Change and Continuity: Initiatives in education

Question 1

Adcock - Use of literacy to boost Bolshevik popularity

Answer 1

‘a crucial part of the Communist Party’s attempt to win the hearts and minds of ordinary working people’

Question 2

Reading lessons for Civil War soldiers

Answer 2

Made compulsory in April 1918

Question 3

Reading rooms established

Answer 3

Over 16,000 created in the 1920s

Question 4

Difference in literacy

Answer 4

1900 - Less than a quarter (23%) could read and write

1926 - 52% could read and write

Question 5

Underlying reasons for the literacy campaign

Answer 5

1) Lenin hoped for the return of workers to the cities
2) Wanted to improve relations with the peasantry after War Communism