State leadership of the Cultural Revolution is one of the key problems in the history of socialist construction. The least studied aspect of it is the formation and development of the Soviet apparatus for leading the cultural revolution in general and the popular enlightenment in particular. Reference to the history of the organization of state leadership in the construction of socialist culture is now conditioned by the need to further improve the management of public education in order to successfully implement the "Main Directions of the reform of general education and vocational Schools", approved by the April (1984) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the first session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the XI convocation.

The literature on the history of the Soviet state apparatus of public education is limited to a number of articles and a monograph, which are mainly devoted to the first period of its construction (October 1917-June 1918) .1 The subsequent period of its consolidation and development (June 1918-early 1921) was not actually investigated .2 This state of affairs does not allow us to reconstruct a complete picture of the organization of the state leadership of the cultural revolution in the first years of Soviet power. All this determined the choice of topic and the chronological framework of the proposed article, which attempts to show how, under the conditions of imperialist intervention and the civil war, the state apparatus of public education developed and improved on the basis of Leninist organizational principles, the structure of the People's Commissariat of Education and its local bodies was developed, and their cadres were formed .3
1 Zakolodkin I. Development of the structure of the People's Commissariat of Education and its local authorities. - Narodnoe prosveshchenie, 1927, N 11-12; Kernatsenskaya T. M. K istorii obrazovaniya Narodnogo komissariata prosveshcheniya RSFSR i upravleniya vysshoy shkoloy (oktyabr 1917 - Aug 1918). - Trudy Moskovskogo istoriko-archivnogo instituta, 1965, vol. 19; Titkova S. S. Stanovlenie organov gosudarstvennogo upravleniya kul'tury (1917-1918 In: Actual problems of the political organization of society. Sverdlovsk. 1974; Fomin, A. I. Formation of the Central Soviet state leadership of the national education. - Voprosy istorii, 1976, No. 12. Creation of the Soviet apparatus of national education in the field. Voprosy istorii, 1979, No. 9; Keirim-Markus M. B. Gosudarstvennoe upravlenie kul'tury [State Management of Culture]. Construction of the People's Commissariat of Education (November 1917-mid-1918). Moscow, 1980; et al.

2 The exceptions are the article by I. F. Zakolodkin, which contains information about the structure of the enlightenment bodies formed by the beginning of 1921, and the article by I. S. Smirnov "V. I. Lenin and the leadership of public Education. To the history of the reorganization of the People's Commissariat of Education in 1920-1921" (In: V. I. Lenin and problems of public education. Moscow, 1961).

3 The article uses materials from the RSFSR. The construction of the enlightenment apparatus in other Soviet republics was carried out taking into account the experience of Soviet Russia.

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In the summer of 1918, the creation of the Soviet state apparatus of national education in the center and in the field was largely completed .4 Issues of its development and improvement were on the agenda, as the established institutions were still in a state of" fermentation and complete uncertainty " 5 . Emphasizing this, A.V. Lunacharsky in August 1918 at the All-Russian Congress on Education said:: "We are in the crucible of construction work, we cannot say that our state apparatus is ready." 6 Defining the tasks of state construction, V. I. Lenin directed the party and the working people to work tirelessly to improve the organs of Soviet power. This work in the field of public education was carried out on the basis of the Constitution of the RSFSR and the Regulations of the Council of People's Commissars of June 18, 1918 on the organization of public education in the Russian Republic, which legislated the established system of State management of cultural construction and outlined ways for its further development.

The SNK regulation left the general management of public education to the State Commission for Education, and the implementation of its decisions, the management of scientific, educational, cultural and educational institutions of national significance was assigned to the People's Commissariat of Education. Regional, provincial, uyezd, and volost departments of public education, established under the respective executive committees of the Soviets, were entrusted with the management of local cultural development. In order to develop democratic principles, broad public involvement in cultural management was planned.: periodic convocation of All-Russian congresses on education to discuss fundamental issues of the Cultural Revolution; increasing the composition of the State Commission on Education at the expense of representatives of Soviet and non-governmental organizations; creating control and advisory councils of public education in the system of the local educational apparatus from representatives of all associations that have the right to send delegates to the Councils, teachers and students. Democratic centralism, a combination of unity of command and collective leadership received the force of law .7
The implementation of the organizational ideas proclaimed by the SNK Regulation began immediately after its publication. On June 18, Lenin signed a decree appointing N. K. Krupskaya, P. N. Lepeshinsky, V. M. Posner, D. B. Ryazanov, and P. K. Sternberg to the Board of the People's Commissariat of Education. A week later, the first meeting of the board was held, which approved the rules of its work and a number of structural changes in the central office, including the abolition of the Small State Commission, which indicated the release of the State Commission for Education from the current People's Commissariat of Work .8 From now on, it was responsible for the general management of cultural construction, a list of which was given in the Regulations of the Council of People's Commissars. The State Commission has entered a new period of its existence. Its composition, nature and content of its activities have changed. The meetings became more crowded. Some of them were attended by up to 40 or more people .9 The agenda was limited only to the fundamental questions of the formation of the socialist system of national education. The number of Commission meetings has significantly decreased. If from Nov-

4 See Keirim-Markus M. B. UK. soch., p. 11.

5 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 36, p. 154.

