The crisis of education is one of the most pressing problems in the world today. Russia's crisis in this sphere has taken on the character of an emergency owing to the unprecedented wholesale cutbacks in budget funding. In this article, the authors discuss the commercialization of Russia's higher education, leading to its degradation and threat to national security. Making general and higher professional education inaccessible to families with low or medium incomes, owing to their inability to compensate for gaps in their school education on a fee basis and, especially, enrollment in an institution of higher learning on a tuition basis. As a result, Russia faces the real danger of a decline in its scientific and educational potential and a drastic weakening of the national security and loss of the country's sovereignty. The main condition necessary for the realization of the potential of higher education is for the state to take decisive action in planning the reproduction of cadres, tied in closely with a mobilizing strategy for the country's social and economic development. (Contains 1 figure.)