The book traces the origins of change in general education in the last years of the Soviet Union and afterwards in the Russian Federation. It describes what happened during perestroika and glasnost and the struggles for liberalization which were finally given official recognition in 1998. After the anti-Gorbachev coup in 1991, with the disintegration of Soviet and Communist power, decentralization and regionalization developed, together with the emergence of alternative schools and finally a small private sector. The book also describes the many problems faced by schools and teachers with the near collapse of the Russian economy.

Hersteller:
Springer Verlag GmbH
juergen.hartmann@springer.com
Tiergartenstr. 17
DE 69121 Heidelberg

JEANNE SUTHERLAND was until 1997 Chair of the Study Group on Education in Russia, the Independent States and Eastern Europe. Before her marriage in 1955 she worked for the Foreign Office in Moscow (1952-54) where she worked in the Russian Secretariat on Soviet internal affairs. After her marriage she served with her husband, Iain Sutherland, in Yugoslavia, Cuba, the United States, Indonesia, Greece and twice in Moscow, where he was British Ambassador from 1982-85. In 1977 she graduated from London University with an MA in Soviet Studies, and began her research into Soviet, later Russian education. She is the author of articles on educational reform in the former Soviet Union since 1984.