6 Minutes of the 1st All-Russian Congress on Education, Moscow, 1919, p. 5.

7 SU RSFSR, 1918, N 46, Article 551.

8 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, 41, ll. 1-3.

9 Ibid., op. 2, d. 8, l. 247.

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From 1917 to June 1918, 92 of them were held, while from July to December 1918, only ten were held.

The State Commission was able to focus on the overall management of education thanks to the creation of the Board of the People's Commissariat of Education, which was responsible for all the work of managing the commissariat. This case was extremely difficult not only in terms of content, but also in terms of organization, due to the continuous expansion of the commissariat's staff and the increase in its structural divisions. So, from 1918 to 1920, the number of departments of the People's Commissariat of Education increased from 24 to 35, and sub-departments-from 94 to 19810 . The complexity of the apparatus was a consequence of both the variety of tasks it faced and the lack of experience in administrative and organizational work. The search for ways to improve the People's Commissariat of Education began in the summer of 1918. For a long time, the main idea here was to group related departments into industry associations. In accordance with it, by the spring of 1919, the departments of the People's Commissariat of Education were divided into the following sections: school, extracurricular, scientific, vocational education, art and technical apparatus 11. By creating such associations, it was thought to simplify the structure of the People's Commissariat of Education and strengthen the unity of its divisions. However, limited powers and uncertain organizational status did not allow the sections to successfully solve the tasks assigned to them.

A powerful impetus to the development and improvement of the Narkompros apparatus was given by the resolution adopted by the Eighth Party Congress in March 1919. The program of the RCP (b), which defined the most important tasks of the cultural revolution, the Proletarian state, it was noted in the Program, was to implement free and compulsory general and polytechnic education, implement the principles of a unified labor school, provide all students with textbooks, reform and open higher education institutions for all those who want to study, and first of all for workers, all the treasures of art, etc., are accessible to the working people. 12 The implementation of these program guidelines required appropriate changes in the structure of the People's Commissariat of Education. In March 1919, the State Academic Council (GUS) was established under the People's Commissariat of Education to develop and implement the reform of higher education .13 In April, an art and architecture department was organized to guide the formation of a new art and construction culture and the organization of art and architectural education of the masses .14 In the fall, the departments of child health protection and child welfare were launched, and in December, the literary department (LITO) was launched, which was designed to rally writers around the Soviet government, fully support the country's literary forces, and promote the development of literary talents among the people .15 In order to avoid parallelism, the departments of the Republic's Property and Museum Affairs, the Unified School and School Reform, and the film and photo committees were merged .16 The relevant departments of the People's Commissariat of Education were seriously reconstructed in connection with the centralization and nationalization of publishing, theater and library business.

10 Keirim-Markus M. B. UK. soch., p. 156; Narodnoe prosveshchenie, 1927, N 10, p. 191.

11 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 1, d. 172, l. 199; TSGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op 1, d. 288, l, 5.

12 See the CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee, ed. 8-E. T. 2, pp. 48-49.

13 Dekrety Sovetskoi vlasti [Decrees of the Soviet Government], vol. IV, Moscow, 1968, p. 639.

14 Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 180, l. 212; d. 181, l. 136.

15 Ibid., d. 182, ll. 94ob., 148, 155, 241, 253.

16 Ibid., l. 10; d. 213, l. 243; TsGAOR USSR, f, 1250, op. 1, d 75 ll 10 15.

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Simultaneously with the changes in the structure of the People's Commissariat of Education, the search for ways to streamline its entire organization continued .17 Since the sections did not live up to the expectations placed on them, in late 1919-early 1920. they were reorganized into sectors 18 . But even this step did not significantly improve the organization of the work of the People's Commissariat of Education, which still lacked organic unity. Noting this, Lunacharsky wrote: "The Board has so far been relatively weak in integrating the work of large sectors, but things have been even worse within the sectors themselves. Many of them were like federations of departments that met once a week or two, so to speak, for the Sejm, whose decisions were not particularly binding on the confederates." 19 The limited results of improving the structure of the People's Commissariat of Education were explained by the complexity of the problem and the lack of experience. In addition, organizational searches were conducted without taking into account the urgent need to change the very nature of the People's Commissariat of Education, reorienting it to the practical solution of the intended tasks.

