Translated material
Hello, we are losing talents
Why intellectuals from Russia flock to America
There are many of our compatriots in the United States. Nobody knows how many, but apparently there is no longer a sphere where Russian names become familiar.I remember well when I first noticed this for the first time. Another ballroom dancing competition was shown on TV, and the participants were introduced indicating the places where they were born and learned to dance: Moscow, Sochi, Leningrad, Kazan and even my native sleepy and provincial Oryol. Then the list of the US chess team that was going to some tournament caught my eye: Gata Gamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Grigory Kaidanov, Alexander Ivanov... And all of America knows the names of hockey players Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Ovechkin or tennis player Maria Sharapova .
The same is true in science and high technology. Sergey Brin is the co-founder of one of the most successful companies of the early 21st century, Google. Physicist Alexey Abrikosov , an employee of the Argonne National Laboratory, recently became a Nobel Prize laureate. Space specialist academician Roald Sagdeev and mathematician Sergei Novikov work and lecture at the University of Maryland, physicist Sergei Linde is well known at Stanford University, quantum electronics specialist Alexander Kaplan works at Johns Hopkins University, economics professor Andrei Shleifer works at Harvard University, etc. .d.
I have never had a special goal of getting to know people from Russia, but in the metropolitan metropolis alone I can easily count more than two dozen people employed in geophysics, astronomy, computer development and medicine. There are probably many thousands of highly educated and up-to-date professionals throughout the United States.
“Unfortunately, or maybe vice versa, fortunately, we do not know exact statistics about the number of compatriots living and working in America today,” says mathematician and physicist, president of the American University in Moscow, Eduard Lozansky. — I can say one thing with confidence: our people work successfully in almost every leading university or scientific laboratory. Of course, a huge number of them settled in Silicon Valley, where breakthrough innovations and technologies are born one after another.”
The very introduction to the new and advanced may have been the main reason that pushed many of our people to move overseas. A curious view on this subject was expressed in one of the articles by a person far from science, poetess Tatyana Shcherbina. Recalling her impressions after a trip to America, she concluded that most of us have it deeply imprinted in our minds that modernity is worthless and everything valuable is in the past. “In America it’s the other way around,” writes the poetess. - Today's intellectual efforts are what are truly valuable. They are the soil on which the future grows. That’s why intellectuals from Russia flock there.”
To overcome this trend, to reverse the flow of brains, is an incredibly difficult task and requires enormous and purposeful efforts from the state and the scientific community of Russia. “We need to start with basic things,” says Eduard Lozansky, “with wages, which are ridiculous today. Scientists, as a rule, are not very demanding people, but they should be provided with a certain level of comfort.”
Foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kvint agrees with this. “Today, a doctor of sciences, a professor at Moscow State University, receives 23 thousand rubles with a bonus for his academic degree,” he says. - It’s funny, if it weren’t so sad - how can one live on this and even contribute to science or raise students. Complete absurdity."
According to Mr. Kvint, young scientists are not given apartments, so those who do not have their own are forced to pay almost all of their earnings for rent: “I am the head of the department at the Moscow School of Economics of Moscow State University. I found myself a smart and interesting out-of-town deputy. But he pays almost all of his earnings for a rented apartment. Well, how long can he last on sheer enthusiasm? Many talented people can’t stand it and leave, and at the first opportunity they sign contracts with foreign research centers.”
What should be done in the current circumstances? “We need to create science parks that include workspaces, laboratories, as well as housing, and allocate it for young scientists under 35,” answers Mr. Quint. - Hire personnel there through a competition, with a contract for at least two years. There are examples of this in the world. Subsequently, if the employee showed an inclination to teach, allow him to do this while maintaining the same salary that he received at the research center. If they are ready to enter the real economy, take additional measures to keep them interested in staying in the country. The main thing is to start with salaries and apartments. This is how Taiwan and South Korea ensured their technological superiority, which today are 15-17 years ahead of even the United States in many areas. Scientific youth from these countries willingly return to their homeland, because the state has invested an average of $2 billion in the creation of such science parks.”
At the same time, politicians and government officials advocating for the return of scientists from abroad to Russia must be aware of one unexpected, delicate and paradoxical moment. “You shouldn’t hope that anyone from the Academy of Sciences or other scientific institutions and institutes will be very happy with those who want to return,” warns Vladimir Kvint. - They will perceive this angrily and with hostility. Because, firstly, existing employees are paid very modestly. Secondly, they have absolutely no need for extra parasites on what the state allocates in crumbs. And thirdly, new arrivals, that is, those returning from more technologically and scientifically advanced countries, will clearly demonstrate much better preparation and familiarity with the latest word in science. Well, who will like it?
Of course, according to the academician, these scientists who remained in Russia can be understood. They are already begging, and then overseas fellows with fresh and advanced knowledge will swoop in and take away the last. “Therefore, we are returning again to the idea of science parks,” he emphasizes, “with state support for research, with a material base for scientific research and with maintaining the salary that we received, for example, in the USA, where I periodically work. That is, we are talking about an average annual salary of 80 to 100 thousand dollars. I’m not talking about the bonuses that many scientists receive depending on the institution where they work. Such bonuses, say, to a pension fund, can reach 30 thousand dollars. We should strive for such a situation in Russia; this is the basis that can help keep Russian scientists in their homeland. In addition, for a scientist to return, he must create, if not an institute, then at least a small scientific center with certain rights and a staff of 10-15 people. Otherwise, everything will remain empty chatter and no one will come.”
Eduard Lozansky suggests an equally radical solution, stipulating that it is unlikely that politicians will decide to take such a step. “We need to sharply reduce the number of scientific institutes that do not produce anything significant,” he suggests. “According to many respected people, at least two-thirds of academic institutions can be safely closed without harm to science and society, and the saved funds will significantly increase the salaries of those who really and effectively work.”
So far, experts do not see any real approaches that can really attract talent outside our country in our state policy. And this sad conclusion is somehow naturally supported by the pessimistic lines written by the same Tatyana Shcherbina ten years ago: “Whether dictatorship or democracy, / Whether by choice, or by force - / The result is still negative, / If we are talking about Russia".