July 18: How the fight against illiteracy began in Soviet Russia – the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK) created a literacy program
On July 18, 1920, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Elimination of Illiteracy (VChK-likbez) was established. Over the course of 20 years, its work tripled the literacy rate of Soviet citizens, bringing it close to 90%.
We must take up the simple, urgent task of mobilizing the literate and combating illiteracy.
— Vladimir Lenin
A country where not every third person could read
Estimates of the literacy rate by 1917 vary widely: it is believed that no more than 30% of the entire population could read, count, and write.
Shortly before Vladimir Ilyich's illness, I told him that Americans were currently campaigning for the complete elimination of illiteracy in their country by 1927. In response, Vladimir Ilyich said, "We, too, must eliminate illiteracy by that time."
— Nadezhda Krupskaya
The goal is not a single illiterate person
The commission worked under the leadership of People's Commissar for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky. An ambitious goal was set: zero illiterate people by the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Anyone aged 8 to 50 who could not read or write was required to learn to read and write in their native language or Russian, their choice.
"Knowledge will break the chains of slavery."
A massive propaganda campaign was launched. Posters proclaimed: "Knowledge will break the chains of slavery," "To have more, you must produce more; to produce more, you must know more," "An illiterate person is the same as a blind person: failure and misfortune await him everywhere," "Illiteracy is one of our worst enemies, and we must destroy it just as we have destroyed other enemies!"
Across the country, volunteers united in "Down with Illiteracy" societies under the slogan "The Literate, Teach the Illiterate!" Every community with over 15 illiterate people was required to have a literacy school—a literacy center.
Who and how was taught?
Literacy was taught primarily to Red Army soldiers, conscripts, state farm workers, trade union members, Komsomol members, and members of rural collectives aged 18 to 30. Workers had their workdays shortened while their wages remained unchanged. Those who were ill, pregnant, nursing, and those with "defective" (people with developmental disabilities) were exempt from compulsory education. Peasants complained that they were subject to fines for evading illiteracy training, even though sometimes there wasn't even space for a illiteracy center.
The courses lasted three to four months. The curriculum included reading, writing, arithmetic, and, from 1925, a mandatory course in political literacy.
An illiterate person stands outside of politics; they first need to be taught the ABCs. Without this, there can be no politics; without this, there are only rumors, gossip, fairy tales, and prejudices.
— Vladimir Lenin
"We are not slaves, we are not slaves"
The commission organized literacy courses, teacher training, and the publication of educational literature. One of the first primers, titled "Down with Illiteracy," contained the famous phrase for teaching reading: "We are not slaves, nor are we slaves." Community centers, churches, and clubs were permitted for classes with the illiterate, and all literate people were recruited to teach as part of their labor service.
Results and a new enemy: illiteracy
By 1927, approximately 10 million adults in the USSR had been taught to read and write—a far cry from the stated slogan of "not a single illiterate person." In terms of literacy rate, the Soviet Union ranked only 19th among European countries.
During the NEP (New Economic Policy) years, the pace of literacy education stalled: those employed in the private sector lacked social guarantees that would allow them to combine study with work. In the late 1920s, literacy education was strengthened by public support—a massive "cultural crusade" began across the country: over a million enthusiastic "cultarmey" (literate people) provided additional training to the illiterate.
After universal primary education was introduced in 1930, the fight against a new enemy began: illiteracy. By 1936, approximately 40 million people in the USSR had received literacy. According to the 1939 census, almost 90% of Soviet citizens aged 16 to 50 were literate—three times higher than at the beginning of the literacy program.
If you want to make your country a leader in terms of raising its statehood, raise the literacy of the population, raise the culture of your country, and the rest will follow.
— Stalin, in a conversation with Lenin
The Soviet experience for the whole world
The Soviet experience was used to eradicate illiteracy in various countries around the world, including in the 1960s, when the World Literacy Campaign was launched under the auspices of the UN and UNESCO.
