“We will fight for Peace All Over the World until the Last Grenade”. Initial Military Training in Schools of the Lithuanian SSR in the Late Soviet Era
https://doi.org/10.17583/hse.12131
Keywords:
Number of words in the article:
TextAbstract
In the late Soviet period (1960s-1980s), the public policy of the Soviet Union was mainly based on two ideologemes - internationalism and military patriotism. They were also applied in the education system in the formation of the citizen, the so-called New Soviet Man. It was declared that one of the duties of this New Soviet Man was to ensure world peace, which required not only an internationalist mindset but also good military preparation. In 1968 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the introduction of compulsory initial military training in all schools in the USSR. Based on published historical sources (official resolutions, methodological guidelines, articles in the pedagogical press) and 34 qualitative interviews with former Soviet school pupils, the present article not only analyses the aims and principles, content, and methods of patriotic military upbringing and initial military training (IMT), but also presents the authentic experiences of how IMT was implemented in schools of the Lithuanian SSR. As our research shows, IMT in Soviet Lithuania did not run very efficiently. The biggest problem was the lack of qualified military instructors capable of working with children.
Downloads
References
Applebaum, R. (2019). Empire of friends. Soviet power and Socialist internationalism in Cold War Czechoslovakia. Cornell University Press.
Google Scholar CrossrefAttwood, L. (1999). Creating the New Soviet Woman. Women’s magazines as engineers of female identity, 1922–53. Macmillan Press Ltd.
Google Scholar CrossrefAukštesniųjų klasių mokinių karinis patriotinis auklėjimas. Mokyklos ir klasės vadovui. [Military Patriotic Upbringing of Upper School Students. For the School and Class Head]. (1986). Šviesa.
Google Scholar CrossrefBækken, H. (2019). The return to patriotic education in post-Soviet Russia. How, when, and why the Russian military engaged in civilian nation building. Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society,1, 123-158.
Google Scholar CrossrefBalcerzak, A. (2021). “The charm of the PRL”. Memory culture,
Google Scholar Crossref(post)Socialist nostalgia and historical tourism in Poland. Slovenský Národopis,
Google Scholar Crossref(2), 255–273. DOI: https://doi.org./10.2478/se-2021-0014.
Google Scholar CrossrefBarabanščikovas, A. & Mizikovskis, G. (1986). Rengti tėvynės gynėjus [To Train Defenders of the Motherland]. Aukštesniųjų klasių mokinių karinis patriotinis auklėjimas. Mokyklos ir klasės vadovui. [Military Patriotic Upbringing of Upper School Students. For the School and Class Head]. Šviesa.
Google Scholar CrossrefBezrogov, V. (2007). Between Stalin and Christ: The religious socialisation of children in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia (based on materials about memories of childhood). History of Education and Children's Literature: HECL, 2(2), 1000–1028.
Google Scholar CrossrefBezrogov, V. (2012). ‘If the war comes tomorrow’: patriotic education in the Soviet and post-Soviet primary school. In M, Bassin, C. Kelly (Eds.). Soviet and Post-Soviet Identities. (pp. 113-128), Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar CrossrefBlum, M. (2000). Remaking the East German past: Ostalgie, identity, and material culture. The Journal of Popular Culture, 34(3), 229–253. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3840.2000.3403_229.
Google Scholar CrossrefCary, Ch. D. (1979). Martial-patriotic themes in Soviet school textbooks. Soviet Union, 6, 81–98.
Google Scholar CrossrefČepaitienė, R. (2007). Sovietmečio atmintis – tarp atmetimo ir nostalgijos [Soviet memory – from rejection to nostalgia]. Lituanistica, 53(4), 36–50. https://etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/object/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2007~1367158736475/J.04~2007~1367158736475.pdf
Google Scholar CrossrefDunstan, J. (1977). Curriculum change and the Soviet school. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 9(2), 111-123, DOI: 10.1080/0022027770090204
Google Scholar CrossrefDeminas et al, (1986), Auklėti partijos ir liaudies gynėjų dvasia [Educated in the Spirit of the Party and the Spirit of the People's Defenders]. Aukštesniųjų klasių mokinių karinis patriotinis auklėjimas. Mokyklos ir klasės vadovui. [Military Patriotic Upbringing of Upper School Students. For the School and Class Head]. Šviesa.
Google Scholar CrossrefGist, D. M. (1977). The militarization of Soviet youth. Naval War College Review, 30(1), 115-133. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44641793
Google Scholar CrossrefGoedde, P. (2019). The politics of peace: A global Cold War history. Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar Crossrefhttps://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195370836.001.0001
Google Scholar CrossrefHeller, M. (1988). Cogs in the Soviet wheel: The formation of Soviet man. Collins Harvill.
Google Scholar CrossrefKelly, C. (2004). Grandpa Lenin and Uncle Stalin: Soviet leader cults for little children. In B. Apor, J. C. Behrends, P. Jones & E. A. Rees (Eds.) The leader cult in Communist dictatorships: Stalin and the Eastern Bloc. (pp.102–122). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230518216_6
Google Scholar CrossrefĶestere, I., & Fernández González, M. J. (2021). Educating the New Soviet Man: Propagated image and hidden resistance in Soviet Latvia. Historia Scholastica. International Review for History of Education, 7(1), 11- 32.
Google Scholar CrossrefKestere, I., Stonkuviene, I., & Rubene, Z. (2020). The New Soviet Man with a female body: mother, teacher, tractor driver…. Acta Paedagogica Vilnensia, 45, 97-109.
