Translated material
The country of winning C students
One of the important psychological consequences of the dissertation scandal was that it showed - in a form absolutely understandable to every citizen who studied in high school - what nonentities are trying to control us. Cheating has never been considered a great sin in Russia, but it has always been the lot of C students: excellent students decided for themselves, and poor students did not care.
Now these C students have launched a counter-offensive: obviously ordered publications in newspapers, pickets at the entrance to the Ministry of Education and Science, speeches in the State Duma, television shows, flash mobs on the Internet - all this looks like a well-orchestrated campaign. The funny thing is that the techniques remained the same as those used by dissertation plagiarists. Newspaper publications published in two different newspapers with a break of several days and signed by different names contain verbatim repetitions [1, 2, 3]; the idea of writing slogans on half-naked women was stolen from FEMEN; well, the deputies simply lie (cf. non-existent publications and fake reviews).
The Duma consensus demanding the resignation of Minister Livanov is curious: here is United Russia member Burmatov (also known as BINH - if you don’t know, google it), and deputy. Chairman of the State Duma from the LDPR Lebedev (by the way, the son of deputy Zhirinovsky, who was very excited in connection with the dissertation scandal), and a crowd of communists. With the latter it is clear - it is necessary, while it is allowed, to demonstrate a strong opposition, but the first two - and a lot of representatives of the same parties - are united precisely by fear for their own written dissertations.
The situation with United Russia is especially funny - it turns out that what was missing was enough for the sheep to rebel against the shepherd. Let’s compare: “Plagiarism, dissertations and theses, written, as some say, turnkey - the road to the degradation of science as a whole... A calm attitude towards compilations, copyright violations, and basic non-compliance with professional ethics appeared relatively recently, and this is a road to nowhere.” (D.A. Medvedev, Chairman of the United Russia party) [4], and “At this same stage, I would consider it necessary to try to start stopping this bacchanalia of accusing everyone and everything of having fictitious
dissertations and academic degrees... a situation may arise when the entire scientific world starts checking plagiarism in various kinds of dissertations and works of each other, which can really lead to discrediting Russian science" (V.A. Nikonov, member of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, chairman of the committee by education) [5]. It seems that between the degradation of science and the discrediting of fake dissertators, whom the dean of one of the faculties of Moscow State University for some reason calls “Russian science,” the majority of the State Duma confidently chooses the first.
The academic authorities also could not resist politicking. But if the loud withdrawal of some candidates for the post of President of the Russian Academy of Sciences from the Public Council under the Ministry of Education and Science can still be attributed to the costs of the election campaign, it’s as if six months ago, when Zh.I. Alferov agreed to become chairman of the Council; he did not know about the minister’s views on how the Academy is run; his attitude towards the dissertation scandal shows some deep complexes. Instead of seizing on the propaganda-winning fact (most fake degrees are awarded by university councils), academic authorities repeat the Burmatov-Astakhov mantra that “the use of an automatic plagiarism checking system has limitations ... the final assessment should be given by qualified people, not amateurs" [6]. As if reading ten pages of unquoted copying isn't enough.
So far, the Ministry of Education and Science has enough strength and determination to continue the fight to clear the dissertation rubble. Working groups consider individual cases and examine the activities of particularly “productive” councils. The “Draft concept for modernizing the system of certification of highly qualified scientific personnel” has been published (there are a lot of “tions”, but the document is quite informative) [7]. The fact that political battles are superimposed on this is an inevitable complication. I would like to hope that in these battles the opinion of the scientific community, expressed in the February decision of the Public Council of the Ministry of Education and Science [8], and in the statement of the Society of Scientific Workers published on the third page will be taken into account.
But in addition to statements, we need to work: improve documents submitted for public discussion; write reviews of weak dissertations and appeals against unscrupulous defenses; and simply, whenever possible, explain to society what is really happening.
M.G.
PS . News feeds report the intention of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, together with the LDPR and United Russia, to raise the question of the resignation of Minister Livanov in the State Duma. We all understand that little depends on what happens in the State Duma. But if the chairman of the government follows the lead of the cheating C students and betrays his minister a few days after a public statement of his support, this will be a bad sign for all of Russian science. Because this will mean that it is possible to cheat, but it is impossible to punish for cheating and it is not worth messing with C students. They will eat it.
1. Alexey Mukhin. Dancing around the VAC. Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 04/15/2013 ( http://ng.ru/politics/2013-04-15/3_kartblansh.html )
2. Nikolai Trofimov. A baton for science. Moskovsky Komsomolets, 04/17/2013 ( www.mk.ru/social/article/2013/04/16/842446-dubinka-dlya-nauki.html )
3. http://dissernet.org/cgi-bin/dis.pl?author1=N1&p0=2&author2=N2&p1=2&p2=0&color=8CE0F5
4. Meeting on improving the system of training and certification of scientific and scientific-pedagogical workers 03/26/2013 ( http://government.ru/docs/23537/ )
5. Nikonov: The State Duma Committee on Education has stood and will stand for the purity of awarding scientific degrees. 04/10/2013 ( www.er-duma.ru/press/58615 )
6. Nadezhda Volchkova. Constructive. Search, 04/12/2013 ( www.poisknews.ru/theme/science-politic/5779/ )
7. http://Ministry of Education and Science.rf/documents/3307