Department of Educational Sciences

Makarenko and the "Great Terror"

Recently, I (Elisabeth Buller) have read some articles written by the well-known Makarenko researcher, Götz Hillig. These articles are about the canonisation of Makarenko, as well as the manipulation of his works after his death. These texts often refer to the last years before Makarenko's death in April 1939. 
According to Hillig's research, while Makarenko often included critical statements about life in the Soviet Union in his earlier works and letters to his wife, this changed drastically from August 1936 onwards: in his public speeches and other articles, he praised Stalin and the Communist Party. This turnaround occurred almost immediately after the sentencing to death of 16 arrested “Trotskyists”. 

In the following years (1936-1938), a persecution of Stalin's political opponents began. Suspects, including many of Makarenko's colleagues working in educational fields, were condemned in the 1930s as “enemies of the people” or “Polish spies” and then sent to forced labour camps or executed. Executions were kept secret from the relatives and spouses of the prisoners; instead, dates and causes of death were even falsified.
Makarenko himself was in danger of arrest, particularly because of his contradictory political stance and his acquaintances. His best friend, Kononenko, was considered an enemy of the people, as were relatives of his wife, and his younger brother, a former officer in the Tsarist army who had been living in exile since 1920. In addition, after his own arrest, Makarenko's superior in the NKVD accused him of belonging to a Trotskyist organisation.
Makarenko escaped the accusations thanks to his friendships with high-ranking individuals and writers, and a rumour that he had allegedly met Stalin once. He finally moved from Ukraine to Moscow in 1937, in an attempt to escape the fate of his colleagues, but lived the last months of his life in constant fear of arrest.

It was only after his death (from a heart attack) that Makarenko became established as a Soviet educator (during his lifetime, he was primarily regarded as a writer); his original works were subsequently subjected to multiple revisions and censorship.
During the Great Terror, several hundred thousand people in the Soviet Union were arrested as a result of the repressions, and either shot or sent to camps and prisons. Much of this was falsified and concealed in documents, and from inquiring families of the victims.

References
Götz Hillig (1996): Makarenko und der Stalinismus, Neue Sammlung 36 (2), S.287-302. 
Götz Hillig (2000): Opfer des stalinschen Terrors: ein internationales Forschungsprojekt des Makarenko-Referats über die Verfolgung ukrainischer Pädagogen, Marburger UniJournal (5), S.10-13: 
Götz Hillig (2001): Zu den Voraussetzungen der Kanonisierung Makarenkos, Bildung und Erziehung 54 (1), S.39-53: 2001.
 

(30.09.2025 Elisabeth Buller)

International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) 45

From July 7 to 11, the 45th International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) took place in Lille, France.

The principal investigator (Ami Kobayashi) gave two presentations relating to the DFG-Project:

  • "A. S. Makarenko as an “ingenious foreigner” - Debates on “New” Education in the Teachers’ Magazine Life Orientation in Postwar Japan-."  (Main Conference)
  • "Collective TV-watching in classrooms in post war Japan.” (Pre-conference workshop: ‘Educational practices and objects of the past: A double archaeology’)

 

(30.07.2025 Ami Kobayashi)

‘Children's Song to Lenin’

In a book published in Moscow in 1952 by Molodaja Gwardija (a Soviet and later Russian publishing house; and by the Central Committee of the WLKSM/Komsomol, or ‘Leninist Communist All-Union Youth League’), entitled ‘Songs about Lenin and Stalin,’ there is a Russian song lyric that closely resembles that of the Lenin song (see the post of Timmo Stoll 20.06.2025). According to the source, the words were written by T. Spendiarova and the music by M. Krasev: vault.exmachina.ru/songs/15/.
The song is part of a collection of songs about Lenin and Stalin, all of which contain ideological instructions.
The lyrics are similar to the lyrics of the Lenin song in the magazine ‘Unterstufe.’

 

(25.07.2025 Elisabeth Buller)

Die Magazine "Unterstufe (Lower Grade)" 3: FDJ and "Druschba"

 

 

In 1975, the magazine “Unterstufe” ("Lower Grade") reported on the participation of the FDJ (the GDR's official state youth organization) in the construction of the “Druzhba” (Russian for “friendship”) section of the "Soyuz" (Russian for “union”) natural gas pipeline, which was planed to connect the Urals across the territory of today's Ukraine and the eastern border of today's Slovakia. The project was conceived as a joint project of the socialist states. Almost 6000 GDR citizens worked on the approximately 500-kilometer-long construction section in the Ukrainian SSR allocated to the GDR (Image. 7). The pipeline had supplied natural gas from the Soviet Union to Central Europe for decades. It was only this year that gas transit from Russia to Europe was terminated due to the war in Ukraine.  

 

(Timmo Stoll 03.07.2025)

The Magazine "Unterstufe (Lower Grade)" 2: Images and Photographs

The magazine ‘Unterstufe’, which targeted primary school teachers in the GDR, contained working materials and practical suggestions for lessons. From today's perspective, such practice-orientated content was not only selected with regard to its concrete applicability in the classroom and according to subject-specific didactic criteria, but also with regard to the contained political messages.

Time and again, the ‘lower grades’ contained materials that made (officially accepted) Soviet art and culture usable for primary schools. One example of this are the ‘ROSTA windows’, propaganda posters designed in the 1920s by the futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, which were enclosed with the magazine in 1967 (image 3).

