The Ministry of Education of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Министерство просвещения СССР), formed on 3 August 1966, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. It was known as the People's Commissariat for Education (Russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения), or Narkompros, until 1946. Narkompros was a Soviet agency founded by the State Commission on Education (Russian: Государственная комиссия по просвещению) and charged with the administration of public education and most of other issues related to culture.
Its first head was Anatoly Lunacharsky. However he described Nadezhda Krupskaya as the "soul of Narkompros". Mikhail Pokrovsky and Evgraf Litkens also played important roles.
Despite Lunacharsky's efforts to protect most of the avant-garde artists such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin and Vsevolod Meyerhold, the official policy after Joseph Stalin put him in disgrace.
Narkompros had a number of sections, in addition to the main ones related to general education, e.g.,
Likbez, a section for liquidation of illiteracy,
"Profobr", a section for professional education,
Glavlit 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 reported to after 1918.
A Theatre Department which published Vestnik Teatra
Vneshkol'nyi Otdel, the adult Education Department run by Krupskaya
Some of these evolved into separate entities, others discontinued.
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History
The Ministry's predecessor, the People's Commissariat for Education of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), was established by a decree of the second convocation of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 8 November [O.S. 26 October] 1917 and was part of the Sovnarkom. The first Commissar was Anatoly Lunacharsky appointed in 1917.
The Ministry of Education, at the all-Union level, was established on 3 August 1966. It was merged, on 5 March 1988, with the Ministry of Higher and Middle Special Education and the State Committee for Vocational and Technical Education to form the State Committee for People's Education of the Soviet Union headed by Gennady Yagodin from 11 March 1988 to 10 December 1991.
Commissars and ministers
The following persons headed the Commissariat/Ministry as commissars (narkoms) and ministers:
Note
The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education of the Russian Empire, which was formed by combining:
Ministry of National Education (Russian Empire);
The Chief Directorate of Religious Affairs of the Orthodox Faith of the Most Holy Synod;
The Chief Directorate of Religious Affairs of Foreign (i.e. non-Orthodox) Faiths,
and directed the spiritual affairs of all faiths in Russia and the institutions of public education and science, trying to restore rights in East Slavic culture of Russian Federation.