The author analyzes three basic periods in the development of the level of education of the population of Russia over the span of a hundred years. The first period runs from 1897, when a nationwide census was carried out for the first time, to 1917. The second period, the Soviet era, runs from 1917 to the late 1980s. The third period started with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These historical periods differ significantly in terms of their social, economic, and political content, and, as a result, in terms of the system of education and tendencies of the development of the population's level of education. (Contains 1 table.)