Ministry of Education (Soviet Union)

Ministry of Education, founded as the People's Commissariat for Education but commonly called Narkompros (Russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос), was the Soviet agency charged with the administration of public education and most of other issues related to culture. In 1946, it was renamed the Ministry of Education. Its first head was Anatoly Lunacharsky. However he described Krupskaya as the "soul of Narkompros".^[1] Mikhail Pokrovsky and Evgraf Litkens also played important roles.

Lunacharsky protected most of the avant-garde artists such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin and Vsevolod Meyerhold. Despite his efforts, the official policy after Stalin put him in disgrace.

Narkompros had a number of sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g.,

• Likbez, a section for liquidation of illiteracy,
• "Profobr", a section for professional education,
• Glavlit a section for literature and publishing (also in charge of censorship in publishing),
• "Glavrepertkom" (Главрепертком), a commission for approval of performers' repertoires.
• Department of the Mobilsation of Scientific Forces, to which the Russian Academy of Sciences reported to after 1918.
• A Theatre Department which published Vestnik Teatra
• Vneshkol'nyi Otdel, the adult Education Department run by Krupskaya

Some of these evolved into separate entities, others discontinued.

Izo-Narkompros

The Izo-Narkompros (Изо-наркомпрос), or the section of visual arts (отдел изобразительных искусств) created in May 1918, consisted of two parts: the collegium (deliberative organ) and the section proper (executive organ). The first collegium was headed by Vladimir Tatlin and included Kasimir Malevich, I. Mashkov (И. Машков), N. Udaltsova (Н. Удальцова), O.Rozanova (О. Розанова), Alexander Rodchenko, Wassily Kandinsky. It was subdivided into a number of subsections.

Lunacharsky directed some of the great experiments in public arts after the Revolution such as the Agit-Trains and Agit-boats, that circulated over all Russia spreading Revolution and revolutionary arts.

He also gave support to Constructivism's theatrical experiments and the initiatives such as the ROSTA Windows, revolutionary posters designed and written by Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, and others.

List of Russian Ministers of Enlightment

People's Commissars

• Anatoly Lunacharsky
• Andrei Bubnov
• Pyotr Tyurkin
• Vladimir Potyomkin

Ministers

• Aleksei Kalashnikov
• Aleksandr Voznesensky
• Ivan Kairov
• Yevgeniy Afanasenko
• Mikhail Prokofiev
• Aleksandr Danilov
• Georgiy Veselov

List of Ministers

There were only two Soviet ministers of education:

• Mikhail Prokofiev (December 24, 1966 - December 20, 1984)
• Sergei Shcherbakov (December 20, 1984 - March 5, 1988)

After that it was united into the State committee of the Soviet Union for Public Education headed by Gennadiy Yagodin until November 14, 1991.

See also

• Ministry of Education (Russia)

References

• The Governments of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1917-1964

1. ^ The Commissariat of Enlightenment

Bibliography

• Bird, Alan. A History of Russian Painting. G.K. Hall Painting, Russian, 2007.
• Graham, Loren R. . Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. Science—Soviet Union, 1993.
• Constantin, Nathan . A Study of Bolshevism. Free Press, 1953.
• Smele, Jon . The Russian Revolution and Civil War. Continuum International, 2003.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila . The Commissariat of Enlightenment. Cambridge University, 1970.