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Primer for educational purposes

On October 10, 1918, the decree “On the introduction of a new spelling” was signed, which excluded the letters Ѣ, Ѳ, I from the alphabet, abolished the spelling of Ъ at the end of words - and in general brought Russian spelling to the form in which we know it today. "Kultura.RF" talks about the main post-revolutionary primers of different years.

“ABC” by Vladimir Konashevich, 1918

The ABC of Vladimir Konashevich (cover). St. Petersburg, publishing house of the Partnership of R. Golike and A. Vilborg. 1918

ABC of Vladimir Konashevich. St. Petersburg, publishing house of the Partnership of R. Golike and A. Vilborg. 1918

The illustrated “ABC” by Soviet artist Vladimir Konashevich became one of the first manuals of the new spelling (without the letter “yat”). The idea for the book was born during the artist’s correspondence with his family, who were stuck in the Urals, cut off from the Soviet Republic by Kolchak’s army. “Dad wrote letters to mom, and sent me pictures for each letter of the alphabet, recalled Konashevich’s daughter Olga Chaiko. - I was already four years old, and, obviously, he believed that it was time to know the letters.". Later, Konashevich, on the advice of friends, decided to publish these drawings - and in 1918, “ABC” was published. It included 36 pictures painted in watercolors. Objects and phenomena in “ABC” were very different, from animals and plants to vehicles and toys. They were depicted simply, without perspective distortions, since Vladimir Konashevich believed that “a child should understand the picture at first sight.”

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Soviet alphabet (cover). Moscow, 1919

Vladimir Mayakovsky. Soviet alphabet. Moscow, 1919

“An intellectual does not like risk. / And moderately red, like a radish"- and so on from “A” to “Z”. This topical alphabet was first published in 1919, and Vladimir Mayakovsky was the author of not only its epigrams, but also cartoon illustrations for each of the letters of the alphabet.

The main audience of this primer were Red Army soldiers, whom Mayakovsky wanted to accustom to poetic language with the help of such a satirical publication. “There were such jokes that were not very suitable for the salon, but which went very well in the trenches”, he recalled. Mayakovsky personally colored about five thousand copies of the alphabet, printed in the empty Stroganov printing house when Tsentropechat refused to publish the book for the poet. Later, Mayakovsky transferred many couplets from the “Soviet ABC” to the iconic “ROSTA Windows”.

"Down with Illiteracy", 1920

Dora Elkina. Down with illiteracy! (A primer for adults). Moscow, Extracurricular department of MONO, 1920

Dora Elkina. Down with illiteracy! (A primer for adults). Moscow, Extracurricular department of MONO, 1920

Under this name, in 1919–1920, the first editions of the Soviet primer for adults, developed by Dora Elkina and a team of co-authors, were published. These manuals taught the basics of reading and writing based on political slogans: for example, students had to read syllable by syllable the phrases “Councils of the alarm of the people,” “We bring freedom to the world,” and the famous palindrome “We are not slaves, slaves are not us.” The first Soviet alphabets were illustrated by bright propaganda posters and scenes from the life of the proletariat.

A few years later, the “Down with Illiteracy” society was created, the goal of which was to eliminate mass illiteracy. Its work was supervised by major government figures: Mikhail Kalinin, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Anatoly Lunacharsky. Under the leadership of the society, not only educational manuals were published, but also cultural and educational magazines, such as “Kultpohod” and “Let’s Increase Literacy.” According to historians, over the 13 years of its existence, the “Down with Illiteracy” society educated about 5 million Soviet citizens.

Primer "Pioneer", 1925

Ivan Sverchkov. Pioneer. Children's primer (cover and title page). Leningrad, GIZ, 1925

Ivan Sverchkov. Pioneer. Children's ABC book. Leningrad, GIZ, 1925

The purpose of this manual was to teach schoolchildren not only the basics of literacy, but also the structure of the world around them and Soviet life. “Pioneer” told young readers about life in cities and villages, about various proletarian professions, about domestic and wild animals, about measurements of length, weight and time with the help of illustrations in an engraving style. Of course, the book’s ideological component was also strong. One of the main images of the primer were the October Revolution and Vladimir Lenin: many poems in the primer were dedicated to them.

