Introduction

Abstract

There has been a lot of attention paid to the issue of inequalities in access to education in the post-Soviet period, but less to how the school influences the intellectual and social lives of students. Interpersonal relations in the school affect students in many ways, and with the growth of such new types of school as gymnasiums and lyceums, and of private schools in general, we would expect the patterns of experience to become more varied. Some insight into this aspect of education is provided by Alasheev's and Tsvetkova's "Interpersonal Relations in School," in which they compare the results of studies done in St. Petersburg and in Tol'iatti. Among their findings is support for the notion that a great many of the students in the new types of schools have positive experiences, but in all types of schools how well students are doing academically has a strong influence on how they view relations with others.