The one-person management principle used in the Soviet economy to assign responsibility for the operation and performance of economic units, from industrial enterprises and R amp;D institutes to ministries and state committees.
Under edinonachalie, the head (rukovoditel or edi-nonachalnik) of each administrative unit issued all directives and took full responsibility for the results the organization achieved. Edinonachalie was a key feature of the Soviet management system from the beginning of central planning in the early 1930s. It did not literally mean, however, that one person made every decision. In industrial ministries, major manufacturing plants, and other large organizations, deputies or other subordinates who specialized in one or another sphere of operations were authorized to make decisions in their designated areas of expertise on behalf of the head of the organization. Moreover, although fully responsible for the organization’s performance, the edinonachalnik was obliged to work with a consultative group of deputies, department heads, workers, and other technical personnel. This group could make decisions and give advice, but their decisions could only be implemented by the edinonachalnik, who, in both principle and practice, was free to ignore their advice.
Edinonachalie made enterprise managers responsible for the collective of workers and the outcome of the production process because it gave them the authority to direct the capital, material, and labor resources of the firm within the constraints of the targets and norms in the annual enterprise plan (techpromfinplan). Since the plan was law in the Soviet economy, this identified the manager as the person to punish if the plan was not fulfilled.
The concentration of decision-making authority and responsibility in the hands of the head of the administrative unit was based upon a strict hierarchical order. Subordinates to the edinonachal-nik could not deal directly with higher authorities, although they could report to higher authorities that their superior was violating laws or rules. See also: ENTERPRISE, SOVIET; TECHPROMFINPLAN
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kuromiya, Hiroaki. (1984). “Edinonchalie and the Soviet Industrial Manager, 1928-1937.” Soviet Studies 36:185-204. Kushnirsky, Fyodor. (1982). Soviet Economic Planning, 1965-1980. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Malle, Silvana. (1985). The Economic Organization of War Communism, 1918-1921. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Education and literacy were highly politicized issues in both Imperial and Soviet Russia, tied closely to issues of modernization and the social order. The development of an industrialized society and modern state bureaucracy required large numbers of literate and educated citizens. During the Imperial period, state officials faced what one scholar has dubbed “the dilemma of education”: how to utilize education without undermining Russia’s autocratic government. During the early Soviet period, on the other hand, the Bolsheviks attempted to use the education system as a tool of social engineering, as they attempted to invert the old social hierarchy. In both cases, the questions of which citizens should be educated and what type of education they should receive were as important as the actual material they were to be taught.
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN IMPERIAL RUSSIA, 1700-1917
Before 1700, Russia had no secular educational system. Literacy, defined here as the ability to comprehend unfamiliar texts, was generally taught in the home. Although there was a considerable spike upwards in literacy in seventeenth-century Muscovy, the overall percentage of literate Russians remained low. In 1700 no more than 13 percent of the urban male population could read-for male peasants, the rate was between 2 and 4 percent.
The Communist Party brought free education and mass literacy to the Soviet people. © DAVID TURNLEY/CORBIS This was well below Western European literacy rates, which exceeded 50 percent among urban men. The hostility of many Orthodox officials towards education and the absence of a substantial urban class of burghers and artisans were two factors that contributed to Russia’s comparatively low literacy rates.
Like many aspects of Russian society, the educational system was introduced and developed by the state. Peter I opened the first secular schools- institutes for training specialists, such as navigators and doctors-as part of his plan to turn Russia into a modern state. A number of important institutions, such as Moscow University (1755), were created in the next decades, but it was not until 1786 that a ruler (Catherine II) attempted to create a regular system of primary and secondary schools.
This was only the first of many such plans initiated by successive tsars. The frequent reorganization of the school system was disruptive, and since new types of schools were opened in addition to, rather than in place of, existing schools, the situation became quite chaotic over time. This confusion was compounded by the fact that many schools lay outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, which was created in 1802. Other state ministries regularly opened their own schools, ranging from technical institutes to primary schools, and the Holy Synod sponsored extensive networks of parochial schools. As a result, there were sixty-seven different types of primary schools in Russia in 1914.
Most schools fell into one of three categories: primary, secondary, or higher education. Primary schools were intended to provide students with basic literacy, numeracy, and a smattering of general knowledge. As late as 1911, less than 20 percent of primary school students went on to further study. Many secondary schools were also terminal, often with a vocational emphasis. Other secondary schools, such as gymnasia, prepared students for higher education. Higher education encompassed a variety of institutions, including universities and professional institutes.
EDUCATION
From Peter I onward, the Russian state devoted a disproportionate amount of its educational spending on higher education. This was partly due to the pressing need for specialists, and partly because these institutions catered to social and economic elites. Ambitious plans notwithstanding, Russia developed a top-heavy educational system, which produced a relatively small number of well-educated individuals, but which failed to offer any educational opportunities to most Russians until the end of the nineteenth century. The number of primary school students in Russia grew from 450,000 in 1856 to 1 million in 1878 to 6.6 million in 1911; even then, there were still not enough spaces for all who wanted to enroll.
Access to education was, as a rule, better in cities and large towns than in rural areas, though it was still limited in even the largest cities until the 1870s. In 1911, 67 percent of urban youth aged eight to eleven were enrolled in primary schools (75% of boys, 59% of girls). In the countryside, the school system developed more slowly. Many rural schools opened before the 1870s were short-lived, and it was only in the 1890s that a concerted effort began to establish an extensive network of permanent rural schools. In 1911, 41 percent of rural children aged eight to eleven were enrolled in primary school (58% of boys, 24% of girls). Peasants in different areas had different attitudes about education, and there has been some dispute about how useful literacy was considered by rural populations.
The better access to education in urban areas is reflected in literacy statistics. The literacy rate among the urban population (over age nine) was roughly 21 percent in 1797 (29% of men, 12% of women); 40 percent in 1847 (50% of men, 28% of women); 58 percent in 1897; and 70 percent in 1917 (80% of men, 61% of women). In rural areas, the literacy rate was 6 percent in 1797 (6% of men, 5% of women); 12 percent in 1847 (16% of men, 9% of women); 26 percent in 1897; and 38 percent in 1917 (53% of men, 23% of women).
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF IMPERIAL EDUCATION POLICIES
While military and economic needs forced the Russian state to create an educational system, social and political considerations also played a role in shaping it. Tsars and their advisers carefully considered who should be educated, how long they should study, and what they should be taught. Above all, they were concerned about the educational policy’s impact on Russia’s political system and social hierarchy, both of which they wanted to preserve.
This was evident in the higher educational system, which was shaped to a degree by the tsars’ desire to maintain social order and the nobility’s support. Special institutes, such as the Corp of Cadets (1731), were created exclusively for the sons of hereditary nobles. While non-nobles were not barred from higher education (with a few
