I'm not sure that I will finish the other rector

How the "tower" escorts Yaroslav Kuzminov, who built one of the best and most free universities in the country - and then sacrificed it to freedom

The founder and permanent rector of the Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) Yaroslav Kuzminov suddenly announced a resignation on July 1. He explained this by the fact that 28 years as the rector was too many, and the scientist-economist never liked administrative activities. In recent years, the "tower" systematically lost the well -deserved image of the "liberal university", reducing unreliable teachers and cutting student freedom. These were forced steps for Kuzminov, and he was tired of compromises, people who know him say. Now, even oppositional students regret his care, believing that the university orders will become tougher. The government will appoint a new rector. His name, most likely, will become known by the evening of July, sources of Medusa say.

Yaroslav Kuzminov announced the departure of the permanent rector of the Higher School of Economics at a meeting of the Academic Council of the university on July 1: the Council accepted the resignation of the scientific director of the “Twes” Evgeny Yasin and elected Yaroslav Kuzminov to this place, who announced that he was leaving the post of head of the university.

“Do not look for underground stones. This is Kuzminov’s suffered decision, he went on to this for a long time. And he said: I don’t want to grow old at the rector’s post, I want to engage in science, I would have written ten books during this time. The rector should be someone more young, ”Medusa told Medusa attended at a meeting of the Council, the head of the Department of Integrated Communications of the Higher Superior Sergei Zverev.

Later, the appeal of Kuzminov himself appeared on the Tsveki website, where he explained the reasons for his decision:

I want to leave now, because there is still what I want to do in science, in project work, and I feel the strength for this.

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As for the rector, the rector should not be eternal. A person in such a situation inevitably turns into a monument, loses taste for changes. I really do not want this to happen to me. I do not want to age as a rector.

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I have never experienced satisfaction, much less pleasure from administrative work. From decision -making, disposal of people, resources. From stay in high offices. I did this because it was my duty, my responsibility to the university. I always had, and many of you know this, an acute sense of internal dissatisfaction, incompleteness of your university mission.

Kuzminov was the founder and permanent head of the Higher School of Economics since 1992-the creation of a new economic university was the idea of ​​Kuzminov and the famous liberal economist (later Minister of Economy of Russia, Yevgeny Yasin. In the early years, it was a small center for the training of masters with two hundred students. Now the Higher School of Economics is one of the largest and the general recognition of the best universities in the country, about seven thousand people work in it, and more than 47 thousand students study, there are campuses in Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Perm. Two -thirds have international scientific work. In the International University Rating of QS “Twes” over the past 10 years, out of the sixth hundred years, has risen in the fourth and now takes 305th place in the world, in subject ratings of the university at the 50th place in sociology, the 76th in economics and economics. In the new ranking of domestic universities, which was compiled by the Russian Forbes, HSE takes first place.

“This is a person who created a new type from zero, he created a special system of relations at this university. In the Russian education system, Kuzminov was one of the most influential people, he set new education standards. At the university in the zero years, he tried to preserve the traditions of the 1990s, and in the 2010s-the traditions of at least zero years, ”says Kuzminov’s interlocutor of Medusa from among the teachers of the“ tower ”.

Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, a professor at the Higher School of Economics, called Kuzminov’s act “outstanding” on Facebook: “Today I celebrate another outstanding achievement-Kuzminov goes away, at a time when he is still the leader of the university and the Russian university community. Look around: not like the rector, the head of the Council does not happen, which go from their own choice. This does not happen in Russia! "

The former head of the Laboratory of Anti -Corruption Studies of the Higher School of Enterprise Elena Panfilova joined Sonin. “Conspirologists here will bring a bunch of versions of what happened - from the supposedly staggering positions of the spouse [Kuzminova - the chairman of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina] to the point that the cup of patience overflowed periodic scandals. But it seems to me that in general the change of power is a great thing, ”said Panfilova“ Meduza ”. “And if someday I find out that it was a conscious personal decision [Kuzminov], associated with the fact that you can’t sit in one chair for more than 20 years, I will be the first to take off before Yaroslav’s hat.”

