Education: The Truth, Russian Style

As 30,000,000 Russian schoolkids trooped back to classes last week, there was exciting news for all the girls: for the first time, they would wear uniforms. Teachers announced that the state had the cloth ready; parents were expected to buy it, and make the uniforms themselves: brown woolen dresses with simple white collars, and black aprons.

Newspapers reported that millions of textbooks were on the presses—but Russian children would not have enough books for all their courses. Their textbooks about the outside world were not only propaganda, but dated propaganda. The geography book that children will study this year was published in 1934. This is how it describes the U.S.:

“The huge wealth of the country is in the hands of a small bunch of millionaires who are the heads of capitalist industrial trusts—steel, oil, copper, etc. The millionaires lead luxurious lives and sweat the workers as hard as they can. A working day lasts nine to ten hours. … At the age of 45 a worker loses his health and becomes an old man.

“The world crisis has badly hit American industry. Millions of workers have been thrown out on the streets. In 1934 the U.S. had 17,000,000 unemployed. Unemployment in the U.S. reached dimensions never before seen in other countries. . . . Great strikes and clashes between workers and police have taken place.

“Agriculture is also in decay. Many farmers have been pauperized and have abandoned their farms. . . . Capitalist trusts destroy grain and burn corn in engines in order to raise the price of grain and flour.

“In cultural development the U.S. is besieged by contrasts. There a few schools organized by American millionaires are luxuriously equipped and are rich in all kinds of equipment. In contrast, the schools for the masses are poor and frequently in one room with one teacher there are three classes.

“In Congress they have two bourgeois jarties—Democrats and Republicans. But both parties have words to defend the interests of the capitalists who are the real bosses of the country.”