ABSTRACT
It is traditionally accepted in the Soviet Union and the outside world that pre-Revolutionary Russia was a land of universal illiteracy. According to the data of a one-day school census, on 18 January 1911 Russia ranked last in Europe with regard to the state of education, with 3.85 out of every 100 of the country's population in school. The People's Commissariat of Education was established on 26 October 1917, as stated in the first decree of the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the formation of the Soviet Government. The difference between teaching and education should be stressed. Teaching is the transmission of ready-made knowledge by the teacher to the pupil. Education is a creative process. The State Commission's function is to be a link and assistant; to organise sources of material, ideological and moral support for the municipal and private, particularly workers' and class institutions of education on a state, nation-wide scale.
