A hundred Spartans

Dear editors!

Since childhood, we remember the story of the heroic three hundred Spartans, led by Tsar Leonid standing in the way of noble Persian hordes in the farmopilsky passage. While all Greece was embraced by horror, and some areas completely went over to the side of the Asian Horde, three hundred Spartans and another six thousand Greek warriors went out to fight with the Persians. The Xerxes warriors could not defeat the Greeks in a narrow aisle, and only the help of a traitor who showed a bypass path gave the Persians the opportunity to invade Greece. Realizing that the Greeks were doomed, Leonid sent most of the soldiers, and with three hundreds of Spartans he went to certain death.

The memory of this feat has been stored for two and a half thousand years, but, perhaps, the feat of Leonid and his guards will fade before the feat of members of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences! Before talking about circumstances, let's look at the strength of the parties to begin with. The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences includes less than a hundred members of the Academy, and the academicians themselves are no more than two thousand, while the Greeks of the Fermopiles were more than three times more. If the Persians were only two hundred thousand, then the academicians fought with a much larger enemy: the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Guard, the FSB, the FSIN, not to mention all kinds of Mids (although there is only one Zakharov’s institutions there!) And Kurchatov institutions.

Nevertheless, modern small “Spartans” were not afraid to challenge such numerous opponents. True, the academics did not insist that they should examine the scientific research of the Ministry of Defense and the FSB, apparently realizing that it was better to beat the enemy in parts and should not start with the most powerful. But even in this case, enemy side has preserved tremendous numerical superiority.

Nevertheless, at the meeting of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Academicians spoke out against the developed Ministry of Education and Science of the draft government decree on the reduction or complete release of a number of scientific and educational institutions from the examination of their scientific papers by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The rebels were not embarrassed that this project was developed on behalf of the relevant deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova.

Fortunately, our “Spartans” did not “throw the Persians, the deputy minister of science and higher education, Peter Kucherenko, reminding him of problems with the originality of his dissertation. But he was forced to confront academics alone, not receiving support from representatives of those organizations that are proposed to be exempted from academic examination. The deputy minister emphasized that the document is less than 1% of all scientific organizations in the country and that it is unlikely from such respected institutions as the Kurchatov Institute and Moscow State University, we can expect some crazy anti-scientific projects. The presence of independent scientific centers will only benefit the case, contributing to the development of science in the country, the Deputy Minister said. And the examination would only slow down this process, since in the conditions of dynamic development and participation in world projects the time for leading organizations is an invaluable resource, and any examination is related to delays.

But the academicians did not heed the words of Peter Alexandrovich and continued to bend their line, proving that an independent examination is important. Everything ended, I repeat, by the adoption of a decree of the Presidium, which expressed a negative attitude to the project.

What can I say about this, colleagues? I already wrote that some outstanding organizations, their leaders, have a special connection with the President of the Russian Federation. And if the president trusts Mikhail Valentinovich or Viktor Antonovich, then how can I question the work of the organizations they head?! If some examination suddenly gives a conclusion about the dubious relevance and significance of the work being conducted there, then this, as I pointed out, maybe-voluntarily or involuntarily-throw a shadow at the Vladimir Vladimirovich himself.

It is bad if it is done involuntarily, but much worse if representatives of the fifth column very large in the scientific community will use the examination to throw a shadow on Vladimir Vladimirovich intentionally. Not to mention the fact that they can deliberately, on the instructions of enemy special services, destroy promising defense and applied research and development at the same Kurchatov Institute.

I think that the members of the Presidium and about themselves should have thought. Three hundred Spartans, there are no doubts, heroes, but they died. Do academics want, entering into an unequal battle, to repeat their fate?

Your Ivan Ekonomov