Soviet school stamps, 1930-1961

From the Soviet Press, 1962:

WHEN THE SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS in September, it seems as though the whole Soviet population were heading for the classroom: grade school children, institute and university students, people, young and old-doing after work studying. Even the small fry start off for kindergarten, where they play educational games, dance, recite nursery rhymes and listen to music .

Study is the theme of many postage issues. A 15 kopeck blue stamp issued in the 1947 kindergarten series shows a teacher reading to a youngster. An olive colored 10 kopeck stamp that appeared in 1930 to commemorate the All Union Pedagogical Exhibition depicts school children working on their wall newspaper.

The strong polytechnical emphasis of the Soviet school curriculum is illustrated in a 40 kopeck violet stamp showing secondary school students at a factory machine getting work training. A reddish brown two kopeck stamp shows children putting up a letter box .

A blue one ruble stamp pictures an evening high school class for young workers. The course of study is the same as in the regular day high school. These students get paid leave to prepare for examinations. They are eligible, after graduation, for college entrance.

Last year a series titled "Study, Work and Live in a Communist Way" was issued. The three kopeck stamp pictures a trigonometry class .

A 10 kopeck commemorative was issued in honor of Moscow University's skyscraper main building, called the Palace of Science. The stamp, issued both with and without combed perforation, shows two students - a girl and a boy .

Friendship University, attended by young people from many of the world's underdeveloped countries as well as by Soviet students, opened in Moscow in 1960. A 40 kopeck stamp (overprinted four kopecks in 1961 because of the currency change) was issued to mark the occasion. It shows a group of Latin American, Soviet, Chinese, Indian and African students with the university building as background.