Campaign against illiteracy is the so called "likbez", from Rus. "likvidatsiya bezgramotnosti" (elimination of illiteracy), a state program brought into action by the Soviet government in the 1920s intended to eradicate illiteracy within the whole country. Cf., serfdom was abandoned in Russia as late as in 1861, therefore one may surmise that many people never knew how to read or write half a century after.
