Introduction

Abstract

The Russian school system is undergoing a process of comprehensive reform, which is intended, according to its declared aims, to support the processes of democratisation and the development of a market economy in Russia, and address the long-overdue need to engage in the thorough revision of the content and nature of schooling itself. In trying to attain these ambitious goals, however, the schools have to contend not only with the usual problems which accompany such processes of reform in any country, but also with a funding crisis that has denied the system the resources it desperately requires, causing fears over its very survival as a viable entity, and with the fall-out from the social crises which have afflicted Russia in recent years.