In the first years of Soviet power, the development of the most important documents of the cultural Revolution occupied a leading place in the activities of the central enlightenment apparatus. The intensity and fruitfulness of this work is evidenced by decrees, resolutions and other normative acts that reflect the strategy and tactics of building socialist culture. The activity and nature of theoretical activity left a certain imprint on the organization of the work of the People's Commissariat of Education, which was characterized by a wide use of collegial forms of work, a maximum of democracy, a minimum of centralism and administration. According to Deputy People's Commissar of Education M. N. Pokrovsky, this was a period of "dominance of theorists". Explaining this idea, he wrote: "We all improvised administrators introduce the habits and skills of our main profession into our Soviet work," which is why "most of our administrative creativity is expressed in a stream of ideas, speeches ,and articles." 20
The structure of the People's Commissariat of Education, which, according to Lunacharsky, was "undoubtedly impractical", was not effective enough even in implementing its own installations. "The main drawback of the People's Commissariat of Education," Lenin pointed out, " is the lack of efficiency and practicality, insufficient accounting and verification of practical experience, lack of systematic use of the instructions of this experience, the predominance of general reasoning and abstract slogans. The main attention of the People's Commissar and the board should be focused on combating these shortcomings. " 21
In the autumn of 1920, the issue of reforming the People's Commissariat of Education was put on the agenda. In September, the third session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was held, in which Lenin took part. After hearing the report of the Central Executive Committee Commission on the Survey of the People's Commissariat of Education, the session adopted a resolution that noted the need to restructure the People's Commissariat and strengthen the administrative side of the case in it "for more consistent and energetic implementation of the principles and plans established by the People's Commissariat of Education" 22 . The development and implementation of this reform is carried out by-

17 During the period under review, the improvement of the administrative apparatus was a national problem. Its decision was made under the leadership of the Council of People's Commissars and Lenin. One example of this is the discussion of the draft decree on simplifying the civil apparatus of the Soviet government, which was held in the Council of People's Commissars from October to December 1919. (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Biographical Chronicle, vol. 7, p. 588; vol. 8, p. 57,74, 119, etc.).

18 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 182, ll. 286ob.; d. 318, ll. 13, 22, 24, 25.

19 Narodnoe prosveshchenie, weekly magazine, 1921, N 80, p. 2.

20 TSPA IML, f. 147, op. 1, d. 10, l. 24.

21 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 42, p. 319.

22 Resolutions and Resolutions of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the 7th Convocation, Moscow, 1920, p. 78.

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They were carried out with the direct participation of Lenin, who attached the utmost importance to the improvement of the Soviet state apparatus. "Without a systematic and persistent struggle to improve the apparatus," he believed, "we will perish before the foundation of socialism is established." 23 Shortly after the third session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, at the initiative of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, the first steps were taken to implement its decisions. In a letter to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) N. N. Krestinsky dated November 1, Lunacharsky reported that on Lenin's instructions, one of the responsible employees of the People's Commissariat of Education, E. A. Litkens, began to develop a plan for the reform of the commissariat. 24 Lenin managed to give the discussion of the impending restructuring of the Narkompros apparatus a general party scope. Issues related to it were considered by the Politburo of the Central Committee, the Party Conference on National Education (December 31, 1920-January 4, 1921), and at the plenums of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) on December 8, 1920 and January 26, 1921. On the second of them, a commission headed by Lenin was created to develop a draft of the general reorganization of the People's Commissariat of Education 25 . On February 11, the draft "On the People's Commissariat for Education (Regulations)"prepared by the commission and edited by Vladimir Ilyich the SNK was approved 26 . In accordance with this Provision, the Narkompros was reorganized. The reformed commissariat was headed by the People's Commissar and the board. Two deputy Commissars, Pokrovsky and Litkens, headed the Academic and Organizational Centers, respectively. The first one included the State Archive Service, the Main Department for Archival Affairs, the Main Art Committee, and the Main Museum Administration. The second consisted of a Central Printing Office and three departments-administrative, organizational and supply. Outside the centers were the Main Department of Social Education, the Main Political and Educational Committee, Glavprofobr, GIZ and the Council for Education of National Minorities.

The reorganization of the People's Commissariat of Education carried out under Lenin's leadership was an important step in the struggle to improve the central enlightenment apparatus. It not only streamlined the organization, strengthened the internal centralism and unity of the People's Commissariat of Education, but also changed the nature and content of its activities, aiming this organ of proletarian leadership in cultural construction at implementing the party's policy in the field of public education.

Work on improving and developing the Soviet state apparatus of public education was also carried out locally. In the summer of 1918, the transfer of public education to the Soviets was completed nationwide .27 The Soviet apparatus for managing cultural construction was established everywhere. However, it needed serious improvement. First of all, it was necessary to unify it. In accordance with the SNK Regulation of June 18, the transformation of commissariats, councils, commissions and other educational institutions into public education departments began on the ground. To provide assistance to local workers, the People's Commissariat of Education opened short-term courses for traveling instructors-organizers of public education departments, two issues of which were sent to the periphery in July and September 1918. 28 Under the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Education and with its effective help, perestroika soon covered all the provinces of the RSFSR.

23 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 43, p. 381.

24 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 3335, l. 1.