And “Pioneer” inextricably linked childhood itself in the young Soviet country with the concept of “ours”: kindergartens, schools, camps and even the revolution were depicted as common.

“Primer” by Nikolai Golovin, 1937

Nikolai Golovin. Primer (cover). Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1937

Nikolai Golovin. Primer. Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1937

“The whole country taught children / According to Golovin’s ABC book”, they said in the Soviet Union, and not without exaggeration. Perhaps there was no school in the late 1930s - early 1940s where they did not read this textbook, compiled by Honored Teacher of the RSFSR Nikolai Golovin. The material in the book ranged from simple to complex: from reading syllables to copybooks, from short stories about ordinary children's activities to poems dedicated to Lenin and Stalin, with obvious political overtones.

A distinctive feature of the Primer were its illustrations, for which the editorial board had special requirements. The images were bright, positive and simple, not overloaded with details, and also had a very clear didactic and educational tone, showing readers patterns of correct behavior.

“Primer” by Alexandra Voskresenskaya, 1944

Alexandra Voskresenskaya. Primer (cover). Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1956

Alexandra Voskresenskaya. Primer. Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1956

The Primer, authored by methodologist and Russian language teacher Alexandra Voskresenskaya, was one of the most successful textbooks for primary schools: it was reprinted twenty times. The secret to the success of the primer was a successful combination of tasks to develop memory, imagination and train writing and reading skills. The material in the manual became more complex smoothly and gradually: from combinations of sounds to syllables, from them to short words, small phrases, and so on. The main motif of the illustrations in the book was a measured and happy village life (initially, according to Voskresenskaya’s “Primer,” they studied in rural schools).

Alexandra Voskresenskaya also paid special attention to preparing for teaching preschoolers and created the famous “ABC with a stork” for teaching children in the family.

“Primer” by Sergei Redozubov, 1945

Sergey Redozubov. Primer (cover). Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1946

Sergey Redozubov. Primer (cover). Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1956

Sergey Redozubov. Primer. Moscow, Uchpedgiz, 1950

The post-war primer was illustrated with scenes of peaceful work and leisure: young pioneers were depicted doing extracurricular reading, games, sports and cleaning. By describing these pictures and relying on auxiliary ones, schoolchildren learned to come up with short stories for each lesson. Toward the end of the Primer were poems and stories for reading, including revised Russian folk tales. True, the manual was difficult for children: it did not always follow the gradual complication of phrases and texts for analysis, and each page was overloaded with columns of words with the same or similar syllables.

Vseslav Goretsky. Primer. Moscow, publishing house "Prosveshchenie", 1993

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Vseslav Goretsky built his primer not according to the alphabet, but according to the frequency of use of letters in speech and writing: they opened the book with “a” and “o”, and closed it with “b” and “b”. It was also the first primer that was published along with copybooks and didactic material.

A special feature of the Primer was its game form. Popular characters shared the journey to the “land of knowledge” with the students: Pinocchio, Dunno and Murzilka, and the tasks were often funny riddles and puzzles. The book also contained many easy-to-memorize poems, including those by Alexander Pushkin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Korney Chukovsky and Samuil Marshak.

Goretsky’s “Primer Book” turned out to be so popular and beloved among children that it continued to be published and reprinted for 30 years, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I was sorting through old books and came across my old school primer from 1984. I skimmed through it and, to be honest, I was stunned. This children's book, from which children should learn to read with joy and pleasure, turned out to be so densely saturated with communist propaganda that it is even surprising how we, born in the USSR, managed to avoid final and irrevocable zombification.

The trash starts from the very first page. I quote: “Today you begin your journey to a wonderful, extraordinary country - the Land of knowledge. You will learn to read and write, for the first time you will write the words that are dearest and closest to all of us: mother, Motherland, Lenin.”

Further more. Lenin, the party, the Great October Revolution, the USSR - the best country in the world, veterans, the Second World War, and - a rather persistent push for the idea of ​​becoming an astronaut. It seems that the USSR was planning a large-scale space expansion.

