Union of Internationalist Teachers

an association of teachers of Soviet Russia that actively propagandized socialism and internationalism during the first years of Soviet power. Established in Petrograd in December 1917, it opposed the reactionary All-Russian Teachers’ Union. The Union of Internationalist Teachers declared that its goal was to aid Soviet power in the establishment of a new socialist school system. It had branches in Petrograd, Moscow, and a number of other cities.

The union held all-Russian congresses of internationalist teachers in June 1918 and January 1919. Significant work was done at the congresses by V. I. Lenin, A. V. Lunacharskii, M. N. Pokrovskii, P. N. Lepeshinskii, and N. K. Krupskaia. In accordance with a proposal put forth by Lenin at the second congress, it was decided to replace the Union of Internationalist Teachers with a trade union of workers in education and socialist culture, the present-day Trade Union of Workers in Education, Higher Schools, and Scientific Institutions of the USSR.