Nope, it was around long before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The Bolsheviks really struck on the idea from the example of the Prussian state. They realized that if the revolution was to be successful in the long run, they needed to get their hands on the populations children as soon as possible. I was slightly mistaken in the post above that it was only instituted under Bismark. It had been around since the late 18th Century in various parts of Prussia, Bismark extended the complusary schooling to the whole country and centralized and standardized the administation of those schools. Interestingly enough it was Martin Luther who was one of the first advocators of complusary public education, so that everyone could read the bible. So the schools really served a double purpose at that time - indoctrinate children in the state religion (which at the time was being greatly challenged by the rise of Enlightenment philosophy) and indoctrinate the children into viewing the state or the nation as a kind of God on earth.
I listened to the first two podcasts today on the tube and absolutely loved them. It's great to hear someone with such great, specialized knowledge of a subject such as education come at the it with uncomprimising morality.
Will post back here if I pick up any more interesting tidbits about this area :)