Thank you, I will not refuse

Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky at a meeting of the Presidium of the Higher Certification Commission recognized the existence of mistakes in his dissertation on history. The decoding of fragments of the audio recording of the meeting is published by RBC.

“I am sure, colleagues, that there are probably errors in scientific work. If I were now carefully engaged in new protection, I would find these mistakes myself. The one who does nothing is not mistaken,” the official said at the meeting. At the same time, Medinsky did not specify exactly what mistakes he means.

The minister also said that at the beginning of the scandal around his dissertation was ready to abandon the scientific degree. "Why do I need this whole strange, obviously reputational losing story? Why? Well, will I take the" disserter "from me to a scientific degree. He will not take away books published and sold by hundreds of thousands of copies, will not take away films shot from these books. He will not select the title of professor. He will hardly select my honest name. I had a great temptation to publicly abandon the school But I am not a private person, whatever my emotional impulse, I am aware of the general consequences that do not concern me.

At the meeting, the minister also stated that the consideration of the issue of deprivation of his degree had to be stopped after the dissertation of Moscow State University to study his dissertation. According to Medinsky, the expert council of the Higher Attestation History of History violated the procedure for considering the application for deprivation of the degree: he had to study the application, not the work itself, the minister said.

On October 20, the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Committee recommended that Medinsky be left the degree of a doctor of historical sciences. 14 members of the Presidium voted for such a decision, six opposed, four abstained. The decision of the VAK Presidium regarding the dissertation of Medinsky should approve the Ministry of Education and Science. The department promised to prepare the corresponding order in the near future.

On October 23, the Expert Council on the History of the Higher Attestation Commission, which came to the opposite conclusions, left its chairman Pavel Uvarov and Professor of the Higher School of Economics Oleg Budnitsky. Further resignation of council members is expected.

On the same day, the Science Council under the Ministry of Education and Science demanded that the Plenum of the Higher Attestation Committee cancel the decision of the presidium and take away from the Medinsky degree . However, on Wednesday, the Plenum of the Commission refused to consider the issue of the work of Medinsky.

On October 2, the Higher Attestation Council voted for the deprivation of a median scientific degree . The official opinion of the Higher School experts said that in his work the minister did not open anything new. In addition, Medinsky stated in the dissertation that "Russia's national interests create an absolute standard of truth." According to experts, this contradicts the methodological principles of historical science. As experts noted, the minister enjoyed the translations of sources, and not by the originals, selectively quoted the annals. The expert council also doubted that Medinsky generally worked in the archives.

In addition, it turned out that there are several options for an abstract of the dissertation of Medinsky. In them, different scientists are indicated as opponents. In the instance of the abstract from the funds of the Russian State Library, signed by the scientist secretary of the dissocry and who have the printing of libraries, opponents are professors Basir Hasanov, Alexander Borisov and Vladimir Lavrov, who did not participate in defense. At the same time, the RSL is an official registry holder of print media, that is, the original copy is considered the original.

In addition, two members of the Higher Attestation Commission in 2007-2013, Vladimir Roginsky and Victoria Ukolova, said that the Council did not approve the dissertation of the minister after defending in the dissolution and presenting opponents' reviews, as required by the rules.