NATO Policy Brief on Education in the USSR, 1959

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Report to the NATO Science Committee on the topic "Scientific and technical education and personnel reserves in the USSR". 1959 year.

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE USSR

I. INTRODUCTION

1. When the Soviet Union was formed a little over 40 years ago, the state had to face enormous difficulties. The crop in the Soviet south was destroyed by locust infestations, resulting in food shortages and low morale. Nothing contributed to the defense, except for the rational use of territorial and climatic conditions.

The state lagged behind in education and other social spheres, illiteracy was widespread, and nearly 10 years later Soviet magazines and print publications still reported the same level of literacy. Forty years ago, there was a desperate shortage of trained personnel to lead the Soviet people out of a difficult situation, and today the USSR is challenging the United States' right to world domination. This is an achievement that is unmatched in modern history.

II. SOME FACTORS PROMOTING THE RAPID IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION UNDER THE SOVIET REGIME

2. Naturally, a number of factors have contributed to the Soviet progress of the past forty years, and those mentioned here represent only a small part of what mattered. Despite the fact that this document was written in relation to science and technology education, most of what has been said can be applied to any other area of human thought. Soviet practice differs in many ways from that of Western countries, and this work pays the necessary attention to these differences.

(i) Managers who have received scientific and technical education

From the very beginning, Soviet leaders clearly understood that science and technology are the most important means of achieving the military and economic goals of communism. Scientific and technical disciplines, which have been emphasized for more than forty years, are well represented in the basic education of the current Soviet leaders. The President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, by virtue of his position, is a member of the Presidium, which can be compared with the cabinet of the Prime Minister of Great Britain or the cabinet of the Chairman of the Board of France. 39 out of 67 members of this authority received scientific and technical education. In addition, the first deputy chairman and 9 out of 13 deputy chairmen of the Council of Ministers received scientific and technical education. Scientific and technological projects in the USSR are more likely to be accepted at the highest administrative level than in Western countries.

(ii) Centralized control and planning

These factors provide clear benefits for maximizing the effectiveness of training programs. One can set a single educational standard for the whole country, simplify the educational system and eliminate most of the causes of confusion in Western countries where the system has become fragmented. If planning and production are coordinated, then there is no unemployment, and people with suitable qualifications end up in all the jobs the state needs. In a centralized system, of course, there is the possibility of being either brilliantly right or catastrophically wrong. The essence of the Soviet method is as follows: ministries forecast their needs for materials and human resources for a 5 (now 7) -year plan in accordance with a general directive from the party leadership. The requirements set out by the ministries, which change slightly every year on the basis of experience, are compared and the State Planning Committee develops plans. Parts of the plan concerning scientific and technical issues are approved by the Academy of Sciences.

(iii) Newly trained personnel at the disposal of the state

Almost everyone who studies in excess of the educational minimum established by Soviet legislation receives government funding. The state requires that graduates of higher or secondary specialized educational institutions work for three years according to distribution after completing their studies. Of the young people not burdened with other obligations, about 750 thousand received higher education and 1.2 million - secondary specialized education. These personnel reserves at any time can be connected to the solution of priority tasks of the state, such as grandiose development plans, teaching and others. These 2 million specialists are not low-paid employees, they receive a decent salary and, moreover, are not obliged to serve in the army.

(iv) "Small" disciplines

The USSR is a large state, so it is able to organize full-fledged groups for the study of subjects such as the creation and installation of gyroscopes and steam boilers. At the same time, Western countries can only offer episodic courses of not the highest quality due to the small number of students and teachers.

(v) Thorough study of Western resources

Western publications are usually available in translation from major Soviet institutions no later than 2 months after the original publication. The Academic Institute for Scientific Information has the best and most complete abstracting service in the world. If circumstances so require, the Soviets are prepared to obtain information through espionage.

(vi) Return to the education system

Over the years, a significant proportion of the trained workforce has returned back to the education system to train even more specialists. Teaching is a well-paid and prestigious occupation. The net annual increase in trained personnel is 7% in the USSR (for comparison, in the USA 3.5%, in the UK 2.5 - 3%).

(vi) Reinforced study of core disciplines

In recent years, at least in all curricula offered in the Soviet Union, emphasis has been placed on the intensive study of basic disciplines. In each of the 200 technical curricula operating in higher educational institutions, 10% of the time is devoted to higher mathematics and the same amount to physics. The large number of trained personnel and the rapid technological progress have been achieved by far from superficial efforts.

(viii) Training of trainers is a top priority

With each new stage of scientific and technological progress, a corresponding teacher training program begins. Since 1955, Moscow State University has been training programming teachers (Appendix 1).

(ix) Effective advocacy

In the West, Soviet propaganda and lies are often considered synonymous. Propaganda successfully keeps national goals in sight of the Soviet people, who are overjoyed as these goals are achieved. In the USSR there are positions that are reluctant to occupy, jobs in which they work without much desire. Advocacy in educational institutions portrays working in such positions and positions as an exciting challenge and makes young people (iii) willingly work for the good of their country in less favorable conditions.

