Based on research material, the authors of the present article determine and critically comprehend the problems and specifics of the Russian higher education development in the current context. It is concluded that the global trends of digitalization, internationalization, commercialization, as well as the internal circumstances of the Russian reality (administrative pressure, economic decline, etc.), have significantly changed the Russian higher education system and caused difficulties in its development (narrow departmental nature of educational policy, shifting the focus on the qualitative content of fundamental education to the wayside, etc.). In order to solve the noted problems, it is proposed to use the theoretical and practical developments of the issues concerning the education content and form of the most prominent Russian researchers (N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, M.O. Gershenzon, S.L. Frank, etc.), and to implement methods of a constructive combination of the classical university strategy and commercialization, focused on the interests of society and science.