Over the past two decades, Russia has been characterized by a demographic slump, a drastic decline in the number of school students, and, accordingly, a shrinkage of the system of education. The magnitude of shrinkage in rural areas is not 5-10 percent, something education could adapt to, but is about 30 percent, which requires systemic changes.…

An analysis of the results of six Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Surveys, "The Values and Interests of the Population of Russia" (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010), conducted by the Center for the Study of Sociocultural Changes at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, provides evidence that two stages in the…

Russian society is up in arms over innovations in the sphere of education. It looks as if, for example, Russians reacted to the universal adoption of the Unified State Examination more emotionally than they did to the devaluation of savings, the precipitous division into the poor and the wealthy, and the destruction of the country's industrial…

In this article, the authors propose that a comparative analysis of the political values of societies that have a developing democracy and societies that have existed for a considerable length of time under the conditions of a democratic regime will make it possible to discern differences in the correlation of political values that are…

In an increasingly global age, university students need to prepare themselves to be competitive in both domestic and foreign labor markets. This involves the acquisition of foreign languages, experience of a variety of educational and professional settings, and becoming part of influential networks. The case of Tomsk Polytechnical University…

The social and economic development of the country was subjected to serious trials in 2009. The world financial and economic crisis had a negative effect on the main basic indicators of the economy. This had an immediate impact on the social labor sphere. Many social indicators went downhill. In particular, that led to a decline in real wages and…

The dynamism of social processes, the development of technologies, and the modernization of industrial production require raising the education and qualifications of blue-collar workers, particularly working young people. This accounts for the focus on problems of that group's formation, their integration into society, their acquisition and…

The dynamics of social, economic, and public life provide evidence of the increasing need to analyze current problems of children's education and giftedness. At present, work with gifted children in the municipal system of education is being conducted by many educational institutions--gymnasiums, lyceums, and institutions for supplementary…

In Russia, people are once more coming to realize that it is fundamentally impossible to develop a genuinely civilized society unless people are taught national, patriotic, civic, legal, moral, cultural, ethical, and universal human values. Once again, leaders on different levels have begun to talk about the necessity of going back to the…

In the educational policy of Russia, considerable space is devoted to questions of how to bring the professional and qualification structure of cadre training on the different levels of professional education into conformity with the needs of the labor market. To accomplish these tasks it will be necessary, as is pointed out in the "Report on the…

The latest scheduled Sorokin Readings on "Global Social Turbulence and Russia," a topic whose relevance has been confirmed by events of the past 10 years, were held on 6-7 December at Moscow State University. One key factor that keeps such turbulence in check is the education level as a factor of a high standard of living. The array of problems in…

Under the conditions of the postindustrial society, the system of education is becoming a vital resource of economic development and a means of social adaptation, and it is increasingly obvious that financial problems are of paramount importance in educational policy. Budget appropriations for education, especially higher education (which has…

There has been an increase in the number of students from China studying in Russia, but still less than 2 percent of Chinese who study abroad do so in Russia. A third of these students would not encourage others to do so, on the grounds that educational conditions are not good and that they feel unwelcome in Russia. Most of these students…

Survey data on religiosity among Russian students shows that self-identifying as religious does not imply either belief in the details of Orthodoxy or participation in religious services. Attempts to make Russian Orthodoxy the basis of a new Russian state may be influencing public statements of affiliation, but not of behavior. Interest in…

Survey data show that instructors are aware of the need for changes in Russian higher education, but are rather demoralized by the difficult social and professional situation in which they work. And so, given the current functioning of higher education, a number of demotivating factors have an influence on instructors' satisfaction with their work…