Russia

E

Education

Russian education and cultural institutions and activities, highly constrained and monitored, as well as financed, by the Soviet state for nearly seven decades, were granted much greater freedom during the late 1980s, under the policy of glasnost (Russian, “openness”) of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Liberalization accelerated with the collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the USSR. Ideological training has disappeared; new teaching methodologies have been developed and promoted in public schools, including a new approach to Soviet and Russian history; private schools have been established; and the bans on a variety of forms of artistic expression have been lifted. However, although now free of ideological and political interference, Russia’s educational system and cultural institutions have been severely affected by the impact of the liberalization of the country’s economy generally, and by the collapse of government finances in particular. State funding has been cut or, in many cases, ended and even where theoretically still provided has often failed to materialize.

Russia inherited a well-developed, comprehensive system of education that was probably one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet period. The Soviet authorities established an extensive network of pre-school, elementary, secondary, and higher-education institutions that transformed national educational levels. Literacy levels were brought up to almost 100 per cent, compared with a predominantly illiterate population in 1917, secondary-level education became the norm, with a sizeable minority going on to higher education, and the country became a world leader in many areas of research. It also provided free continuing education for adults. At the age of six or seven, children in the USSR entered primary school for an intensive course from grades one to four. Intermediate education began with grade five and continued until grade nine. After that, children entered upper-level schools, specialized institutions, or vocational-technical programmes, which included on-the-job training.

Nurseries, kindergartens, and other early-education facilities were particularly well developed in Russia during the Soviet period. In 1989 nearly 70 per cent of pre-school-age children attended a state-run facility—one of the highest proportions among the former Soviet republics. The system of specialized secondary and vocational-technical education was also well developed. In 1989 Russia had 2,595 specialist secondary institutions, or 57 per cent of the total in the former Soviet republics. Such schools were set up to train skilled and semi-professional workers such as technicians, nurses, and elementary-school teachers, who generally function as assistants to professional graduates of higher educational institutions. Vocational-technical schools offer students a chance to complete a general secondary education while obtaining occupational training.

Russia has some 70,000 primary and secondary schools, including some 447 non-state schools (1994). More than 21 million pupils were enrolled in 1994, equivalent to about 95 per cent of the total school-age population; 40,000 of the total were in private schools. Although primary and secondary education are still free in the state sector, schools are facing increasing shortages of equipment and books, and school buildings are generally in a poor state of repair; many schools lack basic facilities such as running water or sewerage. There is also a growing problem of staff shortages. Teachers’ salaries are very low (equivalent to about 73 per cent of the average national wage in 1994) and the status of the profession, which is dominated by women, has fallen considerably in recent years. Many teachers, particularly those with marketable skills like foreign languages, have left to take up jobs in the expanding and more lucrative private sector, while the number of entrants to the profession is falling. The problem of low wages has been compounded by the government’s financial problems, which have led to a large backlog of unpaid wages in the public sector generally. Schoolteachers have been in the forefront of strikes to protest against the backlog.

The impact of economic liberalization and government financial shortages on the pre-school sector has been even more profound. The state nursery sector, set up originally to support the Soviet Union’s large number of working women, by caring for children aged 6 months to 3 years, had virtually ceased to exist by the end of 1995. To help compensate for this loss, the government in 1994 increased maternity-leave provision from 1 to 3 years, and many women have taken advantage of this, although the additional leave is unpaid. Private crèches have been set up, but the cost of their fees mean that they are out of the reach of most parents. Kindergarten provision for children aged 3 to 6 years has continued. However, many of the free workplace facilities of the Soviet era have been closed down by privatized state industries, while nurseries still in the state sector have lost their subsidies, forcing them to charge fees.

The number of higher educational institutions has expanded since the collapse of the USSR, rising from 514 in 1990 to 553 in 1994 and nearly 700 by 2002. The increase reflects mainly the rapid growth of non-state higher educational institutions during the 1990s. However, the number of students enrolled in higher education has fallen, from 2.8 million in 1990, to just over 2.5 million in 1994, of whom 4 per cent were in the non-state sector. The fall in numbers has been due partly to Russia’s changing demographic structure, but mainly to the introduction of tuition charges for students. Although the fees are generally low, except in the most prestigious universities, by the end of 1996 the only university still providing completely free access was Kazan State University in Tatarstan republic. Founded in 1804, Kazan State University is the third oldest university in Russia, and also one of the most prestigious. The others included Moscow State University (founded 1755), St Petersburg State University (1819), and Novosibirsk State University (1959). Other important universities are located in Rostov, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tomsk, Vladivostok, and Voronezh. The number of universities has increased since 1991, created from numerous small institutes in cities of republics across the federation. Notwithstanding this, universities still comprise only a small proportion of higher educational establishments; the vast majority are institutes that specialize in vocational training.

