The Teaching of History

THE TEACHING OF HISTORY IP. Zaionchkovsky A. Sakharov The teaching of history holds a prominent place in the Soviet system of training specialists in different fields of science and technology. It gives students an objective conception of history and social relations, and reveals the laws governing the historical process. The propagation of historical knowledge serves to develop patriotism and feelings of friendship and respect for other peoples and their services in the historical development of human society. History is taught from the fourth to the tenth form of the secondary school. During these seven years, the pupils learn the history of their own country and also general history, in chronological order. History is also taught at the specialized secondary schools-technical, musical, theatrical, etc. Thus, every citizen of the U.S.S.R. acquires a good knowledge of history at a secondary school. Students at higher schools either major in history or take it as a secondary subject in all allied fields of learning. The study of the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (C.P.S.U.) holds a special place in the system of higher education. Owing to the exceptionally important role which the Communist Party has played and continues to play in the development of the U.S.S.R., a course in its history, closely bound up with the basic processes in the civil history of Russia and the U.S.S.R. from the end of the nineteenth century to the present, is given at all higher educational establishments of the country, irrespective of their special interests. Civil history is studied in a number of faculties as a subsidiary subject. Thus, students in the philological faculties take the following courses: in the Romano-Germanic department-the history of the given country; in the department of classic philology-the history of Greece and Rome; in the department of journalism-modem and contemporary history. In the Russian section of the philological faculty of Moscow University a one-year course in the history of Russia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is given; in the department of journalism, a course · 18 P. ZAIONCHKOVSKY & A. SAKHAROV in modem and contemporary history. In all philosophical faculties of universities courses are given in modem and contemporary history, as well as in the history of philosophy and socio-political thought. Students in the faculties of economics study the history of the national economy; in the faculties of law, the history of the state and law. Students at the Moscow University Institute of Oriental Languages learn the history of the countries of the Near, Middle, and Far East, corresponding departments functioning for this purpose. In other faculties of universities and teacher training institutes, instruction in historical disciplines is provided by the departments of the history faculties. Historical subjects also occupy a prominent place in the curricula of the Institute of International Relations, the institutes of foreign languages, and librarians' institutes. All these higher educational establishments have history departments. In addition, at many other institutions of higher education a course is given in the history of the science being studied. The course contains elements of civil history, since the entire development of science is considered in close connection with social and economic developments, upon which it is dependent. Historians fall into three major categories: historians with a university education; historians graduating from a teacher training institute; and historian-archivists. The largest number of historians are graduates of universities. At the present time there are 39 state universities in the U.S.S.R. Seventeen of these have independent faculties of history, 18 have joint historico-philological and historico-economic faculties, which include departments of history within their own curricula. At four universities (in the cities of Yakutsk, Saransk, Ufa, and Nalchik), recently reorganized from local teacher training institutes, joint historico-philological faculties training specialists with dual qualifications have been preserved for the present. During the academic year 1957- 8, the faculties and departments of history at universities were attended by approximately 8,000 students, while more than 12,000 students took evening and correspondence courses in history at universities. The curricula of evening and correspondence course institutes differ from those of the...