Likbez

"- Woman, learn to read and write! - Oh, mother! If you were literate, you could help me!" A poster by Elizaveta Kruglikova advocating female literacy, 1923.

Likbez (Russian: ликбе́з, Russian pronunciation: [lʲɪɡˈbʲɛs]; a portmanteau of ликвида́ция безгра́мотности, likvidatsiya bezgramotnosti, [lʲɪkvʲɪˈdatsɨjə bʲɪzˈɡramətnəsʲtʲɪ], meaning "elimination of illiteracy") was a campaign of eradication of illiteracy in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. The term was also used for various schools and courses established during the campaign. Nowadays, this term is sometimes used in Russian as a slang for teaching an unprepared audience the basic concepts of any science, process or phenomenon.