Presented is the report of a travel seminar to the Soviet Union in late 1972 by 12 American special educators as part of a reciprocal agreement for an exchange of educators. The eight chapters were written by seminar participants with expertise in the area being considered. The text opens with a general discussion of the administration of education for handicapped children in the Soviet Union which includes nationwide adoption of highly structured curricula, methods, and texts. The second chapter focuses on the application of formative research findings to the Russian classrooms. Provided in the chapter on teacher training is a summary of the 5-year undergraduate program which is financed by the Ministry of Education and includes both academic and practicum experiences. Educational planning through successive 5-year plans is explained in the next chapter to be the method by which educational reforms are determined and put into effect. Noted in the chapter on the developmentally backward and emotionally disturbed are the current process of distinguishing the developmentally backward child and the exclusion of the emotionally disturbed from the handicapped population. The high emphasis placed on combating speech and language problems is discussed in the following chapter. The chapter on programs and organizations serving the handicapped focuses on five special schools for children with various handicaps as well as special institutes and centers. The final chapter gives the impressions of a journalist on the development of the Russian culture and its educational ideologies. (DB)