ABSTRACT
After the introduction of the October 1918 decree on ‘united labour schools’, education remained a major concern of the Soviet government. The government aimed both to train specialists and to raise Soviet citizens in the spirit of socialism. As part of his aim to re-launch the communist project in the Soviet Union, Khrushchev introduced a revision of the education system. The 1958 education reform has been seen as both the product of socialist ideology and the Party-state’s views in the field of education. It was also the result of a compromise between various actors in the Soviet decision-making process, as well as of a strong desire to modernize the Soviet economy.1 Its failure (a decree abolishing one of its main propositions was issued as early as August 1964) has been seen as the result of an internal struggle between the majority of the intelligentsia and the nomenklatura (Party functionaries), which aimed to defend its prerogatives and privileges.2
