The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV): Its Establishment under the Comintern in 1920s-30s
| 18 June 2026
Posted in
Archival funds and collections
DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2018-3-704-716
Olga A. Shashkova
Russian State University for the Humanities, Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, Moscow, Russian Federation
Marina A. Shpakovskaya
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russian Federation
The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV): Its Establishment under the Comintern in 1920s-30s
Abstract
The article reviews major milestones in the history of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) and its role in formation of the Soviet-centric political avant-garde in some countries of the East. The creation of this educational institution was connected with the resolution of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) оf January 21, 1921 On Organization of the Eastern Courses under the People's Commissariat of Nationalities (Narkomnats), later enshrined in the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (April 21, 1921). The university firmly established itself within the vast network of international institutions of the Comintern. Although it had never been quantitatively dominant in the institute, the Sector ‘A’ (or the Special Sector, or the Inosektor, as this department for international students was known in different periods) was crucial for the development of its complex system, as the policy of the 3rd International formed the core of its activities. The modest historiography on the history of the university in the Soviet period describes its development as overcoming difficulties in on-going forward movement. A more comprehensive picture emerges in the documents from the KUTV archival fond stored in the RGASPI (fond 532). 12,000 files of the fond include about 10,000 personal files of students and teachers. They show the sinuosities of the KUTV history from its organization to high noon of its activities and to its end in consequence of the restructuring of the party education system in the USSR in 1938. The university accumulated unique experience of training almost illiterate people to become middle-ranking executives in a very short time. A considerable part of the future leaders of colonial countries passed through the university. This Comintern coordinated process secured Soviet national interests. The university also laid the basis for Soviet Oriental studies. All this does not allow to call the university a purely propagandistic institution for ‘export’ of the world revolution and prompts to look behind utilitarian ideological clich?s. The article studies its unique experience in forming the national elites of the Oriental countries, which were to become communist champions of world revolution, and thus provides a professional-level picture of the university organization and management that recognized special nature of the multiethnic student body. It introduces statistical and personal data on the graduates that prove the efficiency of the university. The study may be of interest to political technologists, who determine mode of modern universities’ interaction with the Oriental countries.
Keywords
Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV), Comintern, the party school, national interests, teaching methodology, Department ‘A’ (Inosector).
Download the article: pdf
About author
Shashkova Olga Aleksandrovna, PhD in History, Russian State University for the Humanities, assistant professor, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, chief specialist, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-916-216-06-97, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Shpakovskaya Marina Anatolyevna, PhD in History, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, professor, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-915-191-03-27, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it