This study examined Russian Federation social work students’ motivation for pursuing a degree in social work. The study’s sample included 176 students from two universities in the Russian Federation. The study found that motivation for studying social work was complex. Over half of the sample (54.9%) indicated that altruistic motivation was among their top two reasons for studying social work, and a desire to help others was the most common response to an open-ended item that asked students to explain their reasons for deciding to study social work. However, careerist motivation also clearly played a strong role in participants’ decisions to pursue social work education; 80.8 percent of the sample indicated that a careerist motivation was their first choice reason for pursuing social work education. The study found that sex, family of origin’s income level, and religious observance were not significantly related to motivation for pursuing social work education. Contrary to previous research that reported high attrition rates, the majority of respondents indicated that they planned to work in the social work field following completion of their education. The implications of this study for the continued development of the social work profession in the Russian Federation are discussed, as are the limitations of the study.