A precarious position of power: Soviet school directors in the 1930s

In September 1931, the Communist Party Central Committee, the highest political authority in the Soviet Union, declared that ‘single person rule’ (edinonachalie) should prevail in the administration of schools. The history of approximately 100,000 school directors in the 1930s was shaped by a rapid expansion in numbers as well as fundamental changes in the distribution of power in society. During this era of intense political repression, individuals wielding any kind of power inevitably occupied a precarious position, which meant that directors experienced both authority and vulnerability as they exercised their responsibilities. Exploring these experiences through published sources as well as interviews identifies similarities in professional location and activities as well as unique aspects of school leadership in a dictatorship. This article concludes that the claims to authority made by school directors were always conditioned, often compromised, and sometimes even contested by the interventionist actions of an arbitrary and intrusive state.