III. Stages of Soviet education

3. The diagram in Appendix 1 presents the state of affairs during the last 5-year plan (which was abandoned), and although changes are coming in primary and secondary education, the diagram shows the system that will apply most of the current seven-year plan.

4. Education in educational institutions in the Soviet Union begins at the age of 7. Primary education lasts 7 years. By 1960, the last 5-year plan was to make the 10-year school publicly available. Where 10-year schooling is available, local legislation makes it mandatory, with the result that the number of 10-year school graduates has grown over the last 5-year plan from 440,000 to 1.5 million per year. Boys and girls study according to the same curriculum in 7- and 10-year schools. In the second stage of classical education, that is, in the eighth, ninth and tenth grades of a 10-year school, students spend 42% of their time studying mathematics, physics and chemistry. Graduates from a 10-year school are not as well trained as graduates of the sixth grade of an English grammar school with a scientific bias or boys and girls who graduate from the second degree of a French lyceum. A significantly higher average level in scientific disciplines is achieved, however, by all who completed the course of a 10-year school in the USSR. We are talking about a much larger number of students than in the West (Appendix 3).

5. Other opportunities at the end of the 7-year study are illustrated in the diagram in Appendix 1. There are job opportunities for graduates, but the number of those who do has dropped dramatically during the last 5-year period. Workforce Schools work in conjunction with industry and agriculture. Special secondary schools, mainly technical schools under the respective ministries, provide specialized education in more than two thousand specialties; the courses have a pronounced practical focus.

6. In recent years, about 40% of 10-year school graduates, along with a smaller percentage of graduates of secondary vocational educational institutions, continue to study at higher educational institutions (Appendix 2). There are rumors that this figure will increase to 70%. Universities train only 10% of the trained personnel in the Soviet Union, and they teach only in basic disciplines. The course of the Pedagogical Institute lasts 4 years, teaching basic disciplines at universities (not including physics) lasts 5 years. Most of the technical curricula (also in physics) are designed for 5, 5 years, and the program in medicine for 6 years. Students of all specialties, except for pedagogy, work on their graduation project for 6 months; the research results are embodied in a written thesis, which is defended publicly. About 1 in 6 or 7 graduates of higher education institutions continue their education. Students, graduate students and doctoral students must have knowledge of one, two and three foreign languages, respectively.

SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES

7. The Khrushchev Memorandum in September 1958 outlined the transition from 7-year primary education to 8-year education. It will be followed by secondary education lasting 3 to 4 years in one of five types of schools, namely:

(a) a secondary school with an academic focus, which differs from the eighth, ninth and tenth grades of the 10-year school in the presence of four grades and accepts approximately 20% of those who have completed the 8-year stage of education;

(b) a technical secondary school;

(c) a specialized secondary school for the needs of theater, ballet, visual arts, military service, etc.;

(d) a part-time secondary school that allows for the combination of education with work in factories and in agriculture;

(e) night schools of the labor reserve.

It is clear that changes in the system do not mean lower standards. Moreover, the curriculum of existing secondary schools can be easily adapted to meet new goals.

IV. HUMAN RESOURCES AND PRODUCTION RATES

8. Appendix 4 provides a generalized picture of this item. The first table demonstrates a strong bias towards the scientific and technological sphere in the USSR. It can also be seen that those with science and technology education tend to stay in these fields. The prestige and awards in these areas are high, especially for teachers.

9. At the level of postgraduate education, the USSR does not experience a shortage of professionals capable of managing government projects. In higher and school education, everything indicates that the number of professionally trained graduates will not only easily remain at the same level, but can be increased.

10. Appendices 5 and 6 provide percentages, the latter also briefly describes post-war achievements. This table also shows a noticeable proportion of women in the number of trained personnel in the USSR.

V. CHALLENGES AND DISADVANTAGES

11. The Soviet education system, which enrolls about 35 million people at various levels, is gigantic. One of its outstanding virtues, resulting from centralized control and planning, is its relative simplicity. It will be interesting to find out how the Soviet Union successfully dealt with the problems plaguing Western countries.

(i) Training facilities

In Soviet educational institutions of any level, training in 2 shifts remains the norm, and training in 3 shifts is not unheard of. The provision of classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories is undoubtedly the most difficult problem that Soviet education has to cope with. The underperformance of the construction program was one of the factors that contributed to the abandonment of the plan of the last five-year plan. It can be argued with a high degree of certainty that this factor has accelerated changes in the education system at the secondary school level. It is rumored that all applicants for higher education will have to work two years in the industrial and technical field before entering. Two years of respite will allow the construction program to catch up. Appendix 1 shows that the lack of premises is not a new problem for the USSR.

(ii) Equipment

Western experts, as a rule, are jealous of the quantity and quality of equipment in Soviet educational institutions.

(iii) Ratio of students per teacher

As mentioned earlier, there is no problem with teachers in the Soviet Union, while in most Western countries the situation is poor.

[approx. statehistory - in this table, apparently, we are talking about how many students there are per teacher]

	the USSR	USA	Great Britain
Higher education institutions	1 – 12, 6	1 – 14, 1	1 – 9
Schools	1 – 17, 6	1 - 21 (average) 1 - 30 (initial)	1 - 18, 1 (middle gymnasium) 1 - 22, 3 (middle school) 1 - 30, 5 (initial)

(iv) Military service

For the reasons mentioned earlier, it does not pose any problem in the USSR.

