The chapters in this volume give an account of the process of modernisation and educational reform in Russia, variously considering the cultural and political dilemmas provoked by democratisation, the structural and policy challenges associated with the reform of higher and vocational education, and the deep divisions exposed as socio-cultural activity is brought into alignment with the new discourse of freedom and choice. The volume stimulates an important debate about the methods that inform cross-national and cross-regional work on educational change. This is particularly salient in a study of educational reform in Russia, and begs the question, "whose way of thinking, of constructing meaning, and of experiencing the world" is used to judge the weight and the direction of change? Each chapter shows that a thorough understanding of the nature of change and the direction of reform is only achieved through the ability to decentre--or take on board--the "other" worldview. It argues, therefore, that it is worldview, rather than culture or nation-state, that is the most valid unit of analysis. This book pays tribute to K.D. Ushinsky (1824-70), "the Russian pioneer of comparative education", each chapter in it broadly in agreement with his conclusions that: "Public education does not solve the problems of life by itself; it does not lead history; rather, it follows the historical development. It is not the pedagogies or the teachers who create the future, but the people themselves and their great men. Education only follows this road and, in combination with other public (social) factors, helps the individual and the rising generation on its way." Contents of this book include: (1) Society and the Individual: State and Private Education in Russia during the 19th and 20th Centuries (Robert Harris); (2) The Modernisation of Education in Russia: Culture and Markets (Margarita Pavlova); (3) The Democratisation of Higher Education in Russia (Judith Marquand); (4) Restructuring the Governance and Management Structures of Higher Education in Russia (Olga Fedotova and Oksana Chigisheva); (5) Classed and Gendered "Learning Careers": Transitions from Vocational to Higher Education in Russia (Charles Walker); (6) The Unified National Test for Student Admission to Higher Education in Russia: A Pillar of Modernisation? (Elena Minina); (7) How Meaningful is the Policy of Free School Choice in the Modernisation of Education in Russia (Andrea Laczik); and (8) Concepts of Education in Russia: From Past to Present (James Muckle).