The first People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR A.V. Lunacharsky. On the 150th anniversary of his birth

The article is devoted to A. V. Lunacharsky (1875–1933), a prominent figure in Russian education of the Soviet era. The main stages of his life path are shown. Lunacharsky is characterized as a prominent politician who entered the history of the USSR as the first head of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. The years of his leadership of Russian education came at a time of fundamental sociopolitical changes in the life of the country. The article reveals his achievements in overcoming the illiteracy of the population, improving the level of culture and education in Soviet Russia. It describes in detail the difficulties faced by the staff of the People's Commissariat of Education, led by Lunacharsky, during the implementation of comprehensive programs and curricula for schools. An assessment of the views of some educational researchers of the 1920s (P. P. Blonsky, M. N. Pokrovsky) is given. The article was written for the 150th anniversary of the birth of A. V. Lunacharsky.