The current education reform in the Russian Federation is tied up with monumental and unprecedented political, economic and social transformation between 1985 and 2004, which began with Mikhail Gorbachev’s radical policy of glasnost and perestroika, was actively and strongly promoted by Boris Eltsin, and later continued by Vladimir Putin. The education reform challenged the excessively centralized Soviet education system by introducing decentralization. Responsibilities for general education were given to the regions.