Training
Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the education
system was highly centralized. The school law adopted by
Parliament in 1992 has meant that the federal states of the
Russian Federation have become virtually sovereign in terms
of the objectives and content of the school's teaching.
Instead of the Soviet Union's common curricula and teaching
materials, the states and the individual schools themselves
must decide the form of teaching. An alternative sector has
gradually been formed at the secondary stage with
independent university preparatory colleges and luces with a
humanistic or natural sciences orientation. Decentralization
is promoted by the Russian Federation's ethnic and
linguistic diversity.
 With the school reform in 1984, the school starting age
was reduced from 7 to 6 years, which met strong resistance.
Parents can decide the age of entry for their children.
After the preschool follows the primary stage, which
comprises 4 grades. The secondary stage previously included
11 first-year courses, to which the first four first-year
courses were in the technical sense. In the 1992 School Act,
this was reduced to 9, which was prescribed as the mandatory
minimum for "basic secondary school". A separate primary
school of 4-5 years has traditionally only existed in more
or less isolated villages. From 15 to 18 years, students can
either take university preparatory courses or engage in pure
vocational education. Check topschoolsintheusa for test centers of ACT, SAT, and GRE as well high schools in the country of Russia.
The higher education is placed at universities, so-called
institutes or academies. University studies are usually
conducted for 5 years. Admission takes place after entrance
exam. The number of part-time students at secondary school
level has decreased to about 10% of students. Significantly
more, 40%, undertook evening studies at the universities or
correspondence studies in 1992. There is an extensive
popular education activity with so-called folk universities,
study circles and lectures. Through the decentralization,
the reorganized Academy of Educational Sciences has lost a
lot of its influence, e.g. over the design of the curricula
and standardized tests, and is mainly devoted to research.
Expansion of the Russian Empire
In 1547 Ivan IV was inaugurated on the throne in Moscow.
He was nicknamed The Cruel for his brutality and
despotism. In 1552 he invaded Kazan and occupied part of the
Volga area inhabited by tartars, chuvasher, maries, murder
dunes and mortars. In 1556 he occupied the Astracan, while
the war continued in the west against the Polish-Lithuanian
state - with the aim of gaining access to the Baltic Sea. He
introduced the quality of life - the peasants thus lost the
right to leave without their master's permission. Ivan the
Cruel consolidated his monarchy and annihilated various
clans of high nobility.
When Ivan died in 1584, his neglected and unwilling son
Fjodor took the throne. In reality, power was taken over by
the nobleman Boris Godunov. In 1591, Prince Dmitri died
under mysterious circumstances. He was the only legitimate
heir to the throne when Fjodor had no children. Godunov
waged war against Sweden, entered into an alliance with
Georgia becoming a Russian protectorate, and annexed the
Principality of Siberia.
At the death of Fjodor in 1598, the dynasty resigned at
the same time at death. The Russian Territorial Council -
Zemski Sobor - instead chose Boris Godunov for czar.
However, other parts of the high nobility considered
themselves more worthy of taking over the throne, and so the
so-called "upheaval era" began in Russia. In 1601-2, Ukraine
was subject to Poland. A fraudster from there called himself
"Prince Dmitri" and claimed to have escaped an assault on
Boris Godunov. He gathered an army and marched towards
Moscow. He succeeded in causing the city's residents to
revolt, giving him access to the throne. In 1606 the high
nobility "Pseudo Dmitri" killed, but already in 1607 a new
impostor, "Pseudo Dmitri II" entered the scene supported by
Poland, Lithuania and Sweden. Polish troops entered Moscow,
supported by treacherous parts of the nobility. However, a
wide popular movement got the Poles out of Moscow, and in
1613 Zemski chose Sobor Mihail Romanov as a new czar. In
1654-67, Russia was under Tsar Alexis at war against Poland
and Sweden. His greatest victory was the annexation of
eastern Ukraine.
During the Romanov dynasty, Russia evolved into a
monarchy, administered by an efficient bureaucracy and an
oligarchy of nobles, traders and bishops that were part of
the state structure. Patriarch Nikon reformed the church and
compared the sacred writings in Cyrillic with the originals
in Greek. Part of the traditional clergy disagreed with the
Reformation, giving rise to deep division in the Russian
church. Their leader Arcipreste Habacuc was burned at the
stake.
Throughout the 17th century, the economy grew rapidly.
Not only because of the country's territorial expansion, but
also because of the sale of wood products and processed
goods to England and the Netherlands and the extraction of
Siberia's natural resources.
1694 Peter I
After the inauguration of Peter I on the throne in 1694,
the Muscovite kingdom was renamed the Russian Empire. Peter
turned to the West to absorb its scientific and technical
progress - especially to develop the Russian navy. In
alliance with Denmark and Poland, Russia intervened in the
Great Nordic War against Sweden (1700-1721). In 1703 Peter
founded Skt. Petersburg, to which he transferred the capital
of the empire. At the same time, he organized the government
according to strict guidelines.
For the majority of the population, Peter's kingdom was
very oppressive and distant with a rigid normative structure
that almost made it a caste government. Among several other
control agencies, he set up a spy network within the state
administration. The police force played a key role in
guaranteeing the viability of the autocratic system. He
inevitably crushed a conspiracy among conservative nobles in
Moscow, leaving his son Alexei tortured and killed when it
appeared that he had been in alliance with the nobles.
At the end of the Great Nordic War in 1721, Russia, with
the Nystad Treaty, gained control of the Gulf of Finland as
well as the provinces on the eastern side of the Baltic Sea.
After winning the war against Persia, Peter was able to
extend the empire's southern border to the Caspian Sea. The
territorial, economic and trade expansion of the period made
Russia one of Europe's strongest powers, but at the same
time created a rag rug of different ethnic groups and
cultures that it was difficult to merge into one.
Peter died unexpectedly in 1725 and this triggered a
period of instability until Catherine II in 1762 took over
the throne after the Imperial Guard removed her husband from
the throne. The empire now continued its expansion with
military and diplomatic means. Part of Ukraine east of the
Dnieper was occupied, as was Belarus. Poland was divided
with Prussia. Lithaun and Crimea were annexed. The northern
coast of the Black Sea was brought under control and at the
same time the empire advanced on the steppes east of Ural
along the Caspian Sea. Furthermore, it strengthened its
influence on the Balkans.
Economically, the state and a small core of Russian
noblemen enriched themselves on this expansion, while
poverty among the living peasants increased. Military
democracy among the Cossacks in Ukraine was abolished, and
the national feeling among other oppressed people
increasingly collided with imperial centralism.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the French
revolution and the struggle against monarchy became very
important among Russian intellectuals who revolted against
the social conditions that existed in the country. Zar Pavel
I (1796-1801) reacted strongly to this rebellion, instituted
cultural censorship, internal exile and even banned travel
abroad. In 1801, Pavel was killed by a conspiracy. With his
successor Alexandr I, Russian politics took a sharp turn.
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