WAR ON IGNORANCE

Evening Star, Issue 20133, 25 March 1929, Page 1

WAR ON IGNORANCE

RUSSIAN MOVEMENT “DRIVE TO CULTURE.” All over the oily one can see squads* of young people ringing house doorbells ami asking who is illiterate and who wishes to learn to read and write, marching into the cheaper restaurants -and making notes ns to cleanliness, studying tho number of liquor stores in tho vicinity of large factories, '.this is the “ kulturni pokhod,” or drive for culture, which has been launched all over the Soviet Union under the special auspices of the Union of Comninn.Et Youth. The primary objective of the “ drive for culture,” which will last over a period of several weeks and end with a special day devoted to work on behalf of the needs of the schools, is to speed up the campaign against illiteracy, which has been lagging of 'ate. Secondary objects arc to dean up restaurants and other public places frequented by workers and to stimulate agitation against the drink evil. Ihe idea of a mass competition among cities, factories, and institutions to n.ducj illiteracy originated with -Nikolai Lenin’s widow, Mine. Nadyezhda Krupskaya; and the call tor the “cultural drive’’was sounded by .I’resident Kalinin, who is also head of the society “Down With illiteracy.’' Kalinin’s appeal reads in part as follows ; “ War, pitiless war, is declared on ignorance, illiteracy, drunkenness, dirt, and laziness. . . . Build new schools, repair the school buildings. Supply the school with study mater/*., fuel, dean and comfortable conditions. Provide the children of |>oor peasants and farm labourers witn shoes and clothes, bonks, and writing materials. Give the children of tlie workers and the poor free, hot breakfasts.” 1 1; Moscow alone there are about GO.00) illiterates between the ages ot on j and thirty-live. If or many years the trade unions and the society “Down With Illiteracy” have carried on worlc to reduce illiteracy, establishing instruction centres where people may come in their iree time and learn lo read and write. A vigorous house-to-house canvass, however, has revealed many classes of people who have not been reached by earlier efforts, especially in tho remote Mthurhs of the city, where people live mostly in isolated little wooden houses. MISSIONARIES OK LITERACY.

The missionaries of literacy meet with a varied reception. Some ot tho per,vie whom they visit are passive and indifferent, observing: “So far we got along without knowing how to read and write, and we can go on in the same way.” Others are eager to learn. Sometimes an illiterate woman interposes the objection that she cannot leave her child; in these cases the more zealous of the educational crusaders volmteei to come lo the house and give individual lessons. In one place the canvassers stumbled on the whole colony of Chinese, who displayed complete indifference; however, their Russian wives wrote them down and promised to sec to it that they were taught. A feature of the campaign is the effort to establish courses in as many house 1 as possible. Thus iar there have, been difficulties in this connection hern use of the general shortage of housing space, which makes it difficult to runi iree rooms for instruction, and because some of the house committees show little desire to co-operate. Now instructions have been sent out that wherever a free corner exists in a house it must be placed at the disposal of the organisations which are fighting illiteracy. The mass enthusiasm of the “drive fo" culture ”is largely concentrated in the cities and towns. In the country districts, where most of the illiteracy is to be found, it is more difficult to devise means of eliminating it. However, many individual illiterates will doubtless be helped by the present movement, which fits in with the gen* m-iTi Slate programme of stopping illiteracy at the source by providing school facilities for every child within the next few years.