Tden of Russian science

Dear editors !
My dear colleagues and friends !

I congratulate all of you on the newly past day of Russian science, our professional holiday. It is beautiful that we have it, that we, in spite of everything, can be proud of ourselves and our profession, our work inconspicuous and incomprehensible from the part!

What did I think about, raising my second glass already with a feeling of legitimate pride and tears in my eyes? About a lot and different. For example, about the origins of the holiday. On February 8, 1724, our great emperor Peter I commanded "to teach an academy in which they would study languages, also other sciences and noble arts and translated books." Do we follow the covenants of our great reformer who cut the window to Europe? Alas, he would hardly be pleased with us.

No, to this day there is an academy and academicians, and still gets good money from the treasury. And in terms of all kinds of noble arts, everything is in order: here the tops can, and the lower classes want. But, for example, things are not very good with teaching languages. Cultural seems to be people, but almost no one in Latin even NUNC EST Bibendum can understand. Pyotr Alekseevich would not approve of this, oh, he didn’t approve. And with modern Latin, English that is, the matter is far from the most brilliant way.

I thought about the name of the holiday - "Day of Russian Science." Science, that is, which is done in Russia and it would be good for Russia. And here our situation is even worse: everyone thinks that he is interested in whether the results of his works will benefit the homeland, and does not want to know. As if humanity pays a salary, not Russia.

In general, on the one hand, I am glad on a professional holiday, but this joy is not without a feeling of bitterness. Yes, there were people in past times, there were geniuses and titans, heroes - not us. And now, even if we have a titan and a hero - so immediately the whistle and hooting of the crowd, the black envy and the cries of “Atu!”.

Perhaps the most striking example is the titan of thought and the father of Russian nano -sector Mikhail Valentinovich Kovalchuk. Putting the new paradigms of practically Peter's strength and power, trying to ensure the country's scientific leadership for decades, he is subjected to severe obstruction by many scientists who are pugs against the elephant.

This makes me recall another academy - Platonovskaya, the ancestral home, so to speak, all academies. Here, it would seem, the ancient Greeks were progressive and advanced: they had an academy and a lyceum. And there, the envy and hatred of the crowd led to persecution of the most outstanding people, leaders and national heroes. Such as the Femistocles who saved Greece from Persian slavery.

Perhaps the point here is in a bad word chosen for a good business - in the name "Academy"? Maybe it is too elevated, unearthly, tearing away from his native soil, nurturing pride?

I think we should bring the reform of science to the end and completely abolish the academy so that there are no traces left of it. Then we will not have “academic institutions” engaged in things “representing purely academic interest”, but budget scientific organizations working on a state assignment within the framework of priorities clearly defined by the party and the government. That is, work for the good of the country will boil with might and main.

And how many unnecessary barriers and prejudices with the abolition of the Academy will fall - and you will not count! The Academy, for example, will not put sticks in wheels in the processes of restructuring of the scientific organizations of the Fano, the assessment of scientific organizations, the allocation of leading organizations. And these processes will go quickly and at the same time.

Without their authoritative title, academicians will not be able to so convincingly criticize the plans of the authorities in newspapers and magazines, will not be able to indicate officials, need or not need priority science, will not be able to write negative reviews on breakthrough convergent initiatives. No one, finally, will be able to reproach Mikhail Valentinovich that he was not an academician.

In general, I would like to meet the next day of Russian science without any academies there.

Your Ivan Ekonomov