Cultural capital of Russia through a thousand years

Literacy came to Russia together with Christianity in the tenth century, but to the XVIII century has evolved very slowly, far behind Western European countries. Since the beginning of the XVIII century, under the influence of modernization began, the government has made considerable efforts to develop education in the country through a network of educational institutions. However, the lack of serious motives in the peasantry not allowed to increase the cultural level of the population up to the middle of the XIX century. Only with the abolition of serfdom and a series of major reforms in the 1860s and as the deployment of the industrial revolution and urbanization in the second half of the XIX century in the mass of the population awakens interest in literacy. As a result, it begins to grow quite rapidly, and by 1917 reached 42%. In Soviet times, this trend continued in the late 1950s literacy became general, and by 1991 the cultural capital of the country has reached significant proportions and has become one of the most important in the world. With this post-Soviet period of its history, Russia has entered a huge cultural capital, at first glance a little behind in that respect Western neighbors. However, the use of cultural capital with the desired effect is not yet possible because of the institutional checks.