting the total number of rural political education institution, the new censuses estimated the quantity of new ‘district’ izby‐chital'ni.

⁷ Okulova, G. Iz opyta raboty izb‐chitalen. Moscow: Novaia Moskva, 1924: 5.

⁸ Pavlov, F. “Znamenskaia izba‐chital'nia.” In Nashi luchshie izby‐chital'ni. Itogi konkursa za luchshuiu izbu‐chital'niu. Moscow: Doloi Negramotnost’, 1925: 94.

⁹ Inspector Barov, ‘Otchet o proizvodennom obsledovanii Pavlov‐Posadskogo Volpolitprosvetcentra Bogorodskogo uezda’, 25 March 1925, TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 89, l. 11 ob. TsGAMO is the Central State Archive of the Moscow Province. The collection number (f. 972) refers to documents of the Moscow Political Education Section (Mosgubpolitprosvet). ‘Chicken‐legged hut’ is an allusion to a well‐known motif from Russian folk fairytales (the abode of the witch‐like figure Baba Iaga).

¹⁰ Narodnye doma were cultural institutions for the masses that date back to the Imperial era. They staged literary readings, educational courses, theatre performances, concerts and cinema shows. Before the Revolution they were usually set up by temperance, literary and educational societies in the hope of enlightening workers and peasants, or at least distracting them from alcoholism and ‘uncultured’ forms of entertainment. The first such institution appeared in 1884. They started spreading to the countryside in the late 1890s. Most of them were set up in the 1900s. See Zelenko, V. A. Praktika vneshkol'nogo obrazovaniia v Rossii, 2nd edn. Moscow: Gosizdat, 1922: 110; Charnoluskii, V. “Razvitie idei narodnogo doma, ego social'naia sushchnost’, zadachi i organizatsiia.” In Narodnyi dom, Vol. 1: Kazan’, 1919: 24–25; Ivenina, T. A. Kul'turno‐prosvetitel'nye organizatsii i uchrezhdeniia obshchestvennoi i chastnoi initsiativy v dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii (1900–1916). Moscow, 2003: 194.

¹¹ See paragraph 10 (v) in “Rezoliutsiia ob agitproprabote.” In Trinadtsatii S’’ezd RKP (b). Stenogramma. Moscow: Istpart, 1925: 645.

¹² See, for 1921: ‘Polozhenie ob izbe‐chital'ne’, 28 September 1921, RGASPI, f. 17, op. 60, d. 54, l. 8 ob. For 1924: ‘Ob izbah‐chital'niakh’, RGASPI, f. 17, op. 60, d. 13, ll. 24–31 (1924). And for 1929 see “Postanovlenie ob izbakh‐chital'niakh [dated 11 November 1929].” In Direktivy VKP (b) i postanovleniia Sovetskogo pravitel'stva o narodnom obrazovanii. Sbornik dokumentov za 1917–1947. 2nd edn. Moscow and Leningrad: Akademiia Pedagogicheskikh Nauk RSFSR, 1947: 168.

¹³ See numerous lists of izby‐chital'ni in the county of Klin, Moscow province, found at TsGAMO. For example: f. 4576 (Obshchii Otdel Klinskogo Uispolkoma), op. 1, d. 76, l. 24, l. 155 [1924]; f. 972 (Mosgubpolitprosvet), op. 4, d. 89, l. 17 ob [1925]; f. 4798 (Klinskii Upolitprosvet), op. 1, d. 14, l. 12 [1926]; f. 966 (MONO), op. 4, d. 910, ll. 137–38 [1927] etc. These lists refer to district izby‐chital'ni only.

¹⁴ The red corner (krasnyi ugolok) was defined as an ‘embryo of the izba‐chital'nia’ in Krupskaia, N. “Doklad na soveshchanii sekretarei derevenskikh iacheek [dated 21–24 October 1924].” In Pedagogicheskie sochineniia, Vol. 7: Osnovy politprosvetraboty. Moscow: Akademiia Pedagogicheskikh Nauk, 1959: 235. It was conceived as a base from which an actual village izba‐chital'nia, with its own building and employee, would be created. It plays on the figurative meaning of ‘corner’, suggesting a corner of ‘red’ (Bolshevik) ‘light’ (enlightenment) in the village, but this type of institution was also often set literally in a corner of the building of a village soviet, or even in the corner of some individual's house (effectively replacing the Orthodox icon corner common in rural dwellings). It was often difficult to make an objective, material distinction between a village izba‐chital'nia and a ‘red corner’. Consequently, the former term can be seen to emphasize the fact that a concrete political‐educational structure was part of an established network, while the latter would suggest its institutional fragility.

