Fifth "Enlighteners"

For ten years, the Dynasty Foundation for Non-Profit Programs has existed, founded by the honorary president of VimpelCom, Dmitry Zimin, and is engaged in searching for and supporting talent, their ideas and projects in the field of natural and social sciences. And for the fifth time, the Enlightener Prize, established by the foundation, is an honorary award in the field of popular science literature. As stated on the website dedicated to the prize, its goal is “to attract the attention of readers to the educational genre, encourage authors and create the preconditions for expanding the market for educational literature.” Since 2009, two Enlightener awards have been awarded - in the field of humanities and in the field of natural science research. The organizing committee of the award was composed of journalist, writer, presenter of the “Meanwhile” program on the “Culture” channel, Alexander Arkhangelsky, and publisher Alexander Gavrilov. Last year, the prize was received by linguist Vladimir Plungyan, author of the book “Why are languages ​​so different?”, and paleontologist Alexander Markov, author of the two-volume book “Human Evolution”. In accordance with tradition, both 2011 laureates were included in the jury of this year’s prize; in addition to them, the jury included Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Alexey Semikhatov, mathematics teacher, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Moscow Evgeniy Bunimovich, director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities Maxim Krongauz, biologist Ilya Kolmanovsky. The chairman of the jury is the general director of the Polytechnic Museum Boris Saltykov.

The 2012 Enlightener Prize was awarded in the Polytechnic building. The laureates were Japanese scholar, historian, and writer Alexander Meshcheryakov for his book “Emperor Meiji and His Japan,” published by Natalis Publishing House in 2009, and astronomer Vladimir Surdin for his book “Exploration of Distant Planets” (Fizmatlit Publishing House, 2011). The first book tells about Japan in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, the second - about the search for large and small planets in the solar system and far from it.

The shortlist for the Humanities Prize this time had a historical twist. In addition to Meshcheryakov’s book, it includes the books “In Search of Constantinople. Guide to Byzantine Istanbul and the surrounding area” by Byzantine scholar Sergei Ivanov, “Daily life of the population of Russia during the period of Nazi occupation” by historian Boris Kovalev and “Lenin. Seduction of Russia” by television documentary maker and publicist Leonid Mlechin. The shortlist in the natural science field included the books “The Many Faces of Virus. Secrets of hidden infections" by Doctor of Medical Sciences Viktor Zuev, "Why the sky is dark. How the Universe works” by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vladimir Reshetnikov and “Gold, bullet, life-saving poison. 250 years of nanotechnology” by Doctor of Chemical Sciences Heinrich Ehrlich.

Two prize winners, Alexander Meshcheryakov and Vladimir Surdin, will receive a cash reward in the amount of 720 thousand rubles. The remaining finalists will receive 120 thousand rubles each. Publishers of the laureates' books will be awarded a cash certificate worth 130 thousand rubles for promoting books on the market.