25 For more information, see: Smirnov I. S. UK. soch.

26 SU RSFSR, 1921, N 12, Article 78.

27 Narodnoe prosveshchenie, 1919, N 9-10, p. 73.

28 Izvestiya VTsIK, 17. VIII. 1918; TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 48, l. 13.

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By the beginning of 1919, the departments of public education had established themselves as a single form of educational apparatus in the provinces, counties, and many volosts .29 There was a question about their internal organization. Instructions on this subject, which were available in the Regulations of the Council of People's Commissars, were limited to the list of school, preschool and extracurricular sub-departments. In reality, the range of activities of the departments was much wider, and in the order of independent creativity on the ground, along with the specified sub-departments of arts, monument protection, vocational education, teacher training, etc. The structural diversity of departments hindered their activities, hindered their management by higher-level bodies.

In November 1918, the Board of the People's Commissariat of Education recognized the need to develop and carry out a plan for organizing local departments .30 The All-Russian Congress of Heads of Provincial Departments of Public Education (January 1919) also supported the establishment of a unified organization of these departments . 31 On August 6, the Board of the People's Commissariat of Education approved a plan for organizing local departments .32 However, the unfolding cultural revolution opened up more and more new aspects of the state leadership of the national enlightenment. As a result, the plans grew old quickly, and already on March 23, 1920, the People's Commissariat of Education was forced to adopt a new version of the plan for organizing local departments .33 Taking into account the existing experience, the plan was declared approximate, and local departments were given the right to make certain changes to it, with their mandatory approval by the local Council and the People's Commissariat of Education. The approximate plan continued for a year, until Provisions were adopted in March and April 1921, according to which the provincial and uyezd departments of public education were rebuilt on the same fundamental principles as the People's Commissariat of Education. 34
In the first years of Soviet power, the very structure of the enlightenment system was also the subject of research. Not all of its links turned out to be vital. With the disbanding of regional associations, oblono also disappeared. Control and advisory councils of public education were not universally accepted as mandatory. In the same place where they were created, the question of their liquidation soon arose. In this respect, the example of Olonets province, which was among the first to establish Councils of Public Education, is illustrative. As early as December 1918, the Second Provincial Congress of heads of UNO recognized their continued existence as impractical due to the cumbersomeness, uncertainty of functions and inefficiency of their activities . 35 In 1920, they practically ceased to exist.

During the period under review, an attempt was made to expand the grassroots level of the enlightenment system. In January 1919. The All-Russian congress of heads of gubono supported creation instead of volost-

29 Narodnoe prosveshchenie, 1919, N 8, p. 78; N 11-12, p. 107, 114, 125; N 15; p. 79; Vestnik narodnogo prosveshcheniya Soyuza kommuny Severnoy oblasti, 1918, N 4-5, p. 51; Narodnoe prosveshchenie Kostromskogo kraya, 1919, N 1-2, p. 2; The struggle for Soviet Power in the Voronezh Province of 1917-1918. and m-lov. Voronezh. 1957, pp. 308-309; Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 4, d 13, l 1; d 79, l 10; d 108, l 281; d 120, l 12; d 121, l 24; d 340, l 4; etc.

30 Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 136-a, l. 126.

31 Narodnoe prosveshchenie, 1919, N 6-7, pp. 103-104.

32 Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 182, l. 1 vol.

33 Ibid., d. 318, l. 124. In 1920, the following organization of departments was formed: gubono-sub-departments: unified school, preschool, extracurricular, child protection, arts, vocational education, education, national minorities, organizational, information and publishing, statistics, supply, finance; unono-sub-departments: unified school, preschool, extracurricular, child protection, vocational education, education, national minorities, organizational, technical, financial.

34 For more information, see: Zakolodkin I. UK. soch.

35 Narodnoe obrazovanie Olonetskoy gubernii, 1919, N 1-2, p. 21.

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regional departments of public education. By creating districts, each of which was supposed to cover three or four volosts with its leadership, the supporters of enlargement thought to simplify the grassroots enlightenment apparatus and ease the situation with personnel. Opponents of this idea expressed concern that the isolation of the district from the volosts would negatively affect the formulation of the case of public education in the field. Since the correctness of this or that point of view could only be confirmed by practice, the People's Commissariat of Education reserved the right to choose between volost and district departments .36 It soon became clear that the district administration, where it was created, did not live up to the expectations placed on it. According to the plan of organization of local departments of March 23, 1920, the districts were abolished, and the volonos were established as the lowest level of the enlightenment apparatus.

