In 1920, the Bolsheviks ran a massive census across the territories they controlled, covering the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and parts of Central Asia. Over 100 million people were included.
Some of the tables in that report are actually very telling. If you look at people aged 16 to 50 in the European part of the RSFSR and surrounding regions, the numbers are already pretty solid. About 73% of men could read and write. In cities, it’s almost 90%. Even in rural areas, around two thirds of men were literate.
Women lagged behind, but not as dramatically as people often assume. Overall, about 36% were literate, and in cities that number jumps to over 70%. When you combine everyone, you get a total literacy rate of around 53%, with a big gap between urban and rural areas.
Now, if you include teenagers aged 12 to 15, kids who had just gone through primary school right before the revolution, things shift a bit. Male literacy barely moves, but female literacy goes up noticeably, which pulls the overall number higher.
