Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2017 number 2

The article deals with the essence of the project of upbringing, realized in the Soviet society in 1920-1930-s. Its authors formulated the target and informative elements of the project of upbringing, guided by the interests of Russian modernization and by the interests of the formation of etacratic socio-cultural system in the USSR. The article states that the "real socialism" was a simulacrum which concealed the true nature of the soviet society. This nature differed from the essence of capitalism and Marxist socialism. Accordingly, postulating the Marxist character of upbringing project was a representation of this phantom in the USSR in 1920-1930-s. While authentic Marxism regarded free individual as a goal of upbringing, the Bolshevist theorists of upbringing considered the goal of upbringing as the person which guided by the transpersonal interests. «The impersonal collectivism» of Bolshevist theorists of upbringing has not grown on the empty place. The founders of Marxism did not reject, as a fundamental motive of vital functions, collective interests. However, their «guiding star» was not a traditional collectivism, naturally arising in the earliest stages of human history, but the association, freely created by free individuals. In other words, the ideal of Marx and Engels was a collective that does not prevail over the individual, but creates conditions for the free development of each of its members. Bolshevist ideal (distinct from classical Marxism) was formulated by I. V. Stalin in 1945 as «man a cog». However, some Bolsheviks tried to remain faithful to the authentic Marxism. Specifically, A. V. Lunacharsky wrote that genuine collectivism does not deny the creative, unique individuality, and Marxists have always sought to liberate individuality and give scope to human creativity. But sociocentristic version of ideal won. This was due, firstly, by the orientation of the Bolsheviks on the ideals and values of mass pedagogical consciousness and, secondly, by the need to complete the industrial modernization of the country in the shortest time. Marxism was only an ideological cover for camouflage of the traditional Russian policy of catch-up development and the value orientation of Bolsheviks on the personality, which to give priority to the transpersonal interests. Ultimately, the ideal of upbringing 1920-1930-s acquired a hybrid nature, combining elements of sociocentrism and anthropocentrism.