Abstract
The immense and inefficient educational systems inherited from the Soviet Union and its former satellites in Eastern Europe have placed the successor countries in a rather difficult situation. After the Second World War in particular, the Soviet Union developed an educational sector that reflected neither the level of its economic development nor the manpower needs of the country. Having set a single goal, gaining military superiority over the Western World, Stalin’s regime directed enormous resources into higher education and research. People such as Voznessenski have considered the ability to redistribute resources on a massive scale by a highly centralized totalitarian regime as a particular benefit of the Soviet system: “the use of the benefits of the Soviet system would allow Russia to gain superiority over the capitalist countries in all development tracks including that of technological development.”2
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Notes
Quoted in A.K. Sokolov and V.S. Tiazhel’nikova, Kurs Sovetskoi Istorii 1941–1991 (The Course of the Soviet History 1941–1991),Moskva: Vysshaya Shkola, 1999, p. 145. This and all other excerpts from Russian sources quoted in this book have been translated into English by the author.
J. Baudrillard, The Perfect Crime,London and New York: Verso, 1996.
See e.g. VA. Sadovnichi (Red.), Obrazovanie kotoroe my mozhem poteryat’ (Education that We May Lose),Moskva: Moskovskii gosudarstvennyi universitet im. M.V. Lomonosova, 2002.
L.R. Graham, Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union,New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.
A.P. Egorshin, “Perspektivy razvitiia obrazovaniia Rossii v XXI v. (Perspectives on the Development of Education in Russia in the 21st century),” Universitetskoe Upravlenie: Praktika i Analiz (University Management: Practice and Analysis),4 (2000), pp. 50–64.
V.I. Lenin, Letter to Maxim Gorky, September 15, 1919, in D. Koenker and R. Bachman (Eds.), Revelations from the Russian Archives (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1997), pp. 229–230.
M. David-Fox, Revolution of the Mind: Higher Learning Among the Bolsheviks, 1918–1929,Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997, p. 78.
M. Matthews, Education in the Soviet Union: Politics and Institutions Since Stalin,London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982.
Statement by CR. Hansen, in United States–Soviet Relation: 1988, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on the Europe and Middle East of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress,vol. I, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988, p. 432.
M. Buttgereit “Higher Education and Its Relations to Employment in the USSR and in the Federal Republic of Germany: A Comparison,” in R. Avakov, M. Buttgereit, B.C. Sanyal, and U. Teichler (Eds.), Higher Education and Employment in the USSR and in the Federal Republic of Germany (Paris: IIEP, 1984), pp. 231–326.
See, e.g. Review of Higher Education in the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic: Examiner’s Report and Questions,OECD document DEEI.SA/ED/WD (92) 5 (Paris: OECD, 1992).
N. Kovaleva, “Women and Engineering Training in Russia,” European Journal of Education,34, 4 (1999), pp. 425–435.
St. Petersburg State Technical University, Koncepcii, Struktury i Soderzhanrie Mnogourovnei Sisremy Vysshego Technicheskogo Obrazovaniia Rossii (Concepts, Structures and Content of Multilevel System of Higher Technical Education a Russia),St. Petersburg: State Technical University, 1993.
V. Kinelyev, Preface to State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education,Moscow: Goskomvuz, 1995.
V. Tomusk, “Discovering the Terra Incognita: Changing Legal Landscape for Higher Education in Estonia,” in The World on the Move and Higher Education in Transition,Prague: Center for Higher Education Studies, 1995, pp. 147–154.
J. Tayler, “Russia is Finished. The Unstoppable Descent of a Once Great Power into Social Catastrophe and Strategic Irrelevance,” Atlantic Monthly,May 2001.
D. Piskunov, “Russia: Higher Education and Change,” in A.D. Tillett and B. Lesser (Eds.), An Uncertain Transition: Preliminary Assessment of Higher Education, Science and Technology in Central and Eastern Europe,Halifax: Dalhousie University, Lester Pearson Institute, 1993.
L.E. Petrova, Novye bednye uchenye: zhisnennye strategii v usloviyakh krizisa (New Poor Scholars: Life Strategies Under the Conditions of a Crisis),paper presented at the conference Russian Social Sciences: A New Perspective, Moscow, October 7–9, 1999.
J.P. Naude, “La science russe survit tant bien que mal d’expédients,” Le Monde,October 16, 1996.
V. Tomusk, “Between Politics and Professionalism: Reforming Fundamentals of Higher Education in Central and East Europe,” in T. Thanasuthipitak and S.L. Rieb (Eds.), A Blueprint for Better Graduate Studies,Chiang Mai: Graduate School, Chiang Mai University, 1997, pp. 331–343.
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© 2004 Voldemar Tomusk
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Tomusk, V. (2004). Russian Higher Education After Communism: The Candy Man’s Gone. In: The Open World and Closed Societies. Issues in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403979476_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403979476_4
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