The Moscow and Vienna experience: a "turning point" in Gramsci's political and pedagogical thought

Abstract

Between June 1922 and May 1924, while living in Moscow and Vienna, Antonio Gramsci encountered both the political and pedagogical experiments of the newly established Soviet Union and a range of socialist-inspired reforms, most notably the educational reforms implemented in Vienna by the Austrian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. These experiences, together with his awareness of the contradictions and challenges faced by those societies and his critical reassessment of the Italian socialist tradition, appear to have marked a decisive turning point in his intellectual and political development. This period contributed to a significant reformulation of his views on party organization, the formation of political leadership, the question of hegemony, and, consequently, the cultural advancement of the popular classes and the role of schooling in that process. This article examines the ways in which these experiences informed Gramsci’s reflections on education and hegemony, as expressed in his journalistic writings, correspondence, letters, and later in the Prison Notebooks. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources, including biographical studies and scholarship on Gramsci’s thought, this article argues that his engagement with the debates and educational innovations he encountered in Moscow and Vienna led him to develop a comprehensive conception of education and to formulate an original theory of the school, as a central institution in the construction and maintenance of hegemony.