Auto rally - off-road!

Dear editors!

The current modernization of Russia brings back memories of ancient times - industrialization and collectivization, when the country moved by leaps and bounds from peasant backwardness to the development of a powerful industry. Of course, moving forward was not easy: illiteracy and passivity of the population, the presence of a skeptical element made themselves felt. Therefore, in addition to the daily work of the state and party apparatus, it was necessary to invent non-trivial moves to promote the ideas of industrialization and the development of powerful industrial production. As they would say now – modernization.

In particular, flights and car rallies were in fashion. A bright technical novelty that attracted the attention of the unconscious population - a car - was visual propaganda, and incendiary rallies instilled Komsomol enthusiasm in the routine life of villages and cities. Remember: “let’s hit the roads, sloppiness and bureaucracy with a motor rally”, “the iron horse will replace the peasant horse”? Oh, what powerful times there were, what motor rallies there were, for example, the Arbatov-Chernomorsk motor rally, covered in glory and glorified by writers.

Now the country's leadership is faced with a task of no less complexity and importance - the transformation of the country from an industrial to a post-industrial society. Such a society in which the economy is based not on industrial giants that pollute the environment, but on the work of clerks in banks and programmers in technology parks, and most importantly - the bright scientific minds of Russian Lefties. This epochal task is now called modernization.

And in this direction, our leadership, of course, is making titanic efforts. Fruitful debut ideas are being generated, such as the silicon innovation city Skolkovo and the convergent breakthrough nano-bio-info-cognitive national research laboratory. Painstaking legislative work is being carried out: the State Duma has just adopted a law on Skolkovo. The President goes to the people via Twitter. But, most importantly, when inventing something new and unprecedented, our national leaders do not forget to rely on proven methods of propaganda and promotion of the new.

In August, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin personally “attacked an off-road motor rally”, at the same time promoting the achievements of the domestic automobile industry, driving along the Chita-Khabarovsk federal highway. The blow turned out to be significant: criminal cases were opened, and the power and reliability of our automobile industry were revealed in all its glory.

Our beloved president, who together with Viktor Yanukovych led the next stage of the International Rally to commemorate the centenary of the first motor rally for the prize of Emperor Nicholas II along the route St. Petersburg - Kyiv, does not lag behind the prime minister. From the start point of the stage, which is located approximately 26 km from the Russian-Ukrainian border, they drove more than 60 km to the finish of the stage in the Ukrainian city of Glukhov. Unfortunately, “Lauren-Dietrich” could not be found, so Dmitry Anatolyevich used “Victory”, produced in 1951, as a symbol of technical progress. As journalists reported, it was an impressive and uplifting spectacle: the motorcade of two Pobeda cars was followed by about 30 vintage cars from the traveling exhibition, and security cars brought up the rear. There is no doubt that the race was another serious step demonstrating continuity in the country’s leading advancement along the path of scientific and technological progress.

And therefore I am surprised by those of my colleagues who do not see in this the power and uplifting spirit, the country’s forward striving, but continue to whine about their pitiful, petty and private problems. So, they say, there is no money for equipment, the already small grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research have been cut off, and they cannot adapt the legislation on public procurement to scientific realities. Not seeing beyond their own noses, they conclude from this that all talk about modernization is chatter and a cover-up for cutting.

No, dear colleagues, the growing new cannot and should not get hung up on your small problems and problems, it must completely replace everything that is rotten and dilapidated with something new, clean and bright. And when the Skolkovo innovation farm starts working in full force, when the convergence of nano- and cognitive technologies occurs, then the materialization of nanospirits will occur and the distribution of innovative elephants. So let's hit the road rally against lack of faith and sloppiness.

Yours Ivan Ekonomov