Russia can become a "country of idiots"

But Makarevich has nothing to do with it

Sergey Baymukhametov, Novye Izvestia

(What does Makarevich have to do with it, you can read, for example, here – VM.)

According to a study by the international consulting company BostonConsultingGroup, 50% of Russian scientists, 54% of IT specialists, 49% of engineers, 46% of doctors want to work abroad. Almost two-thirds of potential emigrants from Russia (65%) are "professionals in high-tech industries.

The board of General Electric was alarmed when a leading specialist, a prominent scientist, decided to leave the company. It was impossible to keep him with any millions, he was an oddball, without money, did not even receive a salary – the corporation paid all his bills. He said that it was time to pass on his knowledge to young people, and he would go to another city, teach at the institute there. And then the board members decided: if so, we will build you an institute here, we will recruit students – just don't leave.

This is not "American propaganda", but a fact from a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1970. Academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, giving this example, told the leaders of the state about the value of science and individual talents, that today's boys will decide the fate of the country, and it is necessary to support the gifted, because ideas decide everything, and they are born by loners who need to be carried on their hands. And, of course, in general and in general, to develop scientific research, to invest money, because the world is rapidly moving forward, and we are lagging behind.

Only... more than 20 years later, in 1991, Professor Anatoly Blokhin and Professor Ardalion Maltsev – heads of the Radio Engineering Faculty of the Ural Polytechnic Institute – in our conversations recalled that time as golden. Yes, we lagged behind, which was inevitable under the then economic system. But still – a certain level was maintained. The prestige of science was supported financially. A postgraduate scholarship of 80-100 rubles with a cleaning lady's salary of 70 rubles, with an average salary in the country of 120-150 rubles – this is money on which you could live for three postgraduate years. And there is a defense, a teaching rate, an increase for a PhD degree. The salary of an associate professor was 2 times higher than the salary of an average official, professorial "3-4 times, academic " 6-8 times.

Everything changed by the end of the 80s and turned into a disaster by the 90s. What would become of science in Russia was clear even then. At the beginning of 1991, Blokhin and Maltsev predicted: "A country in which the salary of a bus driver is higher than the salary of a professor has no future!"

In 1991, 186 vacant teaching positions appeared in the citadel of the higher school "Bauman Moscow State Technical University". It was unthinkable – there were no people willing to teach in the glorious MVTU! At the same time, at one of the departments of the same MVTU, a third of the teachers submitted documents to the institutes of Edinburgh and Glasgow. They were invited. A law appeared, stunning as a hurricane of freedom: "Every citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR... A foreign passport is valid for departure from the USSR to all countries of the world."

In the mid-noughties, I was in Dubna, at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, reading a lecture on the history of medieval Russia in the famous House of Scientists. One of the founders of the nuclear center, Igor Nikolaevich Semenyushkin, bitterly complained: "Our youth is waiting for Western grants and a call to the West..."

From the legendary Dubna!

In 1991, Blokhin and Maltsev told me that visitors from Southeast Asia and even from Japan itself were frequent in the once-closed cities of the Urals and Siberia (the military-industrial complex). Specialists are being looked after. Moreover, to leading posts. It turns out that there is no one in their firms to hold high positions and receive large salaries. Because a mid-level specialist is no longer rushing up. There is more responsibility, we need to think more, and generally "change the way of life. And he's fine as it is.

It is not difficult to imagine, Blokhin and Maltsev said, how our scientists, getting rid of the worldly worries that bend the mind and soul, and having space for creativity, will burst there with fountains of ideas. For the glory and prosperity of Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korean concerns. They will not only earn a lot of money – a person has an irresistible need to realize himself as fully as possible.

28 years have passed since then. Now we have Asian "tigers" in the jungle of the world economy, Singapore is in second place in terms of competitiveness, Malaysia is the largest exporter of electrical equipment, information and communication technology products, not to mention South Korea…It is not known how much merit our specialists have in that.

The special report of the Committee of Civil Initiatives cites Rosstat data: 4.5 million people emigrated from Russia from 1989 to 2015. (In 2016 and 2017 – another 690 thousand.) At the same time, it is noted: "To get a real idea of the scale of emigration, Rosstat data needs to be increased 3-4 times."

Only in 2016, according to the official representative of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, 44 thousand scientists left the country. Twice as much as in 2013.

In the XVII century Blaise Pascal said: "If 300 scientists leave France, it will turn into a country of idiots."

Currently, the proposal of academician-biologist Georgy Georgiev, which he made on the pages of the scientific and socio-cultural journal "SEARCH" (Politics, Social Studies, Art, Sociology, Culture), is being more or less vigorously discussed in scientific and student circles. A venerable scientist (86 years old, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, winner of the Lenin Prize in 1976) proposed to ban the emigration of young specialists from intensively developing fields of science, such as molecular and cellular biology, information technology, and many branches of physics. To do this, it is necessary to abolish free higher education, introduce the so-called credit, paid for by the state. A university graduate must work for 15 years under the shade of native aspens, after which the loan is repaid. Otherwise, he is obliged to return it in full. The right to free emigration will be granted only to those who paid for their studies and did not receive a scholarship.

