ABSTRACT
The stress on personality obscures important historical political continuities. Although the continuities of political conflict between the West and the East at the international level are matched by the continuity of political institutions at the national level, there have been some important discontinuities. After 1917, there was a search for ways to modernise the USSR and to consolidate the revolution, notably through giving clear messages about the future to the young through education. The conflict between political systems at the international level is also one element which clarifies and confirms definitions of economic development, the content of education and the relation of many young people to the international political order. The basic characteristics of traditional socialist educational systems include institutional patterns and practices which celebrate a moral vision of the liberating nature of socialist work, and earnestness about its practical value.
