Vladimir Lenin's Crusade for Literacy

The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 1965-uu-uu.

This report, produced by Radio Moscow, tells the story of Vladimir Lenin's crusade to abolish illiteracy at the dawn of the Soviet Union. "When Russia accomplished its revolution in 1917 and became socialist, it wiped out illiteracy ten times as fast as was expected. Not only do we have no more illiteracy today, but we graduate three times as many engineers and four times as many doctors as the United States."

The report continues with Lenin's strong academic background and the enactment of his agenda to achieve national literacy and build a publicly funded education system. "Learning became issue number one. Anyone who was not studying something, somewhere was considered both backward and a poor citizen of the new society." According to the hosts, national literacy was achieved by the beginning of World War II.

The hosts continue with statistics about education in the Soviet Union, including comparison to the United States. William Benton, publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica, is quoted saying, "Education is the Soviet Union's mightiest weapon."

[Most likely recorded in 1965?]

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 150305
Municipal archives id: T4077