In December 1917, the Bolshevik government issued a decree on education that stated in part:
“Every genuinely democratic power must, in the domain of education, in a country where illiteracy and ignorance reign supreme, make its first aim in the struggle against this darkness. It must acquire in the shortest time universal literacy, by organizing a network of schools answering to the demands of modern pedagogics: it must introduce universal, obligatory, and free tuition for all.”
“On Popular Education,” December 1917, a decree signed by A.V. Lunacharsky, People’s Commissar of Education
