Kostya Ryabtsev's Diary: 1920s School Reality from a Point of View of a Historian

Abstract

Alexander Rozhkov comments in his article, “Kostya Ryabtsev's Diary: 1920s School Reality from a Point of View of a Historian”, on the sociohistorical context of the post-revolutionary decade and the image of the 1920s school described in Kostya Ryabtsev’s Diary by N. Ognyov. The article presents the concept of the modern Soviet multi-structural school that was designed to form a “new man/woman”. The author studies the nature of methodological experiments (an integrated method, State Academic Council’s program, Dalton Plan, the method of projects, etc.). This publication focuses on the analysis of the system of student self-government, as well as the role and place of Pioneer and Komsomol organizations in the school life. Such a comprehensive analysis helps to come to the conclusion that the literary work of N. Ognev is a reliable historical source of knowledge about the school and students in the 1920s.

Keywords: Kostya Ryabtsev's Diary, Nikolay Ognyov, the 1920s school, pedagogical experiments, student self-government, “a new human”