The Soviet regime regarded the ideological function of humanitarian education as the principal. That function rested on essential texts in two strictly limited lists-Russian classics and the founding fathers of Marxism- Leninism. The perestroika years saw an unprecedented experiment at the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute to replace the Soviet ideological education with general humanitarian studies. The article analyzes the reasons for its victories and setbacks as the system proved alien to Russia but is great success in U.S. liberal art colleges and universities.