Chronicle of delayed death

Which threatens the Institute of Scientific Information of the Russian Academy of Sciences and whether it is possible to save him

This story has been going on for the fifth year.

On January 30, 2015, a fire that destroyed a significant part of the building of the institute and its library interrupted the natural course of the life of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAS).

The Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations (Fano), which then disposed of the property of the Academy of Sciences, transferred three floors in the Stalinist five -story building on ul. Krzhizhanovsky - not far from the ashes.

Responsive Muscovites brought as a gift to employees a computer equipment collected with the world on a thread, but in that situation - the saving one, which allowed to work. There was both the participation of the world scientific community, and the constant attention of the media.

The tragedy was measured in the burned units of storage, but it was deeper, as she affected both the fate of people and Russian humanitarian science. The institute was under the Damoklov sword of investigations and suspicions, removed the director of the institute - academician Yu. S. Pivovarov, who was finally seriously ill from 1998.

There were many reasons to believe that the institute would be destroyed, but people, in spite of everything, were held steadily, conducted research, and carried out state assignment.

In INION, ten scientific centers preparing and publishing a series of bibliographic, abstract and analytical publications. The Institute has an automated information system for social sciences (more than 4 million records). Among his tasks are the selection and provision of relevant scientific information, the definition of promising areas and strategic priorities in the field of social and humanities. The specifics of the institute - and in the fact that operational work on the study of relevant scientific information is combined with fundamental research. The institute publishes the magazines “Russia and the modern world”, “Political science”, “Actual problems of Europe”, “Man and essence”, “Literary magazine”, “Cultural Bulletin”, and the scientific and information ballot “Russia and the Muslim World”.

INION is often reproached with the fact that it published relevant in the 1970-1980s, but in the conditions of the Internet there are already outdated abstract magazines. But such magazines exist in many countries of the world as a navigator in a vast field of low -track scientific publications; In addition, in the new conditions, referrative magazines (perhaps they should be renamed “Vestnika of Analytical Information”) reformatted and contain not only abstracts of new scientific publications abroad and in Russia, but also relevant analytical reviews, reviews, transfers, which significantly expands the scale and level of information.

The tragedy of INION has another line-historical and architectural. The fire destroyed a unique example of the architecture of Soviet modernism - the building on 51/21 Nakhimovsky Prospekt, built in 1969-1974 specifically for the initial under the project of the architect Yakov Belopolsky, inspired by the experience of Le Corbusier, Oscar Nimeier and Alvar Aalto.

On January 30, 2019, it would seem, a joyful event: Prime Minister D.A. Medvedev signed a government decree No. 60 “Restoration of the building of the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FGBUN INION RAS)”. More than 6.75 billion rubles were allocated for the restoration of the institute, they will be disposed of the “Directorate of the Unified Developer” (DS of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education), the customer (developer) became the Inion of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, joy was premature. The situation has accepted the circulation extremely unfavorable for INION. DLC invited to temporarily abandon the rights of the customer (developer) in his favor, otherwise the institute has liability for all problems on the implementation of the decision. At the same time, the institute warned that from the amount of 6.75 billion for expert support of the construction they would not allocate a penny, that is, INION will not be able to control the construction and expenses for it, although this is what is expected from the customer. As for a temporary refusal , in fact, the institution in case of consent to the so -called temporary refusal will lose the right and to a land plot - 3.95 hectares on Nakhimovsky Prospekt, and the building restored on it. At the end of the construction of the building and the land plot , after the construction of the construction, the Ministry does not provide the institute.

Moreover, in this situation, the ministry put forward an ultimatical demand to move INION from his temporary refuge on ul. Krzhizhanovsky on 20 Usievich Street, in the building of the All -Russian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (Vinity). Employees refused to leave.

INION motivated his refusal to move to the other end of Moscow by being next to the burnt building, and it will be easier to observe and control the progress of construction and it is logically easier and cheaper to return to his native place.

The ministry demanded a move to Viniti to Usievich, 20 (12–13rd floors), due to the inconsistency of the building on the street. Krzhizhanovsky fire safety requirements and the need for overhaul. However, Vinity also does not comply with fire safety standards and requires, perhaps, even more serious major overhaul (decrepit elevators, the duration of which ends in December 2019, the windows are not closed, the premises are launched, without furniture - Vinity “generously” offered its old furniture in return for himself; office equipment is not provided). At the same time, moving is required only from INION. The “cafe-kalian”, the store of paints and other commercial structures, with the comfort of the building on the lower floor of the building on Krzhizhanovsky, does not concern.

It is noteworthy that the Department of the Ministry of Education and Science refused to give a written order to move the INION RAS to the street. Ustyevich. Acting Director of INION RAS V.S. Kachana was verbally ordered to prepare the “Travel Road Map”-its schedule, that is, the institute should “voluntarily” hedge his “road to hell”. But what voluntariness can we talk about? Is it more relevant to the ministry to submit a schedule for the restoration of the INION building and present it to the customer? Before the completion of work in November 2022, there was little time left.

Now it has become known that initials seem to be more (possibly after publications in the media), they do not offer to abandon the rights of the customer (developer), but they force vinity to move to the premises, and in case of refusal, they threaten the dismissal of the entire leadership of INION. What will entail the appointment of obedient to the Ministry of temporary workers who will sign anything. Inion is forced to start work on the "road map".

Economic pressure on INION is also visible: at the beginning of 2019, he was reduced by funding compared to 2018 by more than 38 million, that is, salaries of employees may not be enough at the minimum level by the end of the year, in the present, the average salary of a scientific employee of INION - 25 thousand, the librarian - 18 thousand, which is very far from the May decrees of the President of the Russian Federation. Then, however, they seemed to promise last year’s funding to restore.

Obviously, officials play cat mouse with Inion. What is behind this?

Probably, not by washing, the initial skan is brought to the merger from Vinitia, but in fact to destruction, because these two institutions unite only one word in their names - “information”, and then on the merits of the case everything is different: in one case it is about technical information, in the other - about the information of public, humanitarian.

It may seem to someone that fear has great eyes. On April 2, in the 20-hour news on the state channel "Russia 1" showed a story about fate, as stated in the report, the library of INION RAS. And on April 5, a message appeared on the Internet that, according to the deputy mayor of Marat Khusnullin, by November 2022 the INION library will be completely restored. It was further explained: “The new project involves the reconstruction of the building on Nakhimovsky Prospekt without changing its dimensions, but with a significant expansion of its functionality. In particular, the cultural and educational complex will begin to work here. ” What does this mean in a restored building, designed for a huge library with its funds and institute with its research centers and employees? And why is only the INION library stubbornly mentioned? After all, the institute and the library are a single organism that proved its effectiveness and vitality.

Why not extend the temporary stay of INION on the street. Krzhizhanovsky before the restoration of his legal building, what will be one of the guarantees of the preservation of the institute? Why subject the long -suffering team of the institute, which proved its scientific vitality in extreme conditions, constant tests and endless stress?

Constantly giving way to our positions in culture and science, we are moving along the path of degradation, and this process imperceptibly becomes irreversible to us - the loss of INION in this process is not a private episode, but an important phenomenon. The high level of development of social and humanities is an indispensable condition for the viability of Russian culture, the intellectual competitiveness of Russia, its ability to respond to the challenges of modernity. And in this context, the role of INION is unique.

Tatyana Krasavchenko, Doctor of Philology