As a result of difficult research and intense organizational work, by the summer of 1920, a broad and extensive educational apparatus was established in Soviet Russia, which consisted of 42 provincial, 371 uyezd, 14 city and 7670 volost departments of public education .37 The unity of these bodies, which under the leadership of the People's Commissariat were an integral system of state leadership of the cultural revolution on a national scale, was determined by the goals and principles of their organization and activities. These principles included, first of all, democratic centralism. Defining the tasks associated with its implementation, Lenin pointed out the need to strengthen the centralist principle. "The revolution," he wrote, " has just broken the oldest, strongest, and heaviest fetters to which the masses were forced to submit. That was yesterday. But today the same revolution, and precisely in the interests of its development and consolidation, precisely in the interests of socialism, demands unquestioning submission of the masses to the unified will of the leaders of the labor process." 38
Guided by Lenin's guidelines, the People's Commissariat of Education established itself as the highest state authority, and achieved strict compliance with subordination at all levels of the system headed by it. In the spirit of democratic centralism, the problem of its relations with local councils in the management of public education departments was solved. In their approach to this national problem, the leadership of the People's Commissariat of Education strongly opposed those who, in determining the relationship of the People's Commissariats with the Soviets, tried to infringe on the rights of one of the parties. Lunacharsky spoke about this at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) 39 . The position of the People's Commissar determined the line " that was drawn in relation to local Councils by the department headed by him. The People's Commissariat of Education led the departments of public education in full compliance with the principle of "double" subordination. Attempts by individual commissariat employees to deviate from this principle were severely punished. There is a well-known case when one of the employees of the People's Commissariat of Education was dismissed because, being sent to the periphery, he acted there, ignoring the local Council 40 . In order to prevent such facts, the Board of the People's Commissariat of Education, by a decree of August 7, 1919, ordered all business travelers to report to the local Council, inform it of the assigned task and coordinate their activities with it .41 Tested in the practice of state-building, the principle of" double " subordination of local departments was

36 Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 396, l. 5.

37 Ibid., op. 2, d. 102, ll. 22: 2, 223.

38 Lenin V. I. PSS Vol. 36, p. 200.

39 The Eighth Congress of the RCP (b). Protocols. Moscow, 1959, p. 317.

40 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 1, d. 171, l. 68.

41 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 182, l. 5ob.

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It was legalized by the Seventh All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which charged them with the duty to comply with all the prescriptions and orders of both the executive committees of Soviets and the corresponding People's commissariats42 .

The decisive condition for the consolidation and development of the enlightenment apparatus was the party's leadership of state construction. Defining the most important directions of the party's activity, the Eighth Congress of the RCP (b) stressed that the party must win political supremacy in state organizations "by practical, everyday, selfless work in the Soviets, by nominating its most steadfast and loyal members for all Soviet posts." 43 The guidelines of the Eighth Congress of the RCP (b) significantly intensified the activities of party organizations in promoting Communists to leadership positions in educational institutions. The selection and placement of senior personnel in the departments of public education was the prerogative of the Gubernia committees and ukoms of the party .44
A significant strengthening of the position of Communists in the enlightenment apparatus is confirmed by the data. Thus, while in 1918 the heads of the provincial and uyezd departments of public education often still included representatives of compromise parties, in 1919 all of the 15 provincial and 13 uyezd departments surveyed were headed by Communists. They also occupied a leading position among other categories of senior employees of the enlightenment apparatus. A certain idea of the party composition of the heads of various divisions of local departments of public education is given by information about the delegates of the First All-Russian Conference of heads of sub-departments of the united school of gubono and unono, which was held in August 1920. Of its 219 delegates, representing 162 sub-departments of 42 provinces, 205 people answered the question about their party affiliation. Of these, 67 are Communists, 3 are representatives of compromise parties, and the rest are non-party 45 . From this we can conclude that Communists accounted for about 30% of the leading employees of the local public education apparatus. More precise data are available for the People's Commissariat of Education, where 38% of its senior employees were members of the RCP (b) 46 .

In the conditions of imperialist intervention and civil war, when the party's focus was on defending the socialist Fatherland, it was difficult to raise these indicators. In addition, the role of communists - workers of the enlightenment apparatus-was determined not by their number, but by the real impact on its activities. So, despite their small number, the Communists of the People's Commissariat of Education covered the main areas of its work under their direct leadership, and ensured its functioning as one of the organs of the proletarian state. This was achieved by the greatest exertion of forces. Communists of the People's Commissariat of Education mostly had to combine a number of responsible positions. "Busy furiously," Pokrovsky wrote at the time, " 18 hours a day. There are few people, and each of us has several positions. " 47
At the time under review, the Soviet enlightenment apparatus of the RAS-

42 Resolutions of the 7th All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Moscow, 1920, p. 17.

43 CPSU in resolutions, vol. 2, pp. 76, 77.

44 TSPA IML, f. 17, op. 6, d. 1, l. 92; d. 52, l. 1; d. 53, l. 37; d. 121, l. 36; State Archive of the Moscow Region (GAMO), f. 680, on. 3, d. 698, l. 57; d. 703 Oserki istorii kul'tury Sibiri v gody revolyutsii i grazhdanskoi voyni (kontsa 1917 - nachalo 1921 g.) [Essays on the History of Siberian Culture during the Revolution and Civil War (late 1917-early 1921)]. Novosibirsk. 1965, p. 234.

