ABSTRACT
The Soviet education system is large and diverse, complicating the analytical problems presented by the Soviets' style of reporting their accomplishments. For a majority of Soviet research and development (R&D) personnel, higher education consists of a five-year course of study in a university or institute. Approximately one-third of Soviet higher education graduates work toward advanced degrees beyond the diploma earned at a university or Institute. The highest degree awarded in the Soviet system is the Doctor of Sciences. Massive expansion of the number of advanced degrees in the Khrushchev era and continued small increases in subsequent decades created a generational bulge in the profile of the Soviet R&D community. Standards for authorship in the Soviet scientific community differ from those in the United States. A number of analyses argue that secondary school students in the Soviet Union receive superb training in mathematics and science.