Undergraduate training in higher educational institutions generally involves a four- or five-year course of study for full-time students. However, a large minority take their degree by correspondence course or attend on a part-time basis. Students completing undergraduate courses can enrol for graduate training for a one- to three-year term. Graduate students who successfully complete their courses of study, comprehensive examinations, and the defence of their dissertations receive candidate of sciences degrees, which are roughly equivalent to doctoral degrees in the West. A higher degree, the doctor of sciences, is awarded to established scholars who have made outstanding contributions to their disciplines.

F

Research

During the Soviet era the state channelled large amounts of funding into research and the USSR achieved a prestigious reputation in a wide variety of fields, including nuclear physics, space science and technology (including astronomy), medicine, Earth sciences, and the biological sciences. Research was, and still is, carried out not only in universities but also in a large number of independent research institutes; in 1996, Russia had more than 1,000 such institutes of various kinds, for pure and applied research. Those relating to pure research are mainly organized within coordinating academies. The most important of these is the Russian Academy of Sciences (formerly the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), which is the chief coordinating body for research in the natural and social sciences in Russia, controlling a network of around 300 research establishments. There are also specialized academies for the agricultural sciences, the arts, the medical sciences and education.

G

Culture

Russia has an enormous cultural legacy, notably from the 19th century; its achievements in music, ballet, drama, literature, and film are particularly renowned. Russia has produced some of the most famous names in 19th and 20th century music, notably the composers Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov, Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Aleksandr Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, and Peter Illich Tchaikovsky. Other famous names are the singer Chaliapin and the musicians Vladimir Horowitz, Anton Rubinstein, and Emil Gilels. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky are among the Russian composers who have had a close association with the ballet. Of all the performance arts, ballet is arguably the one most closely associated with Russia. It was the main home of classical ballet as it developed during the second half of the 19th century, largely under the direction of French-born choreographer Marius Petipa. In the 20th century the company of Sergei Diaghilev, Ballets Russes, with legendary names like dancer Anna Pavlova and the dancer-choreographers Vaslav Nijinsky and Michel Fokine, provided the impetus that revitalized ballet all over the world. In the modern era, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet continue the classical tradition. Famous names include Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Irek Mukhamedov.

The 19th century was also probably the richest period for Russian writers, beginning with poet and author Aleksandr Pushkin, and including Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolay Gogol, Ivan Turgenyev, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Anton Chekhov. Famous names of the 20th century include Maksim Gorky, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Sholokhov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Joseph Brodsky. In the visual arts the most famous names include Andrei Rublev and Theophanes the Greek, artists whose work in the late 14th and early 15th centuries marked the supreme achievement in icon painting. More recent names include the artists Wassily Kandinsky, Ilya Repin, Léon Bakst, Kasimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, and Vladimir Tatlin. Russia’s noted film-makers include Andrey Tarkovsky, Mark Donskoy, and Sergey Eisenstein.

For more details of Russian culture see Russian Cinema; Russian Literature.

H

Cultural Institutions

Russia has a huge number of museums of all kinds, including outdoor museums of architectural preservation. Most of the major ones are in Moscow and St Petersburg. Best known to tourists are the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, one of the world’s finest museums, and the Armoury Museum in the Moscow Kremlin. Also in Moscow are the State Tretyakov Gallery, with a collection devoted to Russian art, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, the Folk-Art Museum, the Central Museum, and the Museum of the Revolution, as well as many other smaller, more specialized collections. The Permanent Exhibition of National Economic Achievements in Moscow offers a large display of achievements in science, industry, and agriculture. To the north-east of Moscow there is a string of a half-dozen old kremlin (citadel) towns that served as seats of government for city-states during the Middle Ages. These have been restored as part of a tourist circuit known as the Golden Ring.

Russia also has thousands of libraries of various kinds. Best known is the Russian State Library in Moscow, which is one of the largest library collections in the world. Other leading libraries include the State M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library in St Petersburg, the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Moscow State University Library.

The best-known theatres in Moscow are the Bolshoi (“big”) Theatre, the Maly (“small”) Theatre, and the Moscow Art Theatre. In addition, many of the larger productions of the Bolshoi ballet and opera companies are presented in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, which seats 6,000 people. Other theatres of note in the capital are the Moscow Central Children’s Theatre, the Moscow Young Spectators Theatre, the Moscow Central State Puppet Theatre, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Academic Musical Theatre, the Operetta Theatre, and the Theatre Art Institute. St Petersburg has the Mariinsky Theatre, the Maly Opera Theatre, and the Pushkin Academic Drama Theatre.

