Sound in New Educational Formats: Radio and the Image of the Soviet University of the Future in the 1920s

The early 20th century marked a time of reassessment of the role of sound in society, largely facilitated by the development and spread of radio broadcasting. As a main symbol of technological progress, radio became a vital element in the young Soviet state's vision of a socialist future and all its components. Symbolizing the cutting-edge technologies of its time, radio was closely linked to the radical transformation of the higher education system in the USSR. However, the role of radio in the reorganization of Soviet higher education remains a little-studied aspect in terms of both radio broadcasting and higher education in the country of «victorious socialism.» This article examines the establishment of the first Soviet radio university and the role of radio and distance learning in images of the socialist higher education system of the future. The implementation of the idea of ​​radio universities is examined within the broad context of key trends in the development of radio broadcasting in the USSR, including changes in the social, legal, technical, organizational, and software frameworks of the mass broadcasting system. Drawing on extensive material that for scholarly purposes is here presented for the first time, this article analyzes the general organizational principles and structure of the first radio university, as well as the forms and specifics of the educational process. It traces the connection between the implementation of the idea of the radio university not only with the radical reforms of higher education at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, but also with the general economic and political factors of the country's development. The authors conclude that the First Workers' and Peasants' Radio University, opened in Leningrad in October 1928, was a result of the implementation of key guidelines for the radical transformation of the higher education system in the USSR. These included progressive ideologization as an instrument of state policy, new forms of education through the proletarianization of universities, and the introduction of industrial pragmatism along with ways to bring higher education closer to the needs of industries. These also included technological guidelines for educational policy.