17. Histories of Education
Paper
Internationalism with a Human Face* or Russification: Internationalist Upbringing in Schools of the Lithuanian SSR
Irena Stonkuvienė, Ingrida Ivanavičė
Vilnius University, Lithuania
Presenting Author: Stonkuvienė, Irena
Internationalism in the Soviet Union was not only a political doctrine and an idea that subordinated national interests to the common interests of nations or a social class, but it was also one of the basic principles of communist education. However, from the beginning, the term “internationalism” was unstable (Babiracki, Jersild, 2016). Proletarian internationalism based on Marxist ideology, with the slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" calling for world revolution and the establishment of communism throughout the world, was eventually replaced by more moderate forms of internationalism. Particularly significant changes were observed after Stalin's death. According to Appelbaum, a significant change in the policy of USSR based on the ideology of internationalism had two goals: to create an autarkic, transnational, socialist community that would counter the West in the Cold War, and to bolster Soviet power in an increasingly turbulent Eastern Europe (2019, p.128). Inside the Soviet Union, these changes were associated, among other things, with increased russification and the ideologies of the "fusion of nations" and the "creation of a new Soviet man" (Ivanauskas, 2007, 2010; Grybauskas, 2013).
In this presentation, the aims, principles, and forms of internationalist education in the schools of the Lithuanian SSR will be analysed in the context of other countries of the Eastern Bloc (the German Democratic Republic, the People's Republic of Poland, the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia) and the Soviet republics. An attempt will also be made to answer the question whether these aspects contributed to the preservation of diversity or, on the contrary, led to unification.
*The slogan “Socialist internationalism with a human face” is used following the slogan “Socialism with a human face” and refers to the reformist and democratic socialist programme of the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Alexander Dubček in 1968 (Stoneman, 2015).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe paper presents the results of the project "Educating the New Man in Soviet School: The Case of Lithuania" carried out by the Research Council of Lithuania from 2020 to 2022.
To reveal the moments of educational practice and taking into account the specificity of the period under discussion, the method of life history and oral history is used. The design of the research is based on the recommendations and insights of various authors (Perks, Thomspon, 2003; Yow, 2005; Leavy, 2011; Ilic, Leinarte, 2016).
During the research a total of 32 interviewees were surveyed. The main criterion for the selection of the participants was the presence of experience from a Soviet-era school, i.e., the participants were people aged 45-70 (20 women, 12 men) who had attended different types of educational institution (rural, urban, boarding, and special schools) in Lithuania during the late Soviet era (1964-1989). It is also important to mention that the research participants included informants of different socio-economic statuses (from children of members of the Soviet nomenklatura to those of unemployed and illiterate parents) and the informants with different educational backgrounds living in different areas, which geographically encompass almost all regions of Lithuania.
Due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the interviews (19) were collected remotely by video chat using the platforms of Zoom, Messenger, MS Teams, while the remaining 13 interviews were conducted face-to-face with the informants. All interviews were recorded with the consent of the informants, and they were later transcribed. The data of informants were depersonalised during transcription. Content analysis was performed using MAXQDA Analytic Pro 2022.
To more fully explore the topic, in addition to the interviews, other historical sources are employed: textbooks of Russian and foreign languages (English and German) published in the 1960s-1980s, methodological aids for propaganda of internationalist education, various documents, and the Soviet pedagogical press. For the analysis of textbooks, the methodological guidelines of J. Wojdon (2021) are used, and the guidelines of G. McCulloch (2004) are employed for the analysis of other historical sources, especially documents.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsAs the research shows, the most common language of international communication was Russian. However, its command was not always sufficient. According to Silova and Palandjian, varying intensity of russification in the USSR occurred due to a variety of reasons: the dysfunctions of the Soviet bureaucratic system, the lack of competent officials, the shortage of qualified teachers, and the inadequacy of financing for school education. Political and geographical factors also played a role ( 2018, p. 153)
Our research also confirmed that Russian language proficiency and usage varied in different Lithuanian cities. The highest level of russification was observed in big cities.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the whole of the Soviet Union, including the Lithuanian SSR, was concerned with improving the teaching of Russian. There was an increase in the number of weekly classes and in the number of schools majoring in Russian language. Moreover, salary increments were introduced for Russian language teachers. It is noted that at the bureaucratic level, teaching of Russian was not only used to construct the Soviet identity with the compulsory internationalism and patriotism in the forefront, but also to heavily advocate the Russian culture.
