A sociointellectual profile is presented of the academic intelligentsia in tsarist Russia, including statistics that demonstrate the uniqueness of the educational structure and provide a basis for comparison with other national systems. The evolution of Russian educational institutions is shown to offer insight into the ways in which institutions borrowed from one country can unexpectedly develop new roles and fulfill different functions in their new environment. Despite their disagreements, both the tsarist bureaucracy and the academic intelligentsia wished Russian education to be patterned after the German-style research university, classical gymnasium, and realschule. The Russian version of these institutions helped a national culture to flower but also perpetuated and even intensified disparities between social classes. It is shown that higher and secondary educational institutions, located primarily in the cities, received far more support than elementary schools. Further, the curricula in the universities emphasized "pure learning" ("nauka") to the neglect of the more practical training that might have helped to meet Russia's tremendous social, economic, and technological problems. The emphasis on an elite, academic education continued to produce a disaffected intelligentsia and to widen the gulf between the educated few and the illiterate masses right up to 1917. Separate chapters are provided on: autocracy and education (1700-1900); erratic dynamism (1900-1917); the academic intelligentsia, the professoriate, and "nauka;" the academic intelligentsia at work; and student activism. (LB)