So don’t be surprised by the amount of cotton wool in the brains of your compatriots. Rather, one should be surprised that even with such grandiose and systematic efforts of state propaganda, normal people remained.

Born and raised in the USSR, what do you think: how much of what you think their beliefs and values, indeed yours, and what was simply driven into your head in childhood and became a part of you against your will? What do you really value and what have you just been trained to love? Why were you proud of some things and ashamed of others? How did you determine what was good and what was bad?

Don't rush to answer. Let's look through the 1984 primer together, which I (and you, probably) were once taught.

The primer is the book that children opened first, without doubt or criticism, absorbing everything that was written in it or read between the lines. Each of his words formed the foundation of their future worldview as the ultimate truth. It takes years, a flexible and inquisitive mind, the habit of healthy reflection and a supportive environment to rethink and revise beliefs formed in early childhood. Many people never manage to get rid of the clichés imposed in childhood, and they don’t even consider it necessary.

What lesson did the primer begin with? What was written on its first page?

Mother, Motherland, Lenin. These are the words that should have become the closest and dearest to us. Have you forgotten anyone? Where's dad? What, didn’t even make it into the top three? But Lenin was not forgotten - here they are, clearly set priorities.

I wonder what they will write in the primers after 2017, when Putin and, perhaps, his powers will be significantly expanded? Mom, Crimean, Putin? Or will mom be thrown out as unnecessary, replaced with something more useful - “Orthodoxy,” for example?

Lenin’s malicious face spans the entire page (there are no other such large pictures in the book at all)—the first thing the child saw after the word “primer.” Later, the child was informed that Lenin “ardently wanted” the children to grow up to be staunch communists. Competent and hardworking citizens. Intelligent and unpretentious cogs, in a word. So that even sanctions, even stones from the sky - it doesn’t matter. After this, is it any wonder that Lenin’s mummy still lies on Red Square, and the population patiently endures any government experiments on the long-suffering domestic economy?

Motherland - the second of the most important words in the primer is the USSR - united, powerful, great, beautiful and generally the best. A coat of arms, a flag, an image on a map - all to show how important this thing is - the state. It is not for nothing that for many, the collapse of the USSR is a personal tragedy, the actual loss of the Motherland. Now nostalgia for the USSR is successfully fueling aggression against Russia’s closest neighbors under the guise of unifying the “Russian world.” So what if people die? This is for the Motherland!

And here there is a funny exercise: “the pilot is sawing; carpenter - swims; captain - flies." You need to arrange the words correctly so that they correspond to each other. I don’t remember what I thought about when I saw this exercise many years ago, but now for some reason it immediately occurred to me that Shuvalov was flying with us (on his Bombardier), Usmanov was sailing on the world’s largest yacht, and they were sawing. . everyone is sawing who can get to the budget money. Alas, such is the time.

The fate of the Soviet schoolchild was predetermined from birth: child of October - pioneer - Komsomol member - communist. It is no coincidence that everything began in October, or more precisely, with the Great October Revolution. The date of the banal coup became a reference point, a sacred event, and even a kind of “thing in itself.” Is it possible to say: “glory to September” or “glory to the New Year”? Sounds stupid. But “glory to October”, it turns out, is possible.

And here, in general, the entire spread is dedicated to the symbols of communist ideology: Leningrad, Aurora, pioneers and a demonstration that demonstrates nothing but the controllability of the herd that voluntarily and forcibly entered it.

One gets the feeling that the USSR was purposefully preparing for large-scale space expansion - otherwise why invest in children the desire to become astronauts? We still need to look for a more exotic profession: for 300 million inhabitants of the USSR there are less than 120 cosmonauts, including 33 who have already died. Less than one astronaut for 2 million people—was it worth running such a long-term advertising campaign for?

Moreover, the topic of cosmonautics is raised more than once, despite the fact that by 1984 leadership in space had long been lost, and the Soviet space program was distinguished by its special treatment of its participants. with his dream of colonizing Mars, it’s worth taking note of the idea - it will be useful for educating future Martians.

