ABSTRACT
Soviet children receive compulsory education between the ages of 7 and 17. While the centralized curriculum is fairly broad and varied, the overall trend of the last ten years has been to concentrate on science and technology at the expense of the humanities. As a result, history - and therefore archaeology has had to fight to retain its curriculum position and has concentrated on the national past. Because of this the study of local history, aspects of which are the study of local architectural and archaeological monuments, is not a compulsory subject in Soviet schools. This means that study sessions or projects in this field are not subject to any special regulations laid down by any of the authorities responsible for school education. As a result the teachers concerned have considerable scope when it comes to creatively tackling this task. Before the mid-1950s the dissemination of archaeological knowledge among schoolchildren in the USSR was carried out mainly by individual enthusiasts - museum personnel and teachers who organized voluntary study circles for the investigation of local history and environment. This work was on an entirely voluntary basis without remuneration. More recently, study circles and special sections for the study of children's home localities (under the auspices of Centres and Clubs for Young Pioneers and Schoolchildren, DPS) have taken over the main responsibility for this work. Institutions of this kind, which are specially concerned with provision for leisure-time activities for children aged between 7 and 16, are to be found in any large centre of population. Large towns usually have one or two Centres for Young Pioneers in each urban district and also a Club for Young Pioneers and Schoolchildren, catering for children from all over the town, which children from any urban district can join.
