ИСТИНА

The process of urbanization in soviet Russia is seen as absorption of village culture by urban culture. Thus the border between the town and the village can be traced geographically between two those types of settlements. But the process of urbanization took place inside the village. In my paper I argue that stronghold of urban culture was created by Soviet government inside the village. It was the secondary school. A lot of teachers at schools were town dwellers who came to the village to spread urban culture that was denoted just as “culture”. Becoming a school director was one the highest career position in the village (together with collective farm chair and village administration chair). Village children divided themselves and their parents into “kolkhosnye” (from collective farm) and “shkolnye” (from school). In post-Soviet times the village school became even the ‘museum’ of urban infrastructure in the village: people get access to Internet, can use water closet, drink bottled water only in the school building. The highest salaries in the village now have school-teachers. To sum it up the schools are and were in Soviet times the center of urban life inside the village...