There was an article in the Washington Post entitled In Russia, The Lost Generation of Science.  The article, by Will England, focuses specifically on Pushchino, a little known city south of Moscow, and the status of science in Russia generally.  Science in Russia has undergone an unfortunate transformation, first right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and more recently with the Russian government’s intent to pour tons of money into scientific research.  But as England points out, even with more funds for research, innovation in science is losing out to exhaustion, corruption and cronyism.

The article reminded me of some of my experiences in Russia during the 1980s and 1990s as part of the Global Thinking Project. The GTP linked students and teachers from American and Russian schools in more than ten cities by means of collaboratively developed environmental science curriculum, exchanges of students and teachers, and the emergent telecommunications and Internet resources that were just beginning.

For more than 15 years, student, teacher, and researcher exchanges were fostered through the efforts of the GTP with funding (follow this link to one of the GTP’s funded proposals) from local schools, GSU, and federal programs including the Eisenhower Program, and the United States Information Agency.  These exchanges brought us into cooperative work with Russian teachers, students, educational  researchers, technology specialists, and scientists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, and Pushchino.

When we first began our work in Russia, we worked alongside science teachers and researchers from the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, and scientists at research institutions, and the Academy of Science.  The science curriculum in Russian schools, as described by Mr. Sergey Tolstikov, is a kind of spiral curriculum, especially at the senior level beginning in level 6 and extending to level 11.  For example, in class 6, students begin their study of biology, which continues for the next five years.  Then in each of the next two years, students study first physics, and then chemistry and continue studying these subjects each year.  Students who graduated from Russian schools had a strong education in science and mathematics, and many went on into science at the university level.

Russia has a rich history in science and technology.  At present, it is the only way that American astronauts can reach the space station, yet, as we have seen in the past six months, there have been numerous engineering failures in the launch of Russian rockets.  As England points out in his article:

Science had prestige and plenty of support in the U.S.S.R. The Soviets wielded a formidable nuclear arsenal, put the first satellite into space, then the first man into space. Dedicated biologists nurtured what may have been the world’s foremost seed bank, ensuring its survival even through the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad. Nine Nobel Prizes for physics and one for chemistry acknowledged Soviet achievements.

But the last 20 years have taken its toll on the science community.  As England suggests, the last 20 years has resulted in a lost generation of scientists because of lack of support, and the financial problems that affected Russian society, especially in the 1990s.  An example of this effect is highlighted in Puschchino.

Pushchino

Pushchino is a small town about 100 miles south of Moscow on the bank of the Oka River.  It was founded in 1962 as home to Pushchino Biological Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Up until about 1993, most the funding for the research centers came from the Russian Academy of Sciences.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the funding from the government radically diminished to about 10% – 15% of what it was.  Thus began a program of reaching out to other funding sources not in Russia (Russia Foundation for Fundamental Research), but abroad, and the development of funding proposals to secure financial support.  The various research facilities in Pushchino were able to collaborate with U.S. organizations including NATO, the European Environmental Research Organization, US State Department, as well a number of U.S. universities including the University of Tennessee and Washington State University.

Now, 15 years later, things are quite different in Pushchino.  According to Natalia Desherevskaya, a Pushchino research biologist at the Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms:

“In 20 years, all the positive things that existed in Soviet times have been destroyed, and replaced by nothing (England).”

She, like many other young researchers, say they are torn between their desire to leave Russia, and stay to continue their research.  Researchers are troubled by the conditions of their labs, access to new materials, and old technology.  Many of her friends from graduate school are abroad, and she wonders why she is still here (England).

In 1993, on my first of many trips to Pushchino, I was introduced to Valentina Alexandrovna Zalim, Director of Pushchino Experimental School #2.  Zalim was an amazing administrator, and encouraged teachers to implement innovative educational methods.  The school, which was built in 1962, included two gymnasia, a stadium, an indoor swimming pool, 30 classrooms, a canteen, computer room, broadcast room, library and a school museum.

About ten of us (school and university researchers from the Atlanta area, and Georgia State University) drove to Pushchino from Moscow.  As we approached this remote town, we could see that it was built above the surrounding area on a small plateau.  Pushchino has a population of about 21,000.  It has three schools, and we were going to carry on a collaboration with Experimental School #2.  It proved to be a long term, and rich collaboration.  We collaborated with teachers from the school, as well researchers from the various institutes in Pushchino.

Location of Pushchino, Russia, about 100 miles south of Moscow

One of the first persons we met was a young man who was assigned to us as the “official” translator and interpreter for our delegation.  He was an English teacher at a small college in a nearby city.  He had never been to Pushchino.  He and many of his fellow citizens understood that Pushchino was a town for retirees.  He was shocked to find that the town of Pushchino housed several major scientific research institutes, and one of the world’s largest radio telescopes.

Known as Pushchino Research Center, it was comprised of the following:

• The Institute of Protein Research
• The Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics
• The Institute of Cell Biophysics
• The Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms
• The Institute of Soil Science and Photosynthesis
• The branch of the Institute of Bio-organic Chemistry
• Research Computer Center
• Special Construction Bureau & Experimental Plant
• Radio Astronomy Station of the P.P Lebedev Physical Institute,RAS
• Branch of the M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University

Nearly all of the parents of the students in Experimental School #2 worked at one of these research institutions, and because of their deep interest in their children’s education, we became very involved with the research centers over the years.  We visited a number of these research centers, including the radio astronomy station, and were very involved with their computer researchers who had established a telecommunications business in the early years of the Internet revolution.  From Pushchino, we made one of the first video conferences using the Internet in 1996.

When we first started working with colleagues in Pushchino, the various scientific research centers received their funding from the Russian Academy of Sciences.  But soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and economic perils that followed, many of the research centers suffered because of lack of funding from the Academy.

Protests on the Streets of Moscow and New York

In October young Russian scientists rallied in Moscow against the weight of the bureaucracy, and the lack of discretion grant recipients have for using their grants, especially for the purchase of new equipment and materials.  This rally preceded the December parliamentary elections and the subsequent massive protests in many Russian cities.  These two rallies/protests are part of a movement to make Russia more of a democratic state, and to move away from cronyism and corruption that is dominating much of the way business is run, including science.

The inequality between the scientists in their labs, and bureaucrats who control the money that science needs for research and development, which will lead to innovation and drive the whole enterprise, is enormous.  The protests in Russia are not unlike the the “Occupy Wall Street” protests that have spread from New York to massive marches and protests in other cities across America.  Just as scientists and citizens are protesting the Russian parliamentary elections and the present executives of the Russian government, Americans are protesting the huge inequality that exists between 1% of the population and the other 99%.

In the 1990s the Global Thinking Project received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Federal Government’s Democratization of the Former States of the Soviet Union Program which was funded by the United States Information Agency (USIA).  The idea was to help Russians understand democracy by being involved with Americans in various ways that involved people-to-people exchanges.  Over a three year period we joined 300 Russian and American families and their teachers in exchanges where students lived in each other’s homes, and were involved in collaborative environmental science research in face-to-face investigations and online collaboration.

But the situation that exists now in Russia, according to some specialists, will require a more liberal Russian society that will stimulate creative and innovative culture within a rule of law.  The massive Russian protests that we have seen underly a growing discontent that the elections were corrupt, and that authoritarian rule is still the order of the day in Moscow.  The “Occupy Wall Street” protests represent a discontent among many Americans that the inequality in income, and enormous number of people unemployed is a situation that needs to be changed.