Although national symbols were used in the internationalist communication of pupils (for example, souvenir dolls dressed in national costumes were popular when exchanging gifts), national meals were served at meetings, songs of different nations were sung, etc., the official doctrine of internationalist upbringing continued to emphasise that it is “the great Russian nation“ that unites all and that “the new Soviet man“ is a citizen of the USSR rather than one of a particular republic.
ReferencesApplebaum, R. (2019). Empire of Friends. Soviet Power and Socialist Internationalism in Cold War Czechoslovakia. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Babiracki, P., Jersild, A. (eds.) (2016). Socialist Internationalism in the Cold War. Exploring the Second World. Palgrave Macmillan.
Grybauskas, S. (2013) Internacionalizmas, tautų draugystė ir patriotizmas sovietinėje nacionalinėje politikoje [Internationalism, friendship and patriotism in Soviet national policy]. Epochas jungiantis nacionalizmas : tautos (de)konstravimas tarpukario, sovietmečio ir posovietmečio Lietuvoje [Nationalism that bridges epochs : the (de)construction of the nation in interwar, Soviet and post-Soviet Lithuania] (ed. Č. Laurinavičius) (pp. 205-216). Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla, 2013. P. 205-216
Ilic, M., Leinarte, D. (2016). The Soviet Past in the Post-socialist Present: Methodology and Ethics in Russian, Baltic and Central European Oral History and Memory Studies. New York: Routledge.
Ivanauskas, V. (2010). The Projection of the "blossoming of the nation" among the Lithuanian cultural elite during the Soviet period. Meno istorija ir kritika. [Art History & Criticism], 6, p. 172-178
Ivanauskas, V. (2007). Rusų kalbos vaidmuo stiprinant sovietinį tapatumą ir nacionalinė politika sovietinėje sistemoje 8–9 dešimtmetyje. [Use of the Russian Language to Foster the Soviet Identity and the National Policy in the Soviet System in the 1970s–80s]. The Year-Book of Lithuanian History. Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of History.
Yow, V, R. (2005). Recording Oral History: a Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Altamira Press.
Leavy, P. (2011). Oral History. Understanding Qualitative Research. Oxford University Press.
McCulloch, G. (2004). Documentary Research in Education, History and the Social Sciences. London, New York: Routledge Falmer, Taylor & Francis Group.
Silova, I., Palandjian, G. (2018). Soviet Empire, Childhood, and Education. Revista Española de Educación Comparada. 31, 147-171. DOI:10.5944/reec.31.2018.21592
Stoneman, A.J. (2015). Socialism With a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring. The History Teacher, 49(1), 103-125.
Thompson, P., Bornat, J. (2017). The Voice of the Past. Oral History. 4th edition. Oxford University Press.
Wojdon, J. (2018). Communist Propaganda at School. The World of the Reading Primers from the Soviet Bloc, 1949–1989. London, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
17. Histories of Education
Paper
Diversity in Education in Slovenia around 1918: Mother Tongue, Minority Education and Changing National Frameworks
Branko Šuštar1, Katja Farkaš2
1Historical Association of Slovenia ZZDS, Slovenski šolski muzej - Slovenian School Museum, Ljubljana; 2Primary School Oskar Kovačič, Ljubljana
Presenting Author: Šuštar, Branko
The paper deals - in the region between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic - with the issue of education of pupils in their native language as well as different national education policies regarding language and attitudes towards national minorities. Today's Slovenia and its neighbouring areas experienced changes in national borders, political systems, and school policies in four countries after World War I and World War II.
In views of the school situation - in the 1910s (Austro-Hungary) and 1920s (Italy / Kingdom of SHS - Yugoslavia / Austria / Hungary), the paper presents a change in attitudes towards language issues and (minority) education policy. The research focuses on the question of how Slovenian-German linguistic and school relations have changed since the times of Austria-Hungary, where German was the leading state language in the Austrian half of the country, and then became a minority language in the Kingdom of SHS / Yugoslavia at the end of 1918.
After the First World War, education policy in all countries advocated teaching in the state language, with little or no sensitivity for linguistic and ethnic differences in each country. How did national minorities in four countries (Kingdom of SHS - Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, Hungary) exercise their right to diversity and education in their mother tongue? How can we make a comparison of the educational situation of language minorities along the eastern borders of Italy (Slovenian, Croatian, German) with the German minority education in the Kingdom of SHS - Yugoslavia and the education of the Slovenian minority in Austria?
