Schooling in New Russia: Innovation and Change, 1984-95 (Studies in Russia and East Europe)

## List of Abbreviations AN Akademiia Nauk APN Akademiia Pedagogicheskikh Nauk (later RAO) ASSR Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic CDSP Current Digest of the Soviet Press CDPSP Current Digest of the Post Soviet Press CIS Commonwealth of Independent States ECE East-Central Europe FMSh Fiziko-matematicheskaia shkola FSU Former Soviet Union MARO Moskovskaia Akademiia Razvitiia Obrazovaniia NG Nezavisimaia gazeta PTUs ProfessionaVno-tekhnicheskie uchilishcha RANGO Rossiiskaia assotsiatsiia negosudarstvennogo obrazovaniia RAO Rossiiskaia Akademiia Obrazovaniia SPTUs Srednie professionaVno-tekhnicheskie uchilishcha UG UchiteVskaia gazeta VNIK Vremennyi nauchno-issledovateVskii kollektiv vuzy vysshie uchebnye zavedeniia xm Nominally, 'Soviet' education ceased to exist, although in reality the same system of teaching was to continue for many years, until the new independent states or republics had fully formulated their own systems. The changes in schooling in the former Soviet Union came about gradually in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the arrival of perestroika and glasnost. Unlike the changes in other spheres of Soviet life, they came largely from below. They were initiated by the teachers in the schools, who, frustrated by the final Soviet reform of 1984, began to call for something more radical, for a complete change, the renewal of education. Some of the so-called new ideas had begun many years before, in the time of Khrushchev. They had been kept going by individuals and groups working in different parts of the Soviet Union until the period of stagnation began under Brezhnev. After this came what Oleg Gazman, the leader of the Commune Group of educationalists called the period of 'conservation'. Ideas were kept alive in some places but as in art, literature and the cinema, were mostly stored in bottom drawers until the moment of glasnost allowed them to reappear. This book will attempt to trace the origins of change in the Soviet, and later Russian, general education school, its recognition and official blessing in 1988, the way it developed after that until the anti-Gorbachev coup of August 1991, with the subsequent disintegration of Soviet, and Communist power, and the decentralization and regionalization of education which has followed. xiv I have used the Library of Congress rules for transliteration throughout, except in the case of names such as Yeltsin, Yagodin, Karakovsky, Petrovsky, Izvestia and so on, where I have used the versions which I believe are more readily recognized by the reader. xvi Parti The Changes 1 From 1900 to the 1970s: Tsarist and Postrevolutionary Education 'Without teaching', Lenin once observed, 'there is no knowledge; without knowledge there is no Communism.' 1 Those of us who were in Moscow from 1982 to 1985 saw the funerals of three Soviet leaders in less than three years. Brezhnev died in November 1982, a sick man who seemed barely alive during his last few months, and who at formal receptions just managed to deliver his official speeches, whilst finding it difficult to focus on someone face to face. Andropov, who followed him, was to live little more than a year after his appointment as General Secretary and because of illness was not operative throughout this time. Chernenko also lasted just over a year before the strains of the funeral march rang out again across Red Square. In March 1985 a younger and fitter man was chosen to lead the Soviet Union and Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, on the death of Chernenko. With his arrival on the scene there began a series of changes in the former Soviet Union which no one predicted could happen so soon and so quickly. They led first to what was called the period of'restructuring' and 'openness' -perestroika and glasnost 9 -in Soviet life. This was followed by the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the attempt to eradicate Soviet Communism. Education was just one of the aspects of Soviet life in which perestroika manifested itself after 1985. There were many other fascinating aspects of perestroika in political, economic, cultural and social life, but education undoubtedly reflects the measure of change in any country and change is what the Soviet Union has been about since 1985. Writing about the country for a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was almost impossible to keep up with the day-to-day changes. Anything written more than a few weeks before, sometimes a few days, tended quickly to become part of history. This book attempts to 3 Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 From 1900 to the 1970s: Tsarist and Post-revolutionary Education....Pages 3-14 The 1970s and the Early 1980s: Portrait of the Soviet School before Perestroika – Some Personal Impressions of the 1970s and Early 1980s....Pages 15-30 The 1984 School Reform and the Beginning of Change....Pages 31-45 Reactions of the Establishment....Pages 46-57 Movements for Change....Pages 58-65 From Innovation to Independence....Pages 66-73 The Alternative School, Upbringing and Social Services in a New Era....Pages 74-85 Russian Schools after Gorbachev, 1992–94: Decentralization and Regionalization....Pages 86-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Financing of Schools and Material Resources....Pages 115-130 Health and Social Problems....Pages 131-145 National Problems of Education....Pages 146-158 Epilogue....Pages 159-171 Back Matter....Pages 172-220 One of the major features of the social landscape of the new states of Eastern Europe and the former USSR is migration, whether voluntary or coerced. The decline of communism in both East and Central Europe and the fall of the Soviet empire have created new population and ethnic problems. The recent exodus has proved to be the largest migration wave reported in Europe in over 40 years. The problem of foreigners in Poland is a subject scarcely studied and insufficiently described. This groundbreaking work contains the latest data and results of research (quantitative as well as qualitative) on the movement of foreigners into Poland. The book traces the origins of change in general education in the last years of the Soviet Union and afterwards in the Russian Federation. It describes what happened during perestroika and glasnost and the struggles for liberalization which were finally given official recognition in 1998. After the anti-Gorbachev coup in 1991, with the disintegration of Soviet and Communist power, decentralization and regionalization developed, together with the emergence of alternative schools and finally a small private sector. The book also describes the many problems faced by schools and teachers with the near collapse of the Russian economy. This book traces the origins of change in general education in the last years of the Soviet Union and afterwards in the Russian Federation. It describes what happened during perestroika and glasnost and the struggles for liberalization which were finally given official recognition in 1998. After the anti-Gorbachev coup in 1991, with the disintegration of Soviet and Communist power, decentralization and regionalization developed together with the emergence of alternative schools and finally a small private sector. The book describes the many problems faced by schools and teachers with the near collapse of the Russian economy. Tracing the origins of change in general education in the last years of the Soviet Union, this text describes what happened during Perestroika and Glasnost, and the struggles for liberalization which were given official recognition in 1998 Focusing on the crucial relationship between education and civic culture, this text provides up-to-date coverage with translations of work by Finnish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Czech and Russian specialists Jeanne Sutherland. Published In Association With School Of Slavonic And East European Studies, University Of London. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 209-212) And Index.