Why are we behind again?

So, why did the Republic of Kazakhstan become a leader in a number of scientific areas, while Russia lagged behind? My personal opinion as a specialist working in the West, the East, and Russia.

Several factors played a role. The most important thing is the basic one: the manic habit of keeping everything secret. It has long been a running joke in our scientific circles that the biggest secret is that in reality there are no secrets. But, joking aside, scientific developments and entire institutions are often kept secret so that people abroad do not find out at what low level the developments are being carried out, how low the qualifications of the personnel are, how low labor productivity is and how unreliable the results are.

It also seems that science has fallen under the yoke of an influential power lobby. Security officials, who for various reasons are not needed in real work, are given the posts of “security deputies”, “security chiefs”, etc. There are a lot of security officials, and more scientific organizations are secreted under them. The appearance of a “secret” in a civilian scientific institution, which is engaged in research that is open throughout the world, means a serious blow to the science in this institution.

After the collapse of the USSR, much was declassified, and the secrecy regime of some scientific institutions disappeared or was softened. It was a happy moment, but more on that later. Unfortunately, the people in these institutions remain the same. A selection took place: the employees were creative, ambitious, and in difficult years they went abroad or went into business. People who were forty and older were interested in science, not everywhere, but in many places. Those who in Soviet times received large dividends from “secrecy”. Those who felt uncomfortable when it turned out that under the veil of “secrecy” there was very often hidden... yes, zero was hidden! It is known that if a person could not “defend himself” according to the usual procedure, he “defended himself” on a “closed” topic. Well, the level of such research was often very low. These are the ones who are now passing on experience to the young, nothing can be done about it, the continuity of generations has been broken. Not many of the middle-aged employees who worked under the USSR remained or returned to science.

And these Soviet scientists are strenuously pulling their institutions back under the veil of secrecy. It's in their heads, it's genetically determined. And secrecy is an insidious thing. First, let’s revive the “Act of Examination”. And then we will put the stamp “DSP” on all reports. That's all: try working with reports without permission. If you get permission, try publishing it without the sanction of the “secretaries,” especially abroad. Try to go on a scientific trip, try to get a foreign grant... And scientists begin to splash around in their own inner puddle. And science is an open system; it needs a constant influx of information and an outflow of information generated in the scientific community. That is, conferences, publications, joint projects, jobs in other scientific groups, exchange, etc. Otherwise - swamp and decay.