Examines the past and present roles of comparative education research in the USSR--once a source of criticism against capitalist systems and now a search for useful educational theories and methods to aid in the major reforms arising from perestroika. Contains 15 references. (SV)

This paper discusses the fact that, in the same decade and despite obvious differences, two separate and distinctive systems of higher education (those of California and the Soviet Union) have been urged by their respective policy making bodies, to make major changes in at least six parallel ways; the paper investigates reasons for this timing and…