When The New Is Old: Sovietization of American Education

By Alex Shilkrut

In the summer of 1996, our family boarded a US-bound plane, leaving the Soviet Union behind. Our entire life was reduced to a few suitcases and the future we faced was uncertain. In fact, the Soviet Union no longer existed; it had collapsed a few years before into many different unfriendly states.

During its better days, the Soviet Union was glorified by many US intellectuals as a country of free education, free healthcare, free housing; where factories belonged to workers, and everyone was equal. But then, why would tens of thousands of people, including my family, leave such a paradise and come to the USA as refugees as soon as they were allowed to leave?

The Glorification of the Soviet Union

While people had their free apartments— food and necessities were harder to come by, and most had to be bought on the black market. As apartment complexes aged they fell into disrepair, and the government lacked funds for capital improvements. People had little motivation to work harder, as salaries were similar and small, with few chances to succeed unless one belonged to upper management or the government. Many resorted to stealing supplies and tools from their jobs to trade for clothes and food.

There were also no standardized tests, so the task of assessing students fell squarely on the shoulders of teachers. In addition to being a good student, the teacher had to like you for you to get good grades. As schools scrambled for resources, parents would step in, providing perks to schools and teachers to improve their children's chances of achieving excellent grades.

“Sometimes, when you travel to the West, you inadvertently come back to the East. Many people who left their socialist homeland were recently startled to find Soviet ideas taking a stronghold in many corners of American education and politics.”

Culture and Indoctrination

In Soviet culture, the Communist Party ran supreme, and there was a rite of passage for young children from Oktyabriat (Children of the October Revolution) to Pioneers and Komsomol. Children participated in rituals like wearing buttons and red ties and reciting poems about how Comrade Lenin liberated them from the evils of capitalism. In earlier grades, it was mostly play-based, but as students grew older, they studied the advantages of the communist system and its supposed superiority over the West.

Every year, on May 1, the entire country marched to celebrate the liberation of the proletariat. Several times a year, paper was collected for recycling, and competitions were fierce, with winners receiving praise in the school newspaper and prizes. Staged protests demanded freedom for Angela Davis and other Western activists, although many students didn't know who Angela Davis was, only that she was falsely imprisoned in the USA.

History education mostly focused on the history of Russia, the victorious Bolshevik revolution, and the ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Chinese empires. European history was taught mainly in the context of World War II and its relationship to Russia. In the Americas, the education mainly revolved around Cuba and Argentina. Students dedicated half of their history time to studying World War II, where the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany. Many students had family members who fought in the war or grew up during that time, so these stories resonated deeply.

I studied in a specialized school where we learned English from an early age. However, except for one or two students, nobody had ever been outside the Soviet Union since people were not allowed to go abroad. I learned everything about London without much hope of ever visiting. When I finally did visit London years later, I knew the streets and attractions by heart, as if I had lived there for years.

Like any normal kids, we formed friendships, laughed, created mischief, and tried to score candies and ice cream that were not readily available. Oranges and tangerines only showed up in the stores a few times a year, making them a real treat.

Soviet Ideas Taking Hold

Some of my earliest Soviet memories resonate with the current debates to eliminate standardized tests, grades, and admission exams in order to promote greater equity. While there may never be a perfect test to predict students' future trajectories and success, replacing standardized blind testing with a ‘holistic’ approach may give administrators too much power in selecting suitable candidates. The system could eventually prioritize ‘friends and family’ connections over hard work and merit, much like it was a common practice in the Soviet Union.

While activists may find comfort in the fact that 100 percent of schools in the Soviet Union were public, were they truly equal? Hardly so. Schools in wealthier areas or specialized language, sports, or art schools attracted better students. Parents tried to utilize their connections to place their children in better-zoned schools.

Where the Soviet Union shined was in excellent mathematics and physics instruction. The government needed workers and scientists for the military and factories, and they understood that the economy runs on math. Math is beautiful because it transcends language and culture, and it is elegant and easy to assess. It’s puzzling to me that America is lowering the standards in the sciences — something that even Communists understood they couldn’t do it.

Preserving the Competitive Spirit of American Education

Many people tried to escape the chaos that ensued after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our family was fortunate to be granted refugee status. Life in the US has its challenges, and everyone experiences ups and downs. However, what attracted millions to the US was the promise of fairness, transparency, and the opportunity to succeed through hard work and a positive attitude.

The elimination of specialized public schools and accelerated public education could exclude talented children from underprivileged backgrounds unless their families can afford to send them to coveted zoned or private schools. This would restrict the upward mobility of talented students from working families and create social tensions. When people lose trust in their ability to succeed based on merit, they often turn to the underground world of cheating and crime.

As an immigrant myself, I suddenly felt free and motivated to succeed when I came to the USA, and I believe that preserving the competitive spirit of American education is crucial. We must not replace merit and the drive for excellence with stagnation and decay, as seen in the demise of the Soviet Union.

Alex Shilkrut is a first generation immigrant from Uzbekistan and Attending Physician at Metropolitan Hospital, H+H