Based on the researcher's observations during a month-long visit to the Soviet Union as a specialist in gerontology and guest of the Soviet Ministry of Health, comparisons were drawn between educational intervention procedures in gerontology and/or geriatrics for health care professionals in the Soviet Union and the United States. Locus of such intervention, program content, length of training, and personnel involved were recorded at a total of nine Gerontology/Geriatric Centers and Institutes in Leningrad, Kiev, Moscow, and Tblissi. Programs of nine institutions in the United States providing such professional educational intervention for health care professionals were contrasted with the educational intervention programs in the Soviet Union. The results of such comparison indicated that neither nation is preparing or retraining sufficient numbers of health care personnel to deal adequately with the increasing numbers of older persons within their populations. The Soviet Union surpassed the United States only in the development of particular research areas. (Author)