Student Council of the USSR

a public organization of Soviet students. The council represents Soviet students in the international student movement’s struggle for peace, security, democracy, national independence, and social progress; it promotes a spirit of internationalism in Soviet education, stronger ties of friendship and cooperation with students of other countries, and expanded relations with international, national, and local student organizations.

Based in Moscow, the council was founded in 1956; it had constituted the student section of the Antifascist Committee of Soviet Youth between 1941 and 1956. The council includes professional, public, political, athletic, cultural, scientific, and other student organizations. It is an associate member of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR, as well as a member organization of the International Union of Students and a member of the latter’s executive committee and secretariat; it maintains permanent representatives at the secretariat. There are also student councils at the republic, krai, and oblast levels and at student centers and educational institutions throughout the USSR.