In this article, the development of the level of education of the inhabitants of Russia is analyzed based on the materials of "post-Soviet Russia," in which there are two clearly marked different stages: the 1990s and the beginning of the present century. On the whole, this period has to be seen as one in which "capitalism was restored" in Russia. The economic and social processes of the past two decades have had a negative impact on the sphere of education. The article examines the dynamics of the level of education of the population of the active age group from twenty to fifty. It cites the final data of the Russian Statistical Commission for the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic [RSFSR] (the 1989 census) and the statistical commission of the Russian Federation (the 2002 census), which serve as the initial statistical data. The cohorts between thirty and forty years old show a rise in the level of education. These are the people who graduated from higher educational institutions that they had enrolled in before the chaos of the 1990s, or who acquired a secondary education in connection with the changes in the labor market. A very significant role in the rise of the level of education of people in the active working age was played by the expansion of the number of commercial institutions of higher learning. Then, the article discusses the changes in the system of education that took place in the 1990s and considers a number of "problems and prospects" that have to do with education. Here, the author stresses that since the system of education in Russia at the beginning of the twenty-first century is standing on the threshold of major changes, it has to deal with new problems, and it will not be possible to find reasonable solutions to them and advance the level of culture and education without "the participation of both the state and of business." (Contains 1 table.)