One of the leading employees of the Higher School of Higher Professional Education in a conversation with Medusa doubted that this decision was planned, since Kuzminov was reassigned to the rector of the rector only two years ago and under the contract he had three more years of work.

The Rector of the Higher School of Enterprise resigned, “tired of compromises with the authorities that he had to go to in recent years,” said his acquaintance “rain”. He claims that Kuzminov "fought a lot for his students and professors, but he thought that the continuation of the trend would lead to a loss of reputation."

“Kuzminov, probably, really did not want to spoil his reputation and become absolutely pro-government and did not compromise somewhere; Maybe that's why it was easier to remove him, to persuade it, ”says Tatyana Kolobakina, a HSE journalism student, a DOXA student journalist, Tatyana Kolobakina. However, she did not agree with the fact that Kuzminov “fought” for teachers and students: in particular, Kolobakina indicates, the head of the Laboratory of Anti -Corruption Studies of the Higher School of Economics, Elena Panfilova,was squeezed out of the university, and the laboratory itself was actually closed at Kuzminov’s personal desire. “I think that all the repressive, which happened in the tower, happened either with its presentation, or with his consent, because this could not happen differently: he signed all the repressive orders,” Kolobakina concludes.

HSE and DOXA

DOXA magazine was founded by students and graduates of the Tower in 2017. In December 2019, the Higher School of Enterprisedeprived the journal of the status of a student organization because of an article about the rector of the Russian State Service for Possess and her participation in the elections of deputies of the Moscow City Duma. According to the Higher School, this material has inflicted on the University "reputation damage".

In April 2021, DOXA editors Vladimir Metelkin, Natalya Tyshkevich, Armen Aramyan and Alla Gutnikova became defendants in the case of "involving teenagers in protests." He was excited due to a video in which the journal’s employees condemned the pursuit of students to support the politician Alexei Navalny. All defendants were assigned as a preventive measure to the ban on certain actions with strict restrictions.

In the "TSLE" it was commented that the university would do everything necessary for the defendant of the case, the university student Alla Gutnikova is able to complete her studies in the fourth year of undergraduate. “We proceed from the presumption of innocence and are waiting for a court decision,” the university emphasized.

More than 250 scientists from around the world performed in support of the DOXA editorial office. The HSE teachers also made a call to free journalists. The representative of the university, in response to this, said that the university “refers to the desire of some of our colleagues to support their students and graduates” - recalling, however, that the magazine “ceased to be a student organization” in 2019.

From the first days of its existence, the “tower” has earned a reputation as a “liberal university”, although its declaration of values ​​emphasizes “political neutrality”, and Kuzminov himself did not get tired of repeating this in an interview : “University is not a place where you can cry out slogans or scatter leaflets. Students of various political views learn from us: both left and right. ” The position of “political neutrality”, however, did not prevent Kuzminov himself from joining the Putin “All -Russian Popular Front” and getting a deputy of the Moscow City Duma in 2014 with the support of United Russia.

For many years, the rector showed a liberal approach and openness to criticism. For example, when in 2011 the opposition politician Alexei Navalny harshly criticized the concept of the bill on public procurement written by the Higher School, Kuzminov himself invited Navalny to conduct open debates in the “tower”, with which the opposition was pleased. “Thanks to HSE for organizing the event. And personally Kuzminov is well done: he did not stop and pretend that he did not notice anything, but offered an open discussion, ” wrote Navalny about the debate in his blog.

“Kuzminov always created around him the image of a liberal leader, the last liberal rector. Most of the tower where I study perceives it. He is considered a truly liberal rector, which is always on the side of students, ”admits the student of the Higher School of Economics Kolobakina. Nevertheless, she is again stipulated, which she herself does not think so-and refers to history when to the student talk show “to the point! Person " did not allow the opposition policy to invite love Sobol.

