The author assesses the preferences of the faculty and teaching staff at Russian universities with regard to their research and teaching duties. She investigates how they structure their work schedule and academic productivity, and how universities with and without special status differ. The study is based on data from two international studies conducted in Russia and other countries: International Academic Profession (1991-93) and Changing Academic Profession (2007-12). In Russia, most university instructors prefer teaching to research, in contrast to the preferences of academics in many other countries. The distribution of the preferences of instructors at institutions with "research university" status is no different from that of instructors at institutions without special status. Although the research workload of instructors who prefer to conduct research is greater and the tasks they perform are less routine, they experience less stress and have greater job satisfaction. The author concludes that the distribution of instructors' preferences reflects the peculiarities of the higher education system in the USSR and the Russian Federation, including the focus of its universities on teaching, the allocation of research functions to institutions that are separate from universities, and the poor funding of universities in general and their research functions in particular. [This article was translated by Kenneth Cargill.]