Rabfak

Rabfak (from рабфак, a syllabic abbreviation of Pабочий факультет, Rabochiy fakul′tet, "workers' faculty") was a type of educational institution in the Soviet Union which prepared Soviet workers and peasants to enter institutions of higher education. Such institutions were present in every faculty and institute for higher learning and tended to contain a density of members of either the Komsomol or the VKP(B). The rabfaki were created by Mikhail Pokrovskii in March 1919 and were active until the 1940s. They were intended for adults who had received little formal schooling and were intended as a fulfilment of the promises of the Revolution for upwards social mobility for workers and peasants.

Impact and legacy

The impact of the Rabfak on Soviet society was profound and far-reaching. By the mid-1920s, hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants had passed through the Rabfak system, gaining access to higher education and professional opportunities that had previously been beyond their reach. This influx of new, proletarian-educated individuals into universities and other institutions helped to reshape the social and intellectual landscape of the Soviet Union.