Due to major changes in language and school conditions, the final part will briefly present how the changes during and after WW2 with the migration of the German population (1941, 1945) and of the Italian population (1954) influenced the linguistic and national image of the region and the minority education. Knowledge of the dilemmas of modern primary school education also influences historical research. Does the primary school curriculum of the modern era, with openness to English as a foreign language from the beginning of school lessons, pose different challenges to teaching in the mother tongue? In the case of immigration, what is the challenge of modern initial teaching of elementary school students whose language of instruction is not their mother tongue?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedOn the basis of published literature, archival sources and pedagogical press, the contribution provides an overview of the discussed topic, especially in the time of changes and expectations after the First World War. In doing so, he mainly analyzes changes in the situation of the language of instruction, national and state education (politicization of education) and the education of national minorities, and compares Slovenian education in Austria-Hungary and four successor states where Slovenes live (Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, Hungary). In the analysis, paper compares the position of the German national minority in the Slovenian part of Yugoslavia with the position of the Slovenian and German national minorities in Italy and the position of the Slovenian minority in Austria and Hungary in the period between the two wars. For the concluding questions of the actualization of teaching in the students' mother tongue, we briefly consider some examples of the initial teaching of immigrant children in elementary school.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe paper will show rapid breakthroughs and a very gradual acceptance of diversity in national education policy in terms of language issues, religious topics and national rights. The attitude towards national minorities, which is reflected in the state's efforts for linguistic and substantive (conceptual) unified education, is an example of the very limited acceptance of democratization and diversity in education after the First World War. Minority education is an example of diversity in education and draws attention to the degree of democratisation in society.
References-Archival sources in, Slovenian School Museum, Historical Archives Ljubljana, Archives R Slovenia; - Pedagogical periodicals 1861-1941;
-Dolenc E., Kulturni boj, Slovenska kulturna politika v Kraljevini SHS 1918-1929, [Cultural Struggle: Slovene Cultural Policy in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes], Ljubljana 1996.
-Ferenc, M., The Fate of the German-Speaking Minority in Slovenia / Das Schicksal der deutschen Sprachminderheit in Slowenien; Linguistica, 2020, 60(2), pp. 227–243. https://doi.org/10.4312/linguistica.60.2.227-243
-Gabrič, A., Sledi šolskega razvoja na Slovenskem [Tracing the Development of Education in Slovenia], Ljubljana 2009; http://museums.eu/article/details/123702/history-of-education-in-slovenia
-Gabrič, A., The education system in Slovenia in the 20th century. Družboslovne razprave, 16, 2000, No. 32/33, pp. 55-71. http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/dr/dr32-33gabric.PDF
-Kacin-Wohinz, M.: Narodnoobrambno gibanje primorskih Slovencev [National defense movement of Slovenes in Primorska Region]: 1921-1928, Koper, Trst, 1977.
-Komac, M., Narodne manjšine v Sloveniji 1920-1941 / Ethnic Minorities in Slovenia 1920–1941. Razprave in gradivo = Treatises and documents : No. 75, 2015, pp. 49-81, http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:doc-EFR2T61P
-Kokolj, M. & Horvat, B., Prekmursko šolstvo od začetka reformacije do zloma nacizma [Prekmurje education from the beginning of the Reformation to the fall of Nazism], Murska Sobota, 1977.
- Lavrenčič-Pahor M., Primorski učitelji 1914-1941. Prispevek k proučevanju zgodovine slovenskega šolstva na Primorskem. [Teachers in Primorska Region 1914-1941. A contribution to the study of the history of Slovenian education in Primorska], Trst, 1994.
-Protner, E., The process of the Slovenian pedagogy gaining independence under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. HECL - 10, No. 1, 2015, pp. 601-624. –
-Osnovna šola na Slovenskem 1869-1969 [Primary school in Slovenia 1869-1969]. Schmidt, V., Melik, V. & Ostanek, F. eds., Ljubljana: Slovenski šolski muzej 1970.
-Slovenska novejša zgodovina [Slovene contemporary history] 1848-1992, Ljubljana 2005.
-Šuštar, B., Povezovanje slovenskega učiteljstva v novi državi med 1918 in 1921 [Connection of Slovenian Teachers in the New State Beetwen 1918 and 1921]. Jugoslavija v času : devetdeset let od nastanka prve jugoslovanske države = Yugoslavia through time : ninety years since the formation of the first state of Yugoslavia (ed. B. Balkovec), 2009, pp. 229-253.
-Troch, P., Nationalism and Yugoslavia: Education, Yugoslavism and the Balkans Before World War II (International Library of Historical Studies), London – New York 2015.
-Verginella, M, Women teachers in the whirlwind of post-war changes in the Julian March (1918-1926). Acta Histriae, 29, No. 4, 2021, pp. 859-886. https://zdjp.si/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AH_29-2021-4_VERGINELLA.pdf
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