New official

Leonid Vitalievich Kantorovich (1912–1986) is the pride of Russian science, he was one of the most striking mathematicians in the Union and, in addition, the world famous economist who created a huge area in a mathematical economy. He came out the winner in a difficult and dangerous struggle against economic dogmatism and ignorance of Soviet economic nobles. Perhaps in the twentieth century in Russia there was no larger and authoritative theoretical economist and practice. I think that, he live before the heyday of perestroika, there would be no many mistakes made at that time. Many economists considered to be his student in the economy for honor. He was one of my mathematics teachers, and my laboratory at the Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences was created by him. His 100th anniversary was recently celebrated, and by this date (in America) volume dedicated to him was released; Literature about him is huge.

And on December 6, the News Internet publication Lenta.ru publishes the text : "An economist from the madhouse. How Leonid Kantorovich became a Nobel laureate." I have not read such an impudent and shameless text for a long time. The style is guessed by the name of this reed. I will not quote this illiterate, full of dirty political and partly even anti -Semitic hints. The norm adopted in the normal journalistic community - not to mention the health of what you write about - is also trampled; Almost all of the facts of the biography are distorted or confused. Throw a shadow, set up dubious achievements and rewards - this was, apparently, an order.

A crowd of violent agitators of the Kremlin that captured almost all the space visited

Why all this? Why? One cannot but associate this publication with the fact that after a few days the 2014 Nobel Prizes were presented, about which I did not find a word in the Russian official press. Apparently, the irritation of officialdom applies to more and more spheres of Western life. I have no doubt that the publication is custom-made, why these saints-authors climb into such high matters; But it somehow has not been customary to look for the customer. And the style is the style of the Kiselev - Leontyevs and other fashion lawmakers in today's Russian journalism, whose credo is demagogy, lies, stupefying and arrogance.

All this does not surprise me. Lenta.ru until the middle of this year was a readable, liberal publication, but after the defeat and departure of most of the editorial office, it became a handle of official wisdom, and its moral level, as this odorous garbage shows, became the same as the political editions of the newspaper Izvestia, the first channels of television and the like. A crowd of violent agitators of the Kremlin that captured almost all the space visited. But for some reason it seems that many (including themselves) are well aware of what they are worth what the thoughtful people say about them and how they will be appreciated in the near future. Well, we will wait for similar "anniversary" articles about Andrei Sakharov, who received the Nobel Prize of the World in the same 1975 as Leonid Kantorovich and other wonderful people of Russia?

There is a point of view that all these abominations are from irresponsibility or even stupidity and that it is, in any case, the initiative from below. You can, of course, recall the key phrase of one hero of the historical novel, read for a very long time: "I insist on the right of mediocrity to spit in the face of talent." And, therefore, therefore, Pasquili should not pay attention to these writers. But more likely another: we remember both the film about the Academy of last year on Channel One, and the humiliating nature of the “scientific reform”. And, most importantly, the fear of power is felt that there will be no support from scientists in her actions, and therefore it must be explained to the common people that, from them, maybe there are benefits, but actually they are “from the madhouse”.

Anatoly Versik - Russian mathematician