¹⁵ For example see Vodkin, S. M. Derevnia dvinulas’. Moscow and Leningrad: Sel'khozgiz, 1930: 38.

¹⁶ For example see RGASPI, f. 12, op. 1, d. 493, l. 1. In 1926, 13 members convened in the district commission for political education in Davydkovo (Davydkovskaia Volpolitprosvetkomissiia, Klin county). Among them, eight were members of various district commissions—for culture (kul'tkomissiia), for sanitary education (sanprosvet) and for peasant mutual aid (KKOV), as well as taking part in various other associations and institutions (trade unions, the teachers' league (Rabpros), women delegates, the district committee of the Komsomol, the credit cooperative etc.). One can assume that volpolitprosvet's director and district izbach took part at the very least in the first of the above two commissions, and that the same delegates could generally be found in the majority of the district assemblies. See TsGAMO, f. 3958 (Davydkovskii Volispolkom Klinskogo uezda), op. 1, d. 29, l. 1.

¹⁷ See Aronov, L., and M. Shaporov. Politprosvetrabota v gubernii. Ivanovo‐Voznesensk, 1926: 9.

¹⁸ Ibid., 10. The author does not specify where the rest of the money went.

¹⁹ See, for example: Brooks, Jeffrey. How Russia Learned to Read. Literacy and Popular Literature, 1861–1917. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2003. Clark, Charles E. Uprooting Otherness. The Literacy Campaign in NEP‐era Russia. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2000.

²⁰ See N. K. Splender's letter of 15 November 1925 to the editors of Krest'ianskaia gazeta, RGAE, f. 396, op. 3, d. 32, l. 40 (RGAE is the Russian State Archive for Economy): ‘there is no izba‐chital'nia in the village. But we often convene at the school, invited by our shkrab [abbreviation for shkol'nyj rabotnik or ‘school worker’, i.e. teacher], comrade Kralovich, who reads newspapers and books to us, and tells us about the building of Soviet power—and we are really happy about that.’

²¹ Kravchenko, A. G. “Staroe i novoe.” Kommunisticheskoe prosveshchenie no. 5. (September–October 1925): 8. At this time, Kravchenko was the deputy chief of Glavpolitprosvet, in charge of rural affairs.

²² On the reality and the fiction of ‘orgies’ that involved Komsomol members and on their political use in the purges of this organization, see Gorsuch, Anne E. “Soviet Youth and the Politics of Popular Culture during NEP.” Social History 17, no. 2 (1992): 189–201, and, by the same author, “‘NEP Be Damned!’ Young Militants in the 1920s and the Culture of Civil War.” Russian Review 56, no. 4 (1997): 564–80.

²³ Medynskii, E. N. Entsiklopediia vneshko'lnogo obrazovaniia. Lektsii, chitannye na pedagogicheskom fakul'tete Ural'skogo Universiteta v 1920–1922, Vol. 3: Otdel'nye vidy sodeistviia vneshkol'nogo obrazovaniia. 2nd edn. Moscow–Leningrad: Gosizdat, 1925: 6. The original text is in italics.

²⁴ The archives contain many lists of that kind. See, for example, in May 1925: Bogorodskoe county, TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 26; Kashira county, TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, ll. 27, 27 ob. and 28; Mozhaisk county, TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 29 and 29 ob.; and Klin county, TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 30.

²⁵ The total budget for the three‐week course in 1924 was estimated at 4837.36 roubles (plus a 10% reserve). This was considered sufficient for food, heating, stationery, tram tickets, books and the services of a cook and a secretary. See “Smeta na soderzhanie kursov Mosgubpolitprosveta po podgotovke rukovoditelei izbami‐chital'nimi [dated 3 November 1924].” In TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 162, l. 136.

²⁶ Note, however, that in presenting these methods, the courses were still rather theoretical. In particular, they were vague about the practical effectiveness of certain methods, presenting approaches that ‘should be stressed’ rather than approaches that actually ‘worked’.

²⁷ A., V. “Khronika—Vypusk izbachei.” Izba‐chital'nia no. 1 (January 1925): 78.

