The Reconstruction

Abstract

The important question is not so much what was the rate of reconstruction in different countries but what were the ideas on which this reconstruction was to be based? In the Eastern European countries, though the governments initially in control were not wholly communist, by 1948 they were predominantly communist in ideology, and in these countries it was openly avowed that the Leninist principles of education which had been adopted before the war in the Soviet Union would be applied. In essence, this meant first of all compulsory universal primary education, and there is little doubt that tremendous attempts were made to provide universal primary education throughout the area. On top of this system of primary schools were secondary schools which fed into a series of higher education and technical institutions on the Soviet model. In these higher institutions, and in secondary schools, preference was given to the sons and daughters of workers and peasants.