Editing Soviet Union (section)

=== Education ===
{{Main|Education in the Soviet Union}}
[[File:Young Pioneers in Kazakh SSR.jpg|thumb|[[Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union|Young Pioneers]] at a Young Pioneer camp in the Kazakh SSR]]
[[Anatoly Lunacharsky]] became the first [[People's Commissar]] for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the [[Likbez|elimination of illiteracy]]. All left-handed children were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet school system.<ref>А.&nbsp;П.&nbsp;Чуприков, В.&nbsp;Д.&nbsp;Мишиев. // Латеральность населения СССР в конце 70-х и начале 80-х годов. К истории латеральной нейропсихологии и нейропсихиатрии. Хрестоматия. Донецк, 2010, 192 с.</ref><ref>А.&nbsp;П.&nbsp;Чуприков, Е.&nbsp;А.&nbsp;Волков. // Мир леворуких. Киев. 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-03-27-1998086130-story.html |title=In Russia, left isn't quite right Handedness: The official Moscow line is that lefties are OK, but suspicion of those who are different persists from the old Soviet days. |last=Englund |first=Will |website=baltimoresun.com |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624220243/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1998-03-27-1998086130-story.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/21/contribution/38628/ |title=Wrong Hand/Wrong Children: Education of Left Handed Children in the Soviet Union |first1=Linda |last1=Daniela |first2=Zanda |last2=Rubene |first3=Dace |last3=Medne |date=23 August 2016 |website=European Educational Research Association |access-date=24 June 2019 |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013124517/https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/21/contribution/38628/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Literate people were automatically hired as teachers. {{citation needed|date=May 2017}} For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. Throughout the 1930s, [[social mobility]] rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education.<ref>[[Sheila Fitzpatrick]], ''[http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-history/education-and-social-mobility-soviet-union-19211934 Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921–1934] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141118133419/http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-european-history/education-and-social-mobility-soviet-union-19211934 |date=18 November 2014 }}'', [[Cambridge University Press]] (2002), {{ISBN|978-0-521-89423-4}}</ref> In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically, which had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. [[Nikita Khrushchev]] tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in giving rise to the [[New Soviet man|New Man]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Law |first=David A. |title=Russian Civilization |publisher=Ardent Media |year=1975 |pages=300–301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C |isbn=978-0-8422-0529-0 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055909/http://books.google.com/books?id=f3ky9qBavl4C&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Citizens directly entering the workforce had the constitutional right to a job and to free [[Vocational-technical school|vocational training]].

The [[Education in the Soviet Union|education system]] was highly centralized and universally accessible to all citizens, with [[affirmative action]] for applicants from nations associated with [[cultural backwardness]]. However, as part of a general [[Antisemitism in the Soviet Union|antisemitic policy]], an unofficial [[Jewish quota]] was applied{{when|date=July 2019}} in the leading institutions of higher education by subjecting Jewish applicants to harsher entrance examinations.<ref>{{cite book |editor=[[Mikhail Shifman]] |title=You Failed Your Math Test, Comrade Einstein: Adventures and Misadventures of Young Mathematicians Or Test Your Skills in Almost Recreational Mathematics |publisher=World Scientific |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ho6fMF8ehogC |isbn=978-981-270-116-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Edward Frenkel |title=The Fifth problem: math & anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union |date=October 2012 |journal=The New Criterion |url=http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-Fifth-problem--math---anti-Semitism-in-the-Soviet-Union-7446 |access-date=12 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151207161404/http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-Fifth-problem--math---anti-Semitism-in-the-Soviet-Union-7446 |archive-date=7 December 2015 |url-status=live |author-link=Edward Frenkel}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-more-migrants-please-especially-the-clever-ones-2368622.html |location=London |work=[[The Independent]] |date=11 October 2011 |title=More migrants please, especially the clever ones |author=Dominic Lawson |access-date=14 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204140558/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-more-migrants-please-especially-the-clever-ones-2368622.html |archive-date=4 February 2012 |url-status=live |author-link=Dominic Lawson}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Andre Geim |title=Biographical |publisher=Nobelprize.org |date=2010 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/geim-bio.html |access-date=14 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616114451/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/geim-bio.html |archive-date=16 June 2017 |url-status=live |author-link=Andre Geim}}</ref> The Brezhnev era also introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local [[Komsomol]] party secretary.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shlapentokh |first=Vladimir |title=Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post-Stalin Era |page=26 |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |year=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7VFqqE5995UC |isbn=978-1-85043-284-5 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512041316/http://books.google.com/books?id=7VFqqE5995UC&dq |archive-date=12 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to statistics from 1986, the number of higher education students per the population of 10,000 was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pejovich |first=Svetozar |title=The Economics of Property Rights: Towards a Theory of Comparative Systems |page=130 |year=1990 |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ocQKHRReKdcC |isbn=978-0-7923-0878-2 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=17 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617225600/https://books.google.com/books?id=ocQKHRReKdcC |url-status=live}}</ref>