84. Extra-scholastic Instruction.
Under the tsarist regime the vast majority of the working population was deliberately kept in a permanent state of ignorance and illiteracy. An enormous percentage of illiterates was handed down by the autocracy to the Soviet Power, which has naturally been compelled to adopt heroic measures in order to deliver itself from the legacy. The departments of public instruction have opened schools for adults unable to read and write, and have taken a number of additional steps to put an end to illiteracy. But apart from the utilisation of the scholastic apparatus of the Commissariat for Education, the Communist Party must do its utmost to ensure that the masses shall avail themselves of the opportunities that offer for the instruction of illiterates. Here the soviets for popular culture, elected from among all the workers and peasants who are interested in educational matters, must play their part. A further means has been the mobilisation of all who can read and write for the instruction of all the illiterates. Such a mobilisation is beginning in various parts of the republic, and it is the business of the party to ensure that the movement shall everywhere be conducted in accordance with a definite plan.
In addition to carrying on the struggle against illiteracy, the Soviet Power must devote much energy and much material means to the assistance of