Surgeon for the Russian Academy of Sciences

Our state collects money from all regions, and then spends it with pomp on grandiose projects: the Sochi Olympics, the APEC summit. It seems that in connection with the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences, they were going to give a lot of money for science. But over the past 20 years, the Moscow bureaucracy has not given money anywhere just like that.

I decided to speak out on the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences, because, on the one hand, I understand a little what is happening in science, and on the other hand, I understand a little what is happening in power.

I'll start with some background - some time ago I wrote

a column about the state of affairs in science

, which caused a flurry of criticism, deserved and undeserved. In particular, my assertions similar to Andrei Geim's statement that the Academy of Sciences is turning into a "club of pensioners" were especially zealously criticized.

I decided to study the situation “from below” in more detail, talked to both some scientists and young graduate students. I must say, it was more informative than reading press releases, which always show only one side of the coin.

Let me share some of my findings.

1. The statement about the "club of pensioners" and the aging of science in Russia is generally correct, if measured in terms of decades. And to blame this process on the RAS and scientists is unfair, since for 15 years science in Russia was almost not funded, and there could be no influx of young people in principle. But a few years ago, the process of “rejuvenation” began, connected with the fact that young scientists (and scientists in general) were finally paid a decent salary. As a result, young people appeared in scientific institutes for the first time in many years. It does not make up the majority, but it is quite enough for a new generation of scientists to grow up.

2. It is impossible to unequivocally speak about the effectiveness and inefficiency of the RAS. Research institutions are very different. Moreover, within the same institutes, research teams are very different in terms of efficiency. In general, there are quite a lot of "inefficient" laboratories and researchers, but one cannot form an opinion about the whole science from them.

The planned reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences specifically to the INP will terribly hurt

1. There are extremely successful teams and institutions. The most famous example is the INP (Institute of Nuclear Physics), which not only deals with actual science at the world level, it also earns money and puts it back into science. It is quite obvious that the planned reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences will do terribly harm to the INP (at least).

2. In the Academy of Science and only in it (in Russia), world-class scientific schools have been preserved and continue to work. Although with a failure of almost two generations, the experience of these schools is now being passed on to young scientists. The interruption of even a small proportion of these schools in the course of the planned reform would be a great tragedy.

3. The RAS as a whole is a conservative bureaucratic organization with a gradually degrading level of bureaucracy (academicians). Gradually, among academics, there are more and more "administrators of science" and less and less prominent scientists.

4. The Russian Academy of Sciences is the most effective state organization in Russia at the moment. This conclusion is in apparent contradiction with the previous point. But in reality, most state institutions are degrading in Russia, and conservatism in this case becomes almost a guarantee of maintaining efficiency. The RAS, unlike most other state structures, has a positive efficiency. Yes, perhaps lower than desired, but the sign in this case is more important than the modulus.

The RAS currently has no state goals by which one could judge the effectiveness

1. A little more about efficiency. Efficiency is the ratio of invested funds and the result obtained. The problem of Russia today is the lack of clear goals, by the achievement or non-achievement of which one could judge the effectiveness. As a result, state structures themselves set goals, which are more convenient, and then report on the results. The RAS currently has no state goals by which one could judge the effectiveness. A flight to the moon, the creation of a thermonuclear reactor, the development of robotics could be such tasks. As before, they were flying into space and creating a nuclear bomb. But they do not set such goals, our state does not need them. And then there remains - citation. And in terms of citation, the RAS is one of the most effective scientific institutions in the world, if we compare the funding received and the number of citations.

2. The RAS bureaucracy firmly defends all its positions, does not want to change anything and insists that the only way to develop science is to give the RAS more money. In part, she is right - as the effect of the appearance of young graduate students has shown, the resource from “stupidly giving money” has not yet been exhausted (although, probably, the saturation limit is not very far away).

3. The bureaucracy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, although there are a lot of “managers” in it, nevertheless, understands what science is and who is a real scientist in it, and who is serving a number. Very comfortable conditions have been created for real scientists - "we let you work for your own pleasure, you do not get into politics and support the academy with your authority." Those who are serving the number are also not offended - "you pretend that you are doing science, we pretend that we are paying salaries and that we have huge scientific teams."

4. Any attempt "from the outside" to divide scientists into "effective" and "inefficient" will end badly for science, since we do not have competent scientific bureaucrats outside the RAS. It is better to immediately replace the methods used by the Ministry of Education and Science with “heads and tails” - the number of correct hits will be greater (recall the Unified State Examination in Dagestan).

Well, now about the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She has several reasons, some of which are voiced, while others are not.

It is voiced - the aging of science, low efficiency, lack of competition, and so on. It is noteworthy that approximately the same rhetoric was before the start of the “RAO UES reform” and, more importantly, before the start of the army reform.

Indeed, there are people who sincerely believe this way. These people look at the current academy of sciences and compare its state with what it was a few decades ago. Of course, signs of degradation and decay are striking (especially since the past is largely mythologized and idealized).

But this motive is hardly the main one, otherwise they would start not with the Russian Academy of Sciences, but with the same government.

The reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences in terms of the struggle of bureaucratic groups is simply the complete destruction of the rival of the government

Another motive that is not voiced by anyone is the struggle of bureaucratic groups. In fact, we have two parallel "ministries of science". One is the Russian Academy of Sciences, the other is the Ministry of Education and Science. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science is part of the government, and the Academy competes not only with the Ministry of Education and Science, but with the government as a whole. And the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences in terms of the struggle of bureaucratic groups is simply the complete destruction of a competitor.

And now to the main, in my opinion, motive. What is the modern Russian state? A battlefield of competing corrupt clans. Neo-feudalism, which grew up on a modern, like, state apparatus and a modern, like, economy. The subject of the battle is money and resources that can be turned into money.

The RAS has huge land assets in Moscow. This alone would be enough to explain any, the most savage reform. But I think it's not just that.

Our state collects money from all regions, and then spends it with pomp on grandiose projects. Sochi Olympics, APEC summit. We are re-equipping the army for astronomical sums.

And now, it seems, they are going to give a lot of money for science.

But over the past twenty years, the Moscow bureaucracy has not given money anywhere just like that. Money is always given along with the people who will organize the spending of this money. This is a typical practice. In the “soft” mode, the governor is simply slipped the right deputy (head of the agency). In the "hard" mode, they demolish both the leader and the control system.

Remember the reform of the army, and who carried it out? And that the Olympic construction was headed (in one of the periods) by the same person who led the construction of the ESPO - does it lead to any thoughts?

We have a lot of "effective managers" in our country. And there is no doubt that one of them will soon head the "Agency of Institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences", to which all the property of the academy will go, and through which funding will go.

In this regard, it seems to me that the discussion “is there a rational grain in the proposed reform” is initially incorrect and false. It is pointless to discuss whether the patient needs an operation or not, if instead of a surgeon, an ogre raised a scalpel over him, even if he was wearing a white coat.