had soddened their spirits. They had been exhausted by years of war and perverted by centuries of cruelty and deceit. For these masses the Bolsheviks had patience—and education.
A New Creative
Spirit.
"Whatever other expenses are cut down," the Bolsheviks declared, "the expenditures on public instruction must stay high. A generous budget for education is the honor and glory of every people. Our first aim must be the struggle against ignorance."
Everywhere schools were opened—even in palaces, barracks and factories. Over them was blazoned the legend "Children are the hope of the world" (Detye nadezhde meera). Into them marched millions of children, some of them forty and sixty years of age—old babas and grey-bearded peasants. A whole nation was learning to read and write.
Alongside the revolutionary proclamations and bills for the opera, appeared on the boardings biographies of great men, screeds on health and art and science. Workmen's theatres, libraries and lecture-courses sprang up on all sides. Doors to culture hitherto tight-closed to the masses were unlocked. Peasants and workers flocked into the museums and galleries.
The Bolsheviks aimed not only at better brains but better bodies. To this end many decrees were issued, such as the eight-hour law. The right of
