The author argues that it was the second programme of the Bolshevik Party that determined the key characteristics of the Soviet identity and its formation. The second programme was adopted in the Civil War period but these ideas were later elaborated by the Party leaders during the NEP period and took their final shape in the 1930s. To implement their plans, the Bolsheviks needed specially trained people, that is, the Soviet intellectuals, which is why in the early 1920s the Party established full control over learning and instruction in Soviet universities.