Figure 1.--One image from 1924 shows girls wearing a dark, belted uniform dress. I am not sure what color it was. Some girls wear head scarves. I'm not sure what boys wore to school in the 1920s. The image here shows a boy wearing a Cossock-like tunic and what look to be knickers. We note children wearing red scarves. I'm not sure if these were Young Pioneer scarves or part of the school uniform. These children are visiting Lennin's tomb in Red Square. Lennin died in 1924 so this must have been right after he was inteared there. Note their salute.

The idea of school children wearing uniforms was not an innovation of the Communists. School children in Tsarist Russia also wore uniforms. The major Communist innovation was that all children, including girls should attend school. We note children wearing school uniforms in 1924. Just when the school uniform regulations were issued and how prevalent they were throughout the country, we are not yet sure. Girls began attending school in large numbers after the Revolution. One image from 1924 shows girls wearing a dark, belted uniform dress. I am not sure what color it was. Some girls wear head scarves. I'm not sure what boys wore to school in the 1920s. The image here shows a boy wearing a Cossock-like tunic and what look to be knickers. We note children wearing red scarves. I'm not sure if these were Young Pioneer scarves or part of the school uniform. we note that only some of the children are swearing them. Boys by the 1930s were wearing military-styled uniforms. There does not seem to have been a standard uniform worn country-wide, but our information is still very limited. This may have been that poor children in the country could no afford uniforms. I'm not sure what the actual regulations were. Schools in Moscow and Lenningrad seem to have had quite strict uniform standards. Provincial and rural schools seem to have given less attention to uniforms. This may have reflected in part the parents' ability to aford a formal uniform. The uniform has varied over time.

Civil War Era (1918-21)

We have no information about what happened to Russian schools during the Civil War. We susepct that many schools closed are ceased to operate in the resulting chaos, but we have no actual information. We do know that the Kadet schools were closed down, but this probably happened automatically as many of the boys and instructors joined the Whiteist royalist forces. A Russian reader writes, "Any war is always war. Violence, decease, criminals and so on. So you are right. But here I must say that both White and Red forces tried to show that they think about future of Russia and often tried to support schools."

Teachers

We have little information on Russian teachers during the transition from the Tsarist to the Soviet era. We assume that most teachers were favorably disposed to the Tsarist regime, although we have little information. Hoprfully Russian readers will be able to provide more information. We do not know to what extent the Bolshevicks replaced teachers after their victory in the Civil war. And just where the found qualified teachers that were committed to Communism and the Revolution. Our Russian reader tells us, "The Bolsheviks didn't replace most of teachers, except school principals. School principals and Young Pioneer leaders monitor the teachers to make sure they did insert any 'wrong ideology'. This was realitively easy with subjects like science and math. Other subjects like history touched on subjects of greater concern. Here teachers were morelilely to be replaced. The Bolsheviks, despite their penchant for violence, they were not idiots and accepted, that without pre-revolution specialists (teachers, engineers, scientists), they could not succeed. So the widely used work of pre-revolution specialists of all kinds, but special Communists Party agents watch for counter-revolutionary activities."

Uniforms

The idea of school children wearing uniforms was not an innovation of the Communists. School children in Tsarist Russia also wore uniforms. We note children wearing school uniforms in 1924. Just when the school uniform regulations were issued and how prevalent they were throughout the country, we are not yet sure. The students shown here are clearly in Moscow (figure 1). We suspect that the students in rural areas and provincial cities may not have been so well uniformed. One image from 1924 shows girls wearing a dark, belted uniform dress. I am not sure what color it was. Some girls wear head scarves. I'm not sure what boys wore to school in the 1920s. The image here shows a boy wearing a Cossock-like tunic and what look to be knickers. We note children wearing red scarves. I'm not sure if these were Young Pioneer scarves or part of the school uniform. we note that only some of the children are swearing them. Boys by the 1930s were wearing military-styled uniforms. There does not seem to have been a standard uniform worn country-wide, but our information is still very limited. This may have been that poor children in the country could no afford uniforms. I'm not sure what the actual regulations were. Schools in Moscow and Lenningrad seem to have had quite strict uniform standards. Provincial and rural schools seem to have given less attention to uniforms. This may have reflected in part the parents' ability to aford a formal uniform. The uniform has varied over time.

Educational Policy

We do not yet have details on Soviet educational reforms after the Revolution. This is an interesting question that we hope to eventually persue in more detail. There were many fundamental reforms. The two central changes were that the state established a mononpoly on education and that the educational system was expanded and opened to people of all social classes, especially the working class. The Goverment closed or took over all private schools, including church schools. Another major Communist innovation was that all children, including girls should attend school. Girls began attending school in large numbers after the Revolution.

Types of School

We have limited information on the types of schools during the early Soviet era. There were certainly primary and secondary schools. We believe that there was a substantial expansion of the school population with with working-class children having greatly increased access to education, especially secondary education. We note kinergardens in the 1930s. This appears to have been a Soviet innovation. I'm not sure if Kindergardens exisited before the Revolutuin, if they did almost certainly they were for affluent families. I'm not suyre how common Kindergardems were during the Soviet era.

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Created: January 3, 2003
Last updated: 10:10 PM 5/15/2010