General Stratigraphic Scale of Russia: State of the art and problems

The history of the development of the General Stratigraphic Scale (GSS), its significance, purpose, and difference from the International Stratigraphic Chart (ISC) are briefly reported. The most global achievements in the GSS refinement based on the Proceedings of the All-Russian conference at the Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (May 2013) are considered. The main problems related to the GSS improvement are formulated: the structure of the Precambrian and Quaternary stratigraphic scales, the location of the Vendian System in the GSS, formal substantiation of the “Russian” stages of the Cambrian, Carboniferous, and Permian Systems, and the significance of the regional limitotypes of the ISC subdivisions.