Written by the director of the Laboratory for the History of Education under the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences in Moscow, this article documents the status of historical research on schooling in medieval Russia. (JDH)

Tsar Alexander I of Russia created a ministry of public education and promulgated laws to provide elementary and secondary schools and higher education institutions for all classes of the population. The public took a great interest in education and actively participated in the funding of schools at every level. (RM)

The expansion of schooling in the Russian countryside after 1864 brought basic education within the reach of the majority of peasants in the European heartland by the time of World War I. It is argued that this expansion was initiated by the purposeful self-activity of the anonymous peasant millions. (RM)

Discusses the history of Russian literacy from Kievan Rus, through the Muscovite period, the Imperial period, and the postrevolutionary Soviet Union. Presents tables of literacy levels for various periods. Discusses evidence, theories, and problems with historians' assumptions. Concludes that, until recently, little impetus existed for the bulk of…