Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences supported the deprivation of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky of an academic degree in history. The letter from the members of the July 1st Club was published by Kommersant.
More than two dozen signatories say that the minister is “replacing historical facts with pseudoscientific myths,” and also call for the resignation of the leadership of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC), which withdrew the case of deprivation of a degree from the Ural Federal University. The Ministry of Culture explains what is happening with politics, as well as the low competence of academicians, among whom the majority are physicists and mathematicians.
"Club July 1" is an informal association of academicians and corresponding members who disagree with the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It includes leading Russian scientists, including several members of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“Humanities scholars, and even more so historians, are a minority in the club, but the story of Vladimir Medinsky’s dissertation touches many. We are talking about a problem that goes far beyond the boundaries of any specific discipline: the most important issue for any scientist - the protection of science and the scientific worldview from pseudoscience ", one of the authors of the letter, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences historian Askold Ivanchik, explained to Kommersant.
Scientists, in particular, are outraged that “the criterion of truth and reliability of historical work” Vladimir Medinsky “announces compliance with the “interests of Russia,” “the right to determine which he arrogates to himself.”
“We believe that resolving the issue of a dissertation should fall entirely within the competence of scientists, and no administrative pressure is acceptable here,” the appeal says. “The unprecedented intervention of the leadership of the Higher Attestation Commission in the professional examination of a dissertation discredits the entire system of scientific certification in Russia.” There are 24 signatures under the letter.
The president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, commented on the scientists’ request. According to him, an open letter from a number of academy members regarding the minister’s dissertation expresses their personal opinion, RIA Novosti reports. “They signed this individually. This is by no means the opinion of the entire Academy of Sciences. There are more than two thousand people in it,” the agency quotes Fortova as saying.
The press secretary of the Minister of Culture, Irina Kaznacheeva, explains what is happening this way: “Many scientists perceived this entire project (Medinsky’s dissertation) as a political order... Among the members of the July 1st Club who signed the letter, there were mainly physicists and mathematicians. They never hid "negative attitude towards everything that the authorities do. Therefore, in this situation, it is not surprising that physicists supported the lyricists."
Kaznacheeva also assured that no one is interfering in the activities of the Higher Attestation Commission to consider the issue of depriving Medinsky of his academic degree, Interfax reports. “There was no interference in professional examination: there was a recommendation from the chief scientific secretary of the Higher Attestation Commission to the UrFU dissertation council to consider the issue of the said dissertation in the presence of the author of the scientific work - which is actually quite natural and normal - and to postpone the meeting of the Council for this purpose,” she said .
The minister's press secretary also noted that, in her opinion, accusations against the chief scientific secretary of the Higher Attestation Commission Nikolai Arister of exceeding his authority are unfair, since “Arister is a professional, his authority in the scientific community is very high, and his work experience at the Higher Attestation Commission is enormous.” “It is also not entirely correct for even the most respected scientists, but specialists in another field of scientific knowledge, to accuse a doctor of historical sciences of pseudoscience. It sounds unconvincing,” Kaznacheeva noted.
“It is incorrect to discuss ideas, especially about reassigning the Higher Attestation Commission, there is the Ministry of Education and Science, where the Minister of Education is very competent, wise and in control of the situation. In the case of Medinsky’s dissertation, the Higher Attestation Commission acted in accordance with the law,” she explained.
The application to deprive Medinsky of his doctorate was filed in April by historians Vyacheslav Kozlyakov and Konstantin Yerusalimsky, together with Dissernet expert Ivan Babitsky. In their opinion, the minister’s dissertation “Problems of objectivity in covering Russian history of the second half of the 15th-17th centuries” is unscientific and “absurd in places.” In addition, the applicants noted that Medinsky included non-existent works in the list of publications, but published in journals associated with his scientific adviser.
The Higher Attestation Commission has launched a procedure for considering a dissertation case. On October 4, it became known that the dissertation council at the Ural Federal University postponed the consideration of the dissertation at the request of Medinsky, who was unable to attend the meeting.
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The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, commented to RIA Novosti on an open letter from 24 academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who demanded that the head of the Ministry of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, be deprived of his academic degree.
“They signed this individually. This is by no means the opinion of the entire Academy of Sciences. There are more than two thousand people,” he said.
The dissertation council of UrFU postponed the issue of depriving the academic degree of Vladimir Medinsky On Tuesday, the dissertation council of the Ural Federal University (Ural Federal University) postponed indefinitely the consideration of the issue of depriving the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky of the academic degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences. The members of the dissertation council were asked about this by Mr. Medinsky himself, who was on a business trip in Kazakhstan, but wished to personally attend the meeting. The issue of scheduling the next meeting will be considered within two months.
Earlier on October 28, it was reported that the demand of the Dissernet expert was supported in an open letter by members of the July 1st Club - 24 academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The authors of the documents believe that the head of the Ministry of Culture “replaces historical facts with pseudoscientific myths.” The signatories also demand the resignation of the leadership of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC).
Also on October 28, the president of the Center on Global Interests in Washington, Nikolai Zlobin, called the statement demanding that Medinsky be deprived of his doctorate, signed by Dissernet expert Ivan Babitsky, doctors of historical sciences Konstantin Yerusalimsky and Vyacheslav Kozlyakov, a typical Soviet-style slander. “All signatories are good historians, and if they disagree with something, then this is a reason for a normal academic discussion,” he noted.
The head of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) Vladimir Filippov said that the department withdrew the consideration of the case sent to the dissertation council at the Ural Federal University (Ural Federal University) on the deprivation of the academic degree of the Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky. Now the commission will have to decide which dissertation council will consider the application to deprive the minister of his academic degree, RIA Novosti reports. Mr. Filippov explained that the case was withdrawn due to the fact that on September 17 the two-month period for filing an application with this dissertation council expired.