²⁸ Women who joined the ranks of the izbachi were in general much less likely to be novice political educators, but instead already performed official functions in the community. For example, in the Moscow province, one young female ‘liquidator of illiteracy’, taking part in this campaign since 1921, decided to become an izbachka (or in her words to ‘to dedicate her whole self to working with the peasant masses’) and therefore enrolled in the special training courses set up by Mosgubpolitprosvet in 1925. Importantly, she was already a member of the Executive District Committee (VIK) and president of the rural council (sel'sovet)). See the file on personal questionnaires of the students, dated October 1925 in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 199, l. 134 ob.

²⁹ Chernov, A. “Nashi kursy proshli khorosho.” Izba‐chital'nia, no. 1 (January 1926): 53.

³⁰ Kravchenko, A. G. “Otchet o kursakh izbachei s 7‐ogo oktiabria po 1‐oe noiabria 1924.” In TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 162, ll. 4 ob‐5.

³¹ The students were actually able to name 81 newspapers and journals, but it was unclear how many of these were actually read and how frequently; among the literature quoted the largest part was the local press (23.5%), while some students (2.5%) admitted that they merely glanced at ‘what they could find’. See “Kakuiu gazetu chitaesh’ sistematicheski.” In TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 162, l. 35 ob.

³² Chekalov of Bogorodskoe county in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 26.

³³ Zamchalkin in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 26.

³⁴ Kashira county in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 27.

³⁵ Popov of Mozhaisk county in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 29 ob.

³⁶ Parfianov in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 29 ob.

³⁷ Bodrov in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 29.

³⁸ TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 49.

³⁹ TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 1, d. 197, l. 27.

⁴⁰ For an extensive overview of the courses held during summer 1925, see TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 197, ll. 28–54.

⁴¹ Meshcheriakov, V. “Set’ uchrezhdenii, rabotniki, kredity.” Kommunisticheskoe prosveschenie no. 1 (January–February, 1925): 32.

⁴² “Otchet Mozhaiskogo Upolitprosveta s 1‐ogo oktiabria 1924 po 1‐oe oktiabria 1925.” In TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 48, l. 7.

⁴³ Meshcheriakov, V. “Bor'ba za kachestvo politprosvetraboty.” Kommunisticheskoe prosveschenie no. 4 (September–October 1926): 8.

⁴⁴ Ibid., 14.

⁴⁵ See personal questionnaires of the students, dated October 1925 in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 199, l. 160.

⁴⁶ Some sources show that the izbachi actually worked for nine different institutions in the village! Among the 117 izbachi who convened at the 1927 Congress, at least 46 had a second job, 53 occupied from two to four functions in total, and only four worked exclusively in their izba‐chital'nia. See Aronov, L. E. Rabota pervogo vserossiiskogo s”ezda izbachei. Materialy dlia prorabotki. Moscow: Krest'ian kaia gazeta, 1927: 8.

⁴⁷ For example see I. Kosiakin's letter to the editors of Krest'ianskaia gazeta (dated 4 April 1928, written from the workers' faculty (rabfak) Kalinin in Moscow) about Marov, a village in the Riazhskii county, Riazan’ province, where Kosiakin had worked for two years as an izbach (RGAE, f. 396, op. 6, d. 81, l. 51).

⁴⁸ See, for example, TsGAMO, f. 4576, op. 1, d. 142, l. 28. See also “Otchet Mosgubpolitprosveta o rabote v derevne.” In TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 10, d. 21, ll. 27 ob. and 28.

⁴⁹ Medynskii, Entsiklopediia vneshko'lnogo obrazovaniia, Vol. 1: Obshchaia teoriia vnehkol'nogo obrazovaniia. Moscow–Petrograd: Gosizdat, 1923: 90. The first Institute of Adult Education opened in Petrograd as early as 20 December 1918. The Moscow Department of Adult Education (founded in 1920) set up ‘accelerated courses’ (kratkosrochnye kursy), which at first lasted just a week, were then expanded to three months, and finally, from 1922, lasted a year and a half. In 1924 Higher All‐Russian Courses of Political Education were set up in Moscow, comprising a three‐year degree and belonging to the elite network of communist universities (komvuzy).

⁵⁰ MPPI was located in two three‐storey buildings in the heart of the capital, on the main city avenue, Tverskaia Street (nos 54 and 56). It occupied 3872 m², which included classrooms, a library and boarding facilities. TsMAM, f. 1957, op. 1, d. 8, ll. 180–81. TsMAM is the Central Municipal Archive of Moscow. The collection referred to here (f. 1957) contains documents related to MPPI.

