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Education and training policies have made a growing use of quantification operations, especially of evaluation and performance indicators often in terms of the benchmarking of educational systems. The Soviet State is a case in point because until 1991 governing procedures were based on the quantification of the different fields of economic activity and social life which gave rise to countless indicators and figures. Looking back on the Soviet experience might be useful to put the issues and challenges now raised by quantification practices at national or international levels. In the article, an outline of the main statistic instrumentation tools of the Soviet State is followed by the presentation of those which were most frequently used in the field of education and training. Particular attention is paid to how studies of time budget were used.