In order to measure the educational achievements of the Soviet Union, it is essential to analyze the educational system in the light of the original intentions and ambitions. The system has three main features, which are a new conception of the relationship between investment and education, an ideological basis and the fact that it is a planned system. The system, subordinated to the needs of the economy, is specialized, and has a diversity of forms--day, evening, and correspondence courses, and a variety of educational institutions. In attempting to formulate a few realistic conclusions, it is important to take into account the constraints that have affected the development of higher education in the USSR. These constraints were largely the result of demographic growth in the USSR, though they were also influenced by the determinism that follows certain political and economic choices. The Soviet Union is now paying the price of the diversity of institutions and networks initially devised. Such a system rapidly becomes cramped once new stimuli no longer reach its central nervous system. (Author/KE)