Russia Education

Education and Cultural Activities
Russian education and cultural institutions, highly constrained and monitored by the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) for nearly seven decades, were granted much greater liberties under the policy of glasnost' (Russian for “openness”) of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991). Liberalization accelerated with the collapse of the CPSU and the dissolution of the USSR. Ideological training disappeared; new teaching methodologies were developed and promoted in public schools; private schools were established; and religious and other previously banned themes of artistic expression flourished. With the dissolution of the USSR, however, education and cultural institutions were beset by financial problems, as governmental monetary support dwindled. Many museums and other cultural centers undertook commercial ventures in order to increase funds.

Education
Russia inherited a well-developed, comprehensive system of education from the Soviet period. Soviet authorities established an extensive network of preschool, elementary, secondary, and higher-education institutions. It also provided free continuing education for adults. At the age of six, children in the USSR entered primary school for an intensive course from grades one to four. Intermediate education began with grade five and continued through grade nine. After that, children entered upper-level schools or vocational-technical programs, which included on-the-job training.
Nurseries, kindergartens, and other early-education facilities are particularly well attended in Russia. In 1989 nearly 70 percent of the children of preschool age attended a state-run facility—one of the highest proportions among the former Soviet republics. Russia also possesses a large number of orphanages—1001, or 70 percent of the total number in the former Soviet republics.
Russia's system of special secondary education is also well developed. In 1989 Russia had 2595 special secondary institutions, or 57 percent of the total in the former Soviet republics. The total number of special secondary students is about 2.3 million.
Specialized secondary schools train skilled and semiprofessional workers such as technicians, nurses, elementary-school teachers, and other specialists who generally function as assistants to professional graduates of higher educational institutions. The specialized secondary school program lasts up to four years, and graduates receive the equivalent of a general secondary education as well as specialized technical training. Vocational-technical schools offer one- to three-year programs of training in semiskilled and skilled occupations. In these schools a student might complete a general secondary education while obtaining occupational training.
In 1991 Russia had 519 establishments of higher education with 2,763,000 students, or approximately 11 percent of the total population over the age of 15. Universities comprise only a small proportion of the higher educational establishments; the vast majority of these establishments are institutes that specialize in vocational training. A large percentage of students take correspondence courses or attend classes on a part-time basis. Traditionally, tuition was free, with students receiving a monthly stipend, but some universities now plan to charge students for tuition. The country's most prominent universities include Moscow M. V. Lomonosov State University (1755), St. Petersburg State University (1819), Kazan' State University (1804), and Novosibirsk State University (1959). Other important universities are located in Rostov-na-Donu, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Vladivostok, and Voronezh. In addition to universities and institutes, the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the world's foremost organizations devoted to scholarly research, is in Russia.
Undergraduate training in higher educational institutions generally involves a four- or five-year course of study, after which students might enroll for graduate training for a one- to three-year term. Graduate students who successfully complete their courses of study, comprehensive examinations, and the defense of their dissertations receive candidate of sciences degrees, which are roughly equivalent to doctoral degrees in the United States. A higher degree, the doctor of sciences, is awarded to established scholars who have made outstanding contributions to their disciplines.

Cultural Institutions
Russian achievements in literature, music, ballet, and drama are well represented in a wide variety of cultural institutions. Russia maintains a huge number of museums of all kinds, including outdoor museums of architectural preservation. Most of the country's major cultural institutions are in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Best known to tourists are the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, one of the world's great museums, and the Armory Museum in the Moscow Kremlin. Also in Moscow are the State Tretyakov Gallery, with a collection devoted to Russian art, the State Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, the Folk-Art Museum, the Central Museum, and the Museum of the Revolution, as well as many other smaller, more specialized collections. The Permanent Exhibition of National Economic Achievements in Moscow offers a large display of contemporary achievements in science, industry, and agriculture. To the northeast of Moscow there is a string of a half-dozen old kremlin (citadel) towns that served as seats of government for city-states during the Middle Ages. These have been restored as part of a tourist circuit known as the Golden Ring.
Russia also has thousands of libraries of various kinds. Best known is the Russian State Library in Moscow, which houses more than 30 million volumes in some 250 languages—one of the largest library collections in the world. Other leading libraries include the State M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library in St. Petersburg, with about 28.5 million volumes; the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with about 12 million volumes; and Moscow M. V. Lomonosov State University Library, with about 6.6 million volumes.
The best-known theaters in Moscow are the Bolshoi (“big”) Theater, the Maly (“small”) Theater, and the Moscow Art Theater. In addition, many of the larger productions of the Bolshoi ballet and opera troupes are presented in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, which seats 6000 people. Other theaters of note in Moscow are the Moscow Central Children's Theater, the Moscow Young Spectators Theater, the Moscow Central State Puppet Theater, the Moscow Art Theater, the Academic Musical Theater, the Operetta Theater, and the Theater Art Institute. St. Petersburg has the Kirov State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet, the Maly Opera Theater, and the Pushkin Academic Drama Theater.



 

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