In early October, the Higher Attestation Commission withdrew the application to deprive Medinsky of his degree from the UrFU Academic Council after the statute of limitations for its consideration had expired. This statement became known on September 16 after a message by Ivan Babitsky published on social networks. In particular, he said that the minister’s doctoral work on the topic: “Problems of objectivity in covering Russian history of the second half of the 15th - 17th centuries” has no scientific value and is absurd.
A revision of Medinsky's dissertation is possible at Moscow State University in January.
Two months have been allocated for the consideration of the dissertation. The head of the Higher Attestation Commission explained the decision to entrust the consideration of the dissertation to Medinsky Moscow State University by the fact that it is “the largest educational and scientific center in the country,” the teaching staff of which, according to Filippov, “remains independent of political movements.” In addition, at Moscow State University there are scientific teams dealing with the topic to which Medinsky’s dissertation is devoted. At the beginning of October, the dissertation council of the Ural Federal University (Ural Federal University) was supposed to consider the application for deprivation of Medinsky’s academic degree.
The situation with the minister’s doctoral degree discredits the entire system of scientific certification in Russia, academicians are confident, who come to the conclusion that the Higher Attestation Commission needs to be reformed. The Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission should be deprived of the power to overturn the decisions of its expert councils and separated from the Ministry of Education and Science with subsequent transfer to the Russian Academy of Sciences, the authors of the letter indicate. The functions of the chairman of the Supreme Attestation Commission, in their opinion, can be performed by the president or a member of the presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "The Higher Attestation Commission should consist of members who have an unblemished reputation and unconditional authority in the scientific community," the authors of the letter summarize.
The club will submit its application to the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said one of the club members, historian and corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Askold Ivanchik. Scientists hope that the presidium will support their initiative and, in addition, will give an expert assessment of the compliance of Medinsky’s dissertation with the requirements for doctoral dissertations and scientific works. At the time of publication of the note, the statement was signed by 15 academicians, 40 corresponding members, 12 professors of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 50 doctors and candidates of science. RBC is awaiting a response from the RAS press service. There is no question of reforming the Higher Attestation Commission, press secretary of the Minister of Education and Science Andrei Yemelyanov told RBC.
"The Medinsky Case"
On Friday, October 20, the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission awarded Vladimir Medinsky a doctorate in history. On October 2, the relevant expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission deprived him of this degree, pointing out that the minister’s work was unscientific. In the interval between the decisions of two instances of the Novaya Gazeta certification commission, that Medinsky’s official opponents did not participate in the defense of his dissertation. In addition, the defense procedure was violated, and therefore Medinsky cannot be a doctor of history on formal grounds.
Reforming the expert council
The expert council of the Higher Attestation Commission on History, which recommended the Medinsky degree on October 2 of this year, will be dissolved, the chairman of this commission structure, Pavel Uvarov, told RBC. “There will be a rotation of the council in early November, whether the council members want it or not. The decision was made about a week ago. Most likely, four to five people will move from the old council to the new one,” said Uvarov.
The rotation of the composition of the expert councils of the Higher Attestation Commission is a legally approved procedure that takes place every four years, the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science told RBC. “We emphasize that this is a planned procedure that affects all expert councils without exception,” the department said. The previous update of the HAC expert council was in 2013, confirms Uvarov. The order approving the last composition of the council was signed on November 7, 2013, as indicated on the HAC website,
The letter from academicians regarding the dissertation of the Minister of Culture of Russia expresses a personal opinion, not the position of the entire Russian Academy of Sciences. This is how the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, responded to the demand to deprive Vladimir Medinsky of his academic degree.
He recalled that the academy unites more than two thousand people, RIA Novosti reports.
No one is interfering in the activities of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) when considering the issue of depriving Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky of his academic degree, said the minister’s press secretary Irina Kaznacheeva. In her opinion, the commission acts professionally.
“Considering the issue of the above-mentioned dissertation in the presence of the author of the scientific work is actually quite natural and normal,” emphasized Vladimir Medinsky’s press secretary.
“It is also not entirely correct even for the most respected scientists, but specialists in another field of scientific knowledge, to accuse a doctor of historical sciences of pseudoscience. It sounds unconvincing,” said Kaznacheeva. “Discussing ideas, especially about reassigning the Higher Attestation Commission, is incorrect; there is a Ministry of Education and Science, where "The Minister of Education is very competent, wise and in control of the situation. In the case of Medinsky's dissertation, the Higher Attestation Commission acted in accordance with the law."
Earlier, Kaznacheeva emphasized that the appeal was mainly signed by “physicists and mathematicians, who have never hidden their negative attitude towards everything the authorities do.”
Medinsky graduated with honors from the Faculty of International Journalism at MGIMO in 1992. In 2011, he defended his dissertation “Problems of objectivity in covering Russian history of the second half of the 15th-17th centuries” at the Russian State Social University. Later, the dissertation council of this university was dissolved because it was recognized as a dissertation factory that undeservedly distributed academic degrees.
The scientific value of Medinsky’s dissertation itself was challenged by historians from the Dissernet community Vyacheslav Kozlyakov, Konstantin Yerusalimsky and Ivan Babitsky. "Dissernet" is searching. repeatedly led to the fact that officials by them. Among those who had questions about their dissertations were Pavel Astakhov, Sergey Naryshkin, Vladimir Platonov, Alexey Komissarov.
The position of historians was supported. The 24 academicians who signed the appeal demand the resignation of the leadership of the Higher Attestation Commission and the reassignment of this structure to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Vladimir Medinsky himself called the situation with his dissertation a phantasmagoria. Medinsky called the request for verification of his dissertation.
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