What a wonderful start! Lots of connections to This Soviet World, both in form and content, and a general through line is that socialist education centers the growth of the socialist person, someone who thinks collectively yet critically, someone who can govern themselves. The sports comparisons were excellent primers for western readers. The insistence that democracy and dictatorship are determined by class perspective is something I try to hammer home for liberals as well. Lots to take from this!

Also special mention to the handling of nations, with education in their native language and a national pride. Pseudo-left rejection of the national question is a huge problem that stifles emancipation for oppressed nations, the Soviets understood the problem much better.

Another passing thought, western education has improved, but it improved after and partially because of the soviet education system. As usual, the Soviets were progressive for their time, and thus when contextualized properly it’s hard to attack the Soviet Union from the left as being not progressive enough. It certainly was backwards in some ways compared to modern sensibilities and understanding of gender, sexuality, sex, and so forth, but when measured against contemporaries they were nearly always at the forefront. We need to take these lessons from the past and advance far beyond them!

Looking forward to the rest!