45 Narodnoe prosveshchenie, weekly Magazine, 1920, N 69-70, p. 8.

46 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1250, op. 1, d. 56, l. 272.

47 TSPA IML, f. 147. op. 1, d. 24, notepad n 2, l. 11,

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He considered it an effective core of Communist leaders, which ensured the unswerving implementation of the party's policy in the field of cultural construction. The specific manifestation of the principle of party leadership of the people's enlightenment was: consideration of the organization and activities of the People's Commissariat of Education by the Politburo and plenums of the Central Committee of the RCP (b); setting practical tasks in the field of cultural construction by the party bodies; daily systematic control by the Central Committee, provincial and county party committees, volost cells and communist factions over the activities of the enlightenment apparatus 48 .

The organs of public education, as part of the Soviet state apparatus, sought to operate in an indissoluble connection with the broad masses. The party considered the rapprochement of the authorities with the working people and the gradual involvement of workers and peasants in the work of governing the State to be the most important task of Soviet construction .49 Its solution went both through the promotion of workers and peasants to the state apparatus, and through expanding the possibilities of their influence on its work through various organizations. It is clear that the possibilities of the first way at that time were very limited. "Our weakness," Lenin noted, " lies in the fact that we have few knowledgeable workers among the peasants and workers." 50 For example, in 1920, only 2.1% of the employees of the People's Commissariat of Education made up of omniks .51 And it is not only that the main burden of military and economic concerns fell on the shoulders of the proletariat at that time, but also that before the revolution, culture was the sphere of social life where the alienation of the working people was particularly strong.

In the first years of Soviet power, the main form of participation of workers in the leadership of cultural construction was their directing and controlling influence on the organs of public education through the Soviets and other institutions of socialist democracy. Not only members of executive committees, but also all deputies of Councils took part in the work on the management of public education departments. This goal was achieved by organizing the work of Section Councils, which carried out day-to-day control over the activities of branch departments, including public education. Each of the sections united a significant group of deputies. So, the section of public education at the Moscow City Council included 55 of its members, the same number of people were united by the section of socialist culture at the Saratov Provincial Council 52 . Without interfering in the current work of departments, the sections listened to reports of department heads, monitored the implementation of decisions taken, and made recommendations for improving the organization and activities of educational bodies. Questions about the activities of the departments of public education and cultural development were regularly raised and resolved at general meetings and congresses of Soviets.

The workers also exerted their influence on the work of the enlightenment apparatus through mass public organizations. Trade unions, Komsomol, workers ' cooperatives, and other organizations were widely represented in the People's Commissariat of Education and Public Education departments.-

48 Consolidation of Soviet power in the Tula province. Year 1918. Sat. doc. and m-lov. Tula. 1961, p. 340, 350; Cultural construction in the Voronezh Province of 1918-1928. Voronezh. 1965, p. 217 et al.; The struggle for Soviet power in the Belgorod region (March 1917-March 1919). and m-lov. Belgorod, 1967, p. 168.

49 See the CPSU in resolutions, vol. 2, pp. 43, 44.

50 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 39, p. 250.

51 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1250, op. 1, d. 56, l. 468.

52 Krasnaya Moskva 1917-1920, Moscow, 1920, p. 4; Soviets in the Era of Military Communism, Part II, Moscow, 1929, p. 85.

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research institute 53 . The joint meetings of the collegiums of the departments of national education with the factory organizations, public reports of the heads of departments, and so on contributed to strengthening the connection of Soviet educational institutions with the masses .54 Numerous facts show that during the period under review, a solid foundation was laid for the successful implementation of Lenin's instruction that the proletariat, "both in the person of its vanguard, the Communist Party, and in the person of the entire mass of all kinds of proletarian organizations in general, should take the most active and most important part in the entire cause of national enlightenment"55 .

In the first years of the Soviet government, however, it was not possible to fully implement the democratic principles in organizing the leadership of cultural construction, which were decreed by the SNK Regulation of June 18, 1918. Since the autumn of 1918, there has been a tendency to gradually curtail the activities of the State Commission for Education. The last known minutes of its meeting are dated July 3, 1919. The regulatory act on the liquidation of the Commission has not yet been found, as well as materials on its subsequent activities. According to Lunacharsky, the State Commission died out because of the devastation that reigned in the country .56 In wartime conditions, it was extremely difficult to ensure the work of such a representative body. Many members of the commission, being loaded to the limit at the place of their main service, simply did not have time to participate in its work. Thus, at the meeting of July 3, 1919, only a third of the State Commission 57 was present . At the same time, with the completion of the development of program documents for the restructuring of public education on a socialist basis, the development and improvement of the Narkompros apparatus, the inexpediency of the continued existence of this commission became obvious. Having existed for a total of one and a half years, it completed its tasks and self-destructed.

In the specific conditions of the civil war, it was not possible to implement the idea of periodically convening All-Russian congresses on education. The first of them met in August 1918 with the aim of developing general guidelines for systematic work on education in the spirit of Soviet power. The second Congress, despite numerous attempts, could not be convened, the war prevented 58 .

