Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissar for Education of Soviet Russia. In the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. Literate people were recruited as teachers, and for a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been greatly reduced.
Throughout the 1930s, social mobility rose sharply, which has been attributed to reforms in education. In the aftermath of World War II, the country's educational system expanded dramatically. By the 1960s, nearly all children had access to education, except those living in remote areas.
Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, emphasizing its connection to the needs of society. Citizens entering the workforce had constitutional rights to employment and free vocational training. The education system was highly centralized and broadly accessible, although discriminatory policies also affected access to some leading institutions.