Figure 1.--This Russian class is having a party. I'm not sure just what they are celebrating. The boys are all wearing suits. Some of the girls have dressed up for the occassion, but not all of them. That seems a bit curious. |
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We have only limited information on Russian school activities at this time, in part because we have relatively few images from Russian schools. We hope to gradually expand this section as we learn more about Russian schools. For the most part Russian schools activities are similar to those in other countries. We do note some destinctive activities. One is the First Day ceremony. Another is the military training during Soviet times. At some of these activities, Russian children appear to dress more formally than is common in Western countries, especially modern schools. The Russian class here is having a party (figure 1). I'm not sure just what they are celebrating. The boys are all wearing suits. Some of the girls have dressed up for the occassion, but not all of them. That seems a bit curious. My experience is that usually it is the girls who want to dress up.
Education was a major priority of the Soviet Union after the Revolution. The school system was rapidly expanded. This placed great stresses on the system and resources were limited. Soviet state schools used to have staggered schedules as the schools were so crwded. Class sizes were large ans some children webt to school in the morning and others in the afternoon. Today in the state school children go to school until noon. After that they do sport activities at other places, go to music school, or other specialised afternoon activities.
Classroom images can tell you a great deal about teaching philosophy and teaching methods. Images over time can help illustrate changes in teaching approaches. We do not yet have many classroom photographs, especially of the Tsarist and early Soviet era. More images vecome available aftr World War II. The images we see are very hierarchial. The desks are in neat rows all facing the teacher. We tend to note individual desks, at least by the 1950s. This of course tends to suggest that the student's role was to sit still nd lear from the teacher. We doubt if the children were allowed to question what the teacher was presenting. We are unsure just what class discussioins were like in an environmentlike that or even to what extent class discussions occurred. The classrooms also seem very stark without any attempt at classroom decoration. It is almost as if the teachers were not allowed to decoorate their classrooms.
The history of physical education in Russia is an interesting topic. There has since the creation of the modern Russian state by Ivan the Terrible been torn between joining the liberal West and the the cotinuing strenth od their authocratic traditions. And this historic conflict has manifested itself in many aspects of Rusdsian life, including gym classes. In the West gym and sport gradually becme seen as a valuable activity
in its own right and sport which developed primarily in Europe became an emensely popular activity. Important Russian authors like Vissarion Belinsky (1811-48) saw that physical activity was important in the development of mental capabilities. The Russians were not enamored with the sports that developed in the West and social thinkers like Belinsky promoted Russian folk games. Subsequent social theorists like Nikolai Chernyshevasky (1829-89) and Nikolai Vobrolyubov (1836-61) endorsed and expanded on Belinsky's ideas. These influences can be find in many Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). One author researching Soviet sport writes, "The concern of such thinkersfor the health andf physical development of Russian childrenled to the formulation of theories about harmonmious and balanced development of the physical and mental apects of human life that were to be taken up more fully in Soviet times." [Riordan, p.44.] The Russian Revolution (1917) is commonly seen as asharp break with the Russian past. It was in many ways, but there were also many traditional trends which continued to influence Soviet society. Russian thought on physical education was influential outside of Russia. The Sokol gymnastics movement endorsed these ideas as was a way of expressing nationalist sentiment in Germanic/Austrian empires. And after the Revolution, these Russiuan traditional ideas influenced the Soiviet attitude toward physical education and sport.
Western sports were seen as bourgeois and Soviet educators promoted Eussian folk ganes as well as 'production gymnastics and mass physical fitness displays--a popular artifact of most totalitarian systems. (Today such displays are still seen n North Korea.) Affter World War II with Stalin's xenephobia at its peak there was a camopsaign to purge any Western termns from Soviet sport. Then as the Cold War heated up, Soviet attitude toweard sport shifted. The Olympic Games were seen as an area of competition. And this meant the Soviet Union had to promote the samne Western sports that they once vilified. Physical fitness became virtually a state religion. Millions of citizens take part in an elaborate system of athletic instruction and awards and the system now focused oin Western sports. The interesting aspect of this effort concerning Soviet children. While official propaganda clained that the Soiviet Union was to uplift the down-trodden masses, physical education did not emerge as a mass effort to bring the jous of sport to the average child. Rather the emphasis was on finding those few gifted individuals and provide them with coaching and trainng so that they could comete on the internationl level. The Soviet sports machine produced an athletic elite of awesome proportions which regularly demonstrated their prowess at the Olympic Games. The dark side of this was the drugs administered to the athletes, including quite young girls. Sovie gym classes ater Workld war II tended to focus on Olympic sports such as gymnastics.
