Builders and Deserters

Book excerpt: Being a student meant much more than simply attending classes. The new Soviet student was expected to engage in activities ranging from work in local Communist Party organizations to participation in collectivization brigades in the countryside. Builders and Deserters explores how student attempts to accommodate personal ambition and established cultural traditions with the numerous obligations that came from their privileged status led to a difficult relationship with the state. Konecny discusses changes in the higher education system and everyday life from the pre-revolutionary period to the beginning of World War II. He also considers the world of politics and political activism, training in and out of the classroom, and the ways in which students both conformed to and deviated from explicit standards of social conduct and "Communist morality" under Stalinism. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the important role played by students in the Soviet socialist revolution during the inter-war period. The breadth of subject matter and thematic issues will interest scholars and students of Soviet history, as well as specialists in comparative education and youth culture.