Rules for School Children
Soviet of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, Rules for School Children. August 2, 1943
Written on October 24, 1917, while Lenin was still in hiding, this urgent note pressed the Bolshevik Central Committee to move immediately and seize power before the moment passed. It conveyed his impatience with hesitation and his fear that delay would let the Provisional Government regroup or the Soviet leadership lose initiative. Often cited as evidence of Lenin’s direction of the uprising, it has also been read more skeptically, as an attempt to force decisions from the sidelines rather than proof that he controlled the rapidly unfolding insurrection.
Original Source: Sovetskaia pedagogika (October 1943), Vol. 10, p. 2.
It is the duty of every school child:
To strive with tenacity and perseverance to master knowledge, in order to become an educated and cultured citizen and to serve most fully the Soviet Motherland.
To be diligent in study and punctual in attendance, never being late to classes.
To obey without question the orders of school director and teachers.
To bring to school all necessary books and writing materials, to have everything ready before the arrival of the teacher.
To appear at school washed, combed, and neatly dressed.
To keep his desk in the classroom clean and orderly.
To enter the classroom and take his seat immediately after the ringing of the bell, to enter or leave the classroom during the lesson period only with the permission of the teacher.
To sit erect during the lesson period, not leaning on the elbows or slouching in the seat; to attend closely to the explanations of the teacher and the responses of the pupils, not talking or engaging in mischief.
To rise as the teacher or the director enters or leaves the classroom.
To rise and stand erect while reciting; to sit down only on permission of the teacher; to raise the band when desiring to answer or ask a question.
To make accurate notes of the teacher's assignment for the next lesson, to show these notes to parents, and to do all homework without assistance.
To be respectful to the school director and the teachers, to greet them on the street with a polite bow, boys removing their bats.
To be polite to his elders, to conduct himself modestly and properly in school, on the street, and in public places.
To abstain from using bad language, from smoking and gambling.
To take good care of school property, to guard well his own possessions and those of his comrades.
To be courteous and considerate toward little children, toward the aged, the weak, and the sick, to give them the seat on the trolley or the right of way on the street, to help them in every way.
To obey his parents and assist in the care of little brothers and sisters.
To maintain cleanliness in the home by keeping his own clothes, shoes, and bed in order.
To carry always his pupil's card, guarding it carefully, not passing it to other children, but presenting it on request of the director or the teacher of the school.
To prize the honor of his school and his class as his very own.
For violation of these rules the pupil is subject to punishment, even to expulsion from school.
Source: George S. Counts, The Challenge of Soviet Education (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957), pp. 74-75.