Transformation of the educational materials content in 1953-1956

Undoubtedly, the 50s of the twentieth century was a very eventful period for Soviet Russia history, changing the established picture of Soviet reality. For the most part, they passed quietly and not always noticeably for the contemporaries, who noticed transformations only after the fact. The changes that took place after the J.V. Stalin’s death affected many spheres of the country’s life: the penitentiary system underwent significant correction, that led to a series of amnesties and rehabilitation in the first three post-Stalin years. The system of ideological propaganda also changed, an integral part of which was the content of humanitarian subjects of all levels of education in the USSR, where it was skillfully woven. The article discusses a change in the content of educational books, which began immediately after the mourning events of March 1953. This process of transformation took place throughout all three years and was constantly subjected to correction depending on the political situation in the Party and country. The educational books of 1953 were removed from the bookselling network circulation in 1954, either the books’ contents were amended “mechanically”, when the sheet was removed from the publication, or the information was edited out with ink. If “mechanical” way spoiled the structure or violated the integrity of the publication, then the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR sent methodological recommendations to subordinate organizations with detailed instructions which pages in the textbook should not be studied categorically. The political changes that took place in 1953-1956 were unexpected, and it was often necessary to make changes to the content of study books very quickly, as the publishing industry and the editorial colleagues of study books could not cope with it. Often edits of editorial boards had a purely “decorative character” limited to removing punctuation marks in the text and a footnote at the bottom of the page to note who became an objectionable politician. This, in turn, practically did not change how the material was presented to students. For quicker and deeper processing of the content of educational books some editorial teams were given several months’ sabbaticals. Therefore, 1954 and 1955 already met entirely rewritten and revised texts of educational books and publications, consistent with new trends and accents of ideological propaganda and meeting the political realities of the time. The fact mentioned above perfectly reflects the dynamics of changes in the content of educational books and demonstrates the increasing amount of work performed every year. Amendments to publications had severe financial costs and placed an unbearable burden on publishers. The Party leadership and the USSR government had to reckon with this situation. Thus, in cases when reprinting was too expensive, the adjustments were made to the structure of the book and only on separate pages or chapters. Changes in the content of textbooks, although static, reflected the current state of affairs, but the revision process of several state symbols of the USSR in the content of textbooks appeared earlier than reflected in the currently available archival documents. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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