Militarism, of course, was not spared either. Those volunteers who are now fighting in the DPR/LPR were also brought up in the spirit of respect for the glorious Soviet soldiers.

Children learned to honor veterans and took for granted the idea that for peace you can (and should) fight, no matter how absurd and hypocritical it may sound.

After looking through the primer, I realized where a whole bunch of other, harmless cliches came from in my head: a dog is a man’s friend; Pushkin is a great Russian writer (why, by the way, not a poet?); Tolstoy is a brilliant Russian writer; Mayakovsky is a great Soviet poet; Marshak, Mikhalkov, Barto are wonderful Soviet writers.

Everything in the primer has ready-made labels. Instead of simply signing this or that work and giving the children the opportunity to form their own opinion about it, they are persistently informed that these particular authors are great and brilliant. The ability to evaluate and think critically has always been a superfluous skill for those who were destined to stand in line and obey the wise instructions of the party and government.

As a result, if you look at Russians aged 30 to 50, it turns out that most of them have their heads filled with attitudes and clichés, the price of which is not even a penny, but 45 kopecks - that’s how much a Soviet primer, stuffed to capacity with communist ideology, cost.

Of course, although he was the first, he was not the only link in the chain. After him, other books, films, newspapers, television shows, plays, public events and God knows what else came into play. All this had one goal - to educate a man of the future, a builder of communism.

I don’t know who first came up with the idea that it is permissible to manipulate children, gradually pushing the “correct” ideas and values ​​into their heads, but we see the result of this now in all its glory: an infantile population with thickly powdered brains, trying in vain to find the points contact between objective reality and the program laid down in childhood, nostalgic for a great and beautiful country that in fact never existed.

But in this note we will not talk about me, but about the era of the school 80s. Surprisingly, since then I still have ABC And Primer.
Primer- mine (albeit without the front cover), and ABC- brother (the book is very well preserved).

I am very glad that I have preserved these copies; I am pleased to show them to today’s children and compare them with books of the present time. Well, in this report, I will show them to all of you and I think that it will be especially pleasant for those who studied in the 80s to look at them..., because not everyone has such books left.

1. Let's get acquainted, " Primer" edition of 1982, with which I went to first grade, and " ABC"edition of 1987, my brother attended 1st grade with her.

2. Let’s immediately look at the back of the books; surprisingly, if the Primer cost 45 kopecks, then the ABC costs only 30 kopecks. It turns out that there was not inflation, but noticeable deflation! Or is this saving on design, as the fruit of “perestroika”? :-)

3. Open the book, here it is, ABC... are all the letters familiar? 😁

5. His image in school books was unobtrusive and pleasant, a real comrade.

6. Let's look through these books, as we studied then. First my Primer...

7. Stresses, syllables, road signs and instructions.

8. Working professions, and of course we don’t forget what a beautiful country we live in.

9. At the end of the Primer - Leonid Ilyich.

10. Now ABC: the books are similar in content, but slightly different in design.

11. We look at the pictures and remember our childhood...

12. With “X”, of course, bread!

13. And of course about the dream..., as a teenager, I thought that humanity would very soon fly to other planets! This is where a worthy goal is for Earthlings ;-)

14. This was not the case in my ABC book; in my brother’s ABC book, they taught the anthem at the end!
Which country was destroyed... The current EU is a joke.

The primer said goodbye with this poem:

Memorize these letters.
There are more than three dozen of them,
And for you they are the keys
To all good books.

Don't forget to take it on the road
A bunch of magic keys.
You will find a way into any story,
You will enter any fairy tale.

Will you read books about animals?
Plants and machines.
You will visit the seas
And on gray peaks.

You will find an example of courage
In your favorite book.
You will see the entire USSR,
All the land from this tower.

Wonderful lands for you
Will open the path from “A” to “Z”!

It’s a pity that in the modern world, a number of Russian words are being replaced by slang and Anglicisms. And it’s good that some people continue to read not only chats on the Internet.