Before you say you can't (unless you have a defect in the bone joint) go buy and study Pavel Tsatsouline books, 2 in particular... #1 is Super Joints, #2 is Relax into stretch. I also suggest purchasing the companion DVD's. (see:
http://www.dragondoor.com/b16.html &
http://www.dragondoor.com/v104.html )
My education studies in training and exercise is also Soviet based and as such my stuff is almost identical in some ways to Pavels. It works, but must be learned properly. We get grown men into full splits in about 6 to 8 months all the time. (with the exception of severaly injured or a bad joint and even then we get many of those into splits)