Thus, we note in parentheses, the ban will not look like a violation of human rights, but will appear to be clothed in "market" forms. We do not know what dictated Academician Georgiev's proposal. Perhaps, despair, awareness of the hopelessness of the situation. Naturally, many people started talking about serfdom, about "redemption payments" after the reform of 1861. And they were worried: what if government officials would pick up the idea and forbid departure. There is nothing to be surprised about.

Perhaps the fears are in vain. Firstly, we don't really need specialists. According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, every third graduate of the university cannot find a job during the first year after graduation. It is even more difficult for those who are more in demand in the modern world than others – do we have many high-tech industries… As a result, the ban will lead to only one result ""so that they don't get it."

Secondly, are state-political structures interested? By the 80s, a critical mass of intellectuals had formed in the USSR. They felt self-sufficient, opposed themselves to stagnant communist ideology and economic practice. The same thing will happen in Russia. A critical mass of independent–minded people will be formed, not affected by propaganda, inspired by theses about the "deep people", for whom the main thing in life is "trusting communication and interaction" with the "supreme ruler", as the presidential adviser wrote in a recently published article.

It was about this, insisting on minimal funding for education, that Deputy Zhirinovsky spoke with all directness from the rostrum of the State Duma a few years ago: "If the whole generation is absolutely educated, they will overthrow the government every 10 years! A good education leads to a revolution, with a good level of education, educated people take to the streets and overthrow the government that created such a system of education."

The current emigration is to a certain extent a deliverance, an outburst of potential oppositionists. After all, educated, economically and politically active people aged 30 to 45 are leaving. Their departure is the release of steam, a decrease in the level of protest moods, critical thought in society.

In today's Russia, scholars and specialists have been replaced by numerous "people with diplomas", you will no longer find an official without a "scientific degree". Everyone knows their value. General incompetence in all spheres as a tacit mass collusion "binds and strengthens the system. Another factor of unity is social elevators. It is widely claimed that there are no such people: they say that in all positions there are relatives and relatives of officials. This is true. But at the same time there are social elevators. Only for climbing (and everyone understands this) it is not necessary to be smart, highly educated, talented, especially – free-thinking, original thinking. It's enough to talk about "spiritual bonds". What incompetent managers will lead the country to in the historical end is another question. But they are not interested in him. According to them, as long as there is oil and gas, "you can live." Each generation of incompetents will produce their own kind, flourish, managing what is left, proving to themselves and the population that everything that exists in our country is the pinnacle of world thought, civilization and spirituality.

In the 60s of the last century, the historian Lev Gumilev wrote about states and peoples in the phase of obscuration, decline:

"Be like us," that is, do not strive for anything that could not be eaten or drunk... Diligence is ridiculed, intellectual joys cause rage. In art, there is a decline in style, in science, original works are being replaced by compilations, corruption is being legitimized in public life... It is not abilities that are valued, but their absence, not education, but ignorance, not steadfastness in opinions, but unscrupulousness."

And Gumilev also said that basically all the peoples of the world follow a single common path, but there are peoples and countries that fall into a kind of Zigzag of history. For various reasons and circumstances. So they live, sometimes for centuries, sometimes without knowing that they are in a Zigzag.

Probably, in such cases, the less intelligence there is in the country, the stronger the existing government,

POSTSCRIPT

From the Message of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Federal Assembly, Moscow, February 20, 2019

"The content of education should also change. It is important to reflect the priorities of the country's scientific and technological development in state standards and programs… We need specialists who are able to work at advanced production facilities, create and use breakthrough technical solutions. To do this, it is necessary to ensure the widespread introduction of updated curricula at all levels of vocational education, to organize training for those industries that are still being formed.

Global competition is increasingly shifting to the field of science, technology, education… Now we have to implement new ambitious scientific and technological programs. A decree on genetic research has already been signed, and I propose to launch the same large-scale national-level program in the field of artificial intelligence. In the middle of the next decade, we should become one of the leaders in these scientific and technological areas, which will certainly determine the future of the whole world and the future of Russia.…

For a powerful technological development, we need to build a modern model of research and development. That is why we are creating scientific and educational centers in the regions, which are designed to integrate all levels of education, the capabilities of scientific organizations and business. Within three years, such centers should be established in 15 constituent entities of the Russian Federation."

The previous federal project was the scientific and technological Innovation center "Skolkovo", 2010-2011, which was announced as the future Russian "Silicon Valley"...

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