Primary school children have free time for play at various times dufing the school day. This includes both recess and lunchtime. The children use this time for various activities which have varied greatly over time. The weather and time of year is another factor. In good weather there are all kinds of playground games. Modern boys are enchanted with hand-held electronic modern games. In the West we began to see these games in the eary 1980s. I'm not sure when they appeared in Russia. They fit in easily to the school day. As they are a good diversion when the children can go outside. They can be played individually or competitively. As they can be played in just a few minutes or easily put on hold if time runs out and taken up later. While the boys are mesmerized by the games, the girls couldn't care less about them.
One popular Russian school event is the charming First Day ceremony which is called Knowledge Day. Russian school children on their first day back at school for the new academic year participate in a celebration called Knowledge Day. The entire school meets in the schoool hall. The children usually dress up for the event. The ceremony begins by a student singing a solo song. I'm not sure what kind of song is chosen. This officially opens the ceremony. The School director (Principal/head master) then welcomes everyone. Students studying for prestigous awards are pesented to the audience. Cups, awards, medels and citations for this and that are presented to teachers and returning students. In most other countries, the awards are presented at the end of the school year. A concert by school musicians follows. There is class singing and recitations (poetry readings) by individual children. The proceddings come to an end when a small child enters the stage ringing a school bell. This singnifies the start of lessons. In Soviet times the ceremony was called First Bell. Much of the purpose of the ceremony is to impress on the students, especially the new first year students, the importance of school and their studies. The children tghen go to their respective classes and party. There is food and chatter. At the end of this actual lessons finally begin.
A school activity in Soviet times was military training during Soviet times.
At some of these activities, Russian children appear to dress more formally than is common in Western countries, especially modern schools. This seems to be the case for class parties. The Russian class here is having a party (figure 1). I'm not sure just what they are celebrating. The boys are all wearing suits. Some of the girls have dressed up for the occassion, but not all of them. That seems a bit curious. Our experience is that usually it is the girls who want to dress up. Some of the parties are school events such as an end of year party. Other parties wete for major holidays such as New Years. We are not sure about the different holiday dor which class parties were held. Nor or we sure what kind of activities and games were organized at the parties. There were good things to eat. We see sit-down arrangements for the refreshments.
We do not have a great deasl of informationnabout theatricals in Russian scgools. We know nothing about the Tsarist era. We note theatricals in Soviet-era schools, but mostly at the pre-school and very early-primary school years. We see seasonal and othercevents with the children dressed up in cute costumes. We think the parents were often invited to attend. We do not know if they have theatricals such as school plays like American schools have. This is a major tradition in American and English schools, but less so in Europe. Russian schools are more like European schools with a strong academic focus and less attention to activities. We do not have much information on modern Russian schools. Larger schools do have auditoriums and plays are appasrently presented. We see Russian children in 2005 for a play at their school. Notice how the children have dressed up for the event. The boys are all wearing suits. Boys in the United States would have dressed more informally. In fact I think many American boys do not even have dark suits like this.
Soviet schools conducted war games called "Zarnitsa" ("summer lightning"). I am not sure when this was introduced, but it appears to have been a standard activity during the post-World war II era. After the fall of the Soviet Union during the 1990s, this game was largely discontinud in the schools. Russian readers reports that in the 200s it has been reintroduced at many schools. It has proven popular with the children. A reader writes, "As I remember from my childhood, each class (form) became a "squad". Depending on a weather and time of the year the game consisted of several different contests. In each "squad" were elected "snipers", "medics", "scouts", "communication specialists" and so on. I can remember such a contests during this game: a) Shooting (from a pneumatic gun "Izh" MR-512, this weapon can be bought in Russia without license), b) First aid, c) Using gas masks, and other competitions. As a boy good in geography and technics, I usually chose to be a "scout". The scouting competitions were to show how well we can read maps, flag-code, Morse code, etc. If the game was in autumn or spring it was often conducted outside in the open air. For example, teachers hid some "artifact" somewhere in the forest. To find it a scout squad searched for "clues". The map showed only the way to a first clue, which was written in Morse code, or flag ABCs, or perhaps a foreign language (German or English). The first clue showed the way to the second clue and so on.
Riordan, James. Sport oin Soviet Society: Developmrnt of Sport and Physical Education
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