Fifty Years of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and Pedagogy

It is pointed out in this article that the Czechoslovak education and pedagogy with a Marxist orientation can be divided into three stages. The first stage covering the period before the October Revolution is characterized by a revolutionary critical attitude of the first pioneers of Marxist pedagogy, demanding the elimination of inequality from education. The second stage, during which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was born and grew, is marked by the influence of the October Revolution and the inspiring example of the Soviet Union. The criticism of the bourgeois system inspired by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia can now be based not only on the postulates of Marx’s teachings, but also on the realities of the Soviet society implementing comprehensive education for all the youth. The third stage is the period after February 1948, when the revolutionary campaign for a socialist society and socialist school under the leadership of the Party passes from the stage of critical opposition to the stage of construction. Even this stage must have its conflicts. It is just this stage that offers an opportunity for a new theoretical fermentation. Marxist- Leninist pedagogy has a double task here: on the one hand, to counter the influences of bourgeois pedagogical conceptions and, on the other band, to develop creative activity and discussions proceeding from Marxist-Leninist methodological principles.