MEPhI of the XXI century

A letter from the Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences demanding to close the department of theology in MEFI, sensationally, not just the number of signing (although it is difficult to find another example when 91 member of the Russian Academy of Sciences expressed his opinion on any particular occasion). It translates the conflict between Russian society and the Russian Orthodox Church into a new plane.

Got it! Everyone went crazy there! The church climbs out of all the cracks! These are now the mood of the educated part of Russian society. Not only levaki and old atheists are covered by the church, but also those who have recently treated it neutral, or even with sympathy. Even those who consider themselves Orthodox are covered by the church. And even those who still go to church. Because it is already impossible to do not cover the inhabitants of the pure lane finally divorced from the reality.

After the Pussy Riot and the scandals around the patriarchal apartments and hours from the moral authority of the Moscow Patriarchate, there was no trace. Against this background, awkward attempts to climb into all possible spheres, using the support of the first persons of the country, are no longer doomed to bewilderment, but to resistance, which from month a month becomes more and more active.

And already brings success. Muscovites recently achieved a fundamental fracture in the battle around the construction program of 200 temples in the city. At the end of last year, she stalled due to the massive resistance of the inhabitants dissatisfied with the transfer of the ROC of the Squares and the parks. Now the Moscow city hall, tired of fighting with angry townspeople, decided to transfer the issue of highlighting new plots for the construction of temples under municipal assemblies. A few supporters of the program with sadness stated that now their assault and onslaught came an end.

In the academic sphere, dissatisfaction with the growing pressure of the Russian Orthodox Church on the education and science system has been growing at least the last seven years. Back in 2007, ten Russian academicians, including two Nobel laureates, turned to Putin with an appeal to stop the clericalization of society. Thousands of researchers signed under this letter. There was no clear answer to him. However, deceptive silence from scientists in subsequent years did not mean that they reconciled with the onslaught from the church. The activities of the RAS Commission to combat pseudoscience and falsification of scientific research, neatly affecting and Orthodox stories, were only a weak reflection of increasing irritation. And so we see how the lid was torn.

The reason, it would seem, is not the most serious - you think, the department of theology at a large university. In the last decade, dozens of rectors throughout Russia decided to take communion in the political trend and get something similar in their own way - as it were, the scientific and Orthodox. For the most part, such attempts signal that something was wrong at the university. Either the rector sat in his place, such as Viktor Sadovnichy, who gave a sanction to open under the auspices of the Patriarchal College of the scandalous famous entrepreneur Gulnaz Sotnikova. Either the Earth is already on his feet - like the rector of the Russian State University Efima Pivovar, who is forced, after recognizing the university to “ineffective” to urgently organize projects with the Russian Orthodox Church as part of the program “Please help me Putin's falcons”.

What motives was guided by the rector of MEPHI, who took Patriarch Kirill in his March 2010, who cheerfully established a cross in the courtyard of a secular university, and opened the theological department in October 2012? We, apparently, will soon find out. It’s good if not from the Investigative Committee. The rector is a member of Pzhiv, a former noticeable official of the Ministry of Education. In short, at risk.

Another adherent of Orthodoxy in the walls of MEFI (awarded together with the rector of the church order), the initiator of the installation of the Cross is the adviser to the rector Nikolai Minhin. In 1983-1989, he headed the military department, and in 1992-2007 he served as a vice-rector for security. At the same time, he is the chairman of the "Council of Veterans" MEFI. It is not clear only in which troops this veteran served (there is no speech about his participation in World War II). His semi -official biography mentions, in addition to active temple construction, another significant fact is that the "ideologist" of the organization at the university of the Department of Information Protection Department was a "ideologist". Well, and the head of this department (it is now called the Department of Cybersecurity) is Alexander Starovoitov - the director of the FAPSI Yeltsin times, removed from his post with a huge scandal. At one time, the current prominent member of Pjiv Alexander Khinshtein exposed his fraud based on the materials of the FSB.

A worthy, in short, a company of temple builders in a leading nuclear university in the country. We can say symbolic.

Yes, the Department of Theology in MEFI is, perhaps, not the most serious reason for indignation. But here, as in a drop of water, the situation that has developed on the watershed between society and power is reflected. The Orthodox in the MEPhI is not just few - units, as eloquently evidenced by the site of the parish of the university temple. On their behalf, Orthodoxy is approved by the boss and the gabist - with the almost complete silence of the team, from which it is easier to leave than to achieve anything in him. In this story, representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate traditionally play the role of wedding generals (who will believe that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion, will really be able to manage the department between foreign visits and Moscow concerts).

It turns out only collectively to resist the pressure - with the involvement of people from whose opinions they cannot be brushed. The Academy of Sciences understood this. Will they understand the dissatisfied with MEPhI? Will this issue pose a scientific council of MEPhI at his meeting?

But by the way, is he there at all? Why was his voice no before? Why did the rector put a cross and opened the department in complete silence? Where is that intellectual freemen that were once proud of MEPHI?

It seems that the matter is not only and not so much in the Russian Orthodox Church. The question is what the organization of science and teaching has reached in Russia. Who became the remaining teachers and scientists in Russia. What did the country turn into the Putin thirteenth birthday.