Evgraf Alexandrovich Litkens (; 1888–1922)
was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

who played a major role in the development of Narkompros following the Bolshevik seizure of power. As a young boy Evgraf Litkens met Lev Trotsky, when his father harboured Trotsky following the defeat of the

1905 Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

. He subsequently graduated from the University of St Petersburg.

The Litkens Commission

In 1917 he was given a mandate from the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party to reorganise Narkompros, making it a more efficient organisation. This was only completed in late 1920. He proposed splitting Narkompros into an Academic Centre, dealing with policy, and an Organisational Centre, dealing with the administration of the ministry. Whilst the Commissar,

Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (, born ''Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov''; – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissariat for Education, People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well ...

would maintain overall supervision and head the Academic Centre, an additional Assistant Commissar, i.e. Litkens, would run the Organisational Centre and have administrative control. The proposal was criticised by both

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and Krupskaya, but it was nevertheless implemented with some amendments by

Sovnarkom The Council of People's Commissars (CPC) (), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (), were the highest executive authorities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Soviet Union (USSR), and the Soviet republics from 1917 ...

in mid-February 1921. Lunacharsky, as Commissar retained overall control, but the Academic Centre was to be headed by Mikhail Pokrovsky as an Assistant Commissar alongside Litkens heading the Organisational Centre. Whereas Litkens had proposed three departments within Narkompros, Glavsotsvos for school education, Glavprofobr for technical training and

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

and Glavpolitprosvet for political education, Sovnarkon introduced a fourth

Gosizdat State Publishing House of the RSFSR (Russian: Госуда́рственное изда́тельство РСФСР), also known as Gosizdat (Госиздат), was a publishing house founded in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on ...

, the State Publishing House. He was murdered by

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

n bandits in

Yalta Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...

in 1922.

References

External links

The Commissariat of Enlightenment
by Sheila Fitzpatrick,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 2002 Russian communists Russian Trotskyists 1888 births 1922 deaths {{Russia-bio-stub