According to Anton Makarenko, a Soviet educator and writer who is documented in UNESCO: International Bureau of Education, institution was considered extremely harsh by western standards.

Under Joseph Stalin, figures such as Leon Trotsky were often criticized and in some cases completely removed from historical events and pictures. Following his death, Stalin was demonized in the curriculum by his successor, Nikita Khrushchev. Soviet Education placed heavy academic emphasis on the math and the sciences. They were particularly motivated by the Atomic Age and the space race where militarist discipline was prevalent.

Looking back to what made a Soviet education extremely harsh by western standards in the 1950’s:

• The schools rarely took disabilities and learning differences into account.

• Calls for more differentiation by Soviet teachers and professors often was ignored.

• Criticism in general was greatly suppressed.

• History and literature portraying the USSR in a less than positive light was altered or omitted to meet the needs of the state.

However in 1983, the United States Commission on Excellence in Education published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, in which it said that in regards to education, Americans were falling behind Russia. This sense of alarm at the Soviet's successful education program proved to be premature as the Soviet Union dissolved a few years later and the program was in turn restructured.