Google Scholar CrossrefKratochvíl, P., & Shakhanova, G. (2021). The Patriotic Turn and Re-Building Russia’s Historical Memory: Resisting the West, Leading the Post-Soviet East? Problems of Post-Communism, 68(5), 442-456, DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2020.1757467
Google Scholar CrossrefLietuvos Respublikos Aukščiausioji Taryba. (1978). Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinės Respublikos Konstitucija [The Constitution of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic]. https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/00ca15b024e611e58a4198cd62929b7a?jfwid=5v2xfdk63
Google Scholar CrossrefLietuvos TSR Švietimo ministerija. (1975). Mokinių karinis patriotinis auklėjimas nepamokiniu metu (Metodinės rekomendacijos) [After-school Military Patriotic Education of Pupils (Methodological Recommendations)].
Google Scholar CrossrefLietuvos TSR Švietimo ministerija. (1971). Mokinių karinis patriotinis auklėjimas užklasinėje veikloje (instruktyvinis – metodinis laiškas) [Military Patriotic Education of Pupils in Extracurricular Activities (An Instructional-Methodological Letter)].
Google Scholar CrossrefLietuvos TSR Švietimo ministerija. (1973) Pradinis karinis rengimas ir mokinių karinis patriotinis auklėjimas (į pagalbą liaudies švietimo skyriaus ir bendrojo lavinimo vidurinėms mokykloms) [Initial Military Training and Military Patriotic Education of Pupils (providing support to the People's Educational Unit and secondary schools of general education)].
Google Scholar CrossrefMacintyre, M. (1993). Political Socialization of Youth in the Soviet Union: Its Theory, Use, And Results. [Thesis]. Naval Postgraduate School Monterey, California.
Google Scholar CrossrefMatthews, M. (2012). Education in the Soviet Union. Policies and institutions since Stalin. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Google Scholar CrossrefMazur, L. (2015). Golden age mythology and the nostalgia of catastrophes in post-Soviet Russia. Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, 57(3/4), 213-238. DOI: 10.1080/00085006.2015.1090731
Google Scholar CrossrefMulvihill, T.M. & Swaminathan, R. (Eds). (2022). Oral History and Qualitative Methodologies. Educational Research for Social Justice. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Google Scholar CrossrefNikonova, O. (2010). Soviet patriotism in a comparative perspective: A passion for oxymora. Studies in East European Thought, 62(3/4), 353–76. DOI 10.1007/s11212-010-9121-z
Google Scholar CrossrefOmelchenko, D., Maximova, S., Avdeeva, G., Goncharova, N., Noyanzina, O., & Surtaeva, O. (2015). Patriotic education and civic culture of youth in Russia: sociological perspective. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 190, 364 – 371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.012
Google Scholar CrossrefPetronis, P. (1970). Ugdome tėvynės gynėjus. [Educating Defenders of the Motherland]. Tarybinis Mokytojas. February 20, No. 15 (1478).
Google Scholar CrossrefRousselet, K. (2015). The Church in the service of the Fatherland, Europe-Asia Studies, 67(1), 49-67.
Google Scholar CrossrefSilova, I.& Palandjian, G. (2018). Soviet empire, childhood, and education. Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 31, 147 -171. doi: 10.5944/reec.31.2018.21592
Google Scholar CrossrefSovet ministrov SSSR. (1968). Postonovlenije N 289. Osrokah i poriadke vvedehija nachalnoj voennoj podgotovki molodeži. (April 29, 1968) [The Resolution (No 289) of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On Terms and Procedure for the Introduction of Initial Military Training"]. https://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/usr_6792.htm
Google Scholar CrossrefStonkuvienė, I. (2023). The equal and the more equal: pupils’experiences of school in Lithuania in the late Soviet era. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 14(1), 124-142. DOI: 10.15503/jecs2023.1.124.142.
Google Scholar CrossrefSvetlavičius, V. (1968). Ruošiame tėvynės gynėjus [We are training defenders]. Tarybinis Mokytojas. December 20, No.102(1357).
Google Scholar CrossrefŠimáně, M. (2023). Socialist egalitarianism in everyday life of secondary technical schools in Czechoslovakia during the Normalization Period (1969–89). Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 56(1), 129-151. https://doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2023.1798853
Google Scholar CrossrefVaiseta, T. (2014). Nuobodulio visuomenė: vėlyvojo sovietmečio Lietuva (1964-1984). [Society of boredom: every day and ideology in the late soviet period (1964-1984]. Naujasis židinys-Aidai.
Google Scholar CrossrefVerdery, K. (1996). What was Socialism, and what comes next? Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar CrossrefWilliams E. S. (1986). The Soviet Military. Political Education, Training and Morale. Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar CrossrefVinogradnaitė, I., Kavaliauskaitė, J., Ramonaitė, A., Ulinskaitė, J., Kukulskytė, R. (2018). Sakytinė istorija kaip sovietmečio tyrimo metodas. [Oral history as a method of researching the Soviet era]. Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.
Google Scholar CrossrefZajda, J. J. (1980). Education in the USSR. Pergamon Press.
Google Scholar CrossrefPublished
Almetric
Dimensions
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Irena Stonkuviene
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All articles are published under Creative Commons copyright (CC BY). Authors hold the copyright and retain publishing rights without restrictions, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles as the original source is cited.
.