The First Soviet Sputnik as an Impetus to the Reform of American Education: On the 60th Anniversary of this Historic Event

Abstract

The Soviet Union’s October 1957 launching of Sputnik was of domestic political importance to the US. It led to a review of the US education system, which resulted in the adoption of the National Defense Education Act by the US Congress in 1958. Its purpose was to strengthen the national defense by appropriating federal financial support to increase the number of educational programs responding to critical national needs. Discussion of Sputnik’s influence on the reform of American education has continued for 60 years. In the scientific and journalistic literature various arguments have been advanced for and against satellite’s influence, which are discussed in this article. It attempts to show the satellite’s impact on accelerating negotiations for exchange agreements between the USSR and the USA in the fields of culture, technology and education, and ultimately creating a new branch of American historical scholarship — Russian Studies. Particular attention is paid to the content of Section VI of the NDEA. It provided financial support to higher education institutions that established or already had in place modern foreign languages centers. The results of the implementation of this paragraph were evident in the same year, as universities in different states began establishing Russian and East European Studies Centers. It became the starting point for a new stage in the development of Soviet-American relations in the field of science and education.