People's Commissariat A People's Commissariat (russian: народный комиссариат; Narkomat) was a structure in the Soviet state (in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in other union and autonomous republics, in the Soviet Union) from 1917– ...
for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
agency charged with the administration of public education and most other issues related to culture. In 1946, it was transformed into the
Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
. Its first head was
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...
. However he described
Nadezhda Krupskaya
Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and the wife of Vladimir Lenin ...
as the "soul of Narkompros".
Mikhail Pokrovsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky (russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Покро́вский; – April 10, 1932) was a Russian Marxist historian, Bolshevik revolutionary and a public and political figure. One of the earliest professio ...
,
Dmitry Leshchenko Dmitry Ilyich Leshchenko (Russian: Дми́трий Ильи́ч Лéщенко; 25 October 1876, Nikolaev, Kherson province – 9 November 1937, Leningrad) was a Russian revolutionary, Old Bolshevik, professor and one of the founders and first o ...
and
Evgraf Litkens Evgraf Alexandrovich Litkens (russian: Евграф Александрович Литкенc; 1888–1922) was a
...
also played important roles.
Lunacharsky protected most of the avant-garde artists such as
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, whi ...
and
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (russian: Всеволод Эмильевич Мейерхольд, translit=Vsévolod Èmíl'evič Mejerchól'd; born german: Karl Kasimir Theodor Meyerhold; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre ...
. Despite his efforts, the official policy after
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
put him in disgrace.
Narkompros had seventeen sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g.,
*
Likbez
Likbez (russian: ликбе́з, ; from a Russian abbreviation for russian: ликвида́ция безгра́мотности, translit=likvidatsiya bezgramotnosti, label=none, , meaning "elimination of illiteracy") was a campaign of eradicat ...
, a section for liquidation of illiteracy,
* " Profobr", a section for professional education,
*
Glavlit
Main Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (russian: Главное управление по охране государственных тайн в печати при СМ С ...
, 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 Mobilisation of Scientific Forces, to which the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
reported after 1918.
* TEO, the Theatre Department which published
Vestnik Teatra
''Vestnik Teatra'' (''Theatre Courier'') was the journal of the Theatre Department of Narkompros, founded in Moscow in 1919. It became an influential journal amongst theatrical practitioners during the period following the Bolshevik seizure of powe ...
* ''Vneshkol'nyi Otdel'', the adult Education Department run by Krupskaya
Some of these evolved into separate entities, others discontinued.
Relationship with Proletkult
Pavel Lebedev-Polianskii Pavel Ivanovich Lebedev-Polianskii (Russian: Па́вел Ива́нович Ле́бедев-Поля́нский; 21 December 1881 – 4 April 1948) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and later a prominent Soviet state functionary, literary schola ...
, as chair of the Organizing Bureau for the National
Proletkult
Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" (proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolu ...
argued that Narkompros, as a state organ, had responsibilities for the whole of society, whereas Proletkult asserted its autonomy as an organisation set up specifically for workers class. However, there was concern with "parallelism" - the situation which arose when similar work was carried out in parallel by different organisations. In early 1918 Narkompros gave Proletkult a budget of over 9,200,000 rubles, whereas the entire Adult Education Division received 32,500,000 rubles.
Izo-Narkompros
The Izo-Narkompros (Изо-наркомпрос), or the section of
visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...
(отдел изобразительных искусств) created on 29 January 1918. It consisted of two parts: the collegium (deliberative organ) and the section proper (executive organ). The first collegium was headed by
Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, whi ...
Ilya Mashkov
Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (russian: Илья Иванович Машков; – 20 March 1944) was a Russian artist, one of the most significant and at the same time most characteristic painters of the circle of " Jack of Diamonds" (russian: Бу ...
,
Nadezhda Udaltsova
Nadezhda Andreevna Udaltsova (, 29 December 1885 – 25 January 1961) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Cubist, Suprematist), painter and teacher.
Early life and education
Nadezhda Udaltsova was born in the village of Orel, Russia, on 29 Decem ...
,
Olga Rozanova
Olga Vladimirovna Rozanova (also spelled Rosanova, Russian: Ольга Владимировна Розанова) (22 June 1886 – 7 November 1918, Moscow) was a Russian avant-garde artist painting in the styles of Suprematism, Neo-Primitiv ...
,
Alexander Rodchenko
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders ...
,
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
. 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-train
An agit-train (Russian: агитпоезд) was a locomotive engine with special auxiliary cars outfitted for propaganda purposes by the Bolshevik government of Soviet Russia during the time of the Russian Civil War, War Communism, and the New Eco ...
s and agit-boats, that circulated over all
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
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.
Izo-Narkompros also published ''
Iskusstvo kommuny
''Iskusstvo kommuny'' (Art of the Commune – IK) was a Russian arts magazine published by IZO-Narkompros. It was edited by Osip Brik, Nathan Altman and Nikolay Punin who produced nineteen issues between 7 December 1918 and April 1919. Each issue ...
'' (Art of the Commune) of which 19 issues appeared between 7 December 1918 and April 1919.
Museum Bureau
Film industry
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
saw film as the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. As a consequence Lenin issued the "Directives on the Film Business" on 17 January 1922, which instructed the Narkompros to systemise the film business, registering and numbering all films shown in the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
, extracting rent from all privately owned cinemas and subject them to censorship.
Ministry of Education (Russia)
The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (russian: Министерство просвещения Российской Федерации) is a Ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of Russia responsible for educ ...
Education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...