The

People's Commissariat A People's Commissariat (; 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 1917–1946 which functioned as the central executive ...

for Education (or Narkompros; , directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 (, born ''Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov''; – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissariat for Education, People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well ...

. However he described

Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and politic ...

as the "soul of Narkompros".

Mikhail Pokrovsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky (; – April 10, 1932) was a Russian Marxist historian, revolutionary and a Soviet public and political figure. One of the earliest professionally trained historians to join the Russian revolutionary movement, Pokr ...

, Dmitry Leshchenko and

Evgraf Litkens Evgraf Alexandrovich Litkens (; 1888–1922)
was a

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

Kazimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

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, ...

and

Vsevolod Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilyevich Meyerhold (; born ; 2 February 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting m ...

. Despite his efforts, the official policy after

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

put him in disgrace. Narkompros had seventeen sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g., *

Likbez Likbez (, ; a portmanteau of , , meaning "elimination of illiteracy") was a campaign of eradication of illiteracy in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. The term was also used for various schools and courses established dur ...

, 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 () was the official censorship and state secret protection organ in the Soviet Union. The censorship agency was established in 1922 ...

, 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; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

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 pow ...

* ''Vneshkol'nyi Otdel'', the adult Education Department run by Krupskaya * "

Glavpolitprosvet The Main Political and Educational Committee of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic ({{langx, ru, Гла́вный поли́тико-просвети́тельный комите́т Нарк ...

", in charge of political education out of school Some of these evolved into separate entities, others discontinued.

Relationship with Proletkult

Pavel Lebedev-Polianskii, 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 Revol ...

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 (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

(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

and included

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

, Ilya Mashkov, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Olga Rozanova,

Alexander Rodchenko Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepa ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

, David Shterenberg, Natan Altman,

Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine Wladimir is a masculine given name. It is an alternative spelling of the name Vladimir. Notable people with the name include: * Wladimir Aïtoff (1879–1963), French rugby player * Wladimir Balentien (born 1984), Dutch outfielder for the Seatt ...

. 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 country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

spreading Revolution and revolutionary arts. He also gave support to

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

'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'' (Art of the Commune) of which 19 issues appeared between 7 December 1918 and April 1919.

Museum Bureau

Film industry

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

saw film as the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. 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), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

, extracting rent from all privately owned cinemas and subject them to censorship.

People's Commissars

References

The Governments of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1917-1964
{{authority control Culture of the Soviet Union

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

Education in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...