One of the most difficult problems in the process of creating the People's Commissariat of Education was the problem of states. At first, the People's Commissariat experienced an acute shortage of employees, and a year later the need for their reduction became obvious. At the beginning of 1918, the number of employees of the People's Commissariat of Education was estimated in dozens, in September its staff grew to 1,230 people ,and in the spring of 1919 - to 3,082 people. 59 A similar pattern was observed on the ground. According to the staffing tables, from November 1918 to March 1920, the number of employees of the uno increased from 38 to 76 people, and the gubono-from 67 to 117 people .60 In fact, in the Perm Gubernia, it has grown to 148,

53 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 318, ll. 33, 45; Collection of decrees and resolutions of the Workers 'and Peasants' government on public education. Issue 1. Moscow, 1919, p. 13. 2. Moscow, 1921, p. 138.

54 Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 4, d. 87, l. 14, etc.

55 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 41, p. 336.

56 Appendix to the Bulletin of the Eighth Congress of Soviets, devoted to the Party Conference on questions of National Education, 10. I. 1921, p. 2.

57 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 2, d. 102, l. 89.

58 Ibid., op. 1, d. 182, l. 42 vol.; d. 318, ll. 100, 133, 205.

59 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 1, d. 171, ll. 29, 117; Narodnoe prosveshchenie, 1919, n 8, p. 63.

60 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 2, d. 102, l. 222; Narodnoe prosveshchenie weekly, 1919, N 53-55, p. 5.

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in Nizhny Novgorod - up to 160, in Petrogradsky - up to 225, in Tomsk - up to 300, in Moscow-up to 1289 people 61 . In total, about 100 thousand people were employed in local public education departments across the country .62
Excessive staff growth was explained by a number of reasons. The insufficiently perfect organization of the newly created apparatus made itself felt. According to N. K. Krupskaya, with proper organization of the work of the People's Commissariat of Education, the number of its employees could be halved 63 . Economic devastation and unemployment also affected. Speaking on February 17, 1919, at a meeting of the Council of Commissars of the Union of Communes of the Northern Region, Lunacharsky declared that "increased staffing in our famine-stricken area is more than necessary." 64 Not the least important factor was the lack of a unified, state-wide staff policy .Noting this, the People's Commissar of Finance of the RSFSR, E. E. Essen, in a note addressed to the People's Commissar of State Control, proposed to initiate a petition before the Council of People's Commissars for the establishment of a permanent staff commission to develop and implement a unified staff policy. 65 The decision to create such a commission was made on November 26, 1918. Initially, it operated under the People's Commissariat of State Control, and since March 1919 - under the Council of People's Commissars 66 .

In its activities, the staff commission relied on the relevant departmental commissions. Under the People's Commissariat of Education, such a commission was established in December 1918 under the leadership of F. I. Kalinin .67 Having placed the recruitment of new employees under its control, it began to develop a scheme for reducing employees .68 The vigorous activity of the staff commission of the People's Commissariat of Education was positively assessed by Lenin. In a note sent to F. I. Kalinin during a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars on March 5, 1919, Vladimir Ilyich asked: "Why didn't you take a word to tell us how you drove out the extra people? How did you identify the extra ones? etc. " 69

The scheme for reducing staff in the departments of the People's Commissariat of Education was approved on June 20, 1919. Of its 3,082 employees, 797 people were subject to reduction, which accounted for 25.8% of all employees. Out of the total number of reduced employees in 29 departments, half of them fell on 7 departments of the technical apparatus of the company . As you can see, the scheme was drawn up taking into account the fact that the expansion of staff in the People's Commissariat of Education was mainly due to low-skilled workers. It is no coincidence that the category of previously unemployed people was the predominant quantitative source of its personnel formation. From 1918 to 1920, the number of employees representing it increased from 18 (1.6%) to 910 (38.5%). This is also evidenced by the fact that the share of people with low educational level among the People's Commissariat of Education increased from 17.3% to 47.1% in the same years .71 Downsizing of the educational staff 72

61 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 428, l. 28; op. 31, d. 334, ll. 1-3; d. 561, l. 19, etc.

62 Zakolodkin I. UK. soch., p. 58.

63 See Smirnov I. S. UK. soch., p. 230.

64 LGAORSS, f. 2551, op. 15, d. 79, l. 5.

65 TsGAOR USSR, f 4390, op. 15, 124, l. 1.

66 Ibid., 111, l. 8; SU RSFSR, 1918, N 86, article 892; Lenin in the Kremlin, Moscow 1960, p. 74.

67 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306. op. 1, d. 41, l. 349.

68 Ibid., op. 2, d. 106, l, 135.

69 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 50, p. 267.

70 TsGAOR USSR, f. 393, op. 1, d. 171. l. 117.

71 Ibid., f. 1250, op. 1, d. 468; Keirim-Markus M. B. UK. soch., pp. 170, 180.

72 Work on staff reduction was also carried out in local public education departments (Central State Administration of the RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 80, l. 234; GAMO, f. 680, op. 3, d.698, l. 41; etc.).