Russia’s cultural institutions have been greatly affected by the heavy cuts in public spending and the country’s other economic problems. The generous subsidies given to the arts during the Soviet era have left the country with an enviable cultural infrastructure, but one that is also extremely expensive to maintain. Russia’s theatres, orchestras, opera companies, circuses, libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions were all totally dependent on state funding. State patronage also supported writers, artists, and film-makers. A number of cultural institutions have been forced to close down, while many others are on the brink of closure. Some are attempting to compensate for funding cuts by raising finance commercially, such as through corporate sponsorship and donation, although this is a route open so far only to the most famous. Foreign tours have been a vital source of finance for some institutions, such as the Kirov and Bolshoi ballet companies. There have also been attempts to pressure the government and local authorities to release funds that have been allocated but not disbursed, a common occurrence. In October 1996, for example, the country’s museum directors mounted public protests in an attempt to persuade the Ministry of Culture to release funding allocated for maintenance.

IV

Economy

As in other former Soviet republics, Russia has experienced formidable economic difficulties since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Efforts to move from the old centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one have met with varying degrees of success. The break-up of the USSR into 15 independent states destroyed important economic links that have been only partially replaced. As a result of this dislocation and of the government’s failure to implement a consistent reform programme output dropped by more than one third between 1990 and 1996. Real gross domestic product (GDP) declined by some 40 per cent during the same period, a much greater drop than occurred in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Real investment has declined by similar percentages, while during the first half of the 1990s both inflation and unemployment rose sharply. The value of Russia’s currency, the rouble, dropped rapidly, from the highly artificial official rate of 0.6 rouble per US$1 in 1988 to more than 1,000 roubles per US$1 in 1993. Official unemployment was about 8 per cent, but real levels of unemployment and underemployment were much higher than this. In addition, the government had inherited both a large government deficit and a large foreign debt from the Soviet period; the deficit in 1993 equalled about one fifth of total GDP, while Russia’s foreign debt was in the region of US$80,000 million.

In January 1992 the government launched an economic reform programme aimed at giving new life to a process that had stagnated since the initial introduction of economic reforms by Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s. The measures were met with widespread resistance by industrial managers and conservative members of the State Duma. Largely in response to this resistance (and to the annoyance of the government) the Central Bank of Russia extended large subsidies to inefficient enterprises in 1992. In mid-1993, however, the bank began to adhere to governmental directives on subsidies, and other elements of the reform programme began to be implemented. By the end of 1995 nearly all prices had been freed, defence spending slashed, the old centralized distribution system ended, private financial institutions established, foreign trade decentralized, and the world’s largest privatization programme was well under way. By 1995 the non-state sector was producing about 70 per cent of GDP, compared with about 60 per cent in 1993. On the other hand little or mixed progress had been made in other areas that were key to providing a solid foundation for the transition to the market economy. For example, the legislation permitting the private ownership, selling, and renting of land was not passed until October 1993, when President Yeltsin issued a decree that repealed a ten-year moratorium on reselling land that had been imposed by the legislature. The State Duma continued, however, to prevaricate on the introduction of legislation that would allow the development of a land market as a source of capital, and the fledgling securities market remained largely unregulated.

During 1995 and 1996 there were some indications that the economy was starting to move out of extreme recession. Inflation had been cut to less than 32 per cent by September 1996, from 130 per cent in 1995 and 849 per cent in 1993, while the decline in output, real GDP, and gross capital investment had slowed considerably. In 1995 and 1996 real GDP fell by 4 per cent and 2 per cent respectively, compared with 12.6 per cent in 1994; industrial output declined by 3 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, compared with almost 21 per cent in 1994; and gross capital investment fell by 13 per cent and 7 per cent respectively, compared with 24 per cent in 1994. By late 1996 most analysts were projecting modest growth in all these indicators in 1997. However, official figures published in June 1997 indicated that the long-awaited upturn in Russia’s economy was still some time away. The government was projecting that GDP, industrial output, and investment would continue to fall, by between 2 and 4 per cent, during 1997.

The causes of the Russian economic crisis have been, as already indicated, the disruption of traditional trade patterns and a delay in enacting economic reforms. Trade between Russia, other former Soviet republics, and Eastern European countries has declined markedly since the late 1980s, when Eastern European countries achieved independence from Moscow, and the Soviet-controlled, centralized system of trade and production began to disintegrate. Trade between Russia and other republics of the former USSR has suffered from disputes over terms of trade, especially over the price of Russian oil exports. In the last year, however, a new problem has emerged: the government’s acute shortage of finance. These financial shortages, which have led to difficulties in meeting budget deficit targets and to major arrears problems in paying public sector wages, are due almost entirely to problems in collecting taxation. By 1996 tax evasion had become rampant. By the end of November of that year, the government was owed an estimated US$9,000 million by large corporations alone, with more outstanding from the republics and regions. Of the total owed by large companies, more than half was owed by oil and gas companies, which in turn are owed large amounts by creditors. The huge state-owned gas production, distribution, and marketing company, Gazprom owed the government US$2,700 million, but was itself owed some US$10,000 million for gas shipments within Russia and the CIS generally. As a result of the revenue shortfalls, the government by the end of December 1996 owed an estimated US$8,000 million in past wages in a wide variety of sectors.