Education

In the new Soviet state, education of new generations of citizens was of supreme importance, so it's not surprising that there are many paintings of schooling from Soviet artists. Most of these are overtly political, but there are some surprising exceptions.

 Alexander Haskelevich Kerzhner: In the First Class

 Gleb Barabanshchikov: Tenth Graders

 Grigory Gavrilenko: Learning from the Excellent

 Ivan Kozlov: A Beginner's Entrance (1950)

 Vasili Efanov: Graduation Day, Red Square

The following two unusual paintings depict students in difficulty, a surprising departure from the relentlessly optimistic tone of the preceding paintings. One imagines that these are from the post-Stalin era, though the second one is from the year before Stalin's death.

Viktor Tsvetkov: Unsolved (1969)

Fedor Reshetnikov: Low Marks Again (1952)

[more about this painting] [still more (scroll down a bit)]