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it gave a generally limited result. It could not have been otherwise at that time, because the cardinal solution to this problem rested on the state of the country's economy and culture.

The qualitative characteristics of the enlightenment cadres were determined, firstly, by the heavy cultural legacy that the proletarian state inherited from tsarist Russia; secondly, by the fact that at the time under review there was a fierce struggle against internal and external counter-revolution. The war, in Lunacharsky's figurative phrase, "skimmed the cream of the shots." 73 As a result of numerous mobilizations, by the spring of 1920, the number of Communists in the staff of the People's Commissariat of Education was reduced to 5%. The party stratum of the People's Commissariat needed to be replenished, and immediately after the defeat of Denikin, this issue was raised as a priority. The meeting of delegates to the Ninth Congress of the RCP (b) on public education held on April 9, 1920, drew the attention of the Central Committee to the need to strengthen the People's Commissariat of Education with party cadres .74 Starting in the second half of 1920, this recommendation began to be implemented: by the decision of the Central Committee, a number of experienced party workers were sent to work in the People's Commissariat of Education .75 Greater opportunities in this regard opened up with the end of the civil war. In the report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) for November-December 1920 It was noted that during the demobilization of political workers from the army, the best of them are sent to the People's Commissariat of Education .

Strengthening the party core of the People's Commissariat of Education was strongly demanded by the social composition of its states. Almost all major social groups of the country's population were represented here. The percentage of former officials and employees of municipal and private institutions was particularly significant (42.9%) 77 . Many of them considered working in the People's Commissariat of Education as a way to sit out in its walls in a dashing time, to get rations. This created a favorable environment for violations of labor discipline. At the end of 1918, the Board of the People's Commissariat of Education was forced to instruct the manager of the affairs of this department, V. V. Pokrovsky, "due to the frequent delay and neglect of service employees" to develop a "project on checking their attendance at classes" 78 . How acute the problem of labor discipline was at that time is evidenced by the results of a control check on the employment of employees of the People's Commissariat of Education, conducted in March 1920. In the 47 departments and sub-departments that were checked, 38% of those who were late and did not show up for work were 79 . The situation was not much better in other Soviet institutions. The new building of the proletarian state apparatus, Lenin said on this occasion, was occupied by "hundreds of thousands of old officials received from the tsar and from bourgeois society, who are working partly consciously and partly unconsciously against us." 80 That is why strengthening the communist core of the People's Commissariat of Education was the most important condition for overcoming the manifestations of "officialdom".

One of the most important indicators of the quality characteristics of employees of the People's Commissariat of Education is the level of their education. During the period under review, the absolute number of commissariat employees with higher and secondary education increased from 746 to 1,333 people.-

73 Lunacharsky A.V. O narodnom obrazovanii [About national education], Moscow, 1958, p. 373.

74 TSPA NML, f. 17, op. 66, d. 491, l. 40.

75 Ibid., l. 29; TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 397, l. 12; d. 319, l. 18; d. 323, l. 47.

76 Izvestiya TSK RKP (b), 1920, N 26, p. 5.

77 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1250, op. 1, d. 56, l. 468.

78 TsGA RSFSR, f. 2306, op. 1, d. 41, l. 292.

79 TsGAOR USSR, f. 1250, op. 1, d. 56, l. 271.

80 Lenin V. I. PSS. Vol. 45. p. 290.

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Their total weight decreased (from 82% to 49.3%) 81, which was explained by the growth of the Narkompros service personnel. Of course, the educational level of the People's Commissariat of Education left much to be desired. But the main thing is that in the first years of Soviet power, among its employees and those who were drawn into the orbit of its activities, there were most outstanding representatives of Russian culture (A. A. Blok, V. Ya. Bryusov, A.M. Gorky, A. S. Serafimovich, A. P. Karpinsky, K. A. Timiryazev, N. E. Zhukovsky V. R. Williams, I. P. Bardin, I. V. Zholtovsky, I. E. Grabar, and others). The party stratum and highly qualified specialists made it possible to give the activities of the Soviet state apparatus for the leadership of the cultural revolution both the appropriate political orientation and the necessary professional competence.

In the most difficult conditions of civil war and foreign intervention, economic devastation, material poverty and cultural backwardness, the main tasks of strengthening and developing the Soviet state apparatus of public education were successfully solved, rational forms of organizing the People's Commissariat of Education and local public education departments were found and implemented, their cadres were formed, and Lenin's principles of state leadership were implemented, which made it possible to all public education bodies are integrated into a single state system. Even today, in the conditions of a broken socialist society, state management of cultural construction is carried out on the same principled basis that was laid down in the first years of Soviet power.

81 Keirim-Markus M. B. UK. soch., p. 181; TsGAOR USSR, f. 1250, op. 1, d. 56, l. 468.

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