There were also propagandistic contributions in the "Unterstufe" that were not directly suitable for use in the classroom. From today's perspective, the images of East Berlin from the 1970s are fascinating in this respect, as they were intended to emphasise the achievements of the GDR. Images of Alexanderplatz (image 4) and of parades and demonstrations on 1 May (images 5) certainly did not fail to have an impact on readers.

 

 

 

 (Timmo Stoll 27.06.2025) 

The Magazine "Unterstufe (Lower Grade)" 1: The Lenin Song

Reading educational journals of the GDR, I (Timmo Stoll) always come across surprising, interesting or even amusing articles. For example, the magazine “Unterstufe” (German for "Lower Grade") in particular, whose main readers were primary school teachers in the GDR, recommended the “Lenin Song” (Image 1) as an ideal song for singing together in a classroom. Apparently translated from Russian, the lyrics of this song are:

“We know of the great Lenin: / he loved us children very much. / He loved to hear our songs / and bent down to us, / and smiling, he asked: / 'How are you dear children?' / He looked at us kindly / 'We learn happily and laugh / and make all sorts of things / and enjoy them. / [...] / You gave your strength, your efforts / for our future happiness / So thanks shall now ring out to you / when happy songs ring out / in every Soviet republic.”

Such a cult of personality in a children's song, that aims at establishing emotional ties to socialism and the Soviet Union, seems very strange from today's perspective. At the same time, however, the song shows us that the official view of the state and the party in the GDR was not only disseminated at the level of political and ideological agitation, but also at the level of primary schooling.   

 

 (Timmo Stoll 20.06.2025) 

Makarenko and "die Pädagogik" – Impressions from a teachers' journal

As part of our DFG project, I (June Drechsel) am working as a research assistant and summarizing articles from the German-language journal Pädagogik, especially those referring to Makarenko or his work. Pädagogik, German for pedagogy, was published from 1946 to 1990 at first under the same name, then from 1959 under the name Pädagogik. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der sozialistischen Erziehung (Pedagogy. Journal for theory and practice of socialist education) in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and later in East Germany. It primarily dealt with topics in the field of educational science.

To be honest, I had never heard the name Anton Semyonovich Makarenko before my involvement in the DFG project, but after reading just a few articles I realized his influences on pedagogues in East Germany and the Soviet Union. The articles repeatedly mention the interdependencies between  individuals and the collective, such as a school class, in which each individual is embedded and in which they should be able to develop themselves in order to make their own contribution to the collective. Responsibility plays a major role in education, since it aims to prepare children and adolescents for the “real requirements of concrete life situations and life activities”, according to a  Pädagogik. Such topics are still relevant in the field of education today.

I have so far mainly examined articles from the late 1980s, and they focus on the 100th anniversary of Makarenko's birth and emphasize positive aspects regarding the reception of Makarenko's works in the Soviet Union and East Germany. 

 

(02.05. June Drechsel)

The Stasi-Museum in Leipzig

February 2025, the museum is in “Round Corner”, 
 

As part of a two-day trip to Leipzig, I (Elisabeth Buller, research assistant) visited a permanent exhibition on the GDR’s history, more specifically on the Ministry for State Security. The museum is in the so-called “Round Corner”, the former headquarters of the district administration for state security. An audio guide of the museum teaches a lot about the function, working methods and effects of the Stasi on GDR society. More information about the exhibition ‘Stasi – Power and Banality’ including a floor plan can be found on this website: https://www.runde-ecke-leipzig.de/index.php?id=223&L=304

(24. 03. 2025 Elisabeth Buller )

The Library for Educational History Research (BBF)

The Library for Educational History Research (Biblothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung - BBF) at Warschauer Straße in Berlin-Friedrichshain is the largest specialist educational library in Germany. It holds around 730,000 volumes, making it a center of educational history research in Germany. Its beginnings date back to 1876, when the “German Teachers' Association” created a collection of teaching materials and set up the “Deutsches Schulmuseum” (German School Museum). In 1908, the library was separated from the teaching materials collection and renamend as “Deutsche Lehrerbücherei” (German Teachers' Library) and from the beginning served both teacher training and research into the education system. After 1945, the teachers' library was integrated into the "Pädagogische Zentralbibliothek" Central Pedagogical Library) of the GDR and from 1970 it was part of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (Akademie der Pädagogischen Wissenschaften - APW) of the GDR. Following the fall of communism and the dissolution of the APW in 1992, the library was transferred to the German Institute for International Educational Research (Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung - DIPF) and given its current name. The BBF is open to the public and is making more and more of its holdings available online, as well as organizing exhibitions and conferences. There are also a number of exhibits relating to the history of education in the entrance area.

For our research project “Makarenko's Collective Education beyond the Iron Curtain - Debates on Socialist Competitions and their Practical Consequences in the GDR, Japan and the Soviet Union”, the BBF is of the utmost importance, as a large number of the holdings of pedagogical and educational journals from the GDR are located here. As a research assistant, I (Timmo Stoll ) therefore regularly spend a lot of time in the special reading room of the BBF, going through the old journals and scanning relevant articles. The staff are very friendly and helpful, and journal orders are usually available within a day. Below are a few pictures to give you a small impression of the BBF. More on the BBF homepage: https://bbf.dipf.de

 

(13. 03. 2025  Timmo Stoll )

Talk with a former teacher in the GDR

in January 2025 at the Restaurant PILA mit kleinem DDR Museum

 

Ami Kobayashi (principal investigator) had a conversation with a former GDR teacher. The meeting took place in a restaurant where many objects, books and documents from the GDR era were used and exhibited. The teacher talked about individual objects and the associated everyday history in the GDR.