Several teachers in a conversation with Kommersant associated the beginning of changes at the university with the transfer of the “tower” from the Ministry of Economy to subordinate to the government in 2008. Then the rector’s election was canceled (now it is appointed by the government), and the preparation of government personnel was the official duty of the Higher School.

In 2014, the Supervisory Board of the Twes was headed by the first deputy head of the presidential administration Vyacheslav Volodin, then the head of the council became the changer Volodin in the administration Sergey Kiriyenko. “The title clearly says: the Higher School of Economics under the Government of the Russian Federation. Everyone says: “You are the most liberal”. Well, guys. We are the largest consulting center. We work very tightly with the Government of the Russian Federation, and with the presidential administration, and with regional governments, ”said Valery Kasamar, Valery Kasamar, positioning the university in an interview with Novaya Gazeta (participated in the Moscow City Duma elections with the support of the Moscow City Hall, but lost).

According to Elena Panfilova, the twisting of the nuts at the university took place gradually, simultaneously with the degradation of political life in Russia: “there was compressing the space of freedoms, and the“ tower ”could not dodge all this. There were either mythical or real calls from the administration [president]. That the truth is the emergence of vice -rectors for security, "vain" [in uniform]. " According to Panfilova, HSE, which has always been the space of discussions, debates, various points of view, in recent years de facto has become "very similar to those examples of universities that Kuzminov once wanted to leave."

In 2020, the DOXA student magazine has released a chronological special project about how, over the past decade, HSE has ceased to be one of the most free universities in the country. “Of course, it was very sad to observe how a person who refused to expel students participating in protest promotions in 2009 was ready to dismiss- and dismissed -teachers for an alternative point of view, not to mentionthe deprivation of DOXA status of a student organization for human rights activities. All this is a sad, but indicative story for me - how, choosing security, you lose freedom. And this happens, even if you take such a high position as the rector, ”says Arina Gundyreva, a fifth -year student at the Higher School of Oriental Studies, says Kuzminov“ Medusa ”.

In January 2020, the HSE leadership forbade students and teachers to mention their connection with the university when discussing political and “causing significant disagreements in society” of topics. “They frankly tell us at the University’s administration: do you don’t understand what time we live in? Do you want another rector? Do you want to send some kind of dubolom instead of Kuzminov, which will destroy everything that we built here? ” -So high-ranking HSE employee described to Kommersant the situation at the university in the fall of 2020.

“It seems to me that it was difficult for Kuzminov to remain thereby Yaroslav Kuzminov, who once conceived this university, and fulfill all these requirements. It is necessary to have inhuman willpower so as not to go crazy, ”says Panfilova“ Medusa ”. “And on the one hand, there were horrors and dismissal, and on the other hand, fantastic students were released with fantastic work on the date-journalism, on investigative journalism.”

Despite his critical position in relation to Kuzminov, even the editorial of DOXA Tatyana Kolobakina sorry for his departure: “Of all the evils, he is the smallest for us all, because I somehow finished off until the third year, spoke out in the public as I speak out-and being a journalist DOXA. I’m not sure now I will get to another rector. So I was even upset that he left. "

As the successors of Kuzminov in the Cabinet of Ministers and the Kremlin, according to Medusa, the candidates of the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov, who, before appointing to the ministerial post, headed the Tyumen University, the head of the agency of strategic initiatives Svetlana Chupsheva, the head of the Accounts Chamber, former Minister of Finance, the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo Andrei Sharonov. Falcov, Sharonov and Kudrin have scientific degrees; Chupshev, according to the official biography , no.

According to the source of Medusa, close to the government, there was no clear decision about who will now lead the “tower” on the day of the announcement of the resignation of Kuzminov.

In the originally published material, Konstantin Sonin was named the former professor of the Higher School of Economics. This is not so, Sonin and now the professor of "Tower". The editors brings Sonin and readers an apology for inaccuracy.

Authors: Anastasia Yakreva , Irina Kravtsova , Andrey Pertsev with the participation of Svetlana Reiters

Editor: Tatyana Lysova