Statement by members of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History under the Ministry of Education and Science

In connection with the discussion in the media that arose around the conclusion of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History regarding the dissertation of V.R. Medinsky, members of the Expert Council would like to draw attention to the following circumstances:

1) A frequently heard statement about the supposedly existing two positive conclusions (from the dissertation councils at M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and at Belgorod State University) on V.R.’s dissertation. Medinsky is not true.

Firstly, the dissertation of V.R. Medinsky was never accepted and was not considered by the dissertation council D 501.001.72 at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, and on February 7, 2017, this dissertation council decided to refuse to consider the case of deprivation of V.R. Medinsky with the academic degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences, which later served as the basis for the Higher Attestation Commission to transfer this case for new consideration to the dissertation council D 212.015.11 at Belgorod State University. Thus, the dissertation council from Moscow State University did not accept any positive conclusion on the dissertation.

Secondly, the dissertation council at Belgorod University, although it provided its conclusion to the Higher Attestation Commission, also did NOT CONSIDER V.R.’s dissertation on its merits. Medinsky (but only the text of the application for deprivation of the academic degree of Doctor of Science).

Therefore, such a review of the dissertation on its merits ultimately had to be done by the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History. At the same time, the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History acts entirely within its competence, since it is the highest expert body in this specialty in the Russian Federation and has the right to both agree and disagree with the decision or opinion of any dissertation council.

2) In speeches in support of the dissertation of V.R. Medinsky is often told that he should not be deprived of his academic degree because there is no plagiarism in his dissertation. But the mere absence of plagiarism does not guarantee that the work meets the requirements for a doctoral dissertation. At the same time, the statement about the presence of elements of plagiarism has never been the main complaint against the author either from the applicants V.N. Kozlyakov, K.Yu. Yerusalimsky and I.F. Babitsky, or from the members of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission.

3) All members of the Expert Council over a year ago were given the text of V.R.’s dissertation for review. Medinsky, and they had every opportunity to form their own idea of ​​the quality of this text and evaluate the fairness of the conclusion prepared by specialists on the topic of the dissertation. At a meeting of the expert council on October 2, 2017, a discussion of this conclusion took place, which was approved by 17 votes in favor, three votes against and one abstention, but none of the colleagues who ultimately voted against the adoption of the recommendation to deprive V.R. Medinsky with the scientific degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences, did not speak out in favor of the fact that the dissertation complies with the requirements of the Higher Attestation Commission.

At the same meeting, certain questions were asked to the invited representatives of the party that filed the application for deprivation of an academic degree, as well as to the representatives of V.R. who came to the meeting. Medinsky. At the same time, members of the Expert Council were ready to ask questions about the essence of the work to its author, V.R. Medinsky, however, due to his absence at the meeting, these questions obviously could not be asked to people who are not the authors of the text of the dissertation and are not responsible for its content.

4) The general direction of research touched upon in the dissertation itself is well known in historical science, and its relevance and significance have never been questioned. However, the essence of the conclusions of the Expert Council is that the QUALITY of the work done by V.R. is assessed negatively. Medinsky’s work and states that the applicant for an academic degree lacks the basic professional skills of a historian, and above all, a scientific source analysis of the sources he attracted.

5) Accusations in the media of “harassing” V.R. Medinsky have no basis, since the conclusion of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission does not affect either the personality or the varied activities of V.R. Medinsky in his positions. However, members of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History, acting within the framework of regulations approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, are obliged to make their judgment based on high scientific requirements. Our professional ethics and the desire to preserve the prestige of historical science call us to this. Attempts to impart a political or ideological coloring to the process of examining V. R. Medinsky’s dissertation deliberately mislead the public; they are used to divert the discussion from the scientific field into the sphere of political and information technologies.

Thus, the recommendation of the Expert Council to deprive V.R. Medinsky's academic degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences was by no means caused by disagreement with his “vision of history” or with his “patriotic position.” We are deeply convinced that unskilled, unprofessional work discredits domestic science and thus can be considered an anti-patriotic phenomenon.

Members of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Russian History of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Faculty of History, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova A.Yu. Andreev

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Deputy Director of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor D.M. Bondarenko

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the School of Historical Sciences of the National Research University Higher School of Economics O.V. Budnitsky

Doctor of History, Head of the Paleolithic Department of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.A. Vasiliev

Doctor of History, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.Yu. Grandchildren

Doctor of History, Professor of the Department of Russian History, Vologda State Pedagogical University T.M. Dimoni

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of History of Russia before the beginning of the 19th century. Faculty of History, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosova A.A. Gorsky, Deputy Chairman of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History

Doctor of History, Chief Researcher of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation V.G. Kiknadze

Doctor of History, Dean of the Faculty of History and Political Science, Perm State National Research University I.K. Kiryanov

Doctor of History, Professor, Head of the Department of Russian History, North Caucasus Federal University M.E. Kolesnikova

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Leading Researcher, Head of the Center for Economic History of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.V. Kondrashin

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Russian History of the Middle Ages and Modern Times, Historical and Archival Institute of the Russian State University for the Humanities I.V. Kurukin

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the School of Historical Sciences of the National Research University Higher School of Economics E.S. Marey, Secretary of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsina O.S. Porshneva

Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.V. Roginsky

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.V. Trepavlov

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Department of Medieval Archeology of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.V. Chernetsov

Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences I.A. Khormach

Doctor of Medicine, Chief Researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.L. Shemyakin

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after. N.N. Miklouho-Maclay RAS V.A. Shnirelman