(v) Ratio of graduates from higher and secondary specialized educational institutions

Western experience indicates that in the workplace, there are three graduates of secondary specialized educational institutions for one graduate of a higher educational institution. In most of the Soviet institutions visited by Western experts, this proportion seems to be universally applied. The coefficient of 3 to 1 is not typical for the education system, so it can be assumed that somewhere in the USSR there is a shortage of graduates of secondary specialized educational institutions, which entails certain difficulties. The fact that these difficulties are not obvious means that in the USSR, graduates of higher educational institutions can be employed in areas of activity that are considered non-profit in the West.

Vi. DISCIPLINES OF INTEREST FOR DEFENSE

(i) Mathematics

12. This subject is considered the most prestigious in the USSR. The country has a first-class mathematical tradition, and the current level of mathematics in the Soviet Union is second only to that of the United States. When studying a multitude of Soviet scientific works, especially in physics, natural sciences and mechanical engineering, it becomes noticeable with what pleasure Soviet scientists make digressions into the field of mathematics. Scientific work in the UK often consists of two parts: the first part sets out the theory, and the second part is an empirical confirmation of this theory. Soviet scientific work often consists solely of theory.

First-class Soviet mathematicians play a much larger role than their Western counterparts at engineering conferences, which are quite informal in nature. This scientific approach to solving engineering problems may partly explain the rapid progress in this field. Soviet mathematicians are ready to apply mathematical theory in fairly small-scale experimental research. They work with surprising ease in areas where Western scientists would need additional experimental data. Where the Soviet method is successful, it becomes possible to dispense with the intermediate stages of research development. No doubt the recent Soviet progress in aerodynamics and chemical engineering owes much to the advice of mathematicians.

Maths are strongly encouraged in schools. Olympiads and math contests for pupils of grades 8, 9 and 10 of the 10-year school are held at the city, regional, republican and national levels. Highly gifted students are identified at a very early stage and subsequently facilitated in their learning.

In most countries, there is a clear vertical structure of scientific disciplines and a vertical hierarchy among scientists. This hinders the interdisciplinary exchange of scientific ideas. In the USSR, mathematics is an active component in the mutual enrichment of disciplines. A notable example is the Vibration Laboratory of the Physics Institute. Lebedev of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The laboratory is a research organization; the staff of this Moscow laboratory, who work here one or two months a year, also work in institutions throughout the Union. They hold leading positions in a number of disciplines: astronomy, radio astronomy, spectroscopy, acoustics, theoretical physics, instrumentation, marine hydrology, electrical engineering, and many other industries. The only thing that unites them is their interest in wave movements. The opportunities for the exchange of scientific ideas at the Vibration Laboratory are enormous.

Appendix 8 provides a detailed university curriculum for applied mathematics and Appendix 7 for pure mathematics. The number of hours of industry practice is indicated, as well as the prospects for automation in paragraphs 19 and 20 of Appendix 7.

(ii) Physics

In practically all questions of this discipline, Soviet scientists are on a par with world science. Theoretical physics has reached tremendous heights, and in the last five years, Soviet research in the field of semiconductors has demonstrated outstanding success. Appendix 9 presents the physics curriculum, including a significant number of hours devoted to advanced mathematics and industry practice.

(iii) Chemistry

The state of this discipline in the USSR is described as pre-war, but this statement should not be considered true. The Soviet Union lags behind in chemical engineering, but there is a clear understanding of this situation and movement towards improvement in this area. The chemistry curriculum in Appendix 10 again devotes a large number of hours to advanced mathematics and industry practice.

(iv) Mechanical engineering

Appendix 11 typically demonstrates that a large amount of time is allocated for the study of higher mathematics and physics. There are also hours for industry practice. In a growing economy, the needs of which are met through the development of industrialization, mechanical engineering is one of the priorities of the Soviet Union. In 1958-59, it is planned to graduate 3 times more engineers than in the United States. It is possible that signs of saturation with engineering specialists will soon become apparent.

Vii. CONCLUSIONS

13. There is a significant tendency in the West to take extreme views of the Soviet Union. Its citizens, however, are not supermen or second-rate material. In fact, these are people with the same abilities and emotions as everyone else. If 210 million people in the West work together with the same priorities and zeal as their counterparts in the Soviet Union, they will achieve similar results. The states, independently competing with the USSR, waste their strength and resources in attempts that are doomed to failure. If it is impossible to constantly invent methods that are superior to those of the USSR, it is worth seriously considering borrowing and adapting Soviet methods. This may include, but is not limited to:

(i) rejection of revered, traditional views regarding the role of women;

(ii) performance of the work required by the state by those whose education in excess of the educational minimum established by law was financed from budget funds;

(iii) abolition of the “free market” of skilled labor resources; adoption and, possibly, strengthening of measures for its state regulation.

14. Whatever happens, any state experiencing a shortage of teaching staff must solve this problem urgently, on an extraordinary basis.