Karl Liebknecht School

The Karl Liebknecht School (German: Karl-Liebknecht-Schule), named after Karl Liebknecht, was a German-language elementary school in Moscow. It was established for the children of German refugees to the Soviet Union. It opened in 1924 and was closed in 1939. A number of students and teachers were caught up in the Great Purge and the so-called Hitler Youth Conspiracy, many of them executed.

After the October Revolution, communists in other countries were encouraged to come to the Soviet Union to help build the world's first communist state. Germany under the Weimar Republic was in turmoil, particularly during the between 1919 and 1923, and had a large Communist Party. Numerous members went to the Soviet Union, both for training and as refugees from persecution by political enemies. The Karl Liebknecht School was founded to educate the children of German refugees in the German language, however some Russians also sent their children there.

The school acquired a nickname, Shkola Nashikh Mechtei ("the school of our dreams") and had an orchestra, which was popular with local Muscovites.Hans Hauska, a member of the German Theater's Left Column, led the choir.

In the first years of the school, as was the case in early Soviet education, there was no history taught. Also, common to other schools employing ideas of progressive education, there no tests or grades, however some by 1935, some practices were "denounced as Trotskyite" and were abandoned. With the help of headmistress Elsa Weber, the school moved into a proper school building on September 1, 1928.

During the 1934-1935 school year, there were 750 pupils at the school and a new headmistress, a Hungarian named Sophie Krammer. The previous headmaster was Helmut Schinkel, who had begun working there in 1932, but had made political mistakes. For the final five months, the headmaster was a Russian, named Antip Vassilyevitch Brukov.

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