Rabfak (from Russian: рабфак, a syllabic abbreviation of Рабочий факультет, Rabochiy fakul′tet, "workers' faculty") was a type of educational institution in the Soviet Union[1] which prepared Soviet workers and peasants to enter institutions of higher education. Such institutions were present in every faculty and institute for higher learning and tended to contain a density of members of either the Komsomol or the VKP(B). The rabfaki were created by Mikhail Pokrovskii in March 1919 and were active until the 1940s.[2] They were intended for adults who had received little formal schooling and were intended as a fulfilment of the promises of the Revolution for upwards social mobility for workers and peasants.[3]

A photograph of a rabfak.

References

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  1. ^ Berthold Unfried, "Ich bekenne": Katholische Beichte und sowjetische Selbstkritik Ludwig Boltzmann-Institut für Historische Sozialwissenschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag GmbH (2006), p. 308. ISBN 3-593-37869-8 Retrieved December 6, 2011 (in German)
  2. ^ David-Fox, Michael (1997). Revolution of the Mind: Higher Learning Among the Bolsheviks, 1918-1929. Cornell University Press. p. 46.
  3. ^ Fitzpatrick, Sheila (1979). Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921-1934. Cambridge University Press. pp. 50–1.

See also

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