TEACHING IN RUSSIA; TRADITIONS AND INNOVATIONS. Aslanov L.A. Moscow State University, Department of Chemistry, 1 19899 Moscow, Russia

Crystallography is being taught in many Universities of Russia as a selfconsistent course of lectures, seminars and practicals or mostly as a tool for the understanding and description of chemical, physical, biological processes and properties of substances. Traditionally the courses of crystallography include the symmetry theory and x-ray crystallography or crystal grow as an application for the material science, chemistry, and mineralogy. There are three stages of the crystallography teaching in Russian Universities: (i) the general course for all students;(ii) specialisation for students who study crystallography for research; (iii) training of students in the research institutes of Academy of Sciences. Two innovations appeared during 5 last years. First, a number of undergraduate students go to the Universities of Europe and USA for a few months up to one year before the final exams in Russian University. Second, the international schools had been arraigned in Moscow and St-Petersburg for Russian and FSU students. The schedule and traditions of crystallography teaching were polished for dozens of years, however the most promising tradition is the innovations in the contents of the crystallographic courses which depend on the specific profile of the University (charge, spin, momentum density; quasicrystals; comprehensive instrumentation; methods of structure determination; powder crystallography etc.). New trend appeared as a financial support for students in the form of different sorts of stipends for the best students apart from the ordinary stipend for nearly all students, i.g. stipend of Russian Presidents Soros (American finansist); some Institutes of Academy of Sciences established stipends for students to attract young generation to the scientific research. As a result of all efforts the number of people who wanted to enter the Russian Universities in 1994 doubled in comparison with 1993 and increased again in 1995.