⁵¹ Published in hundreds of thousands of copies, this ABC was disseminated especially among soldiers and represents one of the symbols of the Civil War. It is famous for replacing the classic early learner phrase ‘Masha loves kasha [porridge]’ with ‘We are not slaves, the slaves are not we [My ne raby, raby ne my]’. This book in many ways emblematizes the Bolshevik efforts to educate their troops in a ‘political’ way. Sentences given as examples were not simply taken from everyday life, but explicitly reflected the Communist ‘worldview’.

⁵² “Programma kursov za 1925–1926 uchebnyi god.” In TsMAM, f. 1957, op. 1, d. 2, l. 27.

⁵³ See El'kina. “Rabota PPI v Moskve.” In TsMAM, f. 1957, op. 1, d. 2, l. 16.

⁵⁴ Reference is here made to the well‐known book by Ia. A. Iakovlev, Derevnia, kak ona est’, Moscow: 1923, in which the author, a former leader of Glavpolitprosvet's Committee, and future People's Commissar for Agriculture, wrote a scathing critique of the Russian countryside, especially of Soviet rural officials. This book, written on the basis of a field inquiry, was the main Bolshevik reference on this matter in the mid‐1920s.

⁵⁵ “Mesta napravlenii na rabotu vypuska 1927 goda.” In TsMAM, f. 1957, op. 1, d. 57, ll. 63–65 ob. Soviet Party Schools trained administrative cadres. They were run mainly by the Glavpolitprosvet and its local sections (who funded them, devised programmes and provided tutors). However, it was the Agitpropotdel of the Central Committee and its local sections that controlled ‘ideological’ correctness, both by selecting the students and then allocating them to their respective administrative posts.

⁵⁶ See letter from Matrosov to Aleksandrov (izba‐chita'lnia of Iasenevo, Davydovo district, Klin county) dated November 1924 in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 157, l. 27.

⁵⁷ See letter from Aleksandrov to Matrosov, undated (possibly Summer 1924?), in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 158, l. 82.

⁵⁸ See letter from Matrosov to Aleksandrov, dated 21 July 1924, in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 158, ll. 74–75.

⁵⁹ TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 158, l. 74 ob.

⁶⁰ See letter from Aleksandrov to Matrosov, dated 11 August 1924, in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 158, l. 73.

⁶¹ This is not the only type of favour that the correspondence was used for. For example, another izbach hoped to use his position in the system and his contact with Aleksandrov to place his brother in a literacy training course. See letter from Iakshin to Aleksandrov (izba‐chital'nia of Petrovskoe, Ivanovo district, Bogorodsk county), dated 6 July 1924, in TsGAMO, f. 972, op. 4, d. 158, l. 132 ob.

⁶² Volk, S. “Kak my gotovyli novykh izbachei.” Izba‐chital'nia, no. 5 (March 1926): 41.

⁶³ The village soviet or council (sel'sovet) is the Soviet administrative institution at the village level. In European Russia there was, on average, one such council per seven villages. Its members, secretary and president were elected by all the local inhabitants, whether actual peasants or not. By contrast, the council of the peasant commune (skhod) was elected in each village where the village commune (obshchina) regulated socioeconomic life, and only peasants took part in its election. Because the skhod was formed directly by the village commune, it could rely on material means of which the sel'sovet was deprived.

⁶⁴ “Ucheba sel'skikh izbachei (Opyt trekhdnevnykh kursov po perepodgotovke sel'skikh izbachei v Bukholovskoi volosti, Volokolamskogo uezda, Moskovskoi gub.).” In TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 24. The collection (f. 966) is for the Moscow Department for Popular Instruction (MONO).

⁶⁵ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 25.

⁶⁶ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 28.

⁶⁷ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 24.

⁶⁸ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 29.

⁶⁹ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 29.

⁷⁰ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 27.

⁷¹ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 26.

⁷² TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 28.

⁷³ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 26.

⁷⁴ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 28.

⁷⁵ TsGAMO, f. 966, op. 3, d. 1409, l. 28.

⁷⁶ Gorham, M. S. Speaking in Soviet Tongues: Language Culture and the Politics of Voice in Revolutionary Russia. DeKalb: Illinois University Press, 2003.