O INSULĂ A UTOPIEI EDUCAȚIONALE SOVIETICE: INSTITUTUL ÎNVĂȚĂTORESC DE LA SOROCA

Abstract

The history of some pedagogical higher education institutions in the Moldavian SSR, re-established and / or created by the Soviets since the second half of the 1940s, is more or less known, among them are predecessors of some universities in the Republic of Moldova. Others, however, created to cover some urgent needs of the moment, have been left out of historical knowledge and no one remembers their existence. The same happened in the case of the Teachers’ Institute from Soroca, created in 1949 to cover the shortage of teachers in the post-war period. The shortage of teachers was deepened in the end of the 1950s by the expansion of the Soviet education system in the Moldovan SSR and the transition to compulsory education of 7 classes in villages and 10 classes in Soviet Moldovan cities. The authorities have decided that by expanding the number of pedagogical higher education institutions, including by creating the Soroca Teacher Training Institute, they will be able to alleviate the crisis of teachers in the Moldavian SSR. The Teachers’ Institute in Soroca had an ephemeral existence. For five years, as it existed, it produced several hundred teachers for grades V-VII, but still did not contribute to reducing the shortage of teachers in Soviet Moldova, becoming an island of socialist utopia. Created on a virgin land in terms of the tradition of higher education, given the lack of qualified teaching and scientific staff, but also a pool for recruiting potential students, the institution was abolished in 1954. Based on unpublished documents, the author, in addition to restoring the short history of the Teachers’ Institute from Soroca, tries to decipher the goals pursued by the regime by opening these higher education institutions in the northern part of the Moldovan SSR, where less than 50 km there is a pedagogical institute - the one from Bălți.