The Czechoslovak teachers’ efforts to get to know the soviet school and pedagogy in the years 1925-1930

The foundation of the Society for Economic and Cultural Relations with the New Russia is followed by a period of increased interest of Czechoslovak teachers in the Soviet school and pedagogy. The process of getting acquainted with the Soviet school was being realized under the conditions of anti-Soviet campaigns launched by the Czechoslovak bourgeoisie. In the years 1925—1930 contacts with the Soviet side were made primarily by progressive-minded university teachers. It was very difficult for teachers of elementary, lower secondary and vocational schools to follow suit because the ruling bourgeosisie used the means of power to suppress any manifestation of respect and sympathy for the young Soviet state. Communist teachers were the chief organizers of the first successful Soviet school campaigns in Czechoslovakia.
This study traces the Czechoslovak teachers’ relations to the Soviet Union and refers to the difficult period of the first contacts with the Soviet school. It deals with concrete manifestations of friendship which strongly influenced the awareness of the teaching profession. Simultaneously an anylysis is made of the process of development of the progressive orientation of Czechoslovak teachers in the years 1925—1930. The process of getting to know the Soviet school and pedagogy was reflected in the fight for the de jure recognition of the Soviet Union and for establishment of all-round relations with it The teachers’ share in the development of Czechoslovak—Soviet relations is described in the broader framework of social struggles for a just social order.