In our country, for the first time in the history of mankind, authentic equality of educational opportunity has been proclaimed and secured for all citizens. This right is presently assured by tuition-free education at all levels; by universal, compulsory, secondary education of youth; by extensive development of vocational-technical, secondary specialized, and higher education based on the relevance of education to life and economic production; by the development of correspondence and evening education; and by the awarding of state scholarships and benefits to school pupils and students in higher-education institutions. Since the first years of its existence, the Soviet state has searched actively for the kind of school that best satisfies the national population's demands for education and the country's needs for workers and specialists. The Soviet education system has enabled a significant rise in the educational and cultural levels of all social groups and brought them closer together. In a mere seven years, from 1970 to 1977, the educational levels of both the urban and the rural population employed in the national labor force have drawn perceptibly closer together. In 1970, 748 of every 1,000 town and city residents had a higher or secondary (complete or incomplete) education, compared with 835 in 1977, i.e., an increase of 87 persons.* During the same period, the number of persons per 1,000 rural residents with a higher or secondary (complete or incomplete) education increased from 499 to 673, i.e., an increase of 174 persons (see: The USSR National Economy over 60 Years. Jubilee Statistical Yearbook [Narodnoe khoziaistvo SSSR za 60 let. Iubileinyi statisticheskii ezhegodnik], Moscow, 1977, p. 56). Thus, the rise of the educational level of the rural population has been twice as rapid as that of the urban population.