Clyster and effectiveness

Dear editors!

The General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences recently took place, and once again all ill-wishers were shown the constant attention of the country's leadership to the Academy. If our President honored the December meeting with his presence, then the Prime Minister honored the May meeting. It can be said that Russian statehood walked on the academic carpet with both tsar's boots.

And the attention of the leadership, my dear academic colleagues, is obligatory. The management sets the task of increasing work efficiency in all areas of life - from Olympic construction to demography. This is what our first national leader said to academics: “Today we set strict demands on our industry, business, education system, and other basic social and economic institutions. The requirements for constant renewal and increased efficiency are, by and large, a matter of our national perspective. And, of course, internal transformations in domestic science, in the system of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are fundamentally important for us.” But we are still lagging behind in this regard: in fifteen years we have slipped from seventh place in publications to fourteenth. And this despite the fact that funding for Russian science increased noticeably from 1995 to 2010!

In general, our readiness to meet stringent requirements has failed. Although our land, capable of giving birth to its own Platos and quick-witted Newtons, shows individual examples of amazing efficiency. Vladimir Vladimirovich pointed to one of them: “But this, of course, suggests that these innovations and the latest technologies themselves must be at the modern level. And it’s even better, of course, to strive to be ahead. And you need money for this, right. But the famous Grisha Perelman took it without money and published it on the Internet and signed it - Grisha Perelman. Where's the money? He even refuses money. So we’re trying to do something for him... He won’t take these either.”

Of course, in this many of our scientific and educational men and women are very different from Perelman: they take it, and how! Sometimes they even get caught in the act, as recently at my home university. But all the same, this is a very indicative example for those supporters of science who cry about insufficient funding: after all, it is possible without money, when a person is passionate about science, and does not smoke the sky with concern for his daily bread! So, instead of moaning, they would write something for free that promotes technology and innovative technologies. Whether on the Internet, or on the fence...

However, our leadership, of course, does not expect that all scientists will rush to write something on the Internet for nothing: the spirit of self-interest and acquisitiveness has deeply affected our entire society - right up to its intellectual center, which is, without a doubt, the Academy of Sciences. Therefore, measures are envisaged to support scientists and academicians: they will build houses on academic land and oblige the developer to sell part of the apartments in these houses to RAS employees for only 30 thousand rubles. per square meter. I feel that the number of people wishing to join the ranks of the RAS staff will soon increase. So, let’s kill two birds with one stone with one blow.

But we need to think less about the carrot, and more about dedication and increasing efficiency. And, most importantly, you must not fall for the bait of those notorious critics who, from their petty position, are trying to bark at the academic elephant and drive a wedge between the authorities and the Academy.

Vladimir Vladimirovich very correctly said that these noteworthy critics need to be given a recently created drug to stimulate brain activity. Let them think about what they are carrying and where, and calm down. Very correctly said. But if it were up to me, I would not transfer an expensive drug to critics: it is much more efficient to spend it on the more valuable brains of our officials and party leaders - the return for the country will be much more noticeable than from feeding it to empty-headed critics. I would prescribe bromine and valerian last. And even better - an enema and a wet sheet. A method that has proven highly effective in reviving patriotism and a sense of duty to the homeland in